Be Brave

They say the world is burning.
Not just in forests or oceans,
but in courtrooms and congress halls,
in the streets, in the silence, in the scroll of a screen.
They say democracy is a house of cards—
one gust of greed, and it all comes crashing down.

But I say—be brave.

Be brave when the air is thick with deception,
when power grips truth by the throat
and calls it a lie.
Be brave when history echoes warnings
and people plug their ears like it’s just white noise.
When they redraw the lines
to erase your voice,
stand louder.
Hold your ground like the roots of an ancient oak—
deep, defiant, unmovable.

Be brave when they preach freedom
with one hand on a pen
that signs away your rights with the other.
When they make laws
like walls,
like cages,
like barbed wire around bodies
they were never meant to own.

Be brave when the streets fill with footsteps,
when voices rise like a tidal wave,
when fear tries to settle in your bones
but your feet refuse to stop marching.
When they tell you to settle down,
to be patient,
to let “the system work,”
you tell them—
we are the system,
and we will make it work with our hands,
with our fire,
with our refusal to be silent.

Be brave.
Not because it’s easy,
not because it’s safe,
but because courage is contagious.
Because silence is complicity,
and hope ain’t passive—it’s a fist in the air,
it’s a march in the streets,
it’s a voice that does not break
even when it shakes.

Be brave.
Even when your hands shake,
even when the weight feels unbearable.
Because justice ain’t a given—
it’s a fight.
A revolution whispered in classrooms,
roared at podiums,
shouted in the faces of those
who would rather we sit down and obey.

So rise.
Resist.
Refuse to surrender to fear.
Because the fire ain’t just destruction—
it’s fuel.
And we?
We are the ones who will rise from the ashes.

Be brave.