The letter that started it all

Read the letter that inspired "The Epic" book series.

Lesley Hawkey was a well-known sports journalist before this letter vaulted her into international stardom and infamy. Known as "The Letter that started it all", this put Lesley in direct fire of Gilbert Albertson, forcing her into an adventure even she couldn't have conjured in her wildest dreams.

To whom it may concern:

For the past three years, I’ve sat and done nothing. I’ve watched as hate and fear were pumped into the people of the United States of America like gas into a car. I’ve observed the changes in behavior in my family and friends for reasons they cannot understand. I’ve sat back in silence during debates with people who cannot be reasoned with, and I’ve followed the social media accounts of a child, yes a child who claims to be a man and is, in fact, one of the most powerful individuals in the world.

For the past three years, I’ve sat in silence. I’ve acted like thousands of people who believe their voices can’t be heard. My voice would get drowned out amongst the thousands of other voices, most of which belonged to people more important than me. I’m just a woman, a female sports journalist, who has no business writing or talking about politics and human rights.

But I am a person.

I know now that I was wrong. That my voice is important. That my voice can be heard, and I can no longer afford to sit in the shadows and watch. I can no longer listen to and see what is happening to this country. I can no longer sit around and wait for someone else to say the words I’ve kept pent up inside. If everyone does that, then we as a country are headed to a place far worse than anything we could ever imagine.

There is so much hate and fear, so much agony it’s hard to see the light sometimes. As a sports journalist, my job is to remind you that the light exists, to give you, as a person, a small break from the dismal reality of the world. To give your heart a break and provide it with a small sliver of hope that maybe, just maybe, everything will be ok.

But there are some things that cannot be ignored, that cannot be condoned. Yes, I’m one person, and maybe no one will ever read this letter, but I am a person with a voice. I’m a person with a brain that functions, rather well I might add. I’m a person with opinions and emotions. I’m a person, and therefore I have a right to speak my mind and share my thoughts because that was the right that was given to me by the First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States of America.

Two years ago, if you would have told me I’d be sitting here, writing this, I would have scoffed at you. Two years ago, I didn’t care about the political scene. I interned in Washington DC, but I was as far away from the Hill as you could possibly get. I was and still am a sports journalist. My job was and is to distract people in essence, to report what happened on a field, a court, or a sheet of ice. My job is to bring light when there is darkness in the rest of the world, at least, that’s what I like to think my job is.

It’s been two years, and a lot hasn’t changed. I still believe my job is to provide distraction and light in a world of darkness. I’m still a sports journalist, and I’m still a female sports journalist. Now, though, I’m an angry, scared, disappointed female sports journalist, not because something was taken away from me, but because something, not just one single thing, was taken away from so many people this past week.

In some cases, it was the right to live. In others, it was the right to receive medical help.

But in most, it was just the right to be a human being.

People are different. It is a fact of life that no two people, just like no two zebras, are the same. However, 99.9% of the time, people did not ask to be different. People do not ask to be born with different colored eyes or different colored skin. They did not ask to be born female instead of male, gay instead of straight. It is no one’s fault that one chromosome swam faster than the other. Yes people make choices in life, but physically, what we are, what we look like, that’s not our choice.

I chose to be a sports journalist. I did not choose to be a female.

My brother chose to watch Scooby Doo before bed last night. He did not choose to be born with autism.

Two of my best friends decided to be teachers. In Wisconsin. Neither one of them made the decision to be female, white, or Scandinavian.

One of my other best friends chose to be an athlete. She did not choose to suffer from mental health issues.

My youngest brother chose to go to college. He did not choose to be a white male.

There are many choices we as humans make throughout our lives, and if given the chance, there are probably many things people would go back and fix if they could, especially at birth. If I could go back and time and make the choice, I would get rid of the self-doubt that occasionally leaves me crippled and curled up in a ball on my floor. I would also choose not to have my period every two weeks because, let me tell you, that is not an enjoyable experience once a month, let alone twice.

No one chooses to have mental health problems. No one chooses to have down syndrome, autism or any other type of “special needs” diagnosis. No one chooses to get raped. No one chooses to be oppressed, beaten, abused, bullied, and tortured. Not just physically, but mentally as well.

Yet these are the people that are being punished because of these things. The people who do not have a choice. The people who do not have a voice, who are merely trying to get through each day. People who do not have the resources to seek the help they need in many ways.

Multiple laws passed by our new president and congress take away the very right to be human. To make choices. To live. To get help.

Congress can take away my rights. I don’t care. I hate hospitals and have been avoiding them for the last seven years of my life. But they cannot take away the rights of the people I love. I refuse to stand for that.

When the results of the election were published, I thought about moving to Canada. I looked for jobs covering NHL teams in our neighboring country in the hopes that I could escape this madness. But I know now that would have been a foolish decision. Running away wasn’t the answer. Avoiding isn’t the answer. Now, we need to stand up and fight for what we believe in, and I believe in the rights to be human. To make choices. To live our lives as we see fit. No, not everyone is going to make smart choices, but we should be allowed to make them.

I can’t run. I can only fight. We can only fight through words and actions. We as a people need to take a stand, not just for ourselves, but for those who can’t fight. For those who don’t have the resources. For those that don’t have the power.

I will rise. I will stand, and, this time, I will not run. I will fight for my brothers, my friends, and the suffering strangers I do not know. I will fight for you. I will stand for you, and I won’t run away.

For once in my life, I will stay.