Dear CFT Members,

As we approach July 4th, we prepare to celebrate our freedom from a tyranny that is defined by the anniversary of the signing of one of our country’s most defining documents—the Declaration of Independence, which you can read in full.

Across the country, people will gather with friends and family, grill in backyards, and watch fireworks light up the sky.  

When I was a cadet at West Point, it was a source of great pride to march in the annual Independence Day parade. We honored the Founders’ bold decision to break away from a tyrannical king and establish a government meant to serve the people—not rule over them.

But let’s be honest about our country’s history: Many of us, and many of our ancestors, were not included in that original promise of freedom. Race, gender, sexual orientation, and immigration status have been used for more than a century to keep countless people from fully participating in American democracy.

The treatment of the indigenous people who were here before anyone “discovered” this country, and the legacy of the slavery that still haunts the United States to this day are bleak reminders that the ideal of “freedom for all” for so long has actually meant “freedom for some.”

Over generations, through struggle and organizing, we have made progress toward realizing those ideals for more people while acknowledging that our work is far from over.

And today, we face a dangerous reversal of the rights we fought so hard for. The rise of authoritarianism, led by a former president who has won his return to power, threatens to undo that progress—and bring us closer to the very tyranny the founders once rejected.

In 1776, the Declaration of Independence listed 27 grievances against King George III. In 2025, we have the same grievances against a different tyrannical ruler–this time here at home:

“He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.”
— Today, the President and his cronies ignore or defy laws meant to protect civil rights, public health, and education.

“He has obstructed the Administration of Justice…”
— We see interference in the independence of the courts and the pardoning of his political allies, which are all attacks on the rule of law.

“He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, …”
— The President and his allies continue a growing politicization of our courts, and they threaten judges who do not align with certain ideologies or who dare to defend the law and the Constitution.

“He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies…”
— We’ve witnessed the deployment of masked, armed agents in our cities, and we are seeing a president seek to turn this country’s military against its own citizens.

“He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.”
— This administration’s leaders invoke military force to silence dissent rather than protect the people, and has taken a state’s National Guard to turn it on their own families and residents.

“For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury.”
— The erosion of due process by deporting over the objects of the courts and jailing in foreign countries, and the targeting of political opponents threaten this fundamental principle of justice.

“For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world.”
— Immigration bans, travel restrictions, and wild tariff proposals mirror a rejection of global cooperation and the targeting of marginalized communities.

These charges led to our separation from Great Britain, and these same charges are once again undermining our basic freedoms. The ideals laid out in the Declaration—life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness—are not just poetic words. They are a charge to protect the rights of all people in this country.

So this July 4, 2025, 249 years after the Declaration of Independence was signed, we must recommit ourselves to its promise:

To end government-sanctioned terror and intimidation in our communities.

To defend the right to control our bodies, our identities, and our health care.

To protect free speech and academic freedom.

To reject political persecution.

To welcome those seeking asylum, refuge, and opportunity.

To safeguard due process and the Constitution itself.

The Declaration reminds us:

“When a long train of abuses and usurpations…evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right [the Right of the People], it is their duty, to throw off such Government.”

We have a duty—to act in the courts, in the streets through nonviolent protest, and at the ballot box. We must use the tools of democracy to stop authoritarianism in its tracks. We must use the very Constitution created to prevent this from happening.

Wherever you are this holiday, I hope you take a moment to reflect—and to speak out.

Call out the injustice. Call out for an end to this authoritarian regime. Call out for life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness—for all.

In unity,

Jeff Freitas