What will you be celebrating while Project 2025 with its garish display of Toxic Masculinity and Fascist Theatrics makes a mockery of America’s military on the streets of our nation’s Capitol? Community? Love? Solidarity?
Amazingly, there will be more than 1,000 opportunities to demonstrate Love in Action, which according to Fydor Dostoyevsky, can be a harsh and dreadful thing compared to love in dreams. But really, though … what if they gave a parade and nobody came?
What if, instead, the vast majority of We the People chose to be out there in just about every other city, town, and village in the country offering living proof that Hope is not Dead and that Love for each other still prevails. What if we could pause for just a couple of minutes to breathe in the words of this simple hymn … or these words from Ocean Vuong, taken from Krista Tippet’s new Hope Portal … “I want to take off the shoes of my voice so that I can enter a place with care – so that I can do the work that I need to do.” Hmmnn. I like to think I am learning what it feels like to take off the shoes of my voice. You too?
Remember a few months ago when we met at the intersection of Courage & Capitulation? Seems like we’re approaching that same intersection again and probably not for the last time. The choice, Dear Friends, continues to be ours. We can fall for the shitshow that’s happening in Los Angeles designed to keep us from paying attention to things like RFKjr’s removal of all 17 members of the CDC Vaccine Advisory Panel and Pete Hegseth’s move to rename 8 Naval ships whose namesakes don’t happen to be straight white men … American heroes like Harvey Milk, Harriet Tubman, Thurgood Marshall, and Ruth Bader Ginsburg. And of course there’s still that pesky Big Bad Grift trying to happen on the Hill that they’d rather we not keep calling our senators about OR we can stand up and say “No Thank You! No Kings in my country. Not in my Name.”
If you’ve been following me for a while you know that I appreciate much of what Thom Hartmann has to say. So … to keep myself from rambling on and overstaying my welcome in your busy day and limited attention span, I’m going to close this post by pointing you in the direction of the Hartmann Report’s Daily Take from June 4th about how ordinary Americans became numb to authoritarianism – step by chilling step. I encourage you to take the time to read it and this letter from Indivisible, titled “What is protest going to accomplish (re: No Kings)”.
And let’s not overlook the good news … Kilmar Abrago Garcia is back home in Maryland, and Ming Li Hui (Carol from John’s Pancake & Waffle House) in Kennett, Missouri, and Massachusetts high school student Marcelo Gomes da Silva, thanks to the undaunting efforts of so many. The list is growing. This too, is happening … Get Up. Stand Up. Everything comes next.
Until next time …
Love, Sulima
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