There is evil in our land. Men with power, put in office to protect us, lie and scheme to benefit themselves. They conspire to pollute our air and our water and our food, to put poisons in the products we use every day. They ignore the law, and use their money and power to corrupt our court system. They attack the tellers of truth, the reporters of reality, and substitute fictions for the facts of their deeds. They pervert our democracy to keep themselves in power. They seek out sycophants to do their dirty work, never lacking for toadies who sing their praises, embellish their lies, defend their attacks on the general welfare, and pretend that heaven blesses their immorality. Every day brings new evidence of their malice toward the people they have sworn to serve, their disdain for those who do not join them. They rely on distractions, count on our apathy, and believe they can exhaust us.

They are powerful and clever, but we can stop them. We cannot wait for others to defeat them, we must take action now. We must defend the virtues they scorn – solidarity, empathy, honesty, kindness, charity, justice.

Use the laws to confront their dishonesty. Use the press to uncover and trumpet their corruption. Use our speech to protest loudly and repeatedly. Object to their actions each day in every way we can. We must employ the gifts that our democratic system provides to defeat them, or that system itself will be debased.

They will fight back, lying about anyone who exposes them, attacking our truthfulness, our patriotism, our families. There is no limit to their viciousness. They have billions of dollars, but we have millions of voices. Use them.

By resisting their evil, we will rediscover our nation and ourselves.