Drill sergeants’ mantra still holds true

When I left Atlanta at age 18, I had no intention of joining the Army. Five years later, in 2011, I found myself at Fort Jackson staring into the eyes of a screaming sergeant with “This We’ll Defend” emblazoned on her chest. It was her mantra and it became mine. It took me another five years, however, to appreciate the phrase’s true meaning.

I deployed to Afghanistan in 2013. There I met people dreaming they had what we take for granted – freedom, equality and representation. I met Afghan National Army soldiers who risked their lives and their families to defend their new government from the extremism of the Taliban.

From 2014 to 2016, I was stationed in Germany, and my job took me throughout Eastern Europe, including Ukraine while intense combat was still ongoing in the Donbas. They were fighting for their freedom and security against Russian incursion.

During those five years, I learned democracy, especially liberal democracy, is not a guarantee. It must be protected and cannot be taken for granted. Although the United States if far from perfectly equal, perfectly free, or perfectly representative, it is worth defending. Our democracy is precious, and it is a rare commodity in the world.

I was in Cairo when President Obama was elected in 2008. Most ingrained in my memory from that historic event was a remark by one of my Egyptian friends. My friend said that the most incredible part of the election was Senator John McCain’s concession speech. She said that she had never heard a politician concede, let alone with poise, dignity, and sincere goodwill for his opponent.

“Sen. Obama and I have had and argued our differences, and he has prevailed. No doubt many of those differences remain. These are difficult times for our country, and I pledge to him tonight to do all in my power to help him lead us through the many challenges we face.”

With that simple, beautiful statement, Sen. McCain ensured democracy continued for four more years. It was, for a young woman from a country who had never seen a liberal democracy in a region plagued with strongmen and dictators, a vision of the powerful promise that we as Americans must continue to hold up.

Our democracy is a process grounded in the faith we share in our most basic ideals, in the trust in our institutions, and in the mutual respect we have for one another. It is where someone loses and no one dies. It is the peaceful exchange of ideas founded on the hope that we can better each other by bettering the way we work together as a nation. It is our cornerstone.

Elections, however, are not enough to ensure liberal democracy. We must adhere, defend, and profess our values. We are not defined as a white, Christian, male nation. We cannot normalize misogynistic and racist speech. America is an idea and it is an incredible one. It cannot be reduced to a specific race, religion, gender or sexuality. It is rural and urban and must continue to strive to live up to the lofty, if not consistently adhered to, ideals of freedom and equality for all.

Since leaving the military five months ago and especially this past week, I have experienced a different type of service – a civic duty shared by all of us to be engaged. This means staying involved in policy and politics, both local and national. It means listening, learning, and educating. It means speaking out in the face of racism, classism, and misogyny. It means trying to understand what seems like an insurmountable divide between rural and urban communities.

And, most importantly, it means working to ensure our nation remains defined by values of freedom, equality, inclusiveness, diversity, democracy, protection of minority rights, opportunity, and unity. This is the America I pledge to continue to defend.