There will come a time when the fight seems unwinnable. When the goals seem unreachable. I know what that feels like. Alone, scared, outmatched by the enemy's resources, shackled by the struggle for food, fuel and shelter. There will also come times when the good you are already doing can feel inadequate. I also know what that feels like. That we are not fighting hard enough, that we are not giving big enough, that picking one fight means losing another, that we can be one person against a rising tide of atrocities.

In such times, remember this: progress is a slow and steady process. It's easy to divert and easy to halt, but like a river's flow it won't tolerate an obstacle forever. Diverting only opens new tributaries and blocking the flow only builds the pressure. In the latter instance, it becomes so great that the dam bursts or the reservoir overflows, after that progress becomes too overwhelming to stop.

And remember this: freedom is not valuable, it is priceless. Valuable things can be bought, sold and gambled away, but not priceless things. Anyone convinced that “freedom is valuable” can be suckered into believing that there is something more valuable to exchange freedom for. Those who believe so are no better than those suckers who gamble away family heirlooms or monarchs who sold national treasures to fund wars or pay off debts. Such suckers value their privileges more than their principles. Remember that.

And remember this: rebellion is in the blood of Americans for better or for worse. We do not tolerate being told what to do or how our government made by the consent of the governed should be run. The best way to harness that spirit is to recontextualize what we’re rebelling against, such as this: when cruelty becomes the norm, an act of kindness becomes an act of rebellion. Even the slightest act of kindness weakens this administration and demoralizes its supporters.

And remember this: this Trumpian obsession to control every aspect of American life fails consistently because it is so unsustainable. Mass control, suppression and surveillance require constant effort, money and resources, even with AI. Their algorithms hallucinate and malfunction, their underpaid watchmen get tired and lazy, and the authorities behind them are too cheap, complacent or misjudge the scope and scale of the problems to properly fix them. The authority they claim to have over you is smoke and mirrors; brittle at best, nonexistent at worst. Intimidating words hide a panicking man. Remember that.

And remember this: these escalations--war, threats, voter suppression, tariffs, firings--are happening because this administration is realizing how cornered it is. They have nothing to fall back on but promises that they have already broken and hollow talking points that don't put food on the table or gas in the tank. Overwhelming you with bad news is all they have to hide their panic and scare you into complacency. Things will get worse before they get better, but it is a sign that the storm is at its peak, that the clouds will part, and when the sun shines it will shine all the brighter.

And remember this: there will come a day when these ghouls, their enablers and their accomplices will be held accountable. But if by some rotten miracle the courts fail to indict them, take comfort in that they will be denied a peaceful retirement. Remind them, their friends and the rest of the world of their cowardliness, their failures, their incompetence. Remind them of the blood on their hands, the children they've traumatized and the communities they've destroyed. Remind them that they, the party of small government and individualism subverted and weaponized big government against individuals. Remind them that they, the party of fiscal responsibility, wasted egregious amounts of American wealth and taxpayer money on another pointless war, overblown vanity projects and unconstitutional policies that were short-lived successes at best, outright failures-to-launch at worst. Remind them until it haunts their sleep, remind them until their friends consider them liabilities, remind them that though they dodged the court of law, they will not dodge the court of public opinion, which can be far less merciful, far more crushing and can transcend borders.

And finally remember this: none of these are possible if you do not act. It can be intimidating in that you can be one person against a mob of thugs, but there are others who are just as invested as you are, if not more so, in turning the reputation of this country around. Any action, big or small carries weight.

Remember this: hope.

Remember this: vote.

But remember this most of all: try.

We are a nonpartisan organization of former NASA astronauts who have sworn to defend the Constitution of the United States. 

Astronauts for America Education Fund

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