🪖 Have You Earned It?

Ariel David Hey, Ariel here. I’m home for Thanksgiving, writing this from a Starbucks in Baltimore. It’s late, the place is emptying out, and I’m still here, typing. This has become a small Thanksgiving ritual: sit down, reflect on the country I’m lucky to call home, and write it out, however it comes. Lately, I’ve been reading a book, World of Our Fathers, about the great immigration wave of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. One line stopped me. An early group advocating for oppressed Jews to flee Eastern Europe wrote and argued that, out of all the places they might go, America was the only one worth the journey. America, they said, “is the most civilized region, and offers the most guarantees of individual freedom, freedom of conscience, and security of all property … and endows every one of her inhabitants with both civil and political rights.” Ellis Island immigrants, early 1900s The clarity of that statement struck me. Not only because it is simple, and true—but because it illuminated what drove them. The millions who made the dangerous journey to America were not fleeing in desperation. They were fleeing in hope. That’s hard to square with their reality. They wrote this under Tsarist repression: during “Russification” campaigns that tried to stamp out culture, harsh censorship, and violent pogroms carried out with impunity. Tsar Nicholas II inspecting Cossack soldiers, perpetrators of centuries of brutal pogroms. But when they looked at America, which, by census, in the 1870s was still small, with barely 40 million people—they didn’t see a small, developing country. They saw a nation, with a towering soul, which was the one place where the individual mattered. Where God and liberty were foundational. These immigrants came knowing nothing was promised. Somewhere in my family tree were these immigrants who made the journey. But my direct lineage stayed in Eastern Europe. Only a few decades later, the Tsarist regime that terrorized them collapsed—and what replaced it was worse. The Russian Empire gave way to an ideological Communist state that demanded the erasure of the self. The Soviet project promised utopia and required submission: suffering in the name of equality, loyalty in place of free conscience, the creation of a “new man” detached from faith, freedom, and family. Josef Stalin’s communist, massive man-made famine in Soviet Ukraine Everything those 1880s immigrants saw in America—“individual freedom, freedom of conscience, and security of all property”—the Soviet Union worked actively to annihilate. My family lived through it. Now I’m at a Starbucks. The coffee isn’t great—these new machines seem to make it worse—but even that small annoyance makes me think about how little I’ve had to sacrifice to enjoy the fruits of three centuries of nation-building. I didn’t have to leave a homeland, or gamble everything on a transatlantic crossing. I was simply born here. What I have, I owe to the aspirational, God-fearing men who built this country—who worked, struggled, and bled for a nation they believed was worth creating. And I owe it to my own family, who had enough optimism—and enough courage—to leave everything behind and begin again in a foreign land. Forgive me for the upcoming cliché. (Also, spoiler alert) In Saving Private Ryan, Private Ryan is rescued at the cost of multiple men’s lives. At the end, as Ryan leans over a dying Captain Miller, Tom Hanks’ character gives him one final command: “Earn this.” Captain Miller That’s how I feel. It’s how everyone on the Upward News team feels. It’s what pushes us to show up every day—to write, to dig, to chase the truth, to reach as many people as possible in a media landscape filled with noise, propaganda, and ideas that corrode the country we love. We are indebted to this nation, to those who built it, and to the principles that made it free and worth fighting for. And the way we honor that debt is to earn it through this work. And before I end this email, I need to say something plainly. STAND WITH US (15% OFF)→ The only reason this mission keeps going—the only reason Brandon, Maeve, Anthony, Matthew, Amanda, and I can do this work every single day—is because of readers who believe in what we’re building and choose to stand with us. I never imagined that asking for support would be part of building a fearless news organization. But without it, we can’t grow—and can’t even sustain what we’re doing now. If you believe in the same ideals we do… if you believe this country is worth fighting for… then I’m asking you to become a member today. Help strengthen something real. Something independent. Something meaningful. Something that actually matters. Support us, and stand with us in this fight for the country. As we’ve all seen recently—with the Mamdanis and the Fuenteses gaining influence—there has never been a more important moment to push back. EARN IT: SUPPORT OUR WORK (15% OFF) → Happy Thanksgiving, Ariel David and the team. fb tw ig ❤️ If you think we’re doing a good job, please help us stay independent with a one-time donation. 🔎 Tip line: Have a story from your campus, community, or company that needs exposure? Send tips, questions, or ideas to tips@upward.news. 👋 To say hello, respond to this email. Update your email preferences or unsubscribe here © 2025 Upward News PO Box 960019 Inwood, NY 11096, United States of America Terms of Service