Does this belong on the politics thread? The unpopular opinions thread?
Well, I'm starting my own damn thread:
I’m frustrated that today I struggle with a full-throated, patriotic celebration of the U.S. Army and its founding.
But I am proud. Proud of my service. Proud of my fellow soldiers. Proud of that moment in history, knowing that this moment is important, too.
It’s Pride Month. Nine days ago my firm hosted its annual event, and as always I was proud of two of my law partners as they talked about their pride and their journeys. But in their words, while there is a lot to be grateful for, “the fight for our right to be ourselves is getting so much harder. There are executive orders that say our identities are “false claims.” If you’re brave enough to say you’re trans or nonbinary, the government says you’re not being ‘honorable’ or ‘truthful.’ Using certain pronouns? Apparently a national security concern. They’re trying to make us ashamed of ourselves. Shame. It’s the antithesis of pride.”
Two days later, I was at the Pride game for our local professional soccer team listening to the national anthem and the refrain we all sing together: the land of the free, the home of the brave. Yes.
The pride celebrations are about freedom and they are about bravery. Bravery at Stonewall, and, sadly, still today. Bravery that one of my kids displays every time they walk out into the world as their authentic self, apparently threatening national security merely by asking for the courtesy of calling them what they want to be called.
So today is the 250th “birthday” of the United States Army. On this day 250 years ago, the Continental Congress–a group of rebels intent on pushing back against a tyrannical government–appointed George Washington General of the Continental Army. They, and he, were not perfect, but they were proud people striving for a better government. Creating a unified army that answered to a congress, not the king, was a brave statement, and one of the key moments in the act of overthrowing monarchy.
A year later, those same people would declare that the charade was over: they would no longer submit. It was time for a government that recognized that all men are created equal, and that “Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the Governed.” Revolutionary.
Never perfect.
To be clear, in 2024, We the People chose the current administration. But we chose a President and a legislature, not a king or dictator. We did not give up our rights. We will continue to peaceably assemble. We will continue to petition our government to redress our grievances. We will continue to demand security in our persons, houses, papers, and effects. We will continue to demand due process under the law. We will continue to demand that the powers not delegated to the President and Congress are reserved for the states or the people. And all persons born or naturalized in the United States are citizens thereof.
250 years later we still believe the many things that we created our U.S. Army to defend, including that no king shall rule us. Among the grievances aired then:
That he has obstructed the Administration of Justice.
That he has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people.
That he has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.
That he has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation.
For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world.
For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments.
For declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.
For abdicating Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.
For exciting domestic insurrections amongst us.
Those are things we will not–cannot–stand.
But 2025 is different than 1775. Ours is a government of the people, and we fight to keep it that way. We exercise our right to petition for redress. Today, tomorrow, next week, and next month. In 2026 we will elect a new Congress; in 2028 a new President. Some of us will not like the choices that We the People make, just as many of us did not in 2024. We will continue to fight for our fundamental rights.
We the People of the United States: to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity.
Proudly. Bravely. We will remain the home of the free.
That is what the Army’s birthday means to me. 250 years later:
This we’ll defend.
