To conclude this series exploring quotes that make up the foundational ethos of the mission, I want to highlight two, bringing the last two journal entries in this series into one.
Speaking of her time leading the Underground Railroad, Harriet Tubman said this:
“I never ran my train off the tracks and I never lost a passenger.”
What’s inspiring to me about this statement is that Harriet’s leadership included politics, civil rights, forward progress, the human experience as it should be, severe personal trauma, contemplative faith, leading teams—and physical endurance.
I started Liberatus in 2015 partly because it’s ambiguous what exactly we were fighting for in Congress. While we said we were fighting for freedom, in the words of former Congressman Raul Labrador, Capitol Hill “is a place that just sucks your soul.” But why?
“He’s a principled conservative.”
After working within the conservative movement, it’s not clear to me what this statement means.
But I think it means something like this: There’s a conservative view of things that is the truth, therefore, he stands on that truth no matter the costs, achieves top marks on legislative scorecards, and those who don’t hold to principles might be nice to people but they’ll never be champions.
Today, often the farthest we go with this advice is to say that we should “turn down the heat” when things get too ugly. But to govern the country well, we need constructive parameters for what it means to restrain partisanship, in the same way that Olympic athletes have constructive parameters for how to perform at their best, follow the rules of their sport, and uphold sportsmanship.
Starting a nonprofit with a vision of healing is in so many ways like training for a marathon. Training raises many questions about the process: you do have to think about hydration choices and energy gels and whether or not sweet potatoes are the best source of carbs. Similarly, on the nonprofit front, today I wanted to outline the next three steps for Liberatus.
You can’t control the great outdoors. They are wild, untamable. That’s how it should be. I needed that reminder desperately one beautiful and unusually mild fall day with my family hiking in the Midwest. And I need it today. Working on Capitol Hill only fed my desire—no, my need—to control. It becomes a bullet point on a resume.
An Interview with Devin Dotson, USBG Public Affairs and Exhibits Specialist
Flourish Inside and Out celebrates how seeing and interacting with nature and gardening is shown to provide health and emotional benefits. The interior portion of the exhibit presents examples of plants and plantings that you could follow to bring living plants indoors.
Bipartisanship and compromise, then, become not just an argument about whether or not you’re willing to give up what you believe is good for the country, but rather a conversation on how to find good for the country. We’re not actually fighting for freedom if we’re unwilling to debate the other side.
Travelling with fellow college students in China, we spent most of our time in Shaanxi province and during our final week there, visited a notable mountain—Hua Shan. Something remarkable happens when you reach a mountaintop: all the sweat and toil you spent to arrive pales before the sight of indestructible beauty. Dr. King is one who knew something about “the mountaintop.”
As I sit here writing, I’m at a loss for words that are descriptive enough, wanting to truly convey to you the wonder and beauty that is the Pacific Northwest. To those who have not yet experienced the remarkable upper left portion of our country, I am terribly sorry. But, I beg you not to let this journal be your only encounter with it.
How do we survive—especially considering it’s hard to campaign and work out on the beach at the same time? How do we survive in a culture that seems bent on destroying anyone who doesn’t get top marks on their scorecard? The trip to Treasure Island, Florida, left me with observations about life, and conclusions for work in politics.
When we say nature restores us, we actually mean it. To kickoff both the summer and our new series on The Great Outdoors, today we’re publishing photos from seven locations you can explore all summer long throughout the DC area. Here’s to having class outside. Here’s to the wide world in which we were created to live. And here’s to our Creator, and the undeniable goodness that surrounds us every day.
