Yes, I am experiencing exactly what you are describing- and this is totally unlike me to allow this kind of disconnect. A cousin who is a Christian Nationalist, a friend of mine for 20 years whose racial hatred is exposed, a lifelong friend of my husband's for over 60 years - all if these are heartbreaking losses. These fractures are deeply disturbing to me - yet, I don't know what I can do about them. I don't have the bandwidth to deal with this - I am too busy trying to survive in all areas of my life. I am heavily involved in 50501 and this community of like-minded young people has been a boon to me. Fortunately, most of my personal friends and my own immediate family are on the same page.
Move to NYC (not Staten Island or Long Island). My entire neighborhood is pro-Dem and Trump people are hard to find. In general, people in the northeast are better educated and more open minded and even the churches follow that lead. Riverside Church has refused to stop their DEI programs and it got barely a ripple in the news. I have very dear friends who retired to Florida who are big Trump supporters, we just NEVER talk about politics. Some of my family are also (not nearby) and we simply do not discuss things. This is a boundary they respect for the sake of the relationship. I grant that it is hard to be in the presence of people who are speaking nonsense, but you can request the topic be avoided and when it comes up just avoid responding. The point is not to give away your agency to others. Hold your own ground, resist in your own way, and be quiet. That's empowering and it's also your job.
Thanks, Jeannette. My mistake with the 20 year friendship friend was to respond to hear when she browbeated me to tell her my views prior to the election. I begged her for me not to tell her, but she wouldn't relent. So I caved and told her, which i should not have done. I should have stood my ground. Then she misconstrued my words four months later. I was betrayed.
I’m so pleased to read that your core social /family is working toward the same goals. Hence most likely understanding each other’s fragility in other relationships.
A civil disease has permeated our lives. Between the natural process of attrition, a global pandemic, threat of gun or vehicle violence in any crowded situation, and loss of friends and family due to irreconcilable moral and ethical differences, our social circles have gotten smaller and smaller. It's even hard to go out for a walk without questioning whether the neighbor is being patriotic or aggressive in the hanging of their flag, or wondering whether that Tesla driver is still happy with their purchase. Sometimes I question my own sanity. Is all this really happening? Is it really as serious as it feels like it is? Or, have we fallen victim to some mass brainwashing scheme?
I'm super thankful for "The Beautiful Mess". It's reassuring to know that I am not alone or, at least, I'm not the only one suffering from this malady. Here's to a speedy recovery!
My thoughts exactly. I am not crazy, and you are not alone. Every interaction, sadly, has to be filtered and cautiously calculated, looking to determine if I feel safe in the proximity of this person or that neighbor. That is, are they seeing the world the same way I am? Are they endorsing or condemning this regime? If I get a sense they are unsafe, I avoid them. Never in my 59 years of life have I had to navigate inter personal relations on this level. It is exhausting but necessary, like John says, to maintain one's emotional health. I am so thankful for this substack community where I feel seen and heard.
We've gone back to the old advice "Never discuss sex, politics, or religion in polite company." We live in a deep red area. It's not worth attracting the wrong kind of attention at our age.
Unfortunately, for me too. Deep red also means “never Democrats,” thus the endless denial of what they see happening because, never going to support a Democrat.
I feel bad about now mistrusting my neighbors or grocery store acquaintances. I’m under doctors orders to wear a mask in public due to a compromised immune system. I inwardly cower at the looks of anger. But I pray about how I’ll handle it if people get verbally aggressive. Such crazy times. 🤷♀️🙏
Right there with you♥️ I thank God for John Pavlovitz and The Beautiful Mess every day. 🙏 And people like you wherever you are. We are not alone. Jesus never promised us we wouldn’t have trouble. He said we would, but that he would be with us IN it. Like you I have times when I just can’t believe we are here. I get frightened for my young grandchildren because they are less than “perfect” if you know what I mean. Not in any of our eyes of course. They are sweetness and sunshine in our world - our silver and gold. But I know, come what may, the Sweet Spirit will help us. And we’ll help each other. ♥️
I am physically ill reading this morning about deporting little children now - even ones who ARE American citizens, even ones who are sick. How SICK must we be that we’re allowing it? Where is the outrage?? There are so many law breaking injustices but now we’re talking fucking CHILDREN!! CHILDREN!! 🤦♀️ I feel desperate to DO SOMETHING. 😭🤬
About all I can do is write. It feels agonizingly not enough☹️. I am hindered by my age and physical illness. In addition I have a family member who is on hospice laying in a hospital bed in our living room. Who requires a lot of attention and energy at the moment. My body can only be one place at a time but my heart and spirit can be everywhere. I can see Ukrainians (a foreshadowing of our own future?) who one day had a monster roll in and rob them of the life and country they’ve always known. And now it is happening here. We have a minority of people here who are complicit enough with the hate that they’re actually assisting and celebrating the take over. I wonder how many Ukrainians were complicit with Putin and enabled him to destroy their country, kill their loved ones and ruin their lives. 😔 Somehow I doubt there were many.
I thought more of America than this. I’ve admittedly had a lifelong problem because I’m such a ridiculous empath that I have tended to see “the best” in people and give them character traits and pure motivations they never had. Because I didn’t see their anger, hate and disregard of other people’s needs in favor of their own selfish desires. It hasn’t worked out well. For me or my family. I’ve been doing a lot of soul work to try to overcome my avoidance of reality. A lot of which I can attribute to misguided religious teachings. Because we are taught we must ALWAYS forgive we have enabled horrific behaviors IN the church. With no accountability because you know, they’re “Christian’s”. Anyway, I’m realizing I must have a reality check regarding America “the beautiful” now. Embracing reality can be extremely painful.
One of my greatest lessons has involved one word. NO. No is a complete sentence. If we could just unify and say NO and mean it might not be too late.
I admittedly have doubts now though. That will require another huge reality adjustment. There is a saying “we can do this the hard way or the easy way”. I guess America somehow, for some reason, is going to have to learn the hard way. We’d rather erase history and ban books and twist scripture than learn from all the wisdom they could have given us. And how sad is that? 💔
Writing counts. Especially if you are hampered in what you can do in your mobility or energy. I am, too. I choose to write a Substack of my own. You could expand your writing on Facebook or another social media site, on local newspapers, in other publications that are small. Look around. You might surprise yourself. Writing is your voice, and every voice matters.
Thank you Jeanette. You may have noticed I started a Stubstack in February. I was and am so excited by all the different writers a journalists here. Things in my personal life went tipsy turvy. It’s not forever. In the meantime there’s been a lot of trustworthy news, many insights and education and so much encouragement and it’s been sustaining us. I constantly get interrupted while reading and writing responses but it works. So thankful. Thank you for your encouragement - it means a lot during this difficult time. ♥️
You have a tremendous amount on your plate, and my heart goes out to you. We only do what we can do in the moment and let someone else carry on the physical part for us. And forgiveness?? That is a ridiculous concept unless the other person repents. Hang in there, sending love yiur way!
Thank you Lou. Yeah, the whole forgiveness thing is tricky, and wrongly understood it’s downright dangerous. I finally learned that it is good for me to “forgive” in the sense that I don’t harbor it, grow bitter and hateful. But I now counsel people to forgive for the sake of YOUR own soul and spirit but don’t you EVER forget. Remember so you do not put yourself in the way of danger again nor take anyone, especially children, into the presence of sick, perverted, hateful people AND be responsible in warning others.
I also learned that reconciliation is impossible when it’s one sided. If the perpetrator of any kind of hurt refuses to admit wrong, has no remorse, makes no efforts towards reparations then it’s a done deal relationally. And even if they attempt to reconcile they are on probation. Forgiveness NEVER EVER means being okay with evil acts.
I wish I’d understood these things when I was younger. But I know now. I take a lot better care of myself and I’m my own best advocate. This and all my hard experiences make me a pretty darn good advocate for others. 😌 I hate injustice with a passion.
Thank you for hearing my heart today and encouraging me. It means a lot. 😌🙏
As the majority of my friends and family members are some variety of "libs" or at least noncommittal about the battles you describe, I am perhaps blessedly free of the kinds of encounters that are tearing apart those with 'mixed families" right now. Sometime I regret that by avoiding these encounters I'm losing an opportunity to hone and refine my own views, but that might be a luxury in these times. On other occasions I wonder if our separate 'silos' of strongly held opinions might lead to more physical silos, as more and more people retreat into locations where there's a predominance of shared opinions, in which case we might find our country splintering along those lines. It's happened in other countries, after all, and it once happened here, almost. Blood might or might not be shed in the process. But if it does happen, it would be a crying shame. My hope is that as the various inhumane perpectives promulgated by the current radical right inside and outside of this presidential administration come under fire from those of us who don't share those perspectives, the tower of misinformation will totter and fall, followed by a time in which our differing views can be sorted out within the embrace of the law, peacefully, if not always happily.
I just plain reject their arrogance and smug superiority. The good ole boys and their groupies, whether rich or poor, are loving their power at the moment. They’re loving the pain they’re inflicting. BUT it won’t last. There will be lots of work to do to fix their mess after they’re gone. I’m up for the challenge
I'm a white Southerner with large families on both sides, mostly based in Alabama. I've blocked and been blocked by a number of people in my generation (I'm 68) and among the few still living from my parents' generation. I still see them at reunions and we are cordial, but there's an undertone of distrust on both sides over Trump and Trumpism. But the good news is that among relatives from the two to three younger generations on both sides there are many who recognize Trumpism for what it is and are firmly against it. I don't believe my family is unique in this, and my hope is that as the older white Southerners disappear from the scene we'll see the Southern states becoming much more moderate.
This makes me think of the reference in the New Testament Gospels where Jesus defines who his family is. Mark 13:31 ff. (with parallels in Matthew and Luke): "A crowd said to him, 'Your mother and your brothers are outside, asking for you.' And he replied, 'Who are my brother and my brothers? ...Whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother.'" One may find far more moral and spiritual kinship with those who are not biological family but who live inside the same moral vision, as reflected in these 2,000 yr-old texts.
The bedrock of intelligence is being able to reason. Being *reasonable,* therefore, is a sign of intelligence. If your sibling, parent, or grandparent is *unreasonable* ... well, do the math.
The cult of Trump is deadly because not only does it expose profoundly toxic moral shortcomings in those we love who have drunk the Kool-Aid, but also simple bovine stupidity. Being a herd animal comes first to these individuals, and nothing, not even the threat of imminent death, will sway them. I need merely point to the COVID pandemic as proof of that. Many chose (and choose) death rather than the vaccine that would save them.
By definition, you cannot reason with an unreasonable person. Efforts to do so, however noble, are wasted. The civil war you speak of, John, is rooted in bovine stupidity.
This happened to me in 2018. Both parents avid trumpers who repeatedly lectured me for being a progressive Democrat. They cut me off after an argument over school shootings and assault weapons until right before my father's death from covid in 2022, when he left me to care for my mother (who by then had dementia) and brother with schizophrenia. I'm still caring for them. Only Fox News 24 hours a day can keep my mother happy. She no longer remembers their names, but does know she loves trump and hates that ÷&#% Kamala Harris. No point arguing about it now. But I do wonder what I did to deserve this hell at 66 years old.
Yes definitely distanced from a brother who has worked for the republicans party since the 70s. Not sure anything would make him walk away. In 2016 he saw my work on the Hillary campaign as a personal attack on him and has remained feeling that way. It is impossible to be around him or engage in any real conversation. I am one of five and our family has always been very close but his continuing to support this evil I am unable to get past. It is ugly and not sure where this will ever change. For me I cannot understand how maga folks have no line of what they will not accept. One of my relatives believes for him to denounce the actions of this republicans party would cause an existential crisis for him to admit he has been wrong all these years. Somehow the Lincoln project and Liz Cheney have found a way.
I’ve been thinking about July 4 for a while now in terms of rallying. Friday is the 4th and would be properly shared with family and friends and fireworks.
THEN, we hit the streets on Saturday! One main rally in D C with smaller rallies everywhere else. We’ve done the local 50501 rallies on April 5 and 19, so we know we can get the people out to protest. Ask our Democratic politicians to be there.
Yes, I am experiencing exactly what you are describing- and this is totally unlike me to allow this kind of disconnect. A cousin who is a Christian Nationalist, a friend of mine for 20 years whose racial hatred is exposed, a lifelong friend of my husband's for over 60 years - all if these are heartbreaking losses. These fractures are deeply disturbing to me - yet, I don't know what I can do about them. I don't have the bandwidth to deal with this - I am too busy trying to survive in all areas of my life. I am heavily involved in 50501 and this community of like-minded young people has been a boon to me. Fortunately, most of my personal friends and my own immediate family are on the same page.
Move to NYC (not Staten Island or Long Island). My entire neighborhood is pro-Dem and Trump people are hard to find. In general, people in the northeast are better educated and more open minded and even the churches follow that lead. Riverside Church has refused to stop their DEI programs and it got barely a ripple in the news. I have very dear friends who retired to Florida who are big Trump supporters, we just NEVER talk about politics. Some of my family are also (not nearby) and we simply do not discuss things. This is a boundary they respect for the sake of the relationship. I grant that it is hard to be in the presence of people who are speaking nonsense, but you can request the topic be avoided and when it comes up just avoid responding. The point is not to give away your agency to others. Hold your own ground, resist in your own way, and be quiet. That's empowering and it's also your job.
Thanks, Jeannette. My mistake with the 20 year friendship friend was to respond to hear when she browbeated me to tell her my views prior to the election. I begged her for me not to tell her, but she wouldn't relent. So I caved and told her, which i should not have done. I should have stood my ground. Then she misconstrued my words four months later. I was betrayed.
I’m so pleased to read that your core social /family is working toward the same goals. Hence most likely understanding each other’s fragility in other relationships.
A civil disease has permeated our lives. Between the natural process of attrition, a global pandemic, threat of gun or vehicle violence in any crowded situation, and loss of friends and family due to irreconcilable moral and ethical differences, our social circles have gotten smaller and smaller. It's even hard to go out for a walk without questioning whether the neighbor is being patriotic or aggressive in the hanging of their flag, or wondering whether that Tesla driver is still happy with their purchase. Sometimes I question my own sanity. Is all this really happening? Is it really as serious as it feels like it is? Or, have we fallen victim to some mass brainwashing scheme?
I'm super thankful for "The Beautiful Mess". It's reassuring to know that I am not alone or, at least, I'm not the only one suffering from this malady. Here's to a speedy recovery!
My thoughts exactly. I am not crazy, and you are not alone. Every interaction, sadly, has to be filtered and cautiously calculated, looking to determine if I feel safe in the proximity of this person or that neighbor. That is, are they seeing the world the same way I am? Are they endorsing or condemning this regime? If I get a sense they are unsafe, I avoid them. Never in my 59 years of life have I had to navigate inter personal relations on this level. It is exhausting but necessary, like John says, to maintain one's emotional health. I am so thankful for this substack community where I feel seen and heard.
We've gone back to the old advice "Never discuss sex, politics, or religion in polite company." We live in a deep red area. It's not worth attracting the wrong kind of attention at our age.
Unfortunately, for me too. Deep red also means “never Democrats,” thus the endless denial of what they see happening because, never going to support a Democrat.
I do too. So much.
I feel bad about now mistrusting my neighbors or grocery store acquaintances. I’m under doctors orders to wear a mask in public due to a compromised immune system. I inwardly cower at the looks of anger. But I pray about how I’ll handle it if people get verbally aggressive. Such crazy times. 🤷♀️🙏
You are not alone!
Right there with you♥️ I thank God for John Pavlovitz and The Beautiful Mess every day. 🙏 And people like you wherever you are. We are not alone. Jesus never promised us we wouldn’t have trouble. He said we would, but that he would be with us IN it. Like you I have times when I just can’t believe we are here. I get frightened for my young grandchildren because they are less than “perfect” if you know what I mean. Not in any of our eyes of course. They are sweetness and sunshine in our world - our silver and gold. But I know, come what may, the Sweet Spirit will help us. And we’ll help each other. ♥️
I cried as I read this one. It is gut wrenching to acknowledge the truth of your words.
Thank you. It is really important that we validate each other right now in this new world. Your words made me smile...
Yes🙏♥️
I literally can't look at people anymore without wondering which one of them would turn me in to ICE.
I am physically ill reading this morning about deporting little children now - even ones who ARE American citizens, even ones who are sick. How SICK must we be that we’re allowing it? Where is the outrage?? There are so many law breaking injustices but now we’re talking fucking CHILDREN!! CHILDREN!! 🤦♀️ I feel desperate to DO SOMETHING. 😭🤬
About all I can do is write. It feels agonizingly not enough☹️. I am hindered by my age and physical illness. In addition I have a family member who is on hospice laying in a hospital bed in our living room. Who requires a lot of attention and energy at the moment. My body can only be one place at a time but my heart and spirit can be everywhere. I can see Ukrainians (a foreshadowing of our own future?) who one day had a monster roll in and rob them of the life and country they’ve always known. And now it is happening here. We have a minority of people here who are complicit enough with the hate that they’re actually assisting and celebrating the take over. I wonder how many Ukrainians were complicit with Putin and enabled him to destroy their country, kill their loved ones and ruin their lives. 😔 Somehow I doubt there were many.
I thought more of America than this. I’ve admittedly had a lifelong problem because I’m such a ridiculous empath that I have tended to see “the best” in people and give them character traits and pure motivations they never had. Because I didn’t see their anger, hate and disregard of other people’s needs in favor of their own selfish desires. It hasn’t worked out well. For me or my family. I’ve been doing a lot of soul work to try to overcome my avoidance of reality. A lot of which I can attribute to misguided religious teachings. Because we are taught we must ALWAYS forgive we have enabled horrific behaviors IN the church. With no accountability because you know, they’re “Christian’s”. Anyway, I’m realizing I must have a reality check regarding America “the beautiful” now. Embracing reality can be extremely painful.
One of my greatest lessons has involved one word. NO. No is a complete sentence. If we could just unify and say NO and mean it might not be too late.
I admittedly have doubts now though. That will require another huge reality adjustment. There is a saying “we can do this the hard way or the easy way”. I guess America somehow, for some reason, is going to have to learn the hard way. We’d rather erase history and ban books and twist scripture than learn from all the wisdom they could have given us. And how sad is that? 💔
Writing counts. Especially if you are hampered in what you can do in your mobility or energy. I am, too. I choose to write a Substack of my own. You could expand your writing on Facebook or another social media site, on local newspapers, in other publications that are small. Look around. You might surprise yourself. Writing is your voice, and every voice matters.
Thank you Jeanette. You may have noticed I started a Stubstack in February. I was and am so excited by all the different writers a journalists here. Things in my personal life went tipsy turvy. It’s not forever. In the meantime there’s been a lot of trustworthy news, many insights and education and so much encouragement and it’s been sustaining us. I constantly get interrupted while reading and writing responses but it works. So thankful. Thank you for your encouragement - it means a lot during this difficult time. ♥️
so have I written my own substack: @TrustTerry. Check it out.
I will check it out☺️
You have a tremendous amount on your plate, and my heart goes out to you. We only do what we can do in the moment and let someone else carry on the physical part for us. And forgiveness?? That is a ridiculous concept unless the other person repents. Hang in there, sending love yiur way!
Thank you Lou. Yeah, the whole forgiveness thing is tricky, and wrongly understood it’s downright dangerous. I finally learned that it is good for me to “forgive” in the sense that I don’t harbor it, grow bitter and hateful. But I now counsel people to forgive for the sake of YOUR own soul and spirit but don’t you EVER forget. Remember so you do not put yourself in the way of danger again nor take anyone, especially children, into the presence of sick, perverted, hateful people AND be responsible in warning others.
I also learned that reconciliation is impossible when it’s one sided. If the perpetrator of any kind of hurt refuses to admit wrong, has no remorse, makes no efforts towards reparations then it’s a done deal relationally. And even if they attempt to reconcile they are on probation. Forgiveness NEVER EVER means being okay with evil acts.
I wish I’d understood these things when I was younger. But I know now. I take a lot better care of myself and I’m my own best advocate. This and all my hard experiences make me a pretty darn good advocate for others. 😌 I hate injustice with a passion.
Thank you for hearing my heart today and encouraging me. It means a lot. 😌🙏
Forgiveness is best for the forgiver’s soul and well-being. But it is NOT (or ever was) sanction of the offense.
As the majority of my friends and family members are some variety of "libs" or at least noncommittal about the battles you describe, I am perhaps blessedly free of the kinds of encounters that are tearing apart those with 'mixed families" right now. Sometime I regret that by avoiding these encounters I'm losing an opportunity to hone and refine my own views, but that might be a luxury in these times. On other occasions I wonder if our separate 'silos' of strongly held opinions might lead to more physical silos, as more and more people retreat into locations where there's a predominance of shared opinions, in which case we might find our country splintering along those lines. It's happened in other countries, after all, and it once happened here, almost. Blood might or might not be shed in the process. But if it does happen, it would be a crying shame. My hope is that as the various inhumane perpectives promulgated by the current radical right inside and outside of this presidential administration come under fire from those of us who don't share those perspectives, the tower of misinformation will totter and fall, followed by a time in which our differing views can be sorted out within the embrace of the law, peacefully, if not always happily.
I just plain reject their arrogance and smug superiority. The good ole boys and their groupies, whether rich or poor, are loving their power at the moment. They’re loving the pain they’re inflicting. BUT it won’t last. There will be lots of work to do to fix their mess after they’re gone. I’m up for the challenge
I'm a white Southerner with large families on both sides, mostly based in Alabama. I've blocked and been blocked by a number of people in my generation (I'm 68) and among the few still living from my parents' generation. I still see them at reunions and we are cordial, but there's an undertone of distrust on both sides over Trump and Trumpism. But the good news is that among relatives from the two to three younger generations on both sides there are many who recognize Trumpism for what it is and are firmly against it. I don't believe my family is unique in this, and my hope is that as the older white Southerners disappear from the scene we'll see the Southern states becoming much more moderate.
This makes me think of the reference in the New Testament Gospels where Jesus defines who his family is. Mark 13:31 ff. (with parallels in Matthew and Luke): "A crowd said to him, 'Your mother and your brothers are outside, asking for you.' And he replied, 'Who are my brother and my brothers? ...Whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother.'" One may find far more moral and spiritual kinship with those who are not biological family but who live inside the same moral vision, as reflected in these 2,000 yr-old texts.
The bedrock of intelligence is being able to reason. Being *reasonable,* therefore, is a sign of intelligence. If your sibling, parent, or grandparent is *unreasonable* ... well, do the math.
The cult of Trump is deadly because not only does it expose profoundly toxic moral shortcomings in those we love who have drunk the Kool-Aid, but also simple bovine stupidity. Being a herd animal comes first to these individuals, and nothing, not even the threat of imminent death, will sway them. I need merely point to the COVID pandemic as proof of that. Many chose (and choose) death rather than the vaccine that would save them.
By definition, you cannot reason with an unreasonable person. Efforts to do so, however noble, are wasted. The civil war you speak of, John, is rooted in bovine stupidity.
The herd is all.
And they call us "Libs" sheeple!
So deeply grateful for the work you do here. Thank you. 💛
This happened to me in 2018. Both parents avid trumpers who repeatedly lectured me for being a progressive Democrat. They cut me off after an argument over school shootings and assault weapons until right before my father's death from covid in 2022, when he left me to care for my mother (who by then had dementia) and brother with schizophrenia. I'm still caring for them. Only Fox News 24 hours a day can keep my mother happy. She no longer remembers their names, but does know she loves trump and hates that ÷&#% Kamala Harris. No point arguing about it now. But I do wonder what I did to deserve this hell at 66 years old.
Yes definitely distanced from a brother who has worked for the republicans party since the 70s. Not sure anything would make him walk away. In 2016 he saw my work on the Hillary campaign as a personal attack on him and has remained feeling that way. It is impossible to be around him or engage in any real conversation. I am one of five and our family has always been very close but his continuing to support this evil I am unable to get past. It is ugly and not sure where this will ever change. For me I cannot understand how maga folks have no line of what they will not accept. One of my relatives believes for him to denounce the actions of this republicans party would cause an existential crisis for him to admit he has been wrong all these years. Somehow the Lincoln project and Liz Cheney have found a way.
The loudest civil wars were fought with muskets and cannons.
This one is fought with blocked numbers, unopened texts, and the slow ghosting of souls.
And maybe—maybe—that’s a hidden mercy.
Because some relationships weren’t severed by politics.
Politics just gave the blade a name.
There’s something sacred about walking away when the price of staying is your sanity.
There’s something holy about choosing a chosen family over a bloodline drunk on cruelty.
They say silence is violence, but sometimes silence is survival.
Sometimes it’s the last sacrament before resurrection.
To all who are navigating the Great Pulling Away:
May your empty tables be altars of peace, not tombs of regret.
You are not alone in the quiet.
— Virgin Monk Boy
🙏thank you♥️
Exquisitely written, Alexander. Words cannot express my profound gratitude.
Lou,
Thank you, fellow traveler.
When words fall short, it's usually because something real slipped through the cracks and touched the marrow.
May the quiet spaces between us be full of unseen hands holding the thread.
We walk each other home, one wild, beautiful silence at a time.
—Virgin Monk Boy
I’ve been thinking about July 4 for a while now in terms of rallying. Friday is the 4th and would be properly shared with family and friends and fireworks.
THEN, we hit the streets on Saturday! One main rally in D C with smaller rallies everywhere else. We’ve done the local 50501 rallies on April 5 and 19, so we know we can get the people out to protest. Ask our Democratic politicians to be there.
GET PEOPLE OUT!! On the streets.
Well how about we chat on the Capitol Steps
About 830 I happened upon this ongoing chat on the Capitol steps...this is exactly what we need at 7 am EST on Sun morning...
The Capitol Steps of course are that humor/singing group...later on Bishop Barber also spoke...
https://www.youtube.com/live/5ceR90lihX8?si=0Bh9DY8qOUXBMKKJ