SOMEONE WHO SAID NO

The Courage of Major Jason Watson's Dissent

Photo: Matthew Wagner / @matthew.wagnerphotos

^{We stood on the Hill in hundred-degree heat. A handful of independent journalists including our own affiliates at Owl Media waited at the Triangle for the unprecedented act of dissent we were promised.}

^{Both of my cameras overheated before the press conference began. Even after crushing six water bottles back to back, I felt pins and needles from my toes to the tips of my fingers. But I dared not seek the shade or AC in anticipation of what was to come.}

^{We waited in that heat, because what was about to happen was a historical moment too important to miss. A moment that afterward, we all agreed felt like we had been waiting for for a year and a half.}

Photo: Matthew Wagner / @matthew.wagnerphotos

^{Jessica Denson and the Removal Coalition coordinated with Rep. Al Green to set up the press conference. With a group of veterans standing behind, Major Jason Watson took to the podium.}

^{An active duty United States Air Force Major in uniform gave a speech condemning the Trump administration. He called for the impeachment, conviction and removal of the President and Vice President. Then he carried a sign marked with the demand and stood on the Capitol steps in protest.}

^{It was an act in seeming violation of the Uniform Code of Military Justice. An act that could cost Major Watson his livelihood, his military career, and ultimately his freedom. An unprecedented act, but unprecedented times call for unprecedented measures.}

^{This protest was also an act of courage. A man sacrificing everything to take a stand that no one around him was willing to take. A stand against overwhelming injustice, corruption and atrocity from the Trump regime.}

^{Throughout the 7 Days in DC event - coordinated by many different organizations - there was a swath of daytime actions conducted during this brutal heat-wave.}

^{The day after Major Watson’s act of dissent, we headed to Malcolm X Park where Secretary of War Crimes, Pete Hegseth was holding a ceremony with the National Guard.}

^{The police blocked off all the roads surrounding the park. The national guard stood on patrol. ICE and Secret Service escorted members of the administration. Snipers were positioned on the roofs surrounding. While across the streets on all sides, protesters gathered in condemnation of Hegseth and the city’s occupation by the National Guard.}

^{As we were walking away from the protest, we noticed a man in his suit sitting on the curb. He was drenched in sweat, skin beet-red, body shaking as he buried his head in his hands. We asked if he needed help and he could barely string a sentence together.}

^{I rushed back over to the protest where the police were and alerted them of the man I believed was on the verge of heat stroke. They rushed back with me to his aid.}

^{When the police questioned him about his condition, the man looked up at them furious.}

^{“Why would you close all these roads down on the morning of the hottest day of the year while people are trying to walk to work?” the man said shakily.}

^{“We didn’t choose to do this sir,” the cop said.}

^{The man shook his head in disappointment. “Well somebody should have said no.”}

^{That sentence stuck with me. Because it was so applicable to the broader context surrounding that day.}

^{Major Jason Watson was the person who said no. The one who said enough. The one who took a stand in spite of the consequences. In spite of what was expected of him.}

^{Courage. Bravery. Resolve. Someone with the backbone to say no regardless of what those in authority told them. To do the right thing even if that meant breaking the rules to do so.}

^{That’s the world I want to live in. One where people have the gall to refuse when they know what they’ve been asked is wrong. Not a world populated by cowards.}

^{Solidarity. Because the more of us who are unafraid to take that stand, the more of us willing to say no, the less we’ll have to face consequences from doing so and the better chance we’ll have to fix this mess we have found ourselves in.}

Photo: Matthew Wagner / @matthew.wagnerphotos

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