People ruled by authoritarians risk it all to protest. Now that right is under threat here.

On Wednesday, my wife and I decided to go to the protests near the White House. We are both journalists, but the day before, my wife had voted in a U.S. election for the first time, and for her, witnessing the protests was another important step in her life as a civically engaged naturalized American.

We have been following the shelter-in-place orders for nearly three months, only venturing out to shop for groceries or take a walk on the emptiest streets we could find. As the protests against police violence and the killing of black citizens started to grip the city, we, like many others, followed them on TV from our home.

Several factors, though, moved us to break the quarantine, even understanding all the risks. Continue reading.