This feels like a watershed moment.
A lot of times we don’t really get something until it hits us right in the face. Millions of Americans who regularly watched Jimmy Kimmel have just been hit in the face.
What a chilling line this is, coming from a U.S. President: “Congratulations ABC for finally having the courage to do what had to be done.” The COURAGE to do WHAT HAD TO BE DONE?
If suppressing free speech and shredding the U.S. Constitution takes “courage,” then we’re living in a whole new world.
From Pam Bondi saying “we’re coming after you” if you cross the line (which apparently only she gets to establish) from free speech to hate speech; to Team Trump getting Steven Colbert and now Jimmy Kimmel fired, and the President posting that Jimmy Fallon and Seth Meyers should be next - no matter what your politics, you should be alarmed.
People often say we need to seek “common ground.” But the most important common ground is not on the level of policy: it’s our common adherence to the U.S. Constitution and the principles of the Declaration of Independence. The good news is this: many conservatives as well as liberals are upset by how this administration so casually dismisses the First Amendment.
The First Amendment protects us all. This President does not.
On an external level, what Trump has done and is doing to this country is beyond what any of us thought possible. For those of us who believe in the basic tenets of American democracy this is beyond our worst nightmares. He is chipping away at our freedoms, from due process to free speech. He is militarizing cities, extorting businesses, controlling cultural institutions. His personal paramilitary is terrorizing immigrants, grabbing innocent people and throwing them into concentration camps. The Supreme Court and Congress are giving him permission to do all of it. And he is threatening much more to come.
But I say it’s getting worse “on the external level” because internally he cannot touch us unless we allow him to. In many ways, he is waking us up. Millions of people who hadn’t really thought about what freedom means, much less what it means to them personally, are thinking about it now.
The next No Kings Protest is on October 18th, and it needs to be massive. We need many millions of people to pour onto the streets of America, in a nonviolent show of extraordinary citizen power. See it in your mind’s eye as a sea of patriotism and love.
Pray it will be peaceful. Plan for it to be amazing. And remember you’re not alone. You’re part of an invisible army of decent souls.
In the meantime, of course this is hard.
Watching an entire rules-based order being demolished by such unworthy characters, right in front of our eyes, is soul-shattering. At times you feel motivated to push back, at other times the awfulness of the whole thing hits you like a ton of bricks. That’s normal. The entire situation is an assault on our nervous system. Don’t blame yourself for feeling exhausted, or scared, or depressed about it all. When you feel such overwhelm, take a break and rest up. Prayer and meditation will help you adapt to the moment.
We will endure. Love will prevail. But we cannot give up.
PRAYER FOR THE EXHAUSTED
Dear God,
We surrender to You this difficult moment.
Pour forth Your spirit on our country and the world.
Lift our minds and hearts above the chaos.
Pour forth Your spirit on all of us,
and guide our feet to better days.
Amen.
I was at the last no Kings Day protest in Downtown LA - I’d flown in from Auckland. I was waving a Latino flag. Suddenly everybody ran away saying they were going to throw tear gas. The protesters had warned me but I didn’t believe them. Because it was such a beautiful day – such a well run protest, a peaceful protest. I had faith in your officials.
However the protesters had been right and my naivety in the American way of life was wrong. I found myself in a white cloud, I couldn’t breathe, I was told to run by fellow protesters but couldn’t get my legs to move because I didn’t have any breath. My eyes were streaming. I fell to the ground. I was picked up by a group of protesters who ran with me. Then when they couldn’t run any longer a person who had been in the military (turned protester thank God) picked me up and fire-man lifted me for another hundred yards running as fast as he possibly could. Nothing was done or said in the media about this.
Thank God for those protesters. I hope one of you is reading this now or will in the future. But we need numbers. I came from 11 hours away because I felt a calling to be there for your country and the immigrants in the ICE protests. It was not my country. Please be there for your own country. And I know it’s hard But please do not look away.
What exactly is he doing differently from an enemy intent on destroying this country? He is spending money like a drunken fool, blowing through our military budget by these unnecessary deployments and using bombs to kill likely innocent people when all it required at most was a traffic stop? How does blowing through our military budget and creating new enemies make us safer? Taking bribes, making billions in a crypto currency side business, stepping in to silence comedians, the Johnny Carsons of our day, all things a ruthless fascist intent on destroying the economy, safety, and character of a nation would do. This isn't leadership, it's destruction. He doesn't belong in the presidency and those keeping him there don't belong in their jobs. Jimmy Kimmel and Stephen Colbert do belong in theirs and it's overreaching for a president to have any say about that whatsoever.