Thank you, Officer Perez
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Steve
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The two-lane road twisted and turned under a brilliant canopy of fall color. Before it began a steep climb, it gave way to dirt and gravel before revealing an old white farm house. It was a brilliant day. The weather was perfect. There was a touch of warmth and a bit of crisp breeze all wrapped together when the Bernese Mountain Dog bounded towards us only to get shy at the last second. The location is a closely guarded secret because of the importance of its retired residents.
We had come to a place of sanctuary that seemed like it had sprung to life from a painting, but it wasn’t the beauty that caught my eye. It was a marking painted around the chimney of the old farmhouse and a federal eagle mounted above a door with the numbers 1791 next to it. It marked the year of construction for what had been a tavern and small inn when the first beams were raised in its construction during George Washington’s first term of office. Like all old houses, it had a story wrapped in a thousand mysteries lost to the ages and a lack of imagination and interest around what came before.
The black markings on the chimney were a message hidden in plain sight. It was a political statement boldly made in plain sight against an American evil. It didn’t just say “welcome;” it said “ALL people are welcome here.” It marked a place of refuge and safety on a long, dangerous and often deadly journey to freedom. It was a stop on the Underground Railroad en route to Canadian freedom and protection for an escaped slave. I thought about desperate people and their convergence on this place that had stood on American soil since near its very beginning and had improbably endured into its 4th American century.
The old house that had been a sight of hope and salvation sat on a hill above emerald pastures ringed by thick forest painted in a kaleidoscope of bursting fall color. It meandered towards a wide smooth and quiet river that sharply bended and glistened.
We had come to say “hello” to the special residents of this magical place who had come to rest in a splendid retirement after their unique service. This was a horse farm, and the majority of the horses were retired police officers from New York City.
Perez stood by himself, a bit removed from the other horses. His color was magnificent. He was a perfect chestnut brown and his disposition couldn’t have been sweeter as he nuzzled his head into my chest between bites of grass and hay. Perez is an old horse. He is 35 years old, and is one of the very last living horses that served on September 11, 2001, at the World Trade Center. Perez was on duty that morning. He arrived with his mounted officer moments after the first plane hit the Twin Towers.
I thought about that moment 21 years ago when all of the televisions in my Capitol Hill office blared breaking news chyrons before turning towards the indelible images of the Twin Towers in the moments before the second plane hit. Perez was there. He saw all of it before most any of us.
Each horse had a story and the woman who cares for and loves them knew them all. The retired officers came one by one towards us in the middle of the New England field to say hello and get a scratch.
My father worked for the phone company and he spent weeks on and under the burning, toxic, smoldering hell caused by a murderous act of terror inflicted on innocent people by Osama bin Laden and his gang of mostly Saudi terrorists. I thought about him as I scratched Perez behind the ears. I thought about Jared Kushner receiving $2 billion in Saudi cash from the murdering crown prince MBS just months after leaving the White House. I thought about the Washington Post story about corrupt retired generals like Jim Jones and dozens of others who disgraced themselves in service to the Saudi thugocracy.
It made me think. Perez did his duty and so did his mounted officer. They kept the faith.
We have arrived at a desperate hour in America where there has been a loss of faith in some of the most elemental concepts around the idea, ideals and values of the United States. Optimism has been poisoned by pessimism, while cynicism has assaulted optimism. The corresponding crisis in faith that we are living through is born from the casual disregard of America’s most privileged people and greatest shirkers from the struggles, dignity, perseverance and resilience of the American people. In other words, the rise of a man like Trump is only possible in a place where gratitude, respect and decency have substantially collapsed.
The entire premise of MAGA is built around the vicious idea that we owe nothing to each other, only to ourselves. It springs from the poisoned well where everyone should take as much as they can get in the moment they can get it. This is the philosophy of the locust, and it is deeply antithetical to the American creed, E pluribus unum or “out of many, one.”
Public service must be made noble again in America and service must be remade as a concept. Service is not about grandiose and empty gestures. Politics isn’t a performative business. It’s a consequential one, and more often than not, it can turn into a life and death business in an instant.
The United States is the oldest constitutional republic in the world. It is built on a foundation of liberty, family and community where obligation, respect, courage, love, responsibility, integrity and decency are the basic virtues that fuel the whole of society. They exist in a state of permanent competition against their oppositional vices. Today, that fight is real, intense and deeply consequential for the future peace, prosperity and domestic tranquility of the American people.
There was a moment in time where American politics was infused with optimism and promise by a dynamic young leader at a moment of generational change. He was 43 years old when he stepped before the Seal of the President of the United States of America for the first time as Commander-in-Chief. He did not speak about himself. Here is what he said and it is a good reminder for all Americans to hear every now and again:
“Ask not what your country can do for you. Ask what you can do for your country.”
Perhaps the thing to do in 2022 is to be tolerant of dissent and differences of opinion and worldview. Maybe it means recognizing that we are Americans, and as such, are obligated to one another. We are obligated to have one another’s backs and that means we will need to find our way to forgiveness and reconciliation.
Sometimes it is hard to see the good in America through the din of conflict media and rancid politicians who are cheerleading for civil war and violence. Occasionally it begs the question: what is real? What is the real America? Is it the reality of Fox News, or closer to the reality of a quiet New England farm where a beautiful view leads to an important reminder? We must have each other’s backs.
Perez gave his back towards service that he might not quite understand in the same way that we do, but that didn’t matter to me yesterday. I was content to scratch the old horse’s back under a beautiful fall New England sky. He deserved it, and it felt good to make him happy. We are after all a country built on the pursuit of happiness.
Perhaps we should talk about that pursuit of happiness more in America. It would help get to a core question more quickly. Does anyone think the road to American happiness runs through civil war, division and fighting? It doesn’t.
To me, no other nation gives us an example of how to do this today than Ukraine. I am always impressed to see how political differences and divisions melted away to advocate for and fight for the real issue: their sovereignty, their liberty, their freedoms and their country. They have not gotten sidetracked on political power grabs, vainglory and sideshows. With unity of purpose, so much can be accomplished.
I remember an old tale I learned as a child. Someone was having a discussion with a wise person about performing large tasks. He was asked to bring a bundle of sticks. When brought before him, he was then asked to break the bundle. The person tried and tried to but couldn’t - it was a huge bundle. Now he was told to separate the bundle into individual sticks and break each one. That was easy. The end goal was that the bundle was broken in half. Now this could simply be a story of how to approach large tasks in piecemeal. But it’s significance to unity was apparent to me. We are always stronger when united like the bundle. Our enemies will have a hard time destroying us like the inability to break the bundle as a unit. But separate folks by fear and division - then the task becomes much easier picking off each twig. In the end, you have broken the bundle. It’s sad that people don’t see how we are today happy to be broken up into factions with no unity or common purpose. Alas, even the threat of losing our democratic republic now becomes possible. We should take Ukraine’s example and fight for the important things: our freedoms, our ability to choose our leaders, our constitution and rule of law where the rich and powerful must be as accountable as any individual, and our democratic republic is preserved. These things are the foundation where all other issues are built on. Abraham Lincoln knew that the preservation of the Union was so important, he made it his priority. May we have the same wisdom today.
Anyone who isn’t a white male has been in a civil war. And our right to“ pursuit of happiness “ has been impinged by Republicans since Reagan.
 If women don’t have rights, there is no democracy. What should be screaming headlines and conversation from now to election day is how women’s rights are under siege. Yes there are so many other issues and difficulties to tackle but if you take women out of the equation, democracy is lost.