We are going to come through these challenges like we've come through them before.
Is this your brand on Milled? Claim it.
I'm spending the 4th with family, going to a friend's 51st birthday party ("don't let the old man in!" is the advice I've been given and will in turn share about getting older) and taking some time to reflect on our good fortune.
These are tough days, dark ones for our country. Never since the Civil War have we had such an existential threat to our freedoms, our Constitution, and the founding American idea that we are all created equal and should be treated so under the law. The consolidation of authoritarian power in the hands of our current President, the corruption committed in broad daylight, the cruelty that is a feature of this regime... it can tempt us to despair.
But let's remember that we've been through darker, tougher times before. 250 years ago we took on the most powerful empire on the planet to ensure that no American would ever bow to a king again. A few generations later we decided that no American could ever claim ownership over another by defeating the armies of the Confederacy at the cost of more than 360,000 Union soldiers killed. We took on the Nazis in World War II, Americans giving their lives to stop fascism abroad and protect democracy at home. And not even a generation after that, brave civil and voting rights activists overcame the overwhelming power of Jim Crow (harassment, imprisonment and murder) and forced this country to reckon with the idea of equality in practice, producing the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
We've been up against some tough, long odds since 1776. And though it has never been easy, and though it has come at great cost to those Americans willing to put their lives on the line for this country and the ideals it represents, we have always come through.
Remember that and remember that there are a lot of good people out there right now. Candidates putting their names on the ballot, activists putting their lives on the line (Minneapolis and beyond), advocates and volunteers giving their time and talent, good people of good conscience doing what they can with what they have wherever they are.
We are going to come through these challenges like we've come through them before... working together, across and despite our differences, having the courage the moment demands, willing to sacrifice and doing the work that is going to make the difference.
We'll emerge from this trial closer to realizing our promise and potential, inspiring the generations to come just as those before have inspired us.
Happy Independence Day,
Beto
