Dear John,

I gave the commencement speech at the USC Gould School of Law last week in which I challenged the graduates, and all of us with them, to squarely face the challenges before us — the incitement to political violence, the abnegation of alliances around the world, the rollback of voting rights and other fundamental freedoms, attacks on law firms and universities, the undermining of the Constitution and the rejection of the rule of law — and then to do what Americans have been doing for 249 years: overcome them.

Where would we be if not for those at Lexington and Concord who helped win our independence? The hundreds of thousands who voluntarily enlisted and were killed in the fight to defeat the Confederacy and end the institution of slavery? The brave men and women who risked, and too often lost, their lives in order to achieve Civil Rights and Voting Rights? The courageous Americans who died on those beaches in Normandy 81 years ago, defeating fascism abroad and preserving democracy here at home?

This is who we are, what we’re made of, where we come from. It’s never been the people in power, it’s always been the power of the people. That’s who fought the battles, who won civil rights, who inspired our fellow Americans to do what they could, with what they had, wherever they might be at every critical moment in our history.

So even if every traditional center of power — the presidency, the congress, the supreme court, the algorithm media machines — is in the hands of the corrupt and the cowardly, they still don’t have all of the power. And what they have is not even close to the power that really matters.

In a government of, by and for the people, the power resides in us, all of us. We just have to remember it and use it.

We will overcome the challenges before us because we’ve overcome them before against even greater odds. I believe in America because I believe in the American people who still make this country “the last best hope of earth.”

You can watch the full speech here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xJ-PuYhy0NQ. I'd love to know what you think of it.

Thank you,

Beto