Photo by Josh Johnson, Unsplash
Photo by Josh Johnson, Unsplash
We dissent because two-and-a-half centuries from now, this place will be filled with human beings who will be born into whatever remnant of democracy we preserve.
Republished with permission from John Pavlovitz
With fear for our democracy, I dissent. – Justice Sotomayer
We The (Righteously Pissed-Off) People: those of us who make our simple homes here, who build and love and create in relative anonymity; those who daily labor in the unadorned ordinary of lives that by themselves, feel rather inconsequential.
We dissent today.
We who still remember what the audacious experiment called America once aspired to; the ravenous despotism it rejected, the better angels it leaned toward, the glorious possibilities it strained after, the fragile dream of something the world had never beheld that it cradled.
We dissent today.
We who know that our very existence was formed in the crucible of a furious collective outrage to tyranny that could not abide it a single moment more; one that demanded release from the oppressors and predators, regardless of the cost.
Yes, we dissent today—once again.
Nearly two-and-a-half centuries after our forebears did, we again claim our independence, threat and odds be damned.
We who do so in this day are not rejecting America but incarnating the best of what it could still be, the brief glimpses of glory we’ve caught flashes of—because we know that they are our legacy alone to protect. We are the caretakers of a beauty that we are all co-creators of. It does not belong to the power abusers and blessing hoarders.
Whatever of this nation that bears any resemblance to the initial dream paid for in sweat and blood and bone, has erupted from our fierce hearts, rested on our blistered shoulders, formed by our calloused hands.
The highest seats of power are the now the unearned thrones of frauds and monsters and so they must be torn down and rebuilt, beginning in the precise space we occupy right now.
This dissension is not a rebellion against nation or an act of treason but a declaration of the deepest patriotism.
We defy this malignant power because we believe that the America we aspire to is big enough for all who wish to be here,
- because we believe that its beauty is in the richness of its diversity,
- because we remember it was born out of people seeking refugee from tyranny,
- because it was a rejection of kings and a repudiation of unchecked power,
- because its liberty is not a birthright to be guarded but an undeserved blessing to be shared.
This dissension is an unapologetic, nonpartisan affirmation of humanity—
- not just humanity that agrees with us,
- not just humanity of one complexion or orientation or nation of origin,
- not just humanity that aligns on every issue,
- or votes the way we vote,
- worships the way we worship,
- loves the way we love.
We are a disparate and impatient army, sickened to our core by the failures and sins of those pretending to lead us, and we know that they have still not yet felt the full force of our collective will.
But they soon will.
We will work and push back and create and vote and love until we have no strength left.
We will do this because two-and-a-half centuries from now, this place will be filled with human beings who will be born into whatever remnant of democracy we preserve. Anything they inherit that is worth saving there and then will have found its genesis here and now.
Without knowing a single one of our names they will find something waiting for them, just as we did.
For that reason, without fear or falling back we will stand together in this time of dizzying tumult and declare again our independence.
We will gird our loins, strengthen our resolve, raise a defiant middle finger to those who would transform this place into something grotesque, and speak with a single steadfast voice that will not be silenced:
We dissent.
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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