Letter to a Teenage Girl Who Will Oppose an Empire

You have to be careful.

You have to be fast, and strong and cautious.

They are ever vigilant and they specifically target you for being you.

They view your happiness as heresy  They have formed a perverse religion around your subjugation. They would make a sacrament of your skin. They would write their gospel in your blood.

You have to sing. You have to shout. You have to get in the pit and break them at their own dance.

You have to set an example that will be followed, and it will be followed because the next generation will realize their other option is living death, shuffling through a system they will be expected to thank for only doing violence to them once a day instead of five.

But you know violence. You've had to breath it in despite your father and mother's best efforts to tell you the world is kind. You know what fighting is. And you know what it can be.

So you're going to stand up. And the most I can promise is I won't be in your way.