WITH LOVE AS OUR GUIDE
Volunteer Welcome! Arcade PA! Bonus video!
[This week’s opening comes from our incredible partner in activism Jessica Craven, author of the Chop Wood, Carry Water newsletter (subscribe HERE), who writes about what we can learn from the tragedies that shaped Biden:]
Here’s what I found: Biden was thirty when it happened. He’d just been elected as the junior Senator from Delaware. He’d been interviewing staffers for his new role when he got the call. His wife Neilia had been out buying a Christmas tree with their three young kids. They’d all been driving home, and were hit by a truck at an intersection. Neilia and their daughter, Naomi, who was just over one year old, perished instantly. The boys, Beau and Hunter, survived, but were badly injured.
President Biden considered stepping down after the accident, but decided to stay on and serve. He did so while simultaneously grieving and raising two young, also grieving boys. In order to give them security and consistency he took the train back to Delaware every night after work to read to them and put them to bed.
Eventually he remarried and had another daughter. The kids grew up. His son Hunter developed a drug and alcohol problem, but Biden never wavered in his love and support. Beau entered the armed services, served with distinction, and then died of glioblastoma at 45. President Biden was tempted to resign from office again then, but Beau’s dying plea was that he not do so.
It was because of this dying plea—and the Charlottesville march—that Joe Biden decided to run for President.
I repeat this story because it is so foundational to who President Biden is. It speaks of staggering loss. It speaks of love. It speaks of character. It speaks of family, dedication, commitment, and strength. It speaks of compassion. All are things that MUST be present in the person who leads this nation. They must. All are present, in spades, in Joe Biden.
None, not even love, is present in his opponent. Think about that. Trump couldn’t get a single family member to show up at his trial until the press drew attention to their absence. He is essentially alone in the world. He has no obvious love for anyone. He is beloved by none. It’s not clear he even knows what the feeling is.
This alone makes him unfit for office. Because love—of country, of family, of principles, of Americans—is necessary to do the job. Without it the presidency becomes no more than a huge lever of power, to be wielded selfishly, cruelly, and carelessly at will. That is how Trump treated it once; he will do so again.
We can’t have it. We must aspire to better. We must fight for love at all costs, not just in ourselves, but in our countrymen and in our leaders.
That’s why I’ll keep chopping wood and carrying water. Because the cause is worth it. And so are the people we’re fighting for.
I hope you’ll join me. Because together, with love as our guide, we’re unstoppable.
–Jessica Craven, Chop Wood, Carry Water (and friend of Field Team 6)
Here are a couple things (among the many, many options) to do coming up this next week and beyond:
#1 – Tuesday, May 28, Noon PT/3p ET – Welcome to Field Team 6! (For New Volunteers!) – come find all the ways you can help register Democrats and meet your favorite activists!
#2 - Thursday, May 30, 3p PT/6p ET Text Arcade to PA OH. You chip in $25 and send 1400 texts.
Bonus video.
Bonus social media to share.