Despite Congress passing legislation saying all Epstein files should be released, the DOJ now says that having released 3 of the 6 million pages they’re done and they’re moving on.
The worst part of this isn’t that we will not see more Epstein files. The worst part is that the administration simply doesn’t care what Congress says. They have proven this before, not distributing money Congress allocated. Plus they ignore judicial orders. They’re loud and proud about overriding two co-equal branches of government when it suits them.
It’s unreasonable to assume their new “holding camps” are intended only for undocumented people, either. They plan to use them for whomever they damn well please. “So what do we need to do?” is not the first question to ask ourselves, but rather “What do we need to realize?” When enough Americans realize what’s actually happening - and we are starting to - we will rise into a mighty force of nonviolent democratic resistance.
A totalitarian coup is in full swing in the United States of America today. The most important thing for each of us is to process for ourselves what that means. Each of us faces an existential question: Will I be a victim of this madness, or a transformer? Can we find the clarity, patriotism, and conviction to say in our time, as our forefathers said in theirs, that freedom is not negotiable? May we too, “with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence,” make clear that no kings or tyrants will be tolerated here.
“A firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence” wasn’t just words to them, and they don’t have to be to us.
Americans are good with a to-do list. It’s in our national character to want action items. “Just tell us what to do, and we’ll we do it.” We’re particularly fond of quick fixes.
But unfortunately, there is no quick fix for what ails us now, no tidy invasive measures that will excise the disease. Unlike with the Nazis in WW2, we’re not dealing here with an operable tumor. It’s more like a cancer that has metastasized. It will require a multidimensional approach to root out the political disease in our midst. The integration of body, mind and spirit applies to society as much as to the human body. Political healing is a thing.
Atoning for soulless economic and military policies that have caused so much pain and suffering here and around the world - all in the name of our “national interest,” of course! - will be essential to our healing. Recognizing how much we betrayed our own values and ideals as a nation - all in the name of “prosperity,” of course! - will be essential to our healing. Admitting to ourselves how we surrendered our own critical thinking to let so many of those things happen - naively trusting in “people who know what they’re talking about,” of course! - will be essential to our healing.
We the People must do our inner work if we’re to transform what’s happening. The outer is merely a reflection of the inner - the world a reflection of our state of consciousness - in the life of a nation as in the life of an individual.
American history is one of the greatest stories of the modern world. Yet far too many Americans have a shallow, propaganda-laden understanding of our history. Many on the Right think we’ve never done anything wrong and too many on the Left think we’ve never done anything right. The truth is so much deeper than either such simplistic versions of our story. In truth, from our inception, we’ve demonstrated both the best and the worst that humanity has had to offer. The power and glory of our history lie in how courageous individuals, generation after generation, have made sure that where we’d gotten things wrong we ultimately made them right.
Those individuals knew where they stood in the larger arc of America’s story, and too many of us today do not. It’s hard to know where to go when you don’t know where you came from or even how you got here. America, we have some thinking to do. Anyone who believes we can rescue our democracy from the clutches of totalitarianism without taking a good look in the mirror is fooling themselves.
Accumulated layers of unprincipled behavior over decades and longer can no longer be glossed over. A transactional politics of let’s-just-treat-the-symptom, short term profit and corrupt deal-making is what got us into this mess. Only a principled politics of historical understanding, psychological insight and moral authority will get us out of it.
I’ve had a long career sitting with people who had gone to the lawyer, accountant, or other worldly consultant and gotten bad news. Now they were ready to dig deep, to do the work of admitting to themselves how things had gotten messed up so badly, beginning at last the journey to redemption and rebirth. What’s happening to us politically is no different; it wasn’t external but rather internal factors that preceded our fall. Once you let anything eclipse your principles you’re headed down - as an individual or as a nation. As soon as Americans were willing to deviate from our most cherished principles of liberty and justice for all, making the “businessman” our false god, it was inevitable that the most perverse and unprincipled version of one would arise from the dung heap of our shattered ideals.
Yes, our principles have been eclipsed - but they are not dead. They’re simply buried beneath layers of ethical compromise. We can still reclaim them. In truth, we will be a better nation for having gone through what we are going through now. In our arrogance and sense of entitlement, we became blind to the things that matter most. We’re being humbled now, and while this is deeply painful it will ultimately do us good.
Every history book we read; every Ken Burns documentary we watch; every illusion we give up that the elite guardians of the political status quo had a clue what they were doing - will take us closer to an enlightened understanding of where we’ve been and where we are. That understanding is the medicine we need. The work of looking at all this can’t be done on the streets, or even in the voting booth; it can only be done in our hearts and minds.
From a deeper level of understanding comes a more powerful state of being. The activism that will lead to our national recovery is both internal and external (my books Healing the Soul of America and The Politics of Love both deal with this). We need to be spiritual-political athletes now. This means recognizing that the purification of our hearts is essential to our capacity to truly change anything, because everything we do is infused with the consciousness with which we do it. It also means rocking it when and if ICE comes to town. It means showing up for all of it - not on some days, but every day. It means creating content, reading and sharing articles, hosting or joining a book club, training in non-violence, meditating, organizing in your community, calling your Congresspeople, praying, forgiving, atoning, supporting campaigns, posting the good stuff and refusing to look away. The combination of those powers is what will part the sea. We need a spiritual as well as a political renaissance. It means remembering there are millions of people who feel as you do and we are joined as by a silver filament. This filament is strengthened by any action anyone takes to elevate the conversation about saving our democracy. It means refusing to surrender our democracy to tyrants, yet refusing to hate those who hate us. It means taking care of yourself so you’re spiritually, mentally and physically prepared for the marathon that lies ahead.
Our principles are our power, and unless they’re emblazoned on our hearts we are vulnerable to attack. It was our diminished devotion to our own First Principles, more than any external factor, that let the modern barbarians through the gates of the city. Our country was founded on the audacious proposition that all men are created equal, endowed by their Creator with the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness - the right to actualize our God-given potential however we see fit, without interference from tyrants or kings. And once again, as in Lincoln’s words, we’re “testing whether … any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure.”
We’ve been blessed throughout our history because we were devoted to being a blessing. Without that devotion we sacrificed the blessings so often poured forth upon us, and now we are where we are. Yet all this will change when we are willing to change. The laws of consciousness are fixed and unalterable. Reclaiming our principles we will reclaim our blessings. Then we’ll see a miracle and all will be well.
As the Dalai Lama shared at 90 in his recent movie; Compassion is the way. Evolution only brings us closer to the unified field of Love.
ah.... I keep sighing. I keep crying. I keep laughing and rising and falling and knowing we will get through this but F-K!!! It is painful. AND I'm reminded of being a girl in the 60's when the greatest leaders were being assassinated and hearing my parents weep... and not understanding. And now I do.
Marianne,
I am truly so glad that you are alive in this time. You are one of America’s (I’d say, the world’s) guiding lights. I know that you will not take this in from an egoic perspective. Thank you so much for giving us the “to do” list: “Create content; read and share articles; join a book club; train in non-violence; meditate; organize in your community; call your Congresspeople; pray; forgive; atone (Yom Kippur, anyone??); support campaigns; post the good stuff and refuse to look away. The combination of these powers is what will part the sea.” Your neshama/soul is so Jewish, and so universal. Me, personally, I’m active with (in) Swing Left; Bend The Arc; and, Indivisible. I am canvassing with Ground Truth/Swing Left. I read, daily, you; Robert Reich; Nachum Kaplan; Heather Cox-Richardson, and Thom Hartmann. I pray; I davven. I’m learning how to take care of my neshama. I’m also reading at the moment, “Einstein and the Rabbi”, by Rabbi Naomi Levy. I see you’ve written a huge endorsement for Rabbi Levy’s book. I’m so grateful that you are one of my teachers and guides. Todah Rabbah, Baruch HaShem, thank you, and God bless you. God bless humanity. We need the blessing and the hope.