Inspired by Andy Borowitz.
I speak not as an outsider,
but as a neighbor.
A witness.
A fellow human being
whose heart beats across borders.
I’ve lived among you.
Raised children in your schools.
Walked your streets.
And still,
I feel the tremble of a nation on the edge—
and I cannot stay silent.
This is not about lines on a map.
This is about the world we choose to build.
The kind of people
we choose to be.
Because the erosion of democracy,
the slow suffocation of truth,
the stripping of basic rights—
anywhere—
should break all our hearts
everywhere.
So today, I declare.
Not alone—
but with every soul
who still believes in dignity.
Who holds truth as sacred.
Who dares to imagine better.
When governments serve themselves,
when leaders mock pain,
degrade women,
silence the press,
twist facts until lies look like law—
then people of conscience must rise.
Not with vengeance,
but with vision.
Not to destroy,
but to declare.
We hold these truths to be unshakable:
That all people are created equal—
not in theory, but in practice.
That dignity is not earned.
It is inherent.
That power must flow
from the consent of the governed,
and when that power becomes poison,
we must resist.
We must speak.
We must, if necessary,
break away.
We’ve watched:
A leader who mocks the hurting.
Who rolls back the rights of women.
Who fans the flames of hate,
while cloaking cruelty
in flags and slogans.
He targets the press.
He bludgeons truth.
He feeds greed
and forgets the vulnerable.
He denies science,
endangers the Earth,
gambles with lives—
as if power were his private stage.
He divides neighbor from neighbor,
citizen from citizen.
These are not the ways of a servant.
These are the moves of a tyrant.
To tolerate is to normalize.
To look away is to endorse.
To remain silent
is to risk the very soul of a nation.
So today, I speak.
As a global citizen.
As a mother.
As a neighbor.
As a friend.
I withdraw moral consent.
I reject cruelty as policy.
I refuse to be silent
while justice is torn down
in plain sight.
I choose truth.
I choose equity.
I choose the radical, enduring idea—
that freedom, safety, and dignity
belong to all.
I commit to the vulnerable.
To the silenced.
To the children on both sides of every border.
Let this be our declaration.
Let it echo.
Let it burn bright through indifference.
Let it be said:
On this day—
we did not look away.
We did not shrink.
We stood.
Not in anger,
but in sacred resolve.
Not in despair,
but in wild, relentless hope.
Because the arc of history
does not bend on its own—
we must pull it
together.
Let this be the line we draw.
And the bridge we build.
