Johnny 'Joey' Jones: After Capitol riots, this moment matters. We can't lose faith in America

Life happens in moments. Things change in the blink of an eye. Along with the universal gift of self-determination comes the responsibility of decision making. 

My life changed dramatically with a single step. As we saw over the summertime and time again, many lives changed forever when a citizen took a step towards a criminal and a police officer squeezed one finger on a piece of metal pointed at them. 

People react every day in a split second to save a life or prevent a disaster. These moments are the determinative high and low points of human existence. 

Our Constitution is little more than a game plan for gambling on these moments, to wager complete chaos and anarchy for personal liberty and self-governance.

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Freedom and democracy live in the space between the problems we face and the decisions we make. 

The moment protest turn to riots, the moment anger turns to rage, the moments faith in something becomes a total lack of respect for it; those are the moments our founding fathers and our sacred document took a risk for.

They believed in us, they believed in our ability to see beyond the moment, to understand the consequences of our actions and to move towards fixing problems rather than relieving frustration. 

I don’t know if this election was fraught with fraud, and frankly at this point I don’t know how much it matters. 

I’ve been cheated many times in my life, I was cheated out of my legs trying to keep people safe, I was cheated out of a comfortable life by my parents and grandparents' misfortune and just last year my kids were cheated out of a grandad because my dad has an unexpected heart attack. 

I can’t reverse any of these things but I can overcome them. I can respond to them and I can make changes to deter them from happening to my kids. 

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The moment we are currently living in is just as important as the ones I’ve described above. We have an opportunity to decide if what happened in Washington, D.C. this week will be a flame to light a fire of chaos and destruction or a venting of mass frustration that makes way for a cooling off of anger and mobilization of foresight and wisdom. 

This is a moment for every American, especially those who feel cheated, to look ahead and find unrelenting faith while living inside the empty feeling of betrayal.

We still have a federalist system of government. We have power, true power, over D.C. Our state legislatures decide wholly how we conduct our election and pick our electors. 

Invest your energy in your neighbors, and support leaders who represent you. 

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Let me be clear, if I know anything I know two things 1) life is not fair and 2) that’s not an excuse to lose. 

This is a moment for every American, especially those who feel cheated, to look ahead and find unrelenting faith while living inside the empty feeling of betrayal.

I, like most of you, have had cards stacked against me before. Yet, we’re still here walking through life, finding victories, letting our voices be heard. 

Even after my body was blown to pieces. After I suffered the painful and tormenting task of accepting my fate as forever limited, smiles come easier than frowns. Why? Because I control the moments that matter. 

You either let your emotions control you, or control and mold your emotions. 

Taking control now simply means not giving up. It means going to work, continuing to believe and finding strength and faith you might not have known you hold. 

President Trump was a disruptor, he advanced conservative polices and values in a time we feared such things were on the brink of a political extinction, and I thank him for it. But he was never going to carry the load forever. The burden is still ours. 

In a moment in November he unwillingly passed that torch back to us. We can’t be so scared that the things we believe in will die that we kill them ourselves in desperation and fury. We know better. 

Today, as every day, is a new opportunity. It’s the best-kept secret of life. 

We have a new beginning with each sunrise and a well-earned opportunity to set aside our heavy load with the end of each day. 

So today, we can make a choice. We can choose freedom, liberty and country or we can choose fear, division and hatred.

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This moment matters and even when it feels like it’s against all of us, this moment can be ours. 

God bless our beautiful republic and God bless you, America. 

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