June 14th, 2025: Separating the Heroes from the Cowards
- john raymond
- Jun 14
- 2 min read
By John R. Raymond
History does not always announce its turning points with clarity. But June 14th, 2025, left no doubt. It was the day the line was drawn—between courage and complicity, between defenders of democracy and servants of a collapsing autocracy, between those who stand for the republic and those who would rather burn it down.
Across the nation, we saw what real heroism looks like. In the streets of Omaha and cities coast to coast, ordinary Americans—veterans, students, mothers, nurses, the unemployed and the overworked—took to the streets under the banner No Kings, No Tzars. They stood not in hatred, but in defiance. They marched not for vengeance, but for accountability. They called out, loud and unafraid, that they would not bow to a man who serves Moscow’s interests while pretending to hold America’s.
They were joined, notably, by men and women in uniform. In Omaha, the police did not arrive in riot gear to crack skulls. They stood with the people. They protected the protest. They knelt, not to a demagogue, but beside citizens defending the Constitution. That act—simple, silent, human—shouted louder than the parades staged for the cameras elsewhere. It told the truth: that law and order must serve liberty, not the vanity of kings.
And then, in chilling contrast, came the darkness.
In the early hours, Rep. Melissa Hortman and her husband Mark were assassinated in their home—killed by a man disguised as a law enforcement officer. Their deaths were not random. They were targeted. State Senator John Hoffman and his wife were also shot, critically wounded in an act of coordinated domestic terror. These were not the acts of madmen. They were acts of a coward—a man who feared democracy so much he answered it with blood.
There has not been, in modern American history, a clearer divide between what the people want and what is being done to them. The people do not want tyrants. They do not want assassins. They do not want a Russian asset in the White House manipulating institutions like a puppet show. They want—and deserve—heroes. Not perfect people. Not saviors. But those who actually protect and serve. Those who step forward rather than shrink. Those who meet darkness not with excuses, but with action.
On June 14th, that difference was on display.
Cowards hide behind guns in the night. Heroes stand in the daylight, unarmed but unafraid. Cowards serve power. Heroes serve principle. Cowards demand obedience. Heroes protect dissent. Cowards assassinate legislators in their beds. Heroes kneel in the streets to preserve the right of protest.
It is time to stop pretending the distinction is murky.
It is not.
We are a nation at the crossroads—and the road forward does not pass through monarchy or blood-soaked silence. It runs through courage, through community, and through those who choose to stand tall when others duck and run. June 14th revealed who is willing to fight for democracy—and who is willing to kill it.
Now we must decide who we are.
And who we will become.
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