50 Reasons For Us Not to Give Up The Fight For Democracy

by | Jul 9, 2024 | Opinions & Commentary

Photo by Jakob Owens, Unsplash

50 Reasons For Us Not to Give Up The Fight For Democracy

by | Jul 9, 2024 | Opinions & Commentary

Photo by Jakob Owens, Unsplash

It's good to rest, but it's not an option to retire. There is simply too much work to do and too few people who give a damn.

Republished with permission from John Pavlovitz

Some days the fight overwhelms all of us. It is exhausting work to push back against injustice when there seems to be such an abundance of it.

Here are a few reasons why the fight is still worth it. Choose one, or five, or all fifty and remember why you do what you do…

  1. Because your children and grandchildren deserve a beautiful life.
  2. Because of the Transgender teen who shouldn’t have to wait all day to use the rest room in peace.
  3. Because the Supreme Court is terribly compromised.
  4. Because this rapidly warming planet is solely our responsibility.
  5. Because women deserve to decide what happens to their bodies.
  6. Because sexual assault victims are still terrified to come forward.
  7. Because electing a sexual predator in 2016 has made that idea far more terrifying.
  8. Because public schools are our bedrock and public school teachers are superheroes.
  9. Because your neighbor’s children deserve a beautiful life.
  10. Because a traitorous felon does not belong in the White House.
  11. Because the right thing is still the right thing, even if it is the more difficult thing.
  12. Because black lives still matter.
  13. Because he ridiculed a disabled reporter and that should have ended it.
  14. Because Project 2025 is an assault on the elemental freedoms of this nation.
  15. Because of the third-grade girl who believes she could be President—and will.
  16. Because to one party, drag queens are treated as urgent safety threats but guns are not.
  17. Because sexual assault victims shouldn’t be forced to carry a pregnancy.
  18. Because millions of marginalized people are hanging by thinnest thread—and you can be that thread.
  19.  Because lawmakers with guaranteed healthcare shouldn’t be able to take it away from anyone.
  20. Because the coral reefs are dying.
  21. Because too many young black men still rightly fear the police.
  22. Because human beings are making money from incarcerating other human beings.
  23. Because the human beings incarcerated are disproportionately brown-skinned.
  24. Because compassion is a dying art—and you still practice it.
  25. Because the Bible doesn’t belong in public school classrooms.
  26. Because America was born as a rejection of monarchy.
  27. Because the oceans are rising.
  28. Because desperate refugees fleeing a violent life to protect their families, shouldn’t arrive to more violence.
  29. Because millions of people worked and fought and died so that every American could vote, speak, and love freely—and going backwards is not an option.
  30. Because gender identity and sexual orientation are not a choice.
  31. Because children of color deserve a beautiful life.
  32. Because the separation between Church and State is critical—and rapidly eroding. 
  33. Because he said he could grab women by the pussy and Evangelicals welcomed him.
  34. Because honey bees are dying.
  35. Because a gay middle schooler feels alone and he needs you to remind him that he isn’t.
  36. Because Muslim-American children deserve a beautiful life.
  37. Because the heart of this nation is its diversity and it needs to be protected.
  38. Because every adult should be entitled to marry the adult they love.
  39. Because no religion should be the law of the land.
  40. Because Native American burial lands and Jewish cemeteries and Islamic Mosques should be as sacred a Baptist churches.
  41. Because Russia was and still is polluting our electoral process.
  42. Because we already fought the Nazis once.
  43. Because LGBTQ children deserve a beautiful life.
  44. Because religious freedom should not be solely for Christians.
  45. Because people should be equally free from religion too.
  46. Because America is not great but can still be better.
  47. Because a stranger’s children deserve a beautiful life.
  48. Because the world is in trouble.
  49. Because you are the kind of person a troubled world needs.
  50. Because love can have the last, loudest word—and you will help speak it.

There are certainly many more reasons that could be added to this list. What are yours? What matters enough to move you right now? Hold those things tightly today in your heart and let them give hope and strength and resolve. 

I know you’re tired. Those who aren’t probably aren’t paying attention or don’t care to be burdened. 

It’s good to rest, but it’s not an option to retire. There is simply too much work to do and too few people who give a damn. You give a damn—and that makes you perfect for such a time as this.

Keep going. Keep fighting. Keep loving. Keep resisting.

Be encouraged.

John Pavlovitz

John Pavlovitz

John Pavlovitz is a writer, pastor, and activist from Wake Forest, North Carolina. A 25-year veteran in the trenches of local church ministry, John is committed to equality, diversity, and justice—both inside and outside faith communities. When not actively working for a more compassionate planet, John enjoys spending time with his family, exercising, cooking, and having time in nature. He is the author of A Bigger Table, Hope and Other Superpowers, Low, and Stuff That Needs to Be Said.

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