DEAR SOPHIA,

TOMORROW IS A NATIONAL HOLIDAY FOR US HELLENES. IT’S NATIONAL NO DAY – IT’S ACTUALLY KIND OF AMUSING SOME TIMES. THERE IS A HISTORY BEHIND THIS. ON OCTOBER 28, 1940, THE ITALIANS, THE DICTATOR MUSSOLINI GAVE US AN ULTIMATUM: SURRENDER OR WAR. OUR RESPONSE WAS: SO IT’S WAR. IN TRUE LACONIC FORM, THE REAL ANSWER WAS…NO! THIS HAS BEEN IN OUR GENETICS SINCE THE TIME EVEN BEFORE TROY. IT HAS BEEN REPEATED THROUGHOUT OUR HISTORY. IT TAKES AN ACT OF BRAVERY AND COURAGE WHEN THERE ARE FORMIDABLE ODDS AND CIRCUMSTANCES AGAINST YOU, TO UTTER THE WORD, NO. IT IS EVEN IN THIS COUNTRY’S HISTORY IN DIFFERENT FORMS. THE MOST ICONIC ONE IN RECENT TIMES WAS ROSA PARKS SITTING ON A BUS BEING TOLD TO GO TO THE BACK OF THE BUS AND SHE SIMPLY SAID, NO. IT SPARKED THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT. ALWAYS REMEMBER, IT TAKES COURAGE TO SAY NO WHEN YOU ARE RIGHT EVEN WHEN THE PREVAILING CIRCUMSTANCES ARE FORMIDABLY AGAINST YOU. HISTORY REMEMBERS THE WORD, NO. IT DOES NOT REMEMBER THE WORD, YES, TO TYRANTS AND EVIL.

I WILL SEE YOU SOON. STAY SAFE AND I AM FOCUSED ON THE BIG PICTURE, NOT THE LITTLE DETAILS WHICH ARE DISTRACTIONS.

143

LOVE,

DAD