Thank you for your email. I have to say I disagree with you on the broader conclusion you reached. Because I agree with the end goals of this movement, universal equality, universal health care, money out of politics, reigning in the big corperatins, ect. I feel that I need to fix this movement. They have a discipline problem, and as a former E-5 I feel like I have been equipped with the skill set needed to fix a morale problem. The people are angry, and now they are getting motivated. They lack clear and concise messages from the top.

This situation we find ourselves in has the potential to turn bloody. The people demand justice, and if they can’t get it in the halls of power they will burn the halls down. Make no mistake, we are not there yet, but if this general feeling of failure in regards to the government continues there will be blood. I’ve participated in one war already, I do not want to have to participate in another. If it came to blows my conscience would require me to fight against the system as it stands. I have been trained in battle field medicine, basic mounted combat, basic building clearance, how to assault a position, how to ambush, how to create explosives, how to set up an operational munitions area. All of these skills are in the highest demand when a disagreement comes to violence.

I don’t want that. I feel like I need to do everything in my power before the shooting starts to stop it. If that means I have to call out people on my own side for lieing, or acting in a way that looks like the system we are against, so be it. But knowing what I know about war, knowing what I know about how dissident groups go from protesting to shooting, I cannot simply do nothing. I honestly feel like if moderates like me leave the discussion all that will remain are the extremists. And when we let them have power they will push for extreme solutions. I am not an extremist, and I will fight against all forms of extremism, all of it is dangerous. I see no difference between the far right and the far left, both groups are a danger to democracy. I want to reach the people who hover around the edges of extremism. I want to catch them before they fall into the pit. Some will fall to extremism, but worse are the ones who fall to apathy. The apathetic will watch dispassionately as our rights are eroded. They will shrug and say, ‘Who Cares?’

I care, and in order to keep going I have to trust that there are others who care as I do. I read the histories and see how it only took one passionate person to change the world. Thousands of people did the work, but one person had the vision, the drive, the leadership qualities and the communication discipline in order to take the disorganized mass and direct them to a better world. If our ancestors could do it with less knowledge and inadequate technology so can I. I am more educated than Newton, stronger and healthier than Cesar, traveled more miles than Marco Polo, seen things that would have made George Washington have a breakdown. I am better equipped than any of those men, therefore I think I would dishonor them and everything they built to give the future a better life.

I hope you can come back to the fight, we need every human who has a skill to lend it to the great work of humanity. We individuals may be injured, we may be killed, but we all contribute something to the general progression of human kind, we all owe it to the future to do everything we can.

Very respectfully,

John Boulden