#1 Lost American
What I know is that I refuse to kneel
How I became a dissident.
I was adopted by evangelical Christians who believed violence was against god’s will. Born in Canada and raised all over the world, I saw a lot of that forbidden violence. The suffering and misery I witnessed did not reconcile with the loving god my adoptive parents were trying to sell. As a result, I found myself in the United States Marine Corps in the early 1990s. My parents, unexpectedly, attended my graduation ceremony at MCRD Parris Island, South Carolina.
I spent a year in Iraq as a soldier, and later, I worked as an armed contractor in Afghanistan, training police. I have concluded two things from my life’s experience: there is no loving omnipotent being guiding human affairs and violence absolutely does solve problems. A dead man is only a problem until all the other humans who knew him are also dead. This knowledge comes with caveats, like most human adjacent information.
We are all imperfect. Kindness is more powerful than cruelty. I have a tattoo on my right arm that states: no gods, no masters. I do not bow the knee to anyone or anything except ideas that are more powerful than the ones I already have.
To those, I will submit. Bring me an idea to humble me and remind me that I am but a mote, and only present as a quick spark in a vast darkness filled with other sparks.
I am the angry dissident. I will not be silent about the cancer that is eating my adopted nation. The United States has become the swamp. An orange buffoon holds court while those really in power whisper flatteries into his oversized ears while planting ideas about how best to inflict the most cruelty and pointless suffering on those of us who need kindness the most.
Fuck all of that.
1. Risk is inherently a part of existing
I am not a brown person, but I am an immigrant. During the racist past in this country, there were black Americans who could pass for white and be treated as equals. Some chose to “pass” and others chose to support the victims of racism. I choose not to “pass” because we are all human. We all deserve to be treated well. We all need one another because we are better together than we are when we act as murderous tribes.
If I do not speak out now, when will I? After 30 million of my fellow humans have been locked in the dozens of concentration camps now being constructed in the United States? I think not. Speak and be heard is my only choice. This is my testimony. I bear witness to the evil and I curse the ones who are perpetrating it. I would strike you down, and will if given the opportunity. I am karma, and you are my bitch. We are legion and we will consume you and the memory of you, leaving only a story of when great evil was done by humans to other humans and the reminder that we rebuilt out of the ashes. We evolved beyond inflicting fear, hate, and cruelty one against the other. I do not hate you, but you will be swept off the stage by a vicious tidal wave. Be warned.
2. Together, we can
I am writing as an angry dissident because the generations alive now deserve better than an orange feces king flinging fear and force at the world because of the bottomless pit of self-loathing inside of him. We deserve leadership, not toxic, infectious ramblings. We deserve to live with basic needs cooperatively met and in spaces where it is not a death sentence to express ourselves outside rigid social norms based on the whims of tyrants and monsters. Fuck you, Stephen Miller. Rot in hell.
3. A call to action
I will be posting calls to action several times per week until the storm passes or I am dead. These will include warnings about new fascist actions and threat. I will also be suggesting ways to be an activist and providing community building tips. I will sharing stories of hope, assuming I can find them.
No one deserves to be snatched off the streets and disappeared with perhaps, the exception of those who would build systems of power where faceless bodies rendition defenseless cooks, and gardeners and people who fled danger only to find they had arrived in a land where the monsters are even more terrifying.
4. Stand back and stand by
I hope you will join me on the journey. I believe that we are unstoppable if we stand up collectively and say no, I will not bow. No, I will not cower. No, I will not contribute to pointless suffering and meaningless cruelty.
No gods, no masters. Just us against the monsters. Some of them wear the same skin we do, but they will never be anything but what they are. Let us build a new world where they have no chance to rule.