One Year of Resistance.

 People of the country we love, 

One year ago, we rose from grief and anger. We rose because silence was no longer possible. Ordinary people (workers, teachers, parents, students), they refused to watch quietly while freedoms were stolen piece by piece. We were raw then, untrained but unafraid, believing that the truth itself would be enough to shake power awake. 

Today we stand not to declare victory, but to honor survival. And most of all, to honor those who gave more than survival; those who spoke until their voices were taken, who stood until they were struck down, who carried the torch when others’ hands faltered. We say their names. We keep their memory bright. Every act of courage, no matter how small, has kept us alive. 

This country, our home, now demands silence. It demands obedience. It tells us to forget. It wants the record of injustice erased, and it wants the names of the brave buried with them. To this command we answer: No. We will not be silent. We will not forget. We will not let truth be strangled by decree. 

But we have learned that survival requires more than shouting in the squares. Courage also lives in the quiet places. In kitchens and basements where banned lessons are still taught. In notebooks where history is recorded truthfully. In songs whispered between friends. The country may want us mute, but we will speak in a thousand forms they cannot suppress. 

To honor the fallen is not only to remember them, but to continue the work they began. Their sacrifice demands endurance. Their absence requires us to become more. Each of us must carry a piece of what they carried: one writes, another teaches, another heals, another sings. No single voice can resist the machine of silence, but together, as a chorus, we cannot be erased. 

Moving forward, we change not our conviction but our method. We will resist not only in protest but in preservation. We will be custodians of truth, keeping alive the memory and imagination that oppression seeks to crush. We will pass forward what cannot be outlawed: the stubborn belief in dignity, in justice, in the worth of every human life. 

To those who are weary: rest, we will stand guard while you sleep. To those who are afraid: hold my hand, for you are not alone. To those who are angry: we will build a better way. And to those we have lost, we will honor your sacrifice.

We honor the first year by pledging ourselves to the years ahead. We do not ask for revenge. We do not answer cruelty with cruelty. We answer with endurance, with solidarity, and with the unyielding promise that truth will outlast lies. The powerful may command silence, but they cannot command history. They may rewrite laws, but they cannot rewrite conscience. 

This is my vow: to keep the light alive until the winds change. To write the future with the same courage that was written into the lives of those we honor today. 

Today we honor the resistance. We celebrate not that it has been easy, but that we resisted. And tomorrow, we continue. Because You Matter, you always have.

Your Friend

Clovis