The other day, before sunrise, I shouldered a rucksack and an American flag and walked 18 miles from Manchester to Concord to file as a Democratic candidate for the U.S. House.
Eighteen miles for the 18 veterans who die by suicide every single day. Men and women who wore the uniform, served this country and came home to a system that too often makes them fight one more battle just to get the care they earned.
And even as Americans across the political spectrum agree we owe our veterans better, this administration has cut tens of thousands of jobs from the Department of Veterans Affairs. Fewer providers, longer waits, canceled appointments, less mental health care exactly when it is needed most. Washington failed our veterans for years. Now it is failing them faster.
Here is what I did not expect on that road. Carrying the flag through the early summer heat, I was met with an outpouring of love. Strangers pulled over to bring me water. Drivers honked on their way to work. People ran up just to say how much it meant to see someone carrying our flag with pride.
This country is hungry for unity. I could feel it in my bones on the shoulder of Route 3A.
I am unapologetically proud of America. It gave my immigrant parents a fair shot. It gave me a kid who learned English as a second language and bagged groceries the chance to do big things to be appointed by President Biden to serve at the Pentagon. I love this country enough that at 35 I put a promising legal career on hold, enlisted as an E-4, and shipped out to basic training. I am proud to still serve.
The polls say Democratic pride in America has fallen to record lows. I do not believe we love this country any less. I believe we are heartbroken over what is being done to it. And heartbreak is not the absence of love. It is proof of it.
We owe our country more than worry. We owe it a fight for what it can still become.
That calls for a progressive patriotism that flies the flag in one hand and fights for regular folks with the other. One that says America does not belong to any single president, or to billionaires, or to whoever shouts the loudest. It belongs to the people who build it, teach its children, care for its sick and defend it in uniform.
Real patriotism is not a hat or a slogan. It is how you treat your neighbors. It is health care that covers everyone and bankrupts no one. It is childcare a working parent can actually afford. It is a tax code where a Manchester schoolteacher does not pay a higher tax rate than a corporation that pays nothing at all. It is sending our troops to war only when we must, with a plan and a way home. It is a Congress that does the people’s business instead of trading stocks on the side. And it is one standard of accountability, for presidents, for senators, for CEOs.
None of that is partisan. It is pro-America: we take care of each other, everyone gets a fair shake and no one is above the law.
Eighteen miles is a long way under a heavy pack. But what that road from Manchester to Concord taught me is simple. The distance between Americans is far shorter than the people who profit from our division want us to believe.
I hope you will help me bridge the divide.
Christian Urrutia is currently running for Congress in New Hampshire’s First Congressional District.