Thank you. Beautiful. I am recovering from having led (with a truly impressive co-leader) our town’s No Kings (we expected 100: got 1100). It was beautiful and many people expressed thanks. But your words bolster my spirits to do more. And to express my gratitude far and wide! This is the fight of our lives. We. Will. Prevail.
This came at just the right time. I keep getting caught up in bemoaning the people who I wish were doing more (mostly silently and to myself...but still unhelpful). What a beautiful invitation to instead (or at least also) notice and love on the many people who are finding their way into the movement in the best ways they know how.
Lovely. Except I can not imagine the resistance dying out! Too many people care, and even more people are impacted. When the punches of MAGA and Project 2025 land on people all around us, it creates more resistance. Like then the MAGAs said No Kings Day was going to put hate on display, and the number of people who signed up to protest doubled. Americans do not like to be told what to do! And they don't like to be insulted!
I woke up this morning, late because I’m t.i.r.e.d. Making my coffee and thinking about how maybe this work isn’t for me, maybe I need a break. And KNOWING that that is the whole entire plan of the regime: to break us and make us give up. And knowing that got me through the last 9 months, but it’s not enough anymore. And how will I convey this to the groups I’m working with?
And then my kids got up and I forgot about these thoughts entirely, tho I was a little weepy on the way to/from school drop off, I didn’t even connect that to those thoughts.
But then reading this piece. HOW are you SO inside my brain?
Yes, I needed to read this. Yes, I can thank myself. Yes, I can thank all the others I see working around me (and there are so, so many). And yes, I will share this piece; I have some specific ideas about how I want to do that.
So thank YOU for writing exactly what I need to hear and being you and doing all the things you are doing.
At my No Kings rally in Bellingham WA, I watched a forty something woman, a “peacekeeper,” keep eye contact, listen, and respond to a tall man with a long sword in a scabbard on his back and a pair of brass knuckles and unknown intent. He had started yelling and moving toward the stage when the speakers started. She did this for an hour, a few other peacekeepers some distance away,
keeping the man calm and engaged, even when a guy with a MAGA hat tried to interrupt and stir up some trouble. It was, truly, inspiring to see. Eventually some lowkey bicycle cops escorted him quietly away from the venue. No arrest, as far as I know. It made me think about how much organization and time it took to make the crowd feel safe and empowered. To organize the nonprofit booths, traffic control, law enforcement, permits, first responders, speakers, musicians. To train peacekeepers, to have contingency plans, to do a little teaching about nonviolent protest. I doubt David Brooks has sat on a metal folding chair in a basement or on a picnic bench at a brewery doing the work in a long time, if ever.
Oh my goodness I will be thinking about that Bellingham peacekeeper all day!
Also yes, as I think about that number (over 2000 protests) I keep imagining less the millions of attendees and more the tens of thousands who had to arrange for PA systems and permits and rent port a potties and train peacekeepers. Oh jeez I'm grateful for every last one of them.
This is really heartening to read. I have been working so hard for so long to resist fascism (I even wrote a book about Dorothy Day) and this past weekend my dog was killed by a car and I have never felt so hopeless. 2025 is the year that is breaking me open. Grief and dread and despair feel overwhelming, but I have also seen how my community has shown up for me. Just coming and sitting with me while I cry. Maybe that’s what we need to do for each other too — create spaces where the slow grief can be let out, in community. Your post helped me today, and I am very grateful to YOU for the words you offer to us all.
So so sorry for your loss. I have found myself, both in light of sadnesses in my immediate circles and great tragedies in my broader network, yelling out loud IF WE HAVE TO HAVE FASCISM CAN WE AT LEAST NOT HAVE OTHER BAD THINGS TOO! but I love what you wrote-- this too is a web of connection, this grief.
Oh, I'm so sorry about all of this and particularly your dog. What a profound and senseless loss. And also I'm loving your phrase of breaking open (even as it sounds awfully vulnerable and I am extremely wary of vulnerability!) and so glad your community has you. May we not break up or break down, but be broken open.
I just sent an email to the guy who MC's our local rallies (I Googled him and found his website), telling him how much I appreciate his enthusiasm and spirit. Thanks for the suggestion, Garrett!
I also want to shout out my brother, who is not a rally-goer nor particularly politically active. He lives in one of the Chicago neighborhood that's been targeted by ICE. When I video chatted with him a few days ago, he was proudly showing off the brand new whistles he and his wife now have on their keychains, and was talking about the trainings they've had to learn how to use them (short whistle: you've spotted an ICE agent, long whistle: someone is being detained). Hearing about what's been going on in Chicago is terrifying but hopefully the fact that even normies are getting involved is a good sign.
Thank you for taking the time out to email the rally MC- I'm sure it meant a ton. As for your brother, it's honestly those stories that have boosted me the most lately-- people who don't think of themselves as big political people, but who are experiencing what it's like to show up for their neighbors now (though, of course, I wish he didn't have to).
this is such a good post. I'm trying to compose a letter to someone from a Christian org who just posted the dumbest (ignore what's happening in the world) posts. I may just send him this... you give me hope and made me laugh with your comments about David Brooks. And I welcome him to the mass resistance
This shouted from the rooftops. There is so much love in these streets. And in the church basements, and in the cars, and everywhere that folks gather quietly together. Where we all wonder can we also be friends while we work on these issues? Can we learn about each other's dogs and spouses? We are all learning and growing and loving in ways we didn't think we would. But thank goodness for all of it.
This post had everything. I shouted with laughter in the first lines, and I'm wiping tears in the last. My to-do list is slightly unhinged today since my spouse and I are running away for the weekend (in like 7 hours, yes I'm counting) to celebrate our anniversary, and adding this in somehow...hinges it??? just a little bit.
so so grateful to read this essay today, as a major federal immigration operation is headed to the SF bay area where I live. thank you for orienting us around gratitude, and hope, and community, rather than fear.
Thank you to Therese and June and Gillian of Tracy SURJ who gave away/sold for donation buttons (that they made) at the No Kings rally and raised $904(!! Our previous high was $75!) for the Western Farm Workers Association AND awareness of the WFWA and their needs (they collected donations of bandanas, tuna, and a few other requested items). They are setting the example for us all.
Okay, I confess that I cannot hear the name David Brooks without seeing that gobsmackingly pompous & pretentious piece he wrote eight years ago about very kindly helping a young woman "without a high school degree" navigate the terrifying world of fast-casual restaurant menus. I recognize this is a limitation of my own intellect, the same one that sets me bursting out laughing when I hear "Liebestod" & ruining the moment for anyone around me.
What Garret asks of me, though, that is full of grace, so (grudging) thanks to Brooks for sparking this piece.
Thank you. Beautiful. I am recovering from having led (with a truly impressive co-leader) our town’s No Kings (we expected 100: got 1100). It was beautiful and many people expressed thanks. But your words bolster my spirits to do more. And to express my gratitude far and wide! This is the fight of our lives. We. Will. Prevail.
Gene, this is incredible! You and your co-leader deserve a rest and at least 100 if not 1000 high fives :)
well done Gene and thank you!
This came at just the right time. I keep getting caught up in bemoaning the people who I wish were doing more (mostly silently and to myself...but still unhelpful). What a beautiful invitation to instead (or at least also) notice and love on the many people who are finding their way into the movement in the best ways they know how.
Oh I get it. Man, attention is wild, isn't it? Once we start noticing in one direction, thats' all we see.
So grateful for you, Garrett! Pretty much every time you write something, I cry in a good way at least once and dig back in ❤️
This. Tears of deep gratitude and hope every time.💜
Appreciate you both so much!
Lovely. Except I can not imagine the resistance dying out! Too many people care, and even more people are impacted. When the punches of MAGA and Project 2025 land on people all around us, it creates more resistance. Like then the MAGAs said No Kings Day was going to put hate on display, and the number of people who signed up to protest doubled. Americans do not like to be told what to do! And they don't like to be insulted!
That's the absolute best counter-point I've ever gotten, Marilyn. I feel it too!
Wow.
I woke up this morning, late because I’m t.i.r.e.d. Making my coffee and thinking about how maybe this work isn’t for me, maybe I need a break. And KNOWING that that is the whole entire plan of the regime: to break us and make us give up. And knowing that got me through the last 9 months, but it’s not enough anymore. And how will I convey this to the groups I’m working with?
And then my kids got up and I forgot about these thoughts entirely, tho I was a little weepy on the way to/from school drop off, I didn’t even connect that to those thoughts.
But then reading this piece. HOW are you SO inside my brain?
Yes, I needed to read this. Yes, I can thank myself. Yes, I can thank all the others I see working around me (and there are so, so many). And yes, I will share this piece; I have some specific ideas about how I want to do that.
So thank YOU for writing exactly what I need to hear and being you and doing all the things you are doing.
Thank YOU Theresa. We're trying. And some days trying will look like admitting how tired and weepy we are.
At my No Kings rally in Bellingham WA, I watched a forty something woman, a “peacekeeper,” keep eye contact, listen, and respond to a tall man with a long sword in a scabbard on his back and a pair of brass knuckles and unknown intent. He had started yelling and moving toward the stage when the speakers started. She did this for an hour, a few other peacekeepers some distance away,
keeping the man calm and engaged, even when a guy with a MAGA hat tried to interrupt and stir up some trouble. It was, truly, inspiring to see. Eventually some lowkey bicycle cops escorted him quietly away from the venue. No arrest, as far as I know. It made me think about how much organization and time it took to make the crowd feel safe and empowered. To organize the nonprofit booths, traffic control, law enforcement, permits, first responders, speakers, musicians. To train peacekeepers, to have contingency plans, to do a little teaching about nonviolent protest. I doubt David Brooks has sat on a metal folding chair in a basement or on a picnic bench at a brewery doing the work in a long time, if ever.
Oh my goodness I will be thinking about that Bellingham peacekeeper all day!
Also yes, as I think about that number (over 2000 protests) I keep imagining less the millions of attendees and more the tens of thousands who had to arrange for PA systems and permits and rent port a potties and train peacekeepers. Oh jeez I'm grateful for every last one of them.
This is really heartening to read. I have been working so hard for so long to resist fascism (I even wrote a book about Dorothy Day) and this past weekend my dog was killed by a car and I have never felt so hopeless. 2025 is the year that is breaking me open. Grief and dread and despair feel overwhelming, but I have also seen how my community has shown up for me. Just coming and sitting with me while I cry. Maybe that’s what we need to do for each other too — create spaces where the slow grief can be let out, in community. Your post helped me today, and I am very grateful to YOU for the words you offer to us all.
So so sorry for your loss. I have found myself, both in light of sadnesses in my immediate circles and great tragedies in my broader network, yelling out loud IF WE HAVE TO HAVE FASCISM CAN WE AT LEAST NOT HAVE OTHER BAD THINGS TOO! but I love what you wrote-- this too is a web of connection, this grief.
Oh, I'm so sorry about all of this and particularly your dog. What a profound and senseless loss. And also I'm loving your phrase of breaking open (even as it sounds awfully vulnerable and I am extremely wary of vulnerability!) and so glad your community has you. May we not break up or break down, but be broken open.
I just sent an email to the guy who MC's our local rallies (I Googled him and found his website), telling him how much I appreciate his enthusiasm and spirit. Thanks for the suggestion, Garrett!
I also want to shout out my brother, who is not a rally-goer nor particularly politically active. He lives in one of the Chicago neighborhood that's been targeted by ICE. When I video chatted with him a few days ago, he was proudly showing off the brand new whistles he and his wife now have on their keychains, and was talking about the trainings they've had to learn how to use them (short whistle: you've spotted an ICE agent, long whistle: someone is being detained). Hearing about what's been going on in Chicago is terrifying but hopefully the fact that even normies are getting involved is a good sign.
Thank you for taking the time out to email the rally MC- I'm sure it meant a ton. As for your brother, it's honestly those stories that have boosted me the most lately-- people who don't think of themselves as big political people, but who are experiencing what it's like to show up for their neighbors now (though, of course, I wish he didn't have to).
this is such a good post. I'm trying to compose a letter to someone from a Christian org who just posted the dumbest (ignore what's happening in the world) posts. I may just send him this... you give me hope and made me laugh with your comments about David Brooks. And I welcome him to the mass resistance
Blessed are the people from christian orgs who post dumb things that ignore the world right now, for they shall receive this essay in their inbox lol
This shouted from the rooftops. There is so much love in these streets. And in the church basements, and in the cars, and everywhere that folks gather quietly together. Where we all wonder can we also be friends while we work on these issues? Can we learn about each other's dogs and spouses? We are all learning and growing and loving in ways we didn't think we would. But thank goodness for all of it.
Thank goodness for all that, especially those questions which of course I love so much
This post had everything. I shouted with laughter in the first lines, and I'm wiping tears in the last. My to-do list is slightly unhinged today since my spouse and I are running away for the weekend (in like 7 hours, yes I'm counting) to celebrate our anniversary, and adding this in somehow...hinges it??? just a little bit.
Happy anniversary!!! What an honor that my post could be a hinge in a running around day!
so so grateful to read this essay today, as a major federal immigration operation is headed to the SF bay area where I live. thank you for orienting us around gratitude, and hope, and community, rather than fear.
Thank you to Therese and June and Gillian of Tracy SURJ who gave away/sold for donation buttons (that they made) at the No Kings rally and raised $904(!! Our previous high was $75!) for the Western Farm Workers Association AND awareness of the WFWA and their needs (they collected donations of bandanas, tuna, and a few other requested items). They are setting the example for us all.
Okay, I confess that I cannot hear the name David Brooks without seeing that gobsmackingly pompous & pretentious piece he wrote eight years ago about very kindly helping a young woman "without a high school degree" navigate the terrifying world of fast-casual restaurant menus. I recognize this is a limitation of my own intellect, the same one that sets me bursting out laughing when I hear "Liebestod" & ruining the moment for anyone around me.
What Garret asks of me, though, that is full of grace, so (grudging) thanks to Brooks for sparking this piece.