BTW March 6, 2025

I embrace small acts of courage because my conscience demands it; because everything that is ethical, right, and just in my country is being dismantled before my eyes; because myself and many other people that I dearly love are experiencing their safety, humanity, and inalienable rights stolen from them. I act because I care deeply and because it is - quite simply - the right thing to do.

I was raised in a military family, which all but guarantees you will also be raised with love of country and patriotism. However, as I’ve come to better understand these things as an adult, I recognize that to truly love one’s country you must not only be willing to celebrate, praise, and appreciate it, but also be vigorous in one’s commitment to protect, challenge, critique, and hold accountable when you see tyranny, corruption, fascism, and unethical governance working to choke the soul of the nation. I act because to do nothing makes me an advantageous surrogate to this administration’s agenda.

I act because to do so is to fight fiercely to assure my niece and nephew will inherit a free and just homeland, and one that is a free and just actor within a global citizenship, and one that continues to strive towards the declared and constitutional principles, ideals, and ethos articulated without blushing, uncertainty, or weakness since the moment of inception.