… it’s time to STOP in the name of Love
By the end of the new administration’s first week in power, I was feeling the sting of whiplash and exhaustion. My Big Girl underpants were drooping and I found myself where I always find myself when things get really bad … in the kitchen making soup. When my body gets tired to the point of feeling mangled, I need the magical fragrance of fresh-made chicken stock packed with celery, onions, carrots and a dozen bay leaves simmering in the crockpot overnight to waft its way into my sleep and feed my dreams with what I’ve come to think of as cellular comfort; my beloved Little Gramma’s formula for both physical and psychic pain relief. It works for me and I’m hoping that you too have a formula or a ritual that works for you. I see a lot of soup in my near future, with friends around the table to share it with.
As Joy Harjo reminds us in her beautiful poem, Perhaps the World Ends Here, The world begins at a kitchen table. No matter what, we must eat to live … Our dreams drink coffee with us as they put their arms around our children. They laugh with us at our poor falling-down selves and as we put ourselves back together once again at the table … It is a place to hide in the shadow of terror. A place to celebrate the terrible victory … At this table we sing with joy, with sorrow. We pray of suffering and remorse. We give thanks.
But I digress … or maybe not. We’re back to the intersection, clearly marked by two “C” words, both of them contagious. Which one will you catch? The STOP Sign looms large.
While there’s been plenty of capitulation, even before the fact, on the part of elected officials who seem to be stumbling around without a spine and ordinary citizens whose fear and despair have taken over their actions, there are still plenty of unsung heroes who have stood up this week and spoken truth to power … and the list continues to grow. Here are a few of my favorites. Feel free to add some of yours in the Comments.

Let’s start with Episcopal Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde who, a day after the newly installed president signed a plethora of executive orders flaunting his power, unflinchingly addressed his cruelty, from the pulpit. If you watched the swearing in, you may have noticed as he promised to faithfully uphold the Constitution of the United States, he could not seem to bring himself to place his right hand on the bible held by his wife. I couldn’t help but wonder if he might have been a tiny bit afraid that if indeed there is one or more Just and Merciful Gods, they might send a bolt of lightning his way if he did.
If you missed the intrepid Rachel Maddow’s interview with Bishop Budde and your heart would like some warming, you are welcome to watch it here.
I learned something about Abraham Lincoln this week. Did you know that as a newly-minted lawyer in the year 1838, the young man who would one day be the 16th President of the United States gave a speech to the movers and shakers of the time, in which he said “Let reverence for the laws become the Political Religion of the nation”? Hmmnn. An interesting concept. You might want to look it up.
Whether Political Religion has been or ever will become a thing, there is no doubt that organized religion continues to play a major role in the lives of many Americans. At its best it provides a community of comfort and care and a sense of being part of something greater than oneself. At its worst, well … The Interfaith Immigration Coalition is the largest faith-based coalition focused on immigration justice in the country, and it is outraged by the attack on immigrants, asylum seekers, and refugees from the deluge of harmful Executive Orders released in the first two days of the Trump Administration, many of which are clearly unconstitutional.
In a January 23rd Press Release bearing the long title, Faith Communities Across Traditions Tell the Trump Administration to Follow God’s Directives to Welcome Immigrants, the Coalition declared: As people of faith, we are committed to following our sacred texts and traditions that call on us to welcome immigrants and love our neighbors. Over the next four years, we will continue to follow a higher calling, and to ensure that we lift up a prophetic voice of hope and love in the midst of the rhetoric of fear and hate that has overtaken our politics. I invite and encourage you to take a few minutes to look at 15 of the 56 Coalition members responses to that higher calling, boldly and courageously speaking their truth to power.
To be fair, even though the National Association of Evangelicals is not part of the Coalition, they too have responded to the Executive Orders using words like these: While the NAE has long supported proposals to strengthen border security and uphold the rule of law, some of the administration’s immigration proposals go beyond border security, including policies that risk leading to family separation and a near-total ban on resettlement of refugees who are thoroughly vetted. Read their entire response here.
If you’re looking for something helpful that you can do right now where you are, consider ordering these cards (or printing your own) and gifting them to those for whom they are meant, whether directly or through your church, school, or workplace. Red Cards can be placed outside the door of homes where ICE might be making a call, designed to help them understand why no one is answering their knock.
And then the Confirmation Hearings … First came Shock at the number of nominees totally unqualified for positions carrying tremendous responsibility and requiring enormous sensitivity, only to be followed by the dark side of Awe at their acceptance by a cowering crowd of cowards tripping over themselves in their eagerness to capitulate. It would have only taken one more vote to prevent what happened from happening. Too little too late. Who’s next?
I’m writing this on Wednesday, January 29th and it’s hard to tear myself away from the coverage of the first RFK Jr session. By the time these Light Waves get to your inbox, the decision will most likely have already been made. And maybe the other two as well. All it takes is four Real Republicans (remember them?) to do the next right thing. We’ll see.
But … speaking of women of courage, I must point you next in the direction of Caroline Kennedy, who I remember as the little girl who in late November of 1963, held tight to her mommy’s hand as her even littler brother saluted the passing horse-drawn carriage that carried their daddy’s body. If you’re not familiar with that iconic photo, you can see it here. And I have never forgotten the image of her mommy still wearing that blood-stained pink suit at the end of that terrible day, November 22, 1963, telling the new First Lady, Lady Bird Johnson, No, she wasn’t ready to change her clothes yet because she “wanted them to see what they’d done to Jack.”
The ’60s were a tumultuous decade in which Civil Rights both came to life and took a brutal beating. I knew very little about politics then, busy as I was being Mommy to five little kids, all under the age of eight. I didn’t have much time to think about the eight assassinations that happened within a space of six years … only a kind of inner knowing that the times were indeed changing. Civil Rights Activist Medgar Evers, President John F. Kennedy, Michael Goodwin and Andrew Schwerner (both Freedom Riders), Malcom X (spokesman for the Nation of Islam), Martin Luther King, Jr, Robert F. Kennedy (presidential candidate) and finally Fred Hampton, 21-year-old Chairman of the Black Panther Party, who was killed in an FBI raid. I knew little about most of them, but I knew who the Kennedys were.

As a member of that sprawling, close-knit clan, Caroline Kennedy’s letter urging the Senate to not confirm her cousin “Bobby” as the Secretary of Health & Human Services not only demonstrates her tremendous courage, but her deep love of Democracy as well. If you didn’t get to see her reading it aloud on The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell, you can watch it here. And while we’re at it, let’s give Lawrence his due. Courageous journalism, when it happens, is worthy of commendation.
There is so much more I’d like to speak to here, but maybe this is enough for now … except to mention Michelle Obama and Karen Pence. Showing up is important, but sometimes not showing up is the more courageous act, don’t you think? And sometimes you just have to walk away … like CNN’s Jim Acosta and the Washington Post’s Jennifer Rubin.
I’d like to recommend two books that I’ve just become familiar with. The first is Bishop Budde’s How We Learn to be Brave and the second I learned about from Ali Velshi’s Banned Book Club. It’s The Consequences, a powerful collection of 10 short stories by Manuel Munoz about migrant workers in California. I’d love a chance to talk with you about them. Just let me know.
You didn’t think I’d leave you without a song, did you? Here’s another of my favorites from Leonard Cohen, Democracy is Coming to the USA. May it be so!
Until next time, when I look forward to featuring two very provocative pieces, I invite you to breathe into this from Indian author activist, Arundhati Roy.
With Blessings on Us All, Everywhere, Everyone,
Sulima
Thanks so much for a wonderful post. I especially appreciate the links to things we might want to hear or see again. I will revisit some, if not all.
Looking forward to some soup, soon.
Love from one Rascal to another!