Not Forgetting
I want this nation to heal. I want us to mend the fractures that divide this country. I want us to find the common ground that makes us stronger together. That hasn’t changed.
But let me be clear about something.
Healing is not forgetting. Healing is not forgiving those who have caused real harm to real people. Healing is not looking the other way while people in power trample over the rights of the vulnerable.
I am angry. And I think you have every right to be as well.
When people lie, cheat, and steal they should be held accountable. No exceptions. No excuses. Wealth shouldn’t get you out of trouble. Being an elected official shouldn’t absolve you. That is what a just society looks like. That is what the Constitution I swore to defend demands.
Real people have died over the last ten years because we as Americans have not done our jobs holding people in power accountable. That is not hyperbole. That is the cost of looking away.
When you are elected to office you speak for the people who elected you. But you are also there to protect the people of this country — especially the vulnerable. The guardrails exist for a reason. When you cut cancer research people die. When you gut education you steal the future from children. When you kick vulnerable people off healthcare you are not making America great. You are making America cruel.
As a father, a veteran, and an American citizen it pains me deeply to watch this happen. I took an oath to defend the Constitution — not a person, not a party. That oath didn’t come with exceptions.
There is a concept called the paradox of tolerance. A society that tolerates everything — including those who seek to destroy it — will not survive. Tolerance has limits. Justice has limits. And accountability is where those limits live. I believe in healing. I believe in common ground. I believe in treating every person with dignity. But I am not required to tolerate the destruction of the very values that make healing possible. That is not contradiction. That is survival.
I want to heal this nation. But healing requires accountability. You cannot build something whole on a rotten foundation.
Democrats. Republicans. MAGA. All of them. Nobody gets a pass.
That is not a partisan statement. That is the only standard worth having.
Read more about the paradox of tolerance.
Do you believe healing and accountability can coexist? I’d love to hear where you stand.
