This July 4th, many will celebrate with fireworks and familiar stories about freedom. But 250 years into this country’s history, we find ourselves confronting a harder truth. The promise of freedom in the United States has always been incomplete, and in this moment, it is under direct and escalating threat.
We are living through a time of authoritarianism. We see it in the erosion of civil liberties, in policies that target and divide our communities, and in the steady normalization of fear, exclusion, and control. These are not abstract dangers. They are unfolding before our eyes. And yet, this moment also calls something forward in us—a commitment to resist.
This July 4th, the American Friends Service Committee, alongside partners across the country, is declaring our resistance. Through more than 50 Love as Action vigils nationwide and an anchor gathering in Philadelphia—where the U.S.nation first declared its independence—we will come together to publicly declare our resistance to authoritarianism and our commitment to building peace.
But this is not just an event. It is an invitation to reclaim what “We the People” truly means.
The story often told about the founding of this country is one of freedom wrested from tyranny. But the full history is more complicated. This nation was built alongside systems of colonialism, displacement, and exclusion that denied that same freedom to most. For generations, people have organized, resisted, and demanded that the country live up to its own stated ideals.
That work is not finished. In fact, today it is urgent again.
The question before us now is not whether the promise of this country has ever been perfect. It has not. The question is whether we will allow authoritarianism to further distort and dismantle the possibility of a society governed by and for the people—or whether we will act, together, to reclaim it.
To declare our resistance is to make a choice. It is to say that we will not accept a future defined by fear, division, and unchecked power. It is to commit ourselves to protecting our neighbors, especially those most targeted and harmed. It is to organize against authoritarianism in our communities, our institutions, and our daily lives.
At every vigil this July 4th, participants will gather in community. Through action, testimony, art, and collective reflection. These are spaces where people align their values with their commitments, where we declare not just what we oppose, but what we are building: a future rooted in dignity, justice, and liberation for all.
By signing the Declaration of Resistance, individuals are taking a step beyond symbolism. They are making a public commitment to ongoing engagement: to organizing, to showing up, to refusing to be silent or still in the face of injustice. Some will take that commitment into large-scale acts. Others will act in smaller, local ways— - through mutual aid, community defense, or simply by refusing to let harmful policies go unchallenged.
Every act matters. Every commitment adds weight.
Because authoritarianism does not operate in isolation. It depends on compliance, on silence, on the belief that we are alone and powerless. When we act together, when we join increasingly with others who are committed to resist, we begin to disrupt that machinery. We make it harder for injustice to move forward unchecked.
This is how change has always happened. Not in a single moment, but through sustained, shared action. Through people deciding that the future is not already written, that it can be shaped by what we choose to do now.
This July 4th, you have a role to play. Join a Love as Action vigil in your community or join us in Philadelphia. If there isn’t one nearby, host one. Gather your neighbors, your faith community, your friends. We will support you.
And before the day arrives, sign the Declaration of Resistance. Let it mark your intention, not just for a single day, but for the work ahead.
This July 4th, let us choose to declare our resistance and to begin, in earnest, the work of building peace.
