They Fought for Freedom

Nov 09, 2025

Hello, and welcome to the latest edition of our 50501 CO newsletter!

In this newsletter we discuss November as National Veterans and Military Families Month. In addition, you’ll find information on upcoming activities from the 50501 calendar, actions you can take outside of protesting, and also find out about additional ways to connect with us.

See you on the streets! ✊✊✊

Actions and Activities

(The below list contains details on all actions this week and next week which have been submitted to our 50501 CO calendar; click the link above for more details and the full calendar)

Arvada

11/11: 3:00 - 4:30pm - Visibility Brigade (26th St Pedpass over I-70, GPS: 2650 Alkire St.)
11/18: 3:00 - 4:30pm - Visibility Brigade (26th St Pedpass over I-70, GPS: 2650 Alkire St.)

Littleton

11/15: 11:00 - 1:00pm - Protest Against Tyranny (5700 South Broadway)
11/22: 11:00 - 1:00pm - Protest Against Tyranny (5700 South Broadway)

Loveland

11/15: 12:00 - 2:00pm - Hands Off (US 287 from US34/Sprouts to Tesla)
11/22: 12:00 - 2:00pm - Hands Off (US 287 from US34/Sprouts to Tesla)

Superior

11/15: 10:30am - 12:00pm - Weekly Rally in Superior (2 S Marshall Rd)
11/22: 10:30am - 12:00pm - Weekly Rally in Superior (2 S Marshall Rd)

They Fought for Freedom. Not This.

Every November we hang flags, post thank-you messages, and say the words “Thank you for your service.” We mean it. Gratitude for those who put their lives on the line should never be performative. But gratitude means little if we look away while the country they fought for becomes unrecognizable in the hands of those now wielding their symbols.

Because let’s be honest: what’s happening right now is an insult to the people we claim to honor.

Across the country, the National Guard has been turned into a political tool. Federal troops and agents patrol streets that were never meant to be their battlefield. ICE conducts raids that feel more like intimidation campaigns than law enforcement. Washington, D.C. remains under federal control, its own police department answering to presidential appointees instead of the mayor its citizens elected. These aren’t scenes from a far-off dictatorship—they’re unfolding in our own capital.

And this isn’t what service members signed up for.

Every person who’s ever raised their right hand swore an oath—not to a president, not to a party, but to the Constitution of the United States. To defend the rights and freedoms of the American people. That oath was never about obedience; it was about protection. It was about ensuring that no one, no matter how powerful, could place themselves above the laws they swore to uphold.

When the federal government turns the instruments of defense inward—when it deploys Guard units to police civilians or uses immigration agents as a domestic military force—it violates that oath. It repurposes the courage of our troops into theater for control. It teaches the next generation that uniforms exist to intimidate, not to protect. That’s not patriotism. That’s propaganda draped in camouflage.

Veterans understand the difference. They’ve seen what real authoritarianism looks like—what it means when soldiers stop being servants of the people and become servants of the state. Many of them fought regimes that blurred that line. To see it happen here, under the banner of “law and order,” is a betrayal dressed up as ceremony.

No one who stormed Omaha Beach, or patrolled Fallujah, or airlifted refugees out of Kabul fought so the United States could behave like the governments we once condemned. They fought for the right to speak, to protest, to vote, to live without fear of uniformed men demanding papers in a grocery store. They fought for the principle that power must answer to the people—not the other way around.

The administration claims these deployments are about safety. But safety that depends on fear isn’t safety at all. It’s submission. Real safety is built on trust—between citizens and those sworn to protect them. That trust erodes every time troops are used as props or law enforcement is turned into a loyalty test.

So as Veterans Day speeches echo about honor and sacrifice, remember this: our veterans didn’t defend a flag so it could become a backdrop for authoritarian spectacle. They defended the freedoms that flag represents—the right to assemble, to criticize, to dissent, to exist without permission. To love this country enough to demand it live up to its promise.

The truest way to honor them isn’t with parades or hashtags. It’s by keeping faith with their oath. By insisting that the military never be used to police our own people. By defending the rights they risked everything to secure. Gratitude without vigilance is just applause between acts.

They fought for freedom, not obedience. For accountability, not command. For a nation that governs through consent, not fear.

This Veterans Day, let’s give them something worthy of their service: a democracy that remembers who it’s supposed to serve. A government that doesn’t mistake control for patriotism. A public that refuses to let uniforms be weaponized against citizens.

They took an oath to defend the Constitution. The least we can do—the very least—is to keep giving them a country worth that oath.

Non-Protest Actions Bingo

The below bingo card contains a list of actions you can take (other than protesting) to help further the cause. If you get a bingo, tag us on social media to let us know!