Profiles in Courage
- Frances Schwabenland
- Apr 10
- 2 min read
15,000 Strong in the Spirit of Democracy
Last Saturday, in the shadow of Independence Hall,
where the bones of democracy were first laid bare,
15,000 voices rose—not in violence, but in conviction.
Profiles in courage for all to see.
This was a march against the normalization of cruelty, the erosion of truth, and the dismantling of democratic values. It was a march for all we hold sacred.
A rally in defense of something deeper:
truth, decency, justice, and the soul of a nation still trying to live up to its promise.
It wasn’t just a crowd.
It was a movement—
mothers and veterans, teachers and artists, immigrants and elders,
standing shoulder to shoulder in the spring air,
their chants echoing across the cobblestone streets
where liberty was first imagined.
There were signs, yes—clever and fiery.
But there was also silence.
Moments of solemn knowing
that the fight for dignity
is not about left or right—
it’s about what is right.
In a time when lies are weaponized,
when cruelty is excused,
when power seeks to divide—
these thousands gathered in peace
to say: we will not look away.
“When injustice becomes law, resistance becomes duty.”
—Thomas Jefferson
And yet this resistance was not born of hate.
It was born of love—
for country, for neighbor,
for the fragile, unfinished dream
that still lives beneath these stars and stripes.
“The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.”
—Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
But only if we bend it.
And on Saturday, 15,000 hands reached for that arc
with clarity, courage, and community.
We are not asleep.
We are not afraid.
We are awake—together.
And this…
this is what democracy looks like.
when peace becomes power
and presence becomes protest.
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