To My Dearest Defenders of Justice,
It is with both apology and affection that I return to you, noble readers, after a brief but necessary pause in my writings. I have been away—at a writer’s retreat, a rare and cherished moment to celebrate another journey around the sun. And in that quiet, in that reflective space, I found myself dwelling not only on the year behind me, but on the greater truths that bind us all in this grand experiment we call democracy.
It is in the spirit of that reflection that I now write to you, not just as your editor-in-chief, but as a fellow steward of liberty.
Let us be reminded: no man, no matter how brilliant or bold, builds greatness alone. Walt Disney may have envisioned castles in the sky, but it was his brother Roy who turned fantasy into foundation. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. ignited a movement with his words, but it was the people—the marchers, the mothers, the students, the workers—who made that dream a living, breathing reality.
History, my friends, is not the tale of solitary genius—it is the symphony of collective courage. Not a single hand laid every stone of the pyramids, and the architects of the Sphinx are lost to time, but still their legacy towers over us, defiant and enduring. The emperors of Rome may have etched their names into marble, but the true immortality lies in the cities they built, the roads that still wind through Europe, and the radical notion that a republic—yes, a republic—could place power in the hands of the people.
Would Alexander the Great have conquered a world had his soldiers not believed enough to follow?
The great triumphs of our species are forged not in the fires of ego, but in the crucible of community. And it is love—yes, love—that holds the line. Not the saccharine love of fairytales, but the fierce, defiant love of neighbor for neighbor, of citizen for country, of humanity for justice. It is love that endures. It is love that resists. It is love that builds nations, topples tyrants, and outlives empires.
Make no mistake: evil exists. And its greatest trick is to disguise selfishness as strength, to twist love into hate, to raise the banner of the self above all others. But evil has a fatal flaw—it cannot comprehend sacrifice. It cannot imagine that someone might give of themselves not for gain, but for principle. It sees compassion as weakness. It scoffs at martyrdom. And because it does not understand such power, it cannot defend against it.
That, my dear defenders, is why good shall always prevail.
Though evil may rage for a season, though it may claw and climb toward power, it will never grasp what love freely gives. For love is willing to risk, to lose, to sacrifice. Love does not die—not truly. As Emily Dickinson so brilliantly wrote:
"Unable are the loved to die, for love is immortality. Nay—it is Deity—"
Love is not merely what remains after death—it is what gives us the strength to rise in the face of it. It is what stirs in us the resolve to endure the storm, to take up righteous cause, to make sacrifices that bend the course of history. True love—unselfish, unwavering, and righteous—endows us with a power beyond mortal strength. It is the spirit of the divine itself. It grants us courage when all seems lost and moves us to acts of grace and justice that even kings must reckon with.
It is love, not might, that has moved mountains. It is love, not fear, that has toppled tyrants. And it is love that will carry us forward still.
And so, I leave you with the words of Thomas Paine, whose voice echoed through revolution and still reverberates in our hearts today:
"When men yield up the privilege of thinking, the last shadow of liberty quits the horizon."
Let us never yield. Let us love boldly. Let us think freely. And let us act decisively.
Start today. Raise your voice. Make your calls.
I urge every reader to download and use Five Calls, a free civic engagement app that gives you issues, scripts, and the contact information of your representatives so you can take immediate action on the matters that threaten our democracy.
💪 Make your voice heard. 🗣️ Speak truth to power. ☎️ And do it five times.
In the battle for liberty, action is our anthem—and silence is complicity.
Until Our Next Bold Move,
Lady LiberTea
Editor-in-Chief of Lady LiberTea