A Letter to my Son's Girlfriend at Thanksgiving

Dearest Mxxx,

I explained to Dxxxxx that, out of a desire to shield you from further undue pressure from the FBI, I think we should postpone seeing one another for a short while longer.

In the meantime, I need you to know that I am deeply grateful for you and your family, and those prayers of Thanksgiving will be given voice by me on Thursday, just as they are spoken silently every day.  Soon, I look forward to your reclaiming your place at our table -- and that day will be a joyful reunion for all of us.

Mxxx, sweetheart, I want to express to you that your truthfulness, your courage, and your integrity stand not just for you, but also for many, many other Americans who hope to preserve their rights to privacy, to free speech, to free assembly, to civil discourse, to free choice and to self-determination in the lives they lead now and in the future.

Your story belongs to you and to no one else.  How you choose to express that story is up to you.  No one has the right to silence you -- by threat or bribe or coercion by other means.  No one.

Take the time you need to heal from the reckless and unconscionable predations of others before making decisions about how you will express your own experience.

Don't be rushed or bullied or cajoled or forced or pressed or undone.

You stand not just for your own rights, but for the rights of millions.

And whatever burdens that may confer, it is also a rare and astonishing privilege.

I wait as sentry here at the boundary of this Thanksgiving to encourage you to be brave.  Stand tall.  Be confident.  When you reclaim your own voice, you allow the chance for millions of women to reclaim theirs.

And Mxxx, dear one, that matters in the grand scheme of things.  It matters in the larger scope of our democracy and all who depend upon it.

When I was in my twenties, as you are now, and facing what felt like a momentous challenge, as you are now, my mother would say to me, "Lane, keep your eyes on the prize."  And by the "prize," she meant the greater good, the necessary truth, the justice that should not be denied.

So now, I say to you, "Mxxx, beloved young woman, keep your eyes on the prize."

Your sovereignty matters not only to you, but to all.

Feel my arms surrounding you this Thanksgiving, sweetheart.

With love to you and all your family,

Lane