On March 14, Rick and I attended the Veterans March in Olympia, Washington. The Veterans March took place in Washington, DC, and at every state capitol across the country. The event gave veterans a voice to defend the Constitution and the oath they swore to it.  Veterans and all present protested the impact of Project 2025 on critical programs supporting former service members.  We felt emotionally empowered.

This has been a challenging time, especially for Rick, a US Navy Veteran of the Vietnam War, and I believe the march / protest was the start of a healing experience.  I  heard the voices of concern. I met men and women who have served our country, true heroes, with stories to tell, worries to express, and feelings to vent, when respect is due and not rendered. The veterans are the heart of America. We must protect the HEART of America.

Below you will see the slide show I put together from the Veterans March. It is about 6 minutes long, worth every moment of viewing. The video is poignant and appropriately disturbing in parts. It takes great courage on my part to post this blog. However, posting this blog post is necessary because we live in a country deeply divided. My experience at the march emboldened me. I want those who read this post to see how ignoring the US Constitution and destroying our democracy and economy adversely affects each and every one of us. There are many people I love dearly and deeply, family members and friends, who think and vote differently than I do.  “We the people” have the right to think differently, but not at the cost of dismantling the US Constitution and everything it stands for.

I came across Martin Luther King, Jr.’s words about Power and Love. May these words inspire you to think differently about Power and Love:

“Power properly understood is nothing but the ability to achieve purpose. And one of the great problems of history is that the concepts of love and power have usually been contrasted as opposites—polar opposites—so that love is identified with a resignation of power, and power with a denial of love. We’ve got to get this thing right.

What is needed is a realization that power without love is reckless and abusive, and love without power is sentimental and anemic. Power at its best is love implementing the demands of justice, and justice at its best is power correcting everything that stands against love. It is precisely this collision of immoral power with powerless morality which constitutes the major crisis of our time.”

—Martin Luther King, Jr.

And the slide show is below. If you cannot access it, please click on this link.