A message for an activist feeling alone

Photo: Wikimedia Commons.

You feel attacked. Even by your allies at times. You feel like you’re standing alone.

But listen. Being alone does not mean you are wrong. History is full of people who walked that same road.

Abraham Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt, Winston Churchill, Martin Luther King Jr., Ruth Bader Ginsberg, giants of their time.

And yet, in their own time, they were told constantly that their decisions were horrible.

They were called outcasts.

They were made to feel like pariahs.

But they stood their ground.

They kept pushing forward because they knew what was right.

Think about those civil rights workers who went down South to register voters. They were intimidated. They were beaten. Their own families called them foolish, told them to stay home and keep quiet.

But where would we be if they had listened? Where would we be if they gave in to silence?

Even in their own communities, people said the movement wasn’t worth it. Black parents warned their black children not to go south. People thought it was hopeless. But they went anyway. And because of them, rights were won.

The same story repeats with LGBTQ people. Rights were clawed forward by those who refused to listen to the voices saying, “It won’t affect me,” or, “It’s not my fight.”

The truth is, too many people get comfortable.

They find excuses.

They shrug off what is happening—until the day it finally reaches their doorstep.

And by then, it is too late.

I told people about a rally downtown today—Gov. JB Pritzker speaking out against the National Guard being sent to Chicago.

And do you know what I heard? Excuses:

“They’re not coming to Andersonville.”

“It’s just for show.”

Always reasons why it won’t touch them.

But the reality? They are at our border, ready to come in with guns. Ready to enforce martial law. And yet people tell themselves it’s not their problem.

You will feel alone. I won’t lie to you and pretend that you’ve got a massive army at your back.

But here’s the truth. Every person who does care, they’re out there too.

They feel just as alone as you.

And in that regard, you’re not alone.

You are walking the same path that the courageous have always walked.

So keep pushing forward. Get the protection you need, but don’t stop. Keep doing what you’re doing. Because the fight is not about comfort. It’s about justice. It’s about refusing to let selfishness, silence, or fear dictate the future.

And know this: you’re not just one person crying into the void.

You are one voice in a chorus that history itself will someday recognize.

Just like Lincoln. Just like King. Just like those workers beaten for registering voters.

You are not alone.

You are part of a great chain of people who refused to give in.

And the only thing history has ever rewarded is persistence.