Paragraph 1: Who is impacted? https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1uDL8TCuIM0RrVsV2JsVVChXB3ZKE7gz0webEVNYnVbg/edit?usp=sharing
Picture a mother clutching her baby against her chest as the water climbs higher, her tears lost in the flood that should have been prevented. Picture a little boy with wide, terrified eyes, torn from his father’s arms at the border, his tiny body wrapped in a crinkling foil blanket, whispering for his mamá in the dark where no one answers. Picture a young reporter, notebook shaking in her hands as she is branded an “enemy” simply for telling the truth. These are not faceless statistics—they are broken hearts, shattered families, and futures stolen before they ever had a chance. What wounds one of us cuts through us all, because we are bound together. And when leaders abandon compassio the pain does not stay “over there.” It pierces us—our shared humanity—like a knife. 

Paragraph 2: What is at stake?
If nothing changes, the grief will multiply until it drowns us. Entire towns will turn to ash, coastlines where children once laughed will sink into the sea, and the story of America—the land of hope—will rot into a lie. Families will keep being ripped apart, children will grow into adults haunted by nights in cages, and democracy itself will suffocate under cruelty and silence. But if we act—if we dare to choose mercy instead of cruelty, truth instead of lies, courage instead of silence—we can stitch back together what’s been torn apart. We can give children their parents back, heal the land we’ve scarred, and pass to our children a world not poisoned beyond repair. What’s at stake is not some distant, abstract idea—it’s everything we love: our families, our freedom, our very future.

Paragraph 3: Why is now the time to act?
Tomorrow is too late. The water is already rising. The forests are already burning. The children are already crying themselves to sleep behind bars. Every hour we wait, another wound festers. Every silence we allow, another light of freedom flickers out. We cannot keep saying “someday,” because someday will be written in graves, cages, and regrets. The time is now—because hearts are breaking now. Because justice ignored today becomes justice buried forever. History will not forgive us if we look away. But if we rise together now, we can still pull families back into the arms of love, still save the earth from the edge, still keep democracy breathing. If we do nothing, history won’t just condemn the abusers of power—it will condemn us for having the chance to fight back, and choosing not to.

Paragraph 4: The Bigger Picture—All of Us
The pain does not stop with floods or cages or bans. It bleeds into every corner of our lives. Picture a child pressed flat under a school desk, listening for the gunshots that may end their story before it ever begins. Picture a refugee family clutching the keys to a home they will never see again, forced to trade roots for survival. Picture a disabled neighbor staring at the stairs that keep them shut out of “equal opportunity,” their humanity dismissed as inconvenience. Picture a worker’s hands cracked and bleeding in the fields, earning in a month what a CEO makes in an hour. Picture a sick child turned away at a hospital door because their parents cannot afford the cost of care. Picture a family torn apart overnight by deportation, their kitchen chairs still warm, their voices suddenly silenced. This is the truth: cruelty is not divided into issues—it is a web, and it strangles us all. And compassion, too, is not divided—it is the thread that can unravel that web. Every time we choose justice, we don’t just save one life, one community, one issue—we save ourselves.

U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) & Attorney General – Protect abortion rights, fight discriminatory laws against LGBTQ+ and trans people, and defend voting rights in every court battle.
U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary – End cruel deportations and family separations, reform immigration enforcement with compassion and human dignity at its core.
Governor Wes Moore – Lead boldly in Maryland by protecting reproductive freedom, expanding LGBTQ+ protections, and making Maryland a model of inclusion and justice.
Maryland State Legislature / General Assembly – Pass laws to secure abortion access, enshrine LGBTQ+ equality, support immigrants and refugees, and guarantee healthcare and living wages for working families.

Paragraph 5: LGBTQ+ and Trans Lives
And picture this: a teenager, barely fifteen, staring at their reflection in the mirror and whispering, “Am I safe to be who I am?” Picture a young trans boy binding his chest with ace bandages because lawmakers refuse him healthcare, his ribs aching with every breath. Picture a girl kissing her girlfriend’s hand under the lunch table, terrified that if anyone sees, her family will disown her. Picture a trans woman walking down the street, heart hammering, because every glance feels like it could turn into violence. These are not abstract “debates.” These are lives—children and teens—just trying to exist in a world that tells them they are wrong for breathing. When their rights are stripped, when their love is mocked, when their bodies are legislated, it is not just an attack on them—it is an attack on all of us. Because freedom that excludes some is no freedom at all.

Quotes on Immigration & Refugees
“No one leaves home unless home is the mouth of a shark.” — Warsan Shire Global Refuge
“It is the obligation of every person born in a safer room to open the door when someone in danger knocks.” — Dina Nayer The Separated Child Foundation
“Refugee is someone who is forced to leave his country … lives not knowing which country he belongs to and in which country his journey will end.” — Hiba from Libya ECRE
“Refugees didn’t just escape a place. They had to escape a thousand memories until they’d put enough time and distance between them and their misery to wake to a better day.” — Nadia Hashimi The Separated Child Foundation
“Refugees move homeless from one country to another one.” — Syrian woman ECRE
 
Quotes on LGBTQ+ / Trans / Identity / Visibility
“We have to be visible. We are not ashamed of who we are.” — Sylvia Rivera TransLash Media
“The more I hold myself close and fully embrace who I am, the more I thrive.” — Elliot Page TransLash Media
“We have to be visible. We are not ashamed of who we are.” — (Also repeated in trans-affirming quotes) TransLash Media
“Being a human is hard work, but it’s easier to carry that load together. Keep showing up and extending grace for yourself and others.” — Mx. Pucks A’Plenty Good Housekeeping
 
Quotes Related to Reproductive Justice / Abortion / Intersectionality
“It doesn’t stop with abortion. It starts with abortion. LGBTQ+ rights, access to birth control, even interracial marriage, are all on the line.” — Anna V. Eskamani wintergardenvox.com
“Any gender can have an abortion.” — @ihartericka Facebook+1

“Reproductive justice is a human rights based framework. … we demand the achievement of full human rights, not only to protect the right to have a child.” — from a feminist statement Instagram

I want policies that keep families together, not systems that tear children from their parents and lose them in paperwork and cages.
I want immigration laws rooted in dignity, where no child sleeps on concrete floors, no parent disappears into detention without answers, and no family lives in fear of a knock on the door.

I want real climate action, not speeches after disasters. I want infrastructure that prevents floods before mothers are forced to cling to their babies in rising water, and leadership that treats the planet as a responsibility, not a bargaining chip.

I want a democracy that actually protects truth, where journalists are not branded enemies, elections are respected, votes are sacred, and no leader is allowed to overturn the will of the people.

I want LGBTQ+ and trans kids protected, not debated. I want trans healthcare accessible, queer youth safe at school and at home, and no child forced to bind their chest in pain or hide their love in fear.

I want reproductive freedom guaranteed, so no one is forced to give birth, no one is denied care, and no government legislates bodies it will never have to live inside.

I want healthcare treated as a human right, so sick children aren’t turned away, disabled people aren’t locked out of public life, and survival is never reserved for the wealthy.

I want workers protected, paid living wages, and treated as human beings—not disposable labor while executives hoard everything.

I want compassion restored as a governing principle, not cruelty dressed up as “policy,” because harm doesn’t stay contained—it spreads, and it always comes back.

And above all, I want the word “United” to mean something again—
not just printed on paper,
but lived, protected, and defended.

Sign my petition: bring back “United” in the United States.