TODAY
I tell my writing students to write what they would like to come upon, so I have jotted down what I would like to come upon today, so that you will either write it, or direct me to someone who can express these themes much better than I. Of course, it is tempting to fixate on the appalling videos on cable news, and I do, but this is, at least in my case, cobra hypnosis. What we need now is for more and more people to awaken to what is going on.
Evil: I would like to come upon someone with rich theological insight to address the question of evil, by which I mean cruelty, stupidity, and brutality. It’s not going to be me; I’m a recently retired Sunday School teacher. My best ideas are to hug my kids, get them juice boxes, and have them make beautiful cards to send to the families of the slain. So I’d like to come upon practical operating instructions.
Okay, obviously we stay nonviolent, we show up, tell the truth; we stand in the streets peacefully with signs, hold people accountable, and still protect ourselves the best we can. We do this one day at a time—rest is a sacred act. You don't want the evil to overwhelm you. But we keep going. We never give up on Goodness, on Grace batting last.
(Molly Ivins and George Carlin would know what to do. It is so hard to get through these times without them, but St.George said something about evil that helps: “May the forces of evil become confused on the way to your house.” May evil look at you in your mom jeans or telling your terrible dad jokes, rolls its eyes and go looking elsewhere.)
Also, again, in the face of the rising and increasingly fascistic face of repression, we show up. 80% of life is just showing up. We confuse evil by looking like who we are, peaceful and decent and ordinary, in sensible shoes. Like public school teachers, and grandparents. (My favorite sign at the first No Kings rally was, “Now you’ve pissed off the grandmothers.”) You draw more and more people in to resisting evil, maybe those neighbors who voted for Trump but see that Preddi was brandishing a phone before he was shot in the back of the head. You help more and more ordinary people resist, the way that you wish the Germans might have.
I would like someone to write about how if you were in a story conference for a screenplay, working on a fictionalized version of the Minneapolis border patrol who shot and killed two people, one with the last name Good, and the other with the last name Pretti, other writers would say, "No, you can’t use that.You’re overloading it. Too obvious.”
I don't think these killings bothers the White House at all. I think they figured that Good and Pretti were expandable— they're white, they shouldn't have even been there. They're hoping their supporters will close their eyes, and not say anything, as long as Trump does what he promised them and just round up the brown ones.
It’s all about Trump exercising power. and making more money for his family and friends. Maybe that sounds harsh but it is really not about anything else. So far, he has made $1.4 billion for his family so far this term. To me, that would be enough, but then again, I shop at eBay. However, our job isn't to argue with evil right now. It's to reinforce the impulses of decent and good people, including people who voted for Trump, but for whom the killing of the innocent, and the detainment of five-year-olds in bunny hats, will prick the conscience. Stephen Miller’s hope is in the ability to convince or scare people into believing that nothing one can do is going to change anything. But it will. Peaceful mass movements are the way.
Look at Selma. Look at how we stopped the Vietnam War.
I would like one of you to write, gently but convincingly, that the violence and murders being perpetuated by ICE and Border Patrol are all in the service of Trump canceling the midterms. Trump wants to call an national emergency, so he doesn't have to have an election in November. Then he can have the army in the streets. (See? When I try to write about this, I sounds nuts, and perhaps a little paranoid, like dear old Richard Nixon. So please, someone else take this.)
Remember what Gandhi wrote: "When I despair, I remember that all through history the way of truth and love have always won. There have been tyrants and murderers, and for a time, they can seem invincible, but in the end, they always fall. Think of it--always."
Always. So please, get to work. Thanks and love.
Thank you for the prompt and inspiration, may I share my thoughts here?
When my son Davis was little, he had a meltdown because I wouldn’t let him play a video game.
We had to leave where we were, and he did not accept this as a reasonable limit set by a loving adult. His face turned red, his fists tightened, and he threw himself into the tragedy of disappointment like a tiny actor who believed the world should bend to his feelings—immediately—or it wasn’t the world at all.
I remember standing there with that specific parenting exhaustion: part embarrassment, part grief, part determination. Not because he was bad, but because he was human. And because learning to live inside boundaries—inside truth, inside the word no—is part of learning how to live among other people.
That memory returns now as we watch power try to escape the most basic boundary of all: accountability.
There is a dangerous irony in an administration labeling an unarmed citizen a “domestic terrorist” while using gaslighting and claims of immunity to evade the rule of law. Blocking state investigations is not public safety—it is coercion. It is the abusive logic of deny, distort, intimidate, demand compliance. It is rewriting reality and asking the rest of us to repeat it back like a pledge.
And what makes it worse is the costume cruelty wears.
It wraps itself in Christianity and the flag. It calls itself strength. It calls itself patriotism. But Christianity was never meant to be a weapon, and patriotism is not worshiping power. Patriotism is loving your country enough to demand decency from it. It is insisting that the law protects everyone—or it protects no one.
I keep thinking of Bavano’s speech about choices: we all get choices, and we do have consequences. That’s true in a family, and it’s true in a nation. Leaders choose whether they will govern with restraint or cruelty. Citizens choose whether they will look away or tell the truth. Institutions choose whether they will enforce the law or excuse the powerful.
And when the choice to be cruel and mean becomes prevalent—when contempt becomes policy and humiliation becomes entertainment—that should be met with actions, too.
Not violence. Not hysteria. Action that is disciplined and lawful: voting, organizing, donating, showing up, documenting, refusing to normalize abuse, refusing to repeat lies just because they’re loud.
Like a parent in the doorway, steady and clear, we can say: I know you’re angry. The answer is still no.
No one is above the law.
No one is beneath dignity.
And we are not too far gone to choose decency—if we choose it now.
Just finished the Southern Lights Conference. Jemar Tisby Spoke. Go look at the history of the black church for what to do. American Black people have lived under authoritarian rule for 250 years. The Nazi took the rules against Jews from Jim Crow era American Jurisprudence. That is a fact. MAGA loves Trump because he hates who they hate.
Do what is right and loving