When Justice Falters, Courage Must Rise

Before you decide what this letter is—please read it.

If you believe in this bill…if you’re unsure…if you’re simply weary of politics entirely—this letter is still for you, friend.

I’m not writing to attack your beliefs. I’m writing to invite all of us into a deeper reckoning with what freedom actually means—and who it truly includes.

You don’t have to agree with me to belong here.
But I hope you’ll stay long enough to listen.

~ ~ ~

Dear friend,

They passed the bill.

And with it, they sent a message: Freedom—real, lived, embodied freedom—is not for everyone.

It’s conditional. Controlled. It comes with exclusions written in very fine print and consequences written in blood.

Maybe you felt it in your chest first.
Maybe in your gut.
Maybe in the way you couldn’t quite catch your breath.

That is your body responding to truth.

Because this moment is not just political.
It’s personal. It’s ancestral. It’s spiritual.

If your freedom depends on someone else’s silence,
it was never freedom. It was domination dressed up as law.

And if your courage only appears when it costs nothing,
it’s not courage. It’s camouflage.

They may have passed the bill.
But we get to decide what passes through us.

We get to choose how we respond, how we resist, how we repair. This is not the time for numbness or niceties. This is the time to listen to your body’s signals—the heat, the ache, the steady thrum that says this is not okay.

Because it’s not.

This is the time to let discomfort be your teacher, not your excuse. To let heartbreak become a portal, not a wall. To let your silence break open—into response.

Independence is not a holiday.
It’s a practice of attention.

It’s not about waving a flag. It’s about asking who still has to beg for dignity. It’s about whether you’ll speak when staying quiet keeps you safe. Whether you’ll stand up when your friends, your neighbors, those you’ll never even meet, or your own body are under threat. And perhaps most importantly—

It’s about what kind of world we’re willing to build
for those who come after us. For those who aren’t us.

• What will our children inherit from our choices?

• What kind of truth will they be raised inside of?

• Will they actually learn that freedom is only real if it belongs to all of us?

You don’t have to know what to say.
But please don’t tell yourself you’re powerless.

You’re not.

You can grieve.
You can rage.
You can scream or weep into the kitchen sink.
But then ask yourself:

What does courage look like in response to this?
What does real independence require of me now?

Because they passed the bill.
And now, we pass the threshold.

This is the call.
Not just to rise—but to respond.
To refuse the easy path of forgetting.
To reclaim what liberation actually means.
To embody it—fiercely, tenderly, urgently.

Not later.
Now.

We are the ones we have been waiting for.

With fierce belief in us,

Practice Postscript

Where the letter stops being read—and starts being lived.

The Reflection:

• What future are you willing to protect—not just for yourself, but for those who aren’t you? And for those who come after you?

• And what parts of you want to retreat, while others are already preparing to respond?

• Not sure how to feel? That’s okay. Educate yourself. Read the actual bill passed below— including the fine print. Or scroll further down to see how the bill will affect all of us.

• The complete “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” (H.R. 1 – 119th Congress) on Congress.gov, submitted for President’s signature on July 3rd, 2025.

The Everyday Practice:

• Find 90 seconds of stillness. (The bathroom, the car, the closet, the train, the garage all work.)

• Breathe deep into your belly. Let your exhale be audible. Place one hand on your heart, one on your gut.

• Say aloud (or write it down): “This moment matters. We all matter in it. I will not look away.”

• Then ask: What does courageous response look like for me now in my everyday life? Whose future am I shaping by the way I show up now?

• Write down or circle one act you can take this week. Just one. Then do it.

• (We’ll help get you started—see below)

Living in the Questions:

• What if real freedom isn’t what I’ve been taught to celebrate—but what I’m willing to fight for in practice,
  especially when it doesn’t directly benefit me?

• What becomes possible—for all of us—when courage is actually collective?

An Action List: What Courage In Practice Asks of Us Now

• CALL YOUR REPRESENTATIVES
  Find your House and Senate reps via USA.gov or House.gov. Leave a voicemail or send an email demanding reversal or protection measures in response to this bill.

• GIVE TO NATIONAL GRASSROOTS ORGANIZATIONS
  Support some of the most impacted communities—immigrant, Black, LGBTQIA+, disabled, rural, veteran, and reproductive justice communities, all of whom are being directly targeted or affected by this legislation.:

  • United We Dream – The largest immigrant youth-led network in the U.S., advocating for justice and dignity.

  • ACLU – Defending and expanding civil rights and liberties nationwide through litigation and advocacy.

  • National Immigration Law Center (NILC) – Legal and policy advocacy for low-income immigrants.

  • The Loveland Foundation – Provides healing support through therapy access for Black women and girls.

  • Transgender Law Center – Groundbreaking legal and organizing work to protect trans lives and rights.

  • SisterSong – Leading voice for reproductive justice for women of color across the South and beyond.

  • Primary Care Development Corporation (PCDC) – Strengthening access to primary and community health, especially in underserved areas.

  • National Rural Health Association (NRHA) – Advocating for rural hospitals and health providers.

  • Wounded Warrior Project – Supporting veterans through health, career, and family services.

  • Gender Justice LA—community-led work for transgender & gender-expansive people of color in L.A., rooted in intersectional justice.

  • The Audre Lorde Project – A community organizing center for LGBTQ+ people of color in NYC, with a national impact model.

  • NAACP Legal Defense Fund – Strategic legal advocacy and education to dismantle racial injustice.

• ENGAGE IN HARD, HUMAN CONVERSATION
  Stay open, embodied, and present with someone who sees the world differently than you. Name the emotion you’re experiencing, not just the issue. Vulnerability opens more than righteousness ever will.

• SAY THE TRUE THING OUT LOUD
  Share an actual resource. Post a quote from this letter. Speak your values at work, in community, and online. Truth-telling is sacred. Use your voice consciously.

• SUPPORT LOCAL RESISTANCE EFFORTS
  Find nearby chapters of national groups above—or local coalitions, mutual aid circles, and interfaith organizing efforts like Faith in Action.

• RECOMMIT TO THE LONG ARC
  Liberation doesn’t happen in one moment. It lives in sustained, courageous, relational practice. Come back to it again and again. We’re in this practice with you.

How This Bill Will Affect Us*

• Immigrant communities: Targeted explicitly through tightened border enforcement, expanded detention, and reduced asylum access. The bill’s rhetoric and provisions directly impact undocumented and mixed-status families.

• Black communities: Often disproportionately affected by systemic outcomes of legislation, especially around criminalization, policing, reproductive rights, and healthcare access. While not always named directly, the impact is generational and compounded.

• LGBTQIA+ communities: Directly affected—many of these bills include riders or language that restrict gender-affirming care, LGBTQIA+ curriculum, and legal protections, particularly for trans youth.

• Disabled communities: Impacted both by access barriers in healthcare & disproportionate harm when social safety nets are weakened. Disabled people often experience compounded effects from restrictions on bodily autonomy, healthcare funding, & institutional bias.

• Rural communities: Indirectly but seriously affected by closures of hospitals, reduced funding to community health centers, and legislation that ignores regional healthcare needs and infrastructure.

• Veterans: Affected in two distinct ways—1) when VA-related funding is shifted or deprioritized, and 2) when mental and physical healthcare access is eroded or defunded in broader bills.

• Reproductive justice communities: One of the clearest targets. The bill includes sweeping attacks on bodily autonomy, reproductive access, and healthcare privacy—especially affecting BIPOC and low-income individuals.

*Reference: The complete “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” (H.R. 1 – 119th Congress) on Congress.gov, submitted for President’s signature on July 3rd, 2025.

We don’t inherit justice. We build it.

You don’t have to do it all. But you do have to begin.

Trust yourself. Trust what you can give.

Let’s build something future generations will thank us for.