Our founder can be found on bluesky, twitter, and substack – @josetorresaz5. The handle “AZ05” came from back in 2018, when he decided to run for the US Congress. Yes “AZ05” is the congressional district he lives in, but his handle leaves off the “0”. This is truly about public service. While he may run for the US Congress again, it will only be for #AZ05 unless he moves out of state (at which point he would be ineligible to run for Congress in Arizona per the Constitution).

His grandparents were essentially migrants from Mexico who were lucky enough to get good jobs in the copper mines of eastern Arizona. His values came from these copper mining towns – where his father could only swim in the public swimming pool on the last Sunday of the month, because the next day, they would drain the water. This was in the 1940s – where in other parts of the country, there were signs at drinking fountains that said, “Colored only”.

His parents became teachers for four decades. His mother taught Math. His father had been an Army Ranger (Airborne) and History professor. He had to do well in school – anything less would be an unthinkable betrayal of the sacrifices his grandparents made to come to the greatest country on earth – despite any systems of inequality – because it was still a land of opportunity.

Every night, his nuclear family ate dinner together at 5:30. Why at that time? Walter Cronkite, Dan Rather, Tom Brokaw, and Peter Jennings were always there as dinner guests, explaining what had happened in the world. “And that’s the way it was,” at least from August 16, 1977 or before, which was the day that his mother dropped her fork in shock and the fork hit the dinner plate in a disturbing fashion. Ironically, it was Roger Mudd and not Cronkite who announced that the iconic rock legend Elvis Presley had just died (The author had to go look up the clip on YouTube).

Through his parents’ reactions to the news, the founder knew that something important had just happened, and the world he lived in had just changed. And so it was through the OPEC Oil embargo, tying a yellow ribbon around the old oak tree, the Americans who were smuggled out of Tehran by the Canadians, the election of Reagan, Reagan being shot, Black Monday, Mondale promising to raise taxes, the invasion of Grenada, “Tank Man” and Tiananmen Square, the invasion of Panama, Solidarity in Gdansk and Warsaw, Tip O’Neill, “Read My Lips”, Dukakis’ tank moment, learning how to spell “Potatoe”, the fall of the Berlin Wall, Operation Desert Shield, Bill Clinton feeling your pain on the economy, H. Ross Perot’s charts and graphs, Newt Gingrich, the internet boom, watching the whole world needlessly slut-shaming Monica Lewinsky, the moral quagmire of Bill, the Y2K bug, the hanging chads, “But I can have a beer with him”, the planes crashing into the WTC and watching the buildings collapse live on TV, and so on. 100% of that was written from memory. Mostly, it feels 100% correct and in chronological order, unless it was Black Tuesday in 1987 that caused an enormous dive in the Dow Jones Industrial average.

All of his life, our founder was aware of racial injustice (through the acute emotions of his father) and of the ongoing course of history (through the aforementioned nightly news broadcasts, and interrogatories back and forth with his father). One of the things that bothered him deepest was this: occasional bigoted views embedded in things his father would express. This was contradictory and troubling. Wasn’t his father his hero? Yes, but like all young adults there was also contradiction. His father taught him the supreme ideals of the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and in this he fervently believes. So why was there some negativity towards black people buried in words his father would sometimes say?

Decades later, an answer would step forward: Because racist thoughts are a dial, not a switch, and almost nobody has 0% racist thoughts. Why? That’s a whole other blog entry. But let us proclaim this truth to ourselves and the world: it is hypocritical to want rights, freedoms, and privileges of citizenship for oneself and to actively work to deny those for other people. He was always proud that his father cheered for political progress for Black people, as this was the right side of History. Always. It was just a bit off key that on occasion, a 1940s turn of phrase would find its way out of his father’s mouth in the 1980s or 1990s. Why? Because it is foolish for us to all walk around thinking that everyone has 0% racist thoughts until the day that someone says something and then we scream, “racist!!!” and point and behave as if the percentage of racist thoughts in that person just jumped up from 0% to 100% in two beats of a hummingbird’s wings. On the whole, his father always was someone to be proud of – someone who as a kid was treated badly by unjust rules, and who was around profound bigotry, and who internalized very little of that bigotry and expressed probably less than that and did and said all the right things, and yet, was human, was not perfect, and still had some small, some very small, some non zero percentage of thoughts that belong in centuries past.

But here’s what always did and always will make him proud of his father – his father profoundly understood and was committed to justice for all, in all of the ways that mattered – by taking action, by encouraging understanding of history, by learning, reading, challenging, and thinking about the choices in the past and using them, where reasonable, as advisors on what choices might be best for today. In knowing that it is rank hypocrisy to ask for freedoms and privileges enjoyed by the majority while not also concerning oneself with those who are still behind you in line seeking those exact same benefits (and responsibilities) of citizenship. His father has passed away. And what matters? The occasional off remark, or the lifetime of action supporting voting rights, equality in practice in hiring in a good-old-boy employer, committing to helping people achieve knowledge, understanding, education, and pushing back ignorance? We expect people to live up to a myth, and maybe boys expect that of their fathers most of all. His father took all the actions that mattered, and then some.

Now ask yourself – Did the murder of George Floyd shock some of the world into awareness – awareness that so many of us are capable of blindly walking past the injustices that others live with on a daily basis? Does the name Gisele Pelicot mean anything to you, and does her story shock you? What about #MeToo? (yes, see Bill Clinton, who has behaved as a pig and has not owned his behavior fully). Are you aware that so many of us are able to walk past the suffering and injustice that others feel on a daily basis?

Our founder says this: Don’t feel badly if you didn’t cause that injustice. But also – what are you doing to be part of the solution? If the answer is “nothing”, well then maybe feel badly about that. But instead of feeling badly, take action locally. Or find action that you can take locally.

Now here’s the beautiful thing – we’re more likely to get a wonderful life – as in life, liberty, and the happiness of pursuit – if we help others secure them. Join our community at OnCivics to help others have a prosperous life. And here’s an even more beautiful thing – if we form a physical community that meets in person, or rather, a bunch of loosely affiliated small communities that support one another, we can all enjoy community in a wonderful world. Your prosperity will increase because of it, and so will the prosperity of your grandchildren as you pursue happiness.