There are days when the silence
speaks louder than the sirens.

When the absence of outrage
becomes its own kind of violence.

We have watched the page turn
but not the story change.

A flag still flies
yet its meaning feels estranged.

Since power returned to the whims
of a man who misused it before,
we have seen democracy
crack from the edges to the core.

Not for a cause,
but for a shock.

Not a liberating coup—
but just a childish king
imposing wrong-hearted rules
from atop his desk.

This is how empires
erase the rest.

Retaliation has become policy.
Justice—a punchline.

Agencies hollowed.
Allies cast aside.

The truth exiled
and dressed down as “fake.”

As so much is taken
when will we awaken?
The opposition to this threat?
Timid.
Cautious.
Bound by norms
that have already been broken.

Still whispering in halls
while televised megaphones roar.

Still hoping it be the courts
to hold the line
as the ink dries
on an illogical design.

But history—
history doesn’t hinge
on procedure.

It pivots
on people.

People like:

Miep Gies — who hid a child’s diary behind a cupboard door.
Oskar Schindler — who paid for lives with every forged line.
Rosa Parks — who stayed seated so a nation could rise.
Nelson Mandela — who suffered chains and still broke down walls.
Václav Havel — who wrote truth into law.
Malala Yousafzai — who stood up even after the fall.
Alexei Navalny — who knew the cost
and came back anyway.

None of them began with a title.
But all of them became a turning point.

And now—
we wait.

For a name.
For a face.
For a voice
to step into the space
between despair and action.

We need a Navalny.

Not a savior.
Not a brand.
Just a stand.

A soul with something to lose—
and the will to lose it … for something greater.

Because while we debate,
they dominate.

While we delay,
they decide.

While we stay silent,
they rewrite the story—
with our names missing from the page.

Democracy
is not a relic.

It is a relay.

And we are dropping the baton.

The arc of the moral universe
does not bend itself.

It must be pulled—
by voices that refuse to fold,
by hands that refuse to let go,
by hearts that refuse to grow cold.

Where is our Navalny?

Who will have the courage to rise?
The courage to risk
The courage to speak
while there is still time
to be heard?

— Kevin Windorf, April 2025