Dear fellow MoveOn member,
I'm Juan. I've been a MoveOn member as long as I can remember being politically engaged, from my early days of campus activism in Florida.
Chances are, you may have signed one of my petitions (MoveOn lets you start your own). Or maybe you've read one of my articles about what it's like to be a Dreamer at this particular moment in time—with DACA rescinded and immigrant families now the scapegoat de jour of the GOP. (Spoiler alert: it's tough!)
Tens of thousands of MoveOn members have signed onto my campaigns, and many times, we have won meaningful victories together against all odds! On the Dream Act, we are beginning to turn the tide toward what everyone said was impossible under Trump: getting both Democratic and Republican leaders to say that DACA youth must be protected before the holidays—so Dreamers (like myself) won't have to spend Christmas in fear.
But I'm not writing today to talk about the Dream Act (though if you do start a campaign about the Dream Act, you can message me on Twitter at @JuanSaaa to let me know).
I'm writing today to talk about how we continue to choose hope.
If you're like me, you know it's not easy to choose hope in the face of brutal attacks on health care, our tax and education system, the environment—there's just so much going terribly in the world right now. My family came from Venezuela when I was just eleven years old, and if I'm honest, the prospect of being "sent back" to a country that is in the middle of violent unrest, food shortages, and very possible economic collapse—it's given me a kind of anxiety that it is hard for my friends, family, and fellow Florida State alumni to imagine.
But the flip side of fear—and what keeps me going these days—is hope. Hope means not staying silent and small when fear creeps in. Hope means standing up, and speaking out, and demanding better, even when it isn't easy.
And this community—MoveOn—is all about that. It's why you renew my hope in what we can do when we refuse to let ourselves be stopped by fear—or caught up in the angry hatred we see every day in the news.
So, my fellow, inspiring MoveOn members, today I'm writing you to ask: What is it in your community that is calling on you to be courageously hopeful? What issue or challenge in our country is demanding that you speak up?
If there's something that's got you angry, fearful, or maybe even a bit hopeful, it's just a few small steps to start your own campaign now—and if your campaign takes off, you know we'll all have your back.
Earlier this year, I was moved by what our community can do when we come together, turn those who can vote out in unprecedented numbers, and reject the politics of fear and division—as we saw in Virginia and across the country on election day.
I was moved when I saw college students of all backgrounds walk out of their classes on November 9, to take over the Senate building and even risk arrest to say that we must pass a clean Dream Act by December, so immigrant youth like myself won't have to spend the holidays in fear of deportation.
So, what is it that moves you? What campaign will you start?
Thank you for keeping me hopeful.
—Juan Escalante, MoveOn Member & Aspiring American
Want to support our work? The MoveOn community will work every moment, day by day and year by year, to resist Trump's agenda, contain the damage, defeat hate with love, and begin the process of swinging the nation's pendulum back toward sanity, decency, and the kind of future that we must never give up on. And to do it we need your ongoing support, now more than ever. Will you stand with us?
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