When Survivors Speak, You Listen

They lived through what we’re walking toward

She stood with a handmade sign. Alone. 93 years old.

She didn’t come to be admired. She came to the protest because she remembers what happens when we don’t show up.

She was there because she remembers history.

The horror and madness she saw and survived in nearly a century of life.

And she brought it to warn us.

Some of those who lived through the worst chapters of history came alone. Some walked in groups. Most didn’t say a word.

A few held signs, others just held each other’s hands.

The ones who lived through sirens that weren’t metaphors are the ones now standing again.

They weren’t trying to prove a point, but to stop something they recognize too well.

They were trying to stop a nightmare.

They lived enough to know what happens when people stay home. They know where it leads.

You don’t walk into a crowd of angry men, some half your age and four times your weight, unless you truly believe your country is at risk.

You don’t expose yourself to the brutality of an unchecked riot police when things like your hip could break from a fall.

Unless you believe that silence is the greater danger.

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Real courage is messier than it may seem.

You show up scared, unsure, shaking. And you still go.

They carry those memories like they’re still fresh.

Because they are.

They remember the last time a man promised “order” and blamed all the country’s problems on outsiders. Or when the state called protesters criminals.

And now they see it coming back.

But instead of listening, some Republicans are mocking them. Calling them “props.”

Saying they were wheeled out by Democrats who “paid nursing homes” to protest.

Laughing that they “don’t even know what they’re doing.”

I’ve got a better theory:

They know exactly what they’re doing.

They’re standing in front of the train because they seen where the tracks lead.

One woman, 94 years old, stood alone holding this protest sign above. She knew the risk. And she did it anyway.

Another man in Los Angeles, knocked down by police for refusing to leave. He had a sign strapped to his walker.

A veteran who hadn’t spoken in years, holding a hand-painted flag.

They were not confused. Not “used.”

They are witnesses and survivors of history.

And still, Trump’s supporters beat them. Online and off. Laugh at them. Dismiss them.

Because they know something terrifying:

If the more experienced of us are standing up, it means the danger for them is real.

I saw these wonderful people standing there with their signs, and I knew I was standing with them because I know they weren’t carrying opinions to the streets.

They were carrying what they’ve lived.

What they’ve lost. What they still remember.

And even though I’m less than half of their age, with luck just a tiny fraction of their wisdom, living in Ukraine today places me in a similar category:

• Witness to horrors no one should have to see.

If they are risking so much to walk through the streets again at a time of your life when all you need and deserve is peace, it means we’re closer to the cliff than we think.

They weren't there for photos. They were there to grab the railing before the fall.

And if the rest of us don't pay attention to their warning.

Then the next thing we’ll feel won’t be history repeating.

It’ll be the ground disappearing under our feet.

—Viktor

🇺🇦🇺🇸

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