Men show up in your house without a warrant and take your husband away. No one will tell you where he is, if he’s safe or what crime he’s committed. They won’t even confirm that they’re arresting him. The men are armed but in plain clothes. They show you no badges or IDs to prove the authority they have to invade your home and abduct your loved one. They take your husband and disappear.

If this happened to you, would you be okay with this?

The government decides they don’t want you to exist, so when you renew your passport, they confiscate it. Without identification to prove your citizenship, you cannot leave the country. But within its borders, the government strips you of your civil rights and any legal recourse to fight back when people discriminate against or persecute you.

If this happened to you, would you be okay with this?

You make an appointment to talk to someone in the government about renewing your work visa. You show up, and they arrest you. You’re sent to a detention center, where you must sleep on the floor, then to a jail where you meet 140 other non-criminals who came to the country legally. But pending investigation, they’re going to hold you in this detention center until you can prove your innocence, which is going to be difficult because they’ve allowed you no phone calls, information about what the charges are or access to legal representation. No one knows where you are.

If this happened to you, would you be okay with this?

The commander of your nation’s armed forces tells its cybersecurity forces to ‘stand down’ and not defend against Russian hacks into intelligence networks, leaving your country vulnerable to a malicious foreign nation.

Are you okay with this?

Your nation’s leader launches a cryptocurrency, which allows an avalanche of untraceable foreign money and influence to flow into his private bank account. He seeks corporate sponsors for the annual Easter Egg Hunt, promising funders special access to his residence and family. He does a car commercial for his biggest billionaire donor on his front lawn.

Are you okay with this, this, and this?

Your country’s Constitution enshrines an equal distribution of power between the legislative, executive and judicial branches to prevent the rise of future kings and tyrants. But when judges point out that the new executive branch is guilty of government overreach and violating the civil rights of its citizens, they receive death threats.

Are you okay with this?

The government’s lawyers assert that the leader of your country could tell a private company who to hire and fire if they have a government contract. For example, eliminate any woman in a leadership position or people older than 40. Or Baptists or people with red hair – any criteria the leader deems subversive, the government could persecute, withdraw support from and deport.

Are you okay with this?

After putting their lives at risk to defend our country and sometimes leaving parts of their bodies in foreign lands, your country’s veterans are fired from their jobs, lose disability assistance and are thrown to the curb without discrimination protections or support. 

Are you okay with this?

Because this is already happening.

If any of this weighs on your conscience as an American citizen, where all people are created equal in the eyes of God and deserve equal protection under the law, you must let your officials know. 

On April 5, there will be a national day of protest: HANDS OFF. Use your voice before it’s taken away. 

Dissent is and always has been patriotic.

Be careful, love your people fiercely, and remember that joy is a form of resistance.

This column originally appeared in the White County News.