1. I will gladly risk federal prosecution/public execution if #militaryparade happens. I'll have my own little Tiananmen square - stand in the route, find out if @POTUS will kill citizens for their beliefs.

I'm not fucking around. Save the date. I've finally had enough.

2. I will fight with every muscle, sinew and bone I have. I will not allow a fundamental hallmark of our democracy - and generations of foreign policy - be snuffed out by a @potus who has absolutely no respect for himself, the people, or the office. #militaryparade

3. I spent my youth fascinated with the idea of how a nation so powerful, so strong could stand up and be strong without use of the United States Military demonstrating their loyalty to the @potus #militaryparade

4. Today, I have a Ph.D. in public policy, an MA and BA in political science, and experience working in the public sector. There is, finally - the complete and utter defeat of the concept of, 'speak softly and carry a big stick.' We are now what we loathed. #militaryparade

5. What are we? We are a saber-rattling, arrogant state whose leadership currently believes that greatness = strength and a blatant display of it. #militaryparade

6. Imagine ramifications if Kennedy had decided to stage a #militaryparade during the Cuban Missile Crisis or if Bush 43 had scheduled a #militaryparade after 9/11. In one case, the ramifications would have likely been fatal to all of us. In the other, it would ring hollow.

7. But here we are, with our little @POTUS - our despot-in-chief - who excoriates those who do not pledge loyalty to him, and is so narcissistic that he is willing to spend millions on an 'ego' parade than working with Congress to balance the budget. #militaryparade

8. And yet, just like many of you have been - I have been complicit to this point. I have allowed the mantra of #thisisNOTnormal to become canon in the assessment of our democracy. Of our @potus #militaryparade

9. I will be complicit no longer. On the day of this parade, I will (along with anyone that is willing to join me) stand directly in front of the route. Nailed to the fucking ground if I have to be. #militaryparade

10. Let our "Commander In Chief" order the U.S. Military to run me over. Let them arrest me, jail me, try me for treason. Beat me, kill me. Let the @potus explain to everyone how doing so affirms that he is in charge, that he is in control. #militaryparade

11. You can call me whatever the fuck you want. Martyr, whining leftie, whatever. You don't know me, and I could care less what you think of the #militaryparade . But it's beyond party now. And all of you are ignorant of your reality if you cannot see what is happening.

12. This is political posturing as a means of control. "Fuck the population, I, as @POTUS want control of it all. I don't care about any or all social issues, or the conditions of our infrastructure, our schools, our lives." #militaryparade

13. "Don't you see! This is about ME, your @POTUS - ensuring that all know I am the moral compass. I am correct. Your disobedience = your censure. Don't kneel, salute. Don't sit on your hands, fucking stand up and applaud, you traitors!" #militaryparade

14. I cannot - will not - watch idly anymore and see the warnings of some of our framers and founders come to an utterly grim and total conclusion. #militaryparade

15. Instead, I will start a blog. Instead, I will stay apolitical in my classrooms so that others may find (and return) what we now run the risk of losing. #militaryparade

16. Instead, I will continue to look for new ways to disrupt, attack, disabuse and obliterate the notion that any of this is acceptable anymore. #militaryparade

17. If that means I will die, bleeding in the street, rotting in a prison, or being tortured every day for the rest of my life, I'll take that chance. Let @POTUS come say to my face that I am not 'his America' - and let everyone realize what that means. #militaryparade

18. I have many friends that are more intellectual, more organized. I will lean on them, and you should too. Stopping this 'not normal' wheel is perhaps the most important thing any of us can ever do. #militaryparade

19. I will do my best to educate others, and you should too. Get past the insults, the rhetoric, the name-calling, the media - get to the very soul of what we are as people.

Rebels. #militaryparade

20. We signed a social contract. This agreement to have governance for all, assurances of natural rights, liberties freely given to all and questioned without judgment by our leaders, is a precious and intangible gift. #militaryparade

21. Political philosophy tells us that when our contract has been broken, we have the RIGHT to openly rebel against it. To use the power of our words, our thoughts, our physical presence in the world - to rail against the loss of that promise. #militaryparade

22. Go back and read the Declaration of Independence. Any of it easily extrapolated to 2018 by analogy? @washingtonpost masthead says, "Democracy Dies in Darkness." #militaryparade

23. It's awfuldark. We've marginalized a majority of our population (whitey ain't it much longer, you old racists), silenced others, encouraged violence, acquiesced to lies, accepted social injustice and even fundamental conservative values have been erased. #militaryparade

24. This is not Reagan's "Dawn again in America." it is not his "Tear Down this Wall." It is a darkness. A wall building (literally and metaphorically). #militaryparade

This is not us on a hill. Or a thousand points of light. Or being the keeper of our brothers and sisters in this experiment called democracy. #militaryparade

26. It is a trial. A burden. A crucible where only some will survive, others will be forced to comply, and the rest of us have simply given up. #militaryparade

27. There is a silence of regret with this @POTUS. Many of us are ashamed of what we have become and apologize. Constantly. To our gay friends. To our black neighbors. To our latino population dreaming like those who came to Ellis Island did. #militaryparade

28. If we do not act, if we allow the #thisisNOTnormal to become #WelcomeToTheNewNormal, ALL of us - libs, conservs, will suffer with the ramifications of an executive branch that has continually lied to the populace. #militaryparade

29. YOU have to live with this. YOU are letting this happen. There is no 'greatness.' There is anger. Spite. Downright hatred of the cruelest order. There is a blatant disregard for the hundreds of years of toil that brought us here. #militaryparade

30. Do we let the darkness win, with another demonstration of power? Or do we choose to empower? Do we let a parade show the world who we are, or do we let our actions rekindle belief in our potential? #militaryparade

31. Me? I will listen to the insults. The bullshit without clarity. The blatant ignorance of blinders and immediate belief of what is in front of us because it is convenient.

Democracy ain't convenient. It is ugly, painful, tiring. But it can be beautiful. #militaryparade

32. We have crept as far as we can to the ugly side of democracy. Now, it is time to show, once again - as we have repeatedly done over the lifetime of this nation - that we are capable of change. That we can do it. #militaryparade

33. And if we continue to allow @POTUS to tighten tolerance, limit liberties, avoid reality by substituting imagery and gaslighting, we are no better than that which we detest. #militaryparade

34. We have passed the 'voice with a ballot' mantra. We are in the 'protest with all your might' mode.

Ironic that our @POTUS, who failed to recognize the significance of #BlackHistoryMonth , has decided that now would be a good time to have a #militaryparade.

35. We telegraphing who we are back to those who have lived their lives in the shadow of hate and intolerance that we are no better. That there is no purpose to the screaming. Now, the fight has returned to our right to exist. As people with differences. Opinions. #militaryparade

36. If we have a #militaryparade , so be it. But I will stand there, by myself if I have to, willing to take a bullet for a political principle that has no place in democracy. Ego does not belong. Equality does. Patience does. Tolerance does.

37. I will not live with unresolved regret. Not for the people I love, not for my students, not even for those who hate my every word. I want all of them to flourish. To live. #militaryparade

38. And if I am alone, standing in protest in front of a #militaryparade that is not a salute to the sacrifices made by those from generations past, but a sociopathic nod to a @POTUS who believes everything is permitted, it is not because I do not respect them.

39. It is because they too died for their own principles. And to protect mine. And yours. And people of all political viewpoints and beliefs. Not for their Commander-in-Chief. And I honor that by raging against the darkness we are sprinting towards. #militaryparade

40. I will be there if this #militaryparade happens. I promise you this. And I will use every tool I can to make what is left of my life, and the lives of others who will never have a voice to fight until the end of this cycle that @POTUS has led us towards.

41. I cannot accept this 'normal.' I will do my best to create #ABetterNormal
#militaryparade.

Because I have to. And because I can.