Who We Are, What Was Stolen & we Fight

 My name is Joshua Markle.

When Project Black Phoenix first went live, it wasn’t polished, it wasn’t diplomatic — it was rage. Raw, unfiltered, unedited rage. I was a seat-belted passenger in a wreck that nearly killed me, and instead of being protected, I was forced to enter into a fight to protect myself from the companies I'd paid my whole adult life for this exact situation. My wife was blamed. The people who were supposed to help us, laughed, delayed, denied, and tried to bury us under bills and back us into a corner.

I was already bleeding in other ways. My mother who was my best friend had  my father passed 6 months later, and instead of being allowed to grieve, people close to me took advantage of that vulnerable window to steal from me. So when the accident hit, when the insurance companies pulled their tricks, when landlords and lawyers piled on — yeah, I snapped. I used Black Phoenix as a place to document, to defend myself, and to fire back with everything I had. It came out bitter, angry, unhinged at times. And you know what? I don’t apologize for the anger. I was fighting for my life.

But here’s the shift: Black Phoenix isn’t about vengeance anymore. It’s about truth. It’s about accountability. It’s about showing that the rage was justified — but that rage has been harnessed into something bigger than me. A movement to make sure no other American family gets gutted by the very systems that are supposed to protect them.

So if the early version looked like a battlefield, that’s because it was. And if the new version looks like a light, that’s because it is. It will stay lit  for anyone who has been through the fire and decided to rise from the ashes.

Meet the Markles

Every picture tells a story, but this one — us standing in front of that white Mercedes with the big red bow — feels like another lifetime. Jess loved that car, I couldn’t stand it, but that wasn’t the point. The point was the look on her face — happiness, pride, and the feeling that we were moving forward together.

Life since then has been anything but simple. We’ve faced loss, betrayal, accidents, and fights we never asked for. But through it all, one thing has never changed: we don’t give up on each other.

Project Black Phoenix is built on that same truth. It isn’t just my voice, or my fight — it’s our story. It’s about love refusing to die, even in the middle of chaos. Jess has her own words to share here, and when you read them, you’ll understand why we keep standing, why we keep fighting, and why integrity is the only way forward.