By Gregg Horton, via email, July 12, 2026

A review of 200+ pages of emails released by the City of Benicia under the California Public Records Act, documenting the Benicia Police Department’s deployment of Flock Safety automated license-plate-reader (ALPR) cameras from 2021 to 2025.

THE SHORT VERSION

Benicia, California contracted with Flock Safety to install a network of automated license-plate-reader cameras. Public records the city released show, in the vendor’s and the city’s own words:

Flock wrote the city’s “sole source” justification for skipping competitive bidding, and even supplied other cities’ staff reports as templates.
The city was billed for a camera that was never installed, because the state (Caltrans) had denied its installation.
The public “transparency” audit page displayed a “system down” message that Flock says the city itself was able to post and remove.
Public search-auditing is a switch the vendor flips on and off at the department’s request.
A state right-of-way permit for the cameras went unresolved for years, with at least one outright denial, while billing ran and cameras operated.
ALPR data is shared with outside agencies through signed letters, with “no formal MOU.”
Flock coached city staff on how to downplay a security exposure and a resident’s vulnerability report to the City Council.

Everything below is quoted from the released records, with dates and senders.

BACKGROUND

These documents come from Benicia’s responses to public-records requests (tracked as PR-2025-159 and PR-2026-7), released February and July 2026. They are almost entirely email between Benicia Police Department staff and Flock Safety employees, spanning August 2021 through December 2025. Quotations below are transcribed from the released PDFs; minor spacing artifacts from scanned/redacted pages have been cleaned for readability, wording is unchanged.

Key people

– Benicia PD: Chief Michael Greene; Lt. Mark Menesini; Jeremy Karagan (IT Analyst II); Wendy Stratton-Monahan (Management Analyst II / PIO); Edward Criado.

– Flock Safety: John Anderson and Kyle Egkan (Territory Managers); Graham Carter (Customer Success Manager); Hailey Spessard; Lily Ho; Chris Colwell (SVP, Customer Experience).

FLOCK WROTE THE CITY’S NO-BID JUSTIFICATION

Public agencies normally must competitively bid large purchases. A “sole source” letter is how an agency justifies skipping that. In this case, the vendor supplied the letter itself, plus other cities’ staff reports to use as templates.

From John Anderson, Territory Manager, Northern California, Flock Safety, February 22, 2021 (to Chief Michael Greene and Lt. Mark Menesini):

“Chief and Lt., here is the Sole Source Letter. I’ve also included a copy of the agreement so we can start on the legal process, and a couple of examples for staff reports.”

Attachments: “Sole Source Letter – Benicia Police Department.pdf,” “Covina Staff Report – 2020.pdf,” “Azusa – Staff Report – 2020-9.pdf”

Two months later he sent an updated one. From John Anderson, April 29, 2021:

“See attached for an updated agreement along with our most current Sole Source letter for good measure.”

Why it matters: The document used to justify NOT shopping around was authored by the company that stood to win the contract, using boilerplate recycled across cities.

Source: Flock Safety Sole Source Letter.txt; Updated Flock Agreement.txt (PR-2025-159).

THE CITY WAS BILLED FOR A CAMERA THE STATE REFUSED TO ALLOW

One camera (the “51st”) required a Caltrans encroachment permit to sit in state right-of-way. Caltrans denied it, but the billing had already started.

From Wendy Stratton-Monahan, Benicia PD, September 26, 2024 (to Flock):

“I received our annual bill for FLOCK cameras, and am wondering why we are being charged for service for the camera that has yet to be installed?”

Flock’s explanation was that billing is triggered by the first camera, not each camera. From Graham Carter, Flock Safety, September 26, 2024:

“The contract is actually set up for the first camera to be validated and was a 5 year Co-term merging all the contracts together. This means once the first camera goes in the ground, the billing starts.”

The city pushed back, citing the state’s denial. From Wendy Stratton-Monahan, September 26, 2024:

“This camera has been in permitting for quite some time. The permitting was via CalTrans, and at last notice, they had denied installation, so we continue to be without the 51st camera in operation… perhaps we can adjust the current (and past) billing for this camera to reflect as a credit, and then not charge until it is operational. I think otherwise, it is going to be difficult to calculate the ‘free time’ we are due.”

Why it matters: A “5-year co-term merging all the contracts” means the city pays for the full camera count from day one, including hardware the state has refused to permit, and must affirmatively fight to claw back credit for equipment it never received.

Source: Re_ FW_ Permit Application 0424-NSV-0053… (20)-Redacted.txt (PR-2025-159).

THE PUBLIC “TRANSPARENCY” PAGE SHOWED “SYSTEM DOWN,” AND THE CITY COULD EDIT IT

Flock markets a public “Transparency Portal” where residents can audit how police use the system. In early 2024 that portal’s audit area displayed a “system down” message. When the city asked Flock about it, the answer was revealing.

From Flock Safety Support (“Rhianna”), March 4, 2024 (to Jeremy Karagan, IT Analyst II, Benicia PD):

“I have heard from our engineers! This area of the portal is editable by your organization, so our team suspects that someone from your organization put up this message. You should be able to remove it without issue.”

Why it matters: The public-facing accountability page is agency-editable, and, by Flock’s own account, a “system down” notice sitting on the audit page appears to have been posted from within the city. How long the public saw “system down” instead of real audit data, and who posted it, are open questions.

Caveat: this is Flock support’s stated suspicion, not a confirmed finding of who posted it.

Source: Re_ Transparency Portal Audit System Down (1).txt and related (PR-2025-159).

PUBLIC SEARCH-AUDITING IS A SWITCH THE VENDOR FLIPS

When the department first set up its cameras in 2021, the police chief had to ASK for the public to be able to audit searches, and the vendor toggled it like any other setting.

From Chief Michael Greene, Benicia PD, August 26, 2021:

“I don’t see the area where the public can audit our searches? I’d like that part [on].”

From Graham Carter, Flock Safety, August 26, 2021:

“Yes I can turn back on the auditing. And turn off the other parts!”

Why it matters: Public auditing isn’t a fixed guarantee, it’s a vendor-controlled toggle that can be turned “back on” or “off” at the department’s request.

Source: Re_ ALPR policy(3).txt (PR-2025-159).

A YEARS-LONG STATE-PERMIT FIGHT THE PUBLIC NEVER SAW

The single largest thread in the records is Caltrans encroachment permit 0424-NSV-0053, the approval needed to place Flock poles in state right-of-way. It runs from 2024 into December 2025 and was never cleanly resolved; Caltrans denied at least one installation (see #2) and repeatedly sent the permit back for “structural” review. Flock rotated multiple project managers across the account during the delay.

Why it matters: For an extended period the deployment sat in regulatory limbo, cameras billed and, per the “Cameras In Service / Cameras pending permit” tallies in the records, some operating, while the state permitting question stayed unresolved. Whether any camera operated in state right-of-way without an approved permit is worth a direct question to the city.

Source: numerous “…Permit Application 0424-NSV-0053…” files (PR-2025-159, PR-2026-7).

DATA SHARED WITH OUTSIDE AGENCIES BY LETTER, “NO FORMAL MOU”

Benicia’s own ALPR policy (section 470.9) governs who else can get its plate data. Notably, the policy explicitly prohibits sharing for federal immigration enforcement, a point in the city’s favor. But the mechanism for sharing is light-touch.

From Mark Menesini, Benicia PD, September 13, 2022:

“Agencies who are requesting to share Flock data must sign the form and agree to adhere to our policy… We don’t have a formal MOU agreement per se. Participating agencies must be approved by our Admin and sign the acknowledgment form.”

And the policy text itself:

“470.9 RELEASING ALPR DATA. The ALPR data may be shared only with other law enforcement or prosecutorial agencies for official law enforcement purposes… The Benicia Police Department does not permit the sharing of ALPR data… for purpose of federal immigration enforcement, these federal immigration agencies include Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP). The signed letter is retained on file.”

Why it matters: The written policy is relatively protective (an explicit ICE/CBP carve-out), but outside agencies get access via a signed one-page acknowledgment approved by an internal admin, “no formal MOU.” The records contain the policy, not an audit proving each real-world share complied with it. That gap is the thing to request next.

Source: Re_ ALPR Acknowledgment Letter(1).txt (PR-2025-159).

WHEN SCRUTINY ARRIVED, FLOCK COACHED STAFF ON THE MESSAGING

In late 2025, Flock’s cameras drew public attention: a resident submitted a security whitepaper documenting device vulnerabilities, a third-party website began aggregating ALPR search logs released through public-records requests, and Flock disclosed that some of its “Condor” video devices had a debug interface exposed on the open internet without password protection. Flock’s emails to Benicia staff repeatedly supplied talking points and urged staff to reassure the Council.

From Lily Ho, Flock Safety, November 17, 2025 (responding to a resident’s vulnerability whitepaper forwarded by the city):

“These are not material vulnerabilities, and both severity and likelihood to be exploited are low… This device in this whitepaper was not connected to the cloud and to the best of our knowledge not customer installed.”

From Chris Colwell, SVP Customer Experience, Flock Safety, December 9, 2025 (“What you Need to Know About Recent Online Disclosures”):

“To be clear: Flock has not been breached or compromised. We are CJIS compliant… We also encourage you to forward this information to others in your department or to councilmembers so they can be prepared for any potential questions.”

From Chris Colwell, December 23, 2025 (“Update on Limited Condor Misconfiguration”):

“The debug interface on a small number of Condor units was temporarily accessible on the internet without password protection… A website and a sensationalized YouTube channel inaccurately portrayed the extent of this access.”

Why it matters: The vendor’s own messaging shows a pattern of pre-empting oversight, supplying elected officials’ talking points and characterizing an internet-exposed, unauthenticated debug interface as immaterial.

Source: Re_ FW_ Benicia Must Reconsider…-Redacted.txt; What you Need to Know About Recent Online Disclosures.txt; Update on Limited Condor Misconfiguration.txt (PR-2026-7).

WHAT’S SOLID VS. WHAT NEEDS MORE DIGGING

Documented in the records, in the parties’ own words:

– Flock supplied the sole-source letter and template staff reports (#1).
– The city was billed for a camera Caltrans denied; billing starts at “first camera” under a 5-year co-term (#2).
– Public auditing is a vendor-controlled toggle (#4).
– ALPR data shared via signed letter with “no formal MOU” (#6).
– Flck supplied Council-facing talking points during the 2025 scrutiny (#7).

Leads that need corroboration:

– Who posted the “system down” message on the transparency page, and for how long (#3); the record only has Flock support’s suspicion.
– Whether any camera operated in Caltrans right-of-way without an approved permit (#5).
– Whether real-world data shares actually complied with section 470.9 (#6); the policy is in the record, an audit of shares is not.

HOW TO VERIFY

Every quote above is from PDFs Benicia released under the CPRA. Anyone can request the same records from the City of Benicia (reference request numbers PR-2025-159 and PR-2026-7) and read the originals. Filenames cited are the produced document names.

QUESTIONS WORTH PUTTING TO THE CITY / COUNCIL

Who authored the sole-source justification, and did the Council know it came from the vendor?
How much has the city paid for cameras that were never installed or permitted, and was credit issued?
Who posted “system down” on the public audit page, and how long was public auditing unavailable?
Is public search-auditing currently on? Has it ever been turned off?
Did any camera operate in state right-of-way before Caltrans approval?
Which outside agencies have received Benicia ALPR data, and has compliance with section 470.9 been audited?

Gregg Horton

Benicia CA, Benicia City Councilmember Terry Scott, Local elections

Terry Scott Announces Bid for Re-Election to Benicia City Council

July 11, 2026 Roger Straw

“Promises made, promises delivered.” Scott points to a balanced budget, regional leadership, and a six-point vision to guide Benicia through its transition beyond Valero’s exit.

Via email from Terry Scott, July 11, 2026

Benicia, CA: Benicia City Councilmember Terry Scott today announced he is running for re-election to the Benicia City Council, asking voters to renew the mandate that has guided his first term: fiscal discipline, regional leadership, and a steady hand for a city facing one of the most consequential transitions in its history.

“I love this city. I have served it with everything I have, and I am proud of what we have accomplished together,” Scott said in announcing his campaign. “But loving this City means seeing it clearly, including both the challenges and the extraordinary opportunities that lie ahead of us.”

Scott’s announcement comes as Benicia works through the closure of the Valero refinery and the drive to identify and deliver future alternative revenue streams. He has cast the moment as both a fiscal challenge and a once-in-a-generation opportunity to reimagine the refinery site, revitalize the waterfront, strengthen downtown, and attract the industries and employers of the future.

“We stand at an inflection point between evolution and revolution in shaping our community’s future,” Scott said. “We will either grow and prosper, or we will struggle under the weight of what we’ve lost with Valero’s departure.”

“There is a natural evolution already underway in our City. People want to call Benicia home. They want our quality of life. We are already seeing a housing transition with young families moving in and businesses that cater to them. But there is also a revolution happening with several housing and mixed use developments in planning including a senior center and the reimagining of the Valero Site and significant changes in the ownership and types of technology driven companies in the Industrial Park.

“Our task will be to find the balance that delivers the change needed to insure the quality of life our residents and businesses demand,” he suggested.

A Record of Results

Scott points to a first term defined by hard fiscal choices and measurable outcomes. Under his leadership on the Council’s finance work, the city balanced its budget, reorganized and consolidated departments, optimized staffing expenditures, found new purchasing efficiencies, and shifted to priority-based budgeting while also identifying and generating new revenue streams and advancing air quality and safety measures for residents living closest to industrial operations.

“The fiscal work is not finished, but the foundation we have built together makes us ready to seize what comes next,” Scott said. “Seizing that moment requires experienced fiscal leadership, clear vision, and proven results which is exactly why I’m running for re-election.”

A Six-Point Vision: Promises Made, Promises Delivered

Scott’s re-election platform is built around six connected priorities, each grounded in work already underway during his first term:

Getting Our Finances Right: Develop an effective plan to close an estimated $7 million annual revenue gap left by Valero’s closure through disciplined budgeting, priority-based spending, new business recruitment, waterfront activation, and aggressive pursuit of grant funding.
A City Government That Works for You: Streamlining permitting and making smarter use of technology to make City Hall more responsive to residents and businesses.
Putting Air District Settlement Money to Work for Benicia: Ensuring the $82 million Valero penalty settlement, administered by the Bay Area Air District, delivers real relief to residents through home energy assistance, cleaner air at schools, job training, health investments for those living closest to the refinery, and meaningful improvements to the City’s long-term planning.
Showing Up Regionally So Benicia Doesn’t Get Left Behind: Leveraging Scott’s strong relationships at the county, regional, and state levels, including an unprecedented three terms as Chair of SolTrans and service on four Solano Transportation Authority committees, to ensure Benicia receives its fair share of transportation, housing, and economic development funding.
Taking Care of Our Neighbors: Protecting services for seniors, families facing food, housing, and financial insecurity, and vulnerable residents who have fallen through the cracks, ensuring that compassion is never the first thing cut from the budget.
Building Benicia for Future Generations: Investing in parks and playgrounds, partnering with the Benicia Unified School District, and creating safe streets and real career opportunities so young families can put down roots and build their future here.

About Terry Scott

Terry Scott is a 14-year Benicia resident, businessman, futurist, and philanthropist who serves on the Benicia City Council and previously served as Vice Mayor. Before his election to the Council, he co-founded the Benicia Community Foundation, served as its Executive Director, and chaired the Benicia Arts and Culture Commission for six years, as well as the Benicia Public Art Committee.

Scott’s professional career includes more than 20 years at Hasbro, Inc., where he served as Senior Vice President and Global Head of Brand Creative Services, leading an international team of more than 700 employees and overseeing a $1.7 billion annual budget. He also founded Hasbro’s Cake Mix Studios, which contributed to several major motion picture projects. He earned a B.S. from Kent State University and completed the Executive Studies Program at Dartmouth College’s Tuck School of Business.

Scott currently serves on the City’s Tax Oversight Commission, CAP/Valero Advisory Panel, and Tula Sister City Program, and previously served on the CURE Commission and the WETA Ferry 2050 Visioning Team. Regionally, he has been elected to three terms as Chair of SolTrans and serves on multiple Solano Transportation Authority committees.

Committed to serving his community, Scott volunteers weekly serving meals and helps lead local food collection and delivery efforts for neighbors in need. He and his wife, Randi, a forensic archaeologist and Deputy Director of the national Forensic Archaeology Recovery organization, will celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary this September.

Looking Ahead

“I have the experience as Vice Mayor and Councilmember, the relationships, and the vision to help lead Benicia through this transition,” Scott said. “I know how regional government works. I know how to build coalitions, secure grants, negotiate with developers, and maintain fiscal discipline, all while staying true to the values that make Benicia worth fighting for.”

Scott is asking Benicia voters for their support, their volunteer time, and their vote as the campaign gets underway. “Together, we’ll make sure Benicia’s best days are still ahead,” he said.

To learn more, donate, volunteer, request a yard sign, or stay connected with the campaign, visit TerryScott2026.com or email terryscottforbenicia@gmail.com.

4th of July, Democracy under attack, Donald Trump, Immigration, Stephen Golub

Stephen Golub: From the Fourth of July Onward, Let’s Honor the Hands That Built This Country

July 4, 2026 Roger Straw

The Benicia Herald, July 5, 2026 (pub. on July 3), by Stephen Golub

Benicia resident and author Stephen Golub

The Fire Down Below

What’s made America great? What’s made America different? Along with whatever else we do on July 4^th and afterwards, let’s celebrate this:

We all came from somewhere else.

It’s something we sometimes take for granted. We shouldn’t.

Of the 40 nations I’ve been fortunate enough to visit for work and the many additional ones for play, I’ve never encountered one nearly as diverse as our own.

I never thanked them, but I’m blessed that my peasant grandparents took a leap of faith toward the promise of America, venturing across Europe and the Atlantic to flee persecution. They were but a few of the many millions, from all over the world, represented in the iconic Bruce Springsteen song, “American Land”:

They come across the water a thousand miles from home
With nothing in their bellies but the fire down below

Indeed, and without disparaging any other nation, there’s something special to be said for one springing from souls who largely risked and suffered so much to get here, forming a melting pot of peoples and perspectives.

From Debate to Demagoguery

Sadly, as America turns 250, current immigrants and even our immigrant heritage are under attack.

To be fair, there is room for legitimate debate about this issue. That includes whether Joe Biden was initially too lax in addressing it – though much of the overheated anti-Biden rhetoric significantly overstates the number of illegal/undocumented (pick your politically loaded term) immigrants who entered across the Mexican border and were able to stay.

Furthermore, both sides have politicized the matter. I’ll get to the Republicans in a minute. But Democrats were driven not just by humanitarian values but by some of their pollsters’ misleading public opinion survey results. That research incorrectly indicated that Latino citizens don’t share their fellow Americans’ strong concerns about overly lenient border policies. The resulting, mistaken Democratic political and policy calculations did damage to their presidential election performances in 2016, 2020 and, especially and disastrously, in 2024.

But there’s a vast gulf between mistaken politicization and intentional demagoguery. Most of what Donald Trump is doing has nothing to do with removing “illegals” from the country and much to do with racism. Under Trump, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has swept up people pursuing political asylum or other legitimate immigration claims. It isolates them in for-profit prisons far from their families, homes and legal help. It deports them to dangerous third countries with which they have no connections.

At the same time, Trump purges immigration judges and pressures others to deport detainees for fear of losing their jobs. He accordingly delays or prevents consideration of the detainees’ cases, or even in effect dictates the results.

“In Springfield, they’re eating the dogs…they’re eating the cats.”

The depth and breadth of other abuses are too extensive to summarize. So, I’ll pick just one recent instance, since it illustrates how severely the anti-immigrant demagoguery is playing out.

It’s documented by Timothy Snyder, a leading historian who’s an expert on European and American fascism and Nazism. In a powerful online commentary, he describes how J.D. Vance and then Donald Trump stoked the flames of hatred and racism against (Black) Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio.

Most notably, building on a woman’s Facebook post about a missing cat, in September 2024 vice presidential candidate Vance spread groundless accusations about them: “…people have had their pets abducted and eaten by people [Haitians] who should not be in this country.” Trump amplified this to 67 million viewers in his presidential debate with Kamala Harris the next day, asserting “In Springfield, they’re eating the dogs, the people that came in, they’re eating the cats.”

What’s more, Blood Tribe, a growing neo-Nazi group with chapters across the United States and a leader who worships Hitler as a deity, exploited various Vance anti-Haitian slurs to mount demonstrations in Springfield and otherwise spread this racist gospel.

Putting this in historical context, Snyder explains that such tactics echo Hitler’s and Stalin’s genocidal playbooks:

“In an urban or suburban setting, in which animals are companions, the idea that others mistreat animals can be the signal that they are not like us, barbarians, not fully human. Among the many other accelerating repressions, Jews in Nazi Germany were not allowed to keep pets at home.”

The Truth

Springfield’s conservative Republican mayor and Ohio’s conservative Republican governor disproved and decried these Vance, Trump and Blood Tribe claims, the governor calling them “garbage.”

The truth, in fact, as both officials have asserted, is that Haitians have greatly contributed to the revitalization of what had been an economically devastated Rust Belt town. Many have been there for over a decade, after having been granted temporary but renewable legal status in the wake of a devastating 2010 earthquake (which claimed roughly 200,000 lives) in Haiti and in view of widespread political chaos and gang violence there.

Despite these dangers, last month the Supreme Court sided with the Trump administration in ruling that the 350,000 Haitians immigrants across America can be deported – putting a million other immigrants with similar status and home country dangers in jeopardy.

In its ruling, the Court in effect ignored an April 2026 State Department travel advisory, which bluntly states, “Do not travel to Haiti due to kidnapping, crime, terrorist activity, civil unrest, and limited health care.”

In addition to this being devastating news for the Haitians themselves, this could be devastating for Springfield and other communities across America who depend on them to fill jobs, run businesses, buy goods and services, and otherwise build or rebuild local economies.

That reflects a larger reality about current immigrants in America, no matter how they got here. Contrary to hostile claims, they actually commit crimes at lower rates than people born here do; do not take jobs from Americans; in fact, generate economic activity that aids employment creation; help hold down inflation; and contribute payments to Social Security and Medicare without (if they don’t have legal status) taking any payments from those programs.

It’s true that we can’t open our borders to everyone. There are legitimate housing, social services and other constraints to consider.

But it’s equally true that our immigration policies should not be driven by hate, lies and racism.

Honoring Our Immigrants

Even more to the point, today’s immigrants are contributing to this country in ways our parents, grandparents and ancestors did. And no matter the nation of origin, most of our predecessors faced the same kind of bigotry here that Haitians and other current immigrants today encounter. The only thing that’s different is the slurs being hurled at them.

Going forward from the Fourth of July, we should honor immigrants, past or present, for their hard work and their sacrifices in the face of so many challenges and so much hostility.

We should honor them for how they embody an American motto, E pluribus unum: Out of many, one.

We should honor them in the spirit of our better angels, rather than our darker demons.

As Springsteen puts it in “American Land”:

They died building the railroads, they worked to bones and skin
They died in the fields and factories, names scattered in the wind
They died to get here a hundred years ago, they’re still dying now
Their hands that built the country we’re always trying to keep out

We should honor them because they are all of us.

*To fully appreciate “American Land,” which explores both immigrants’ fantasies about America and the realities they’ve faced here, you need to hear the song itself:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KzJB2vKlET8&list=RDKzJB2vKlET8&start_radio=1

**And to fully appreciate Springsteen, you need to see him perform the song in concert:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yxF_VnjF3xw&list=RDyxF_VnjF3xw&start_radio=1

Benicia resident and author Stephen Golub, A Promised Land

Stephen Golub writes about democracy and politics, both in America and abroad, at A Promised Land: America as a Developing Country.

…and… here’s more Golub on the Benicia Independent

4th of July, Democracy under attack, Donald Trump, No Kings!, United States of America

So many greetings of “Happy 4th” feel wrong. And yet, there’s hope…

July 4, 2026 Roger Straw

The United States turns 250 – opportunities to turn it all around, again…

By Timothy Snyder, on YouTube, July 4, 2026

On the Fourth of July, Americans celebrate a rebellion.

To celebrate a rebellion means not to obey in advance, not to accept any of this as normal: not the lies told about the history by the people destroying our future, not the saccharine veneration of the Constitution by people who violate it every day, not the seizure of the mantle of revolution by a band of reactionary oligarchs. It is to be as courageous as you can: to speak the truth, to protect the elections we still have, and above all to organize in a great a joyful coalition.

History is not something that our oligarchs and fascists can take, try though they will today. History is what we make. It does not come to us. We come to it — with what we know, what we say, and what we do. Nothing in history dooms us; and nothing in history saves us. In the months between now and the next elections, there will be much forecasting, speculating, and worrying. None of that matters. All that matters is organizing a great and joyful coalition.

All that matters is the work. If my words are useful, if the beautiful reading here of my words is useful, it is only because those words bring you to act.

To celebrate a rebellion is to know that, from a flawed world, we can make new things. We can hold on, we can find each other, and not just imagine but create a much better America.

Joyful thanks to those who pronounced the lessons: Isabel Allende, Judd Apatow, Margaret Atwood, Joan Baez, Sophia Bush, Misha Collins, Kimberlè Crenshaw, Ted Danson, Ron Funches, Tony Goldwyn, Eric Holder, Jenifer Lewis, Leslie Odom Jr., Sarah Jessica Parker, Billy Porter, Maria Ressa, Lisa Rinna, Molly Ringwald, Sheryl Lee Ralph, Mark Ruffalo, J. Smith-Cameron, Holland Taylor, Viet Thanh Nguyen, and Bradley Whitford.