When We Emerge...

Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed individuals can change the world. In fact, it's the only thing that ever has.

Am I the only one who already can’t remember 2021? My memories of it feel fuzzy. I know a lot happened, I’m certain of it, but nothing really stands out.

It’s odd, because for me personally, I’ve probably never had a year with more change. I took a new job, bought my first house, moved to a new city, launched a clothing line and a website, expanded my business and platforms, started doing television, and I’m getting my first niece. At one point this summer I was so busy I physically felt like I could not breathe at times. It has been a total whirlwind.

Perhaps that’s why everything feels hazy when I try to sum up the year. But I don’t think I’m alone in this. 2021 mostly just felt like the second act to 2020. It was the sixth or seventh season of a once popular TV show whose writers ran out of storylines a while back. It’s universally panned, but all the fans keep watching just to see how things end.

I suppose we are living through an era, and within it the years meld together and the definitions are blurred. My yearly New Years tradition is to reflect on all the things that changed over the past year and wonder what the world might look like come this time the next. It used to be a very fun tradition because a lot really can happen in a year. But in COVID years, I’m instead left wondering when we will emerge. Because as much as things can still evolve personally in a given year, right now, the outside world is left in a suspended state of reality. A lot can change, but we aren’t moving forward.

Will 2022 be another year of the same? Will it also fold itself into the era of COVID and be indistinguishable from the last? I truly don’t know, because it’s not just up to me. I intend to hit the ground running just as hard again this year, and I’m sure I’ll propel myself to new places I’ll marvel at come this day next year. But what the world looks like around me will be up to all of you. We’re all in this choose your own adventure book together and it’s us who must come up with the ending.

How do we want to emerge from this? Can you answer that?

Because I can. I want us to emerge with a consistent commitment to civil liberties and a vow that we will never again allow the government to take away our rights (or those of anyone else). I want us to emerge with fire. I want people to become rabid on free markets, educational freedom, bodily autonomy, human rights, and stripping the government of its authority. I want us to rise up and burn it all to the ground. Scorched earth, only ashes. I want people to be bold, to be louder than the crack in the bell, to be unashamed in the fight for liberty.

I know a lot of you feel beat down, powerless, or like there’s nothing we can do. I disagree. People with fewer resources and slimmer odds than us have found ways to beat back the ruling class throughout history. Now it’s our turn. But we need your energy, your eternal optimism, and your commitment.

I won’t spend anymore time reflecting on 2021, I’m focused on ensuring that 2022 is the year that we emerge. Join me. Pick one issue, find 50 people in your state who agree with you and go all in.

Most state legislative sessions start this month. Find a policy champion for your issue in your house and in the senate, get a bill introduced, and then start organizing. Show up for committee hearings, meet with other members, hold press conferences on the bill, sign up to give testimony, write letters to the editor, speak at local political meetings to obtain more support, hold sit-ins, do not let up.

If you do not do these things, I promise you your opponents will - and often on your dime (like police and teachers unions). If you want a free country you have to fight for it.

Margaret Mead once said, “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed individuals can change the world. In fact, it's the only thing that ever has."

Make 2022 the year we remind them all that individuals can change the world. Let’s go.