Yesterday, the lovely Latina woman who cleans our house came for the first time since before Thanksgiving. I asked her if she and her family would be safe under the new president. She winced and shrugged her shoulders. Then I told her we could help her ($$$) if they needed it and that she should text me if anything happened. Then we both started to cry.
Jess, I feel for you. I hope we can all remember this: Just because old institutions fail (and fall) doesn't mean that new institutions can't (and won't) rise to replace them. We may be witnessing the dissolution of the country we knew. But that doesn't mean we can't organize to build a better future. The light may dim in the places we're used to looking...but we can build a new collection of fires, around which we gather, and link them together...
Thanks, Jess and Don. I was in Jeff City yesterday meeting with my representative, Speaker Patterson, and senator, Mike Cierpoit about defending Amendment 3. And I’ll be back next week defending the initiative petition. Making the trip is a hardship, and it’s not for everyone. But I will do what I can do. And there is something for everyone to do. Everyone, please, do!
And then tell everyone else, because that’s how you encourage others.
Your framing here is such skillful writing - the news items interspersed with vignettes from your daily life. It really makes those news items a gut punch.
I especially want to thank you for "It's precedented. It just looks different." That's important to remember, and I'll use it.
Agreed. Am always impressed by Jess's writing. This is my day as well. Details are different, but the normal stuff interspersed with the headlines that try to break my soul.
My 28 year old has autism. He's in community college for computers. He's always been interested in the news (we're a political household, it's a common topic). Lately he has been just ANGRY. I want to tell him that it will all work out (the 'It will all be OK' signs people painted and posted in the yards back in 2020), but at the same time, I'm angry, too. I know there are good people who worked their a$$e$ off in the last election to turn this tide, but I also know it feels like none of it mattered. I, too, have tended to my sourdough, bought tomato seeds and a seed starter kit, cleaned my basement, donated to Habitat for Humanity Restore all the old screws and nails my late husband collected over the years. I also joined the ACLU, and wrote my Congresscritters and unsubscribed to Facebook and Twitter (F. him, it will always be Twitter) and joined Blue Sky. But I'm still angry and sad and I just don't know how to channel that anymore.
But thank you, Jess, for reminding me that my son and I are not alone.
Vickie, I want to say it, too. You’re not alone. Because I think remembering how many of us are living in this juxtaposition—both carrying on with what makes life beautiful for ourselves and the ones we love and also engaging when and how we can to keep life from being terrible for those who are vulnerable—is a comfort.
Me too, Vickie. And I am AuDHD, so I have a dash of autism and more of ADHD. Austistics feel a lot. I feel a lot. And I am angry. And sad. Almost all the time, underneath when I don't seem maybe angry to others. I'm also doing the little things. Writing the Congresspeople. One of ours I had some hopes for as he campaigned as a moderate, even though we are in a very red state (Utah). But he just voted to install Hegseth and I wrote him an angry (polite and non-threatening, but angry and questioning what the heck are you doing email). I've joined BlueSky. I do the daily stuff.
And it is truly a difficult task to channel that anger and sadness. I was previously a trained trauma therapist, though I didn't practice long (long story), and I know in my head this just has to work its way through. We will sort it. But it hurts and I'm tired of it and it still has so much more to bring. I remember in my training, asking, "But what about people like refugees or Syrians who live under Assad--their trauma is ongoing. What do we do about that?" I don't know that I got great answers except to use the somatic things we were taught to help them get through one bit at a time. I think our whole country is traumatized right now.
I'm also studying places like Ireland/Northern Ireland and Rwanda, who have both had some pretty horrific civil wars and are working at forgiving and learning to be together again. I don't know how they do it. But it's in process.
We'll try to get through it together. That is an important component. With you. As Jess says, In Solidarity.
Yes. Life doesn't stop just because your country has become a Nazi regime. We have to resist, but we still need to carry on. I think every day about all the women who went before me and lived this same reality.
I have this Russian friend from social media that I met through a common interest. She really pushed back at the beginning with Putin and Ukraine. I think she was young and really did not expect the crackdown. She was loud. And then was imprisoned 2 or 3 times and after the 3rd time, she got much more quiet.... I'm pretty sure I can figure out why. The younger ones had experienced a bit more freedom. I don't think they really knew. It's not like the Gulag is really taught in school. She left Russia and went to Israel (talk about going from the frying pan into the fire). And she is back in Russia now for a while. I don't know if she is going back to Israel or not. I think it was hard on her to adjust and she doesn't write much anymore. But I'm dying to have a conversation with someone like her. To see what is daily life under authoritarianism. How do they _do_ it? I suspect it is exactly as Jess writes here.
I sometimes watch a guy on Youtube whose channel is 1420 by Daniil Orain. He interviews Russians on the street. Sometimes he delays the results because the person was leaving the country. Sometimes people are pretty outspoken. Sometimes, usually the older ones, they turn away and don't want to talk or just say how they love Putin. It's interesting.
There are people carrying on all over the world. So many places. The women in Afghanistan. :'(
As you say, we need to carry on, not pull inward if possible (except for probably sometimes to regather ourselves and regroup) as Heather Cox Richardson has talked about what a lot of people do under authoritarian regimes, and push back in whatever small ways we can as regular people.
Sorry for the long reply. I guess I'm trying to figure out how to live while life feels like it is in the Upside Down.
Did you know that the U.S. Constitution has been scrubbed from Whitehouse.gov? Gizmodo said they had reports of 404 errors. I checked a few house ago and it's just a list of Mango Mussolini's "Executive Orders."
I wonder how MAGA is taking that and the release of 1,600 violent criminals from 1/6? I know police organizations are furious. So much for the party of law and order.
Gregg, many police organizations are filled with people who consume a steady diet of biased "news" reports and feed on disinformation. As a retired cop, it pains me to say it, but don't count on rank and file police to be on our side.
In 1981 my husband, a police commanding officer, went to federal court to defend his firing of an officer distributing KKK information while on duty. The police have been infiltrated by white supremacists for many years now.
Exactly! I have a brother in law who's a retired state trooper and he's the biggest fox watching, Trump loving fascist you ever saw. I have zero faith in law enforcement.
Bush started us down this road when his admin allowed police department’s to have military equipment. When I moved back home (to help my sibling w/family matters) I was astonished to see the police here, in a rural town of 15k, outfitted like a black ops team. They fancy themselves as such too - without the training and the psychological evals all military special ops teams are required to go through. It worried and, as a veteran, sickened me. Still does as they have only gotten worse over the years. Recently I was driving behind one of their new, blackened out SUVs and almost hit the curb when I saw a magnet of Nazi lightning bolts attached to the tailgate.
I highly recommend Radley Balko’s book “The Rise of the Warrior Cop”.
We need peace officers, not special ops dressed up for war.
Bush and the reaction lawmakers in both parties had after 9/11 have given us cameras everywhere and the black ops teams and hardware that police departments have today.
Thanks for the recommendation, Kasumii. I was part of that training cadre from 1994-2013 (when I retired; my career spanned 1985-2013, with part time work from 2014-2022). The "warrior mentality" was just beginning to gain ground in the early 1990's and parallelled the rise of SWAT teams, at least in my area of the country.
Michael Fancone said as much yesterday. Even spoke of the DC Metro officers, past colleagues not caring at all about the pardons! We’ve watched law enforcement change radically over time!
I have no pity for the police being furious. They voted for him overwhelmingly. He's been talking for 2 years how he would pardon the January 6th insurrectionists. Should not have been a surprise for them.
Didn’t a large policeman‘s union endorse the rapist in chief? Who said during his campaign that he would free those insurrectionists? And now they’re upset? Seriously?
The 1/6 criminals were released to establish trump’s version of Brownshirts. I imagine the magacult is not only fine with trump’s decision but giddy with cruel anticipation to see all those “others” pay for existing, for being here and for having the nerve to think they could create good lives here in the cult’s country.
This post is full of things I could comment on, but I’ll pick out the thing about the seeds. Because it reminded me of something (it might be a bit long winded, but please bear with me):
In the 1980s, at the height of the Cold War and when the world had more nuclear weapons than was sensible. When there had been a bunch of nuclear disasters and the first signs of environmental degradation were everywhere, someone wrote a book about all of that and he called it ‘Let us go and plant an apple tree. The time has come’.
This was a direct reference to Martin Luther, who had written something along the lines of ‘if I knew the world would end tomorrow, I would still go and plant an apple tree today.’
You planting seeds is a sign of hope. You cooking good food is a sign of joy. You planning your next organising actions is a sign of confidence: Things might be bleak right now, but there will be good days ahead!
Earlier today I wrote a reference to the ‘rubble ladies’ after WW2. That was when a whole continent had been shot to pieces, when millions of refugees were on the move and the economy had turned to shit. And look at us now - we managed to crawl out of that whole and now we are doing well!
Please don’t be despondent. You are building a community of friends. We will be there with you, to offer you support and encouragement. And cups of tea - how do you take yours?
I politely disagree with only one thing you said. It is okay to be despondent. If we ignore what we’re feeling, especially the sad and dark emotions, doing so only hurts us and our health. Doing so delays our acceptance of what’s going on. It is better to - pardon the cliche - feel what we are feeling, accept those feelings as they are and figure out ways to move forward with them.
Jess has eloquently written about her feelings and her ways of continuing on and moving forward. This is a gift to us. She shows us we are not alone in any of it. That despite our worries and fears, our sadness and despondency, we can pick up and keep going. As we’re able we can figure out what we can do in the context of our own lives (our abilities, limitations, goals) and communities.
I will be driving a friend to the Portland, OR VA hospital which has an excellent Women's Health Center today. Later, I will play my tuba with friends.
Meanwhile:
I am confronting my cohort of retired cop former coworkers (moving away from calling them friends at this point) who are feeding an utter line of garbage from saying Ashleigh Babbitt was murdered by Capitol Police to Biden storing classified documents in his bathroom to it was OK to pardon Daniel Rodriguez (he of the "tazzing the blue" fame).
I will come home and fix dinner, and feed my family.
I just love your mixture of deadly serious event along with your personal delights - grandkids, animals (I want to meet your donkey!!!), flower garden. It seems like a powerful use of female energy and I love it.
Thank you for all you do, and the truths you courageously tell. I wrote today about some of the executive orders, particularly the one about refugees, which impacts dear friends directly. We must continue to live, and continue to fight.
Great article, Jess. This was in the news yesterday from Associate Press. "Within hours of President Donald Trump’s inauguration, the new administration took down the Spanish-language version of the official White House website." Here in New Mexico, we are pretty much bilingual. This may be a major problem with our residents.
Re hite House.gov site and dup reply above: "Re site: All just pics now of Dear Leader, nothing else, no Constitution, no ex. orders, just Dtrump doing something or just standing."
Greetings, fellow New Mexican. Our state will stay strong ❤️ we are a living, breathing example of multiculturalism and diversity. It's part of what makes New Mexico New Mexico
"Trump-proofing" at the state level is a good example of doing our best where we can, but it will not stop, and may scarcely impede, the progress of federal neofascist control. States rights were a fine rallying cry for them when it suited them...
I will keep writing about a topic on which I have expertise (like you do for local politics - that's not my forte, but the science of transgender physiology is), in hopes that a few people can be swayed.
About two hundred years ago Leo Tolstoy advanced the opinion that a single soldier could change the entire course of a battle. He was, in my opinion, simply anticipating the so-called "butterfly effect" more formally known as deterministic chaos. And he had a good point, even if it doesn't always work. We should believe in that power.
I really like the Butterfly as a symbol for our power. It's final form is only made possible through transformation. The "butterfly effect" with it's focus on the ripple effects of one small gesture on the entire quantum realm represents that even the things we do that we think are not making a difference are still going out into the world and affecting it in ways we may never fully see or comprehend, but which are still of utmost importance in delivering the outcome we desire.
I lived in Missouri from 1981 to 1998. I left and moved to Massachusetts. You are a braver woman than me, I could not raise my children in that environment. You are not alone in your terror. The resisters that I know here are ill with fear, and, are not quitting. Last night, our senators Markey and Warren gathered 1100 MA resisters in a Zoom meeting to remind us all that they are fighting and they need us with them. Please consider yourself an honorary sister of Massachusetts and turn to us for support. Thank you for your work. Jean
Yesterday, the lovely Latina woman who cleans our house came for the first time since before Thanksgiving. I asked her if she and her family would be safe under the new president. She winced and shrugged her shoulders. Then I told her we could help her ($$$) if they needed it and that she should text me if anything happened. Then we both started to cry.
I'm so angry.
Oh dear. So scary. I'm glad you can help one person. So can I. So can each one of Jess's followers. One by one, we can help as beat we are able.
This is a good reminder, Katie, of how our one small thing combines and weaves a tapestry of many beautiful things.
Jess, I feel for you. I hope we can all remember this: Just because old institutions fail (and fall) doesn't mean that new institutions can't (and won't) rise to replace them. We may be witnessing the dissolution of the country we knew. But that doesn't mean we can't organize to build a better future. The light may dim in the places we're used to looking...but we can build a new collection of fires, around which we gather, and link them together...
Thanks, Jess and Don. I was in Jeff City yesterday meeting with my representative, Speaker Patterson, and senator, Mike Cierpoit about defending Amendment 3. And I’ll be back next week defending the initiative petition. Making the trip is a hardship, and it’s not for everyone. But I will do what I can do. And there is something for everyone to do. Everyone, please, do!
And then tell everyone else, because that’s how you encourage others.
Beautiful. Amen.
Your framing here is such skillful writing - the news items interspersed with vignettes from your daily life. It really makes those news items a gut punch.
I especially want to thank you for "It's precedented. It just looks different." That's important to remember, and I'll use it.
Agreed. Am always impressed by Jess's writing. This is my day as well. Details are different, but the normal stuff interspersed with the headlines that try to break my soul.
Thank you, Jess, for all that you continue to do. Sending support from CA, which people think is immune from fascism, but it’s not.
Sending support from from NY. Hugs. Your pot roast sounds great!
My 28 year old has autism. He's in community college for computers. He's always been interested in the news (we're a political household, it's a common topic). Lately he has been just ANGRY. I want to tell him that it will all work out (the 'It will all be OK' signs people painted and posted in the yards back in 2020), but at the same time, I'm angry, too. I know there are good people who worked their a$$e$ off in the last election to turn this tide, but I also know it feels like none of it mattered. I, too, have tended to my sourdough, bought tomato seeds and a seed starter kit, cleaned my basement, donated to Habitat for Humanity Restore all the old screws and nails my late husband collected over the years. I also joined the ACLU, and wrote my Congresscritters and unsubscribed to Facebook and Twitter (F. him, it will always be Twitter) and joined Blue Sky. But I'm still angry and sad and I just don't know how to channel that anymore.
But thank you, Jess, for reminding me that my son and I are not alone.
You are not alone, friend.
Vickie, you sound like a really cool person. I'm sorry you lost your husband. Good for you for writing your Congresscritters.
Vickie, I want to say it, too. You’re not alone. Because I think remembering how many of us are living in this juxtaposition—both carrying on with what makes life beautiful for ourselves and the ones we love and also engaging when and how we can to keep life from being terrible for those who are vulnerable—is a comfort.
Me too, Vickie. And I am AuDHD, so I have a dash of autism and more of ADHD. Austistics feel a lot. I feel a lot. And I am angry. And sad. Almost all the time, underneath when I don't seem maybe angry to others. I'm also doing the little things. Writing the Congresspeople. One of ours I had some hopes for as he campaigned as a moderate, even though we are in a very red state (Utah). But he just voted to install Hegseth and I wrote him an angry (polite and non-threatening, but angry and questioning what the heck are you doing email). I've joined BlueSky. I do the daily stuff.
And it is truly a difficult task to channel that anger and sadness. I was previously a trained trauma therapist, though I didn't practice long (long story), and I know in my head this just has to work its way through. We will sort it. But it hurts and I'm tired of it and it still has so much more to bring. I remember in my training, asking, "But what about people like refugees or Syrians who live under Assad--their trauma is ongoing. What do we do about that?" I don't know that I got great answers except to use the somatic things we were taught to help them get through one bit at a time. I think our whole country is traumatized right now.
I'm also studying places like Ireland/Northern Ireland and Rwanda, who have both had some pretty horrific civil wars and are working at forgiving and learning to be together again. I don't know how they do it. But it's in process.
We'll try to get through it together. That is an important component. With you. As Jess says, In Solidarity.
Yes. Life doesn't stop just because your country has become a Nazi regime. We have to resist, but we still need to carry on. I think every day about all the women who went before me and lived this same reality.
I have this Russian friend from social media that I met through a common interest. She really pushed back at the beginning with Putin and Ukraine. I think she was young and really did not expect the crackdown. She was loud. And then was imprisoned 2 or 3 times and after the 3rd time, she got much more quiet.... I'm pretty sure I can figure out why. The younger ones had experienced a bit more freedom. I don't think they really knew. It's not like the Gulag is really taught in school. She left Russia and went to Israel (talk about going from the frying pan into the fire). And she is back in Russia now for a while. I don't know if she is going back to Israel or not. I think it was hard on her to adjust and she doesn't write much anymore. But I'm dying to have a conversation with someone like her. To see what is daily life under authoritarianism. How do they _do_ it? I suspect it is exactly as Jess writes here.
I sometimes watch a guy on Youtube whose channel is 1420 by Daniil Orain. He interviews Russians on the street. Sometimes he delays the results because the person was leaving the country. Sometimes people are pretty outspoken. Sometimes, usually the older ones, they turn away and don't want to talk or just say how they love Putin. It's interesting.
There are people carrying on all over the world. So many places. The women in Afghanistan. :'(
As you say, we need to carry on, not pull inward if possible (except for probably sometimes to regather ourselves and regroup) as Heather Cox Richardson has talked about what a lot of people do under authoritarian regimes, and push back in whatever small ways we can as regular people.
Sorry for the long reply. I guess I'm trying to figure out how to live while life feels like it is in the Upside Down.
Did you know that the U.S. Constitution has been scrubbed from Whitehouse.gov? Gizmodo said they had reports of 404 errors. I checked a few house ago and it's just a list of Mango Mussolini's "Executive Orders."
I wonder how MAGA is taking that and the release of 1,600 violent criminals from 1/6? I know police organizations are furious. So much for the party of law and order.
Gregg, many police organizations are filled with people who consume a steady diet of biased "news" reports and feed on disinformation. As a retired cop, it pains me to say it, but don't count on rank and file police to be on our side.
In 1981 my husband, a police commanding officer, went to federal court to defend his firing of an officer distributing KKK information while on duty. The police have been infiltrated by white supremacists for many years now.
There's a split there. A lot of officers are looking at the release of a bunch of violent prisoners as a threat to them on the streets.
Good. Let those cops be brave and call it out.
Exactly! I have a brother in law who's a retired state trooper and he's the biggest fox watching, Trump loving fascist you ever saw. I have zero faith in law enforcement.
Bush started us down this road when his admin allowed police department’s to have military equipment. When I moved back home (to help my sibling w/family matters) I was astonished to see the police here, in a rural town of 15k, outfitted like a black ops team. They fancy themselves as such too - without the training and the psychological evals all military special ops teams are required to go through. It worried and, as a veteran, sickened me. Still does as they have only gotten worse over the years. Recently I was driving behind one of their new, blackened out SUVs and almost hit the curb when I saw a magnet of Nazi lightning bolts attached to the tailgate.
I highly recommend Radley Balko’s book “The Rise of the Warrior Cop”.
Kasumii, you are absolutely spot on
We need peace officers, not special ops dressed up for war.
Bush and the reaction lawmakers in both parties had after 9/11 have given us cameras everywhere and the black ops teams and hardware that police departments have today.
Thanks for the recommendation, Kasumii. I was part of that training cadre from 1994-2013 (when I retired; my career spanned 1985-2013, with part time work from 2014-2022). The "warrior mentality" was just beginning to gain ground in the early 1990's and parallelled the rise of SWAT teams, at least in my area of the country.
Thank you: This is *so important* to realize for those of us who were raised with "Officer Friendly."
Michael Fancone said as much yesterday. Even spoke of the DC Metro officers, past colleagues not caring at all about the pardons! We’ve watched law enforcement change radically over time!
I have no pity for the police being furious. They voted for him overwhelmingly. He's been talking for 2 years how he would pardon the January 6th insurrectionists. Should not have been a surprise for them.
Didn’t a large policeman‘s union endorse the rapist in chief? Who said during his campaign that he would free those insurrectionists? And now they’re upset? Seriously?
The 1/6 criminals were released to establish trump’s version of Brownshirts. I imagine the magacult is not only fine with trump’s decision but giddy with cruel anticipation to see all those “others” pay for existing, for being here and for having the nerve to think they could create good lives here in the cult’s country.
Re site: All just pics now of Dear Leader, nothing else, no Constitution, no ex. orders, just Dtrump doing someting or just standing.
🤢🤮
Better site has always and remains https://constitution.congress.gov/
This post is full of things I could comment on, but I’ll pick out the thing about the seeds. Because it reminded me of something (it might be a bit long winded, but please bear with me):
In the 1980s, at the height of the Cold War and when the world had more nuclear weapons than was sensible. When there had been a bunch of nuclear disasters and the first signs of environmental degradation were everywhere, someone wrote a book about all of that and he called it ‘Let us go and plant an apple tree. The time has come’.
This was a direct reference to Martin Luther, who had written something along the lines of ‘if I knew the world would end tomorrow, I would still go and plant an apple tree today.’
You planting seeds is a sign of hope. You cooking good food is a sign of joy. You planning your next organising actions is a sign of confidence: Things might be bleak right now, but there will be good days ahead!
Earlier today I wrote a reference to the ‘rubble ladies’ after WW2. That was when a whole continent had been shot to pieces, when millions of refugees were on the move and the economy had turned to shit. And look at us now - we managed to crawl out of that whole and now we are doing well!
Please don’t be despondent. You are building a community of friends. We will be there with you, to offer you support and encouragement. And cups of tea - how do you take yours?
Thank you, friend. I am in fact so hopeful that I plant trees as well.
Great! What type? Apple trees?
Trees of hope and unity.
A lovely reminder of history Claudia. Thank you.
I politely disagree with only one thing you said. It is okay to be despondent. If we ignore what we’re feeling, especially the sad and dark emotions, doing so only hurts us and our health. Doing so delays our acceptance of what’s going on. It is better to - pardon the cliche - feel what we are feeling, accept those feelings as they are and figure out ways to move forward with them.
Jess has eloquently written about her feelings and her ways of continuing on and moving forward. This is a gift to us. She shows us we are not alone in any of it. That despite our worries and fears, our sadness and despondency, we can pick up and keep going. As we’re able we can figure out what we can do in the context of our own lives (our abilities, limitations, goals) and communities.
There are seeds to order.
I love this post.
I will be driving a friend to the Portland, OR VA hospital which has an excellent Women's Health Center today. Later, I will play my tuba with friends.
Meanwhile:
I am confronting my cohort of retired cop former coworkers (moving away from calling them friends at this point) who are feeding an utter line of garbage from saying Ashleigh Babbitt was murdered by Capitol Police to Biden storing classified documents in his bathroom to it was OK to pardon Daniel Rodriguez (he of the "tazzing the blue" fame).
I will come home and fix dinner, and feed my family.
Solidarity
I just love your mixture of deadly serious event along with your personal delights - grandkids, animals (I want to meet your donkey!!!), flower garden. It seems like a powerful use of female energy and I love it.
My family started a “beautiful photo of the day” thread. We’re going to need it.
Thank you for all you do, and the truths you courageously tell. I wrote today about some of the executive orders, particularly the one about refugees, which impacts dear friends directly. We must continue to live, and continue to fight.
Solidarity, friend
Reproductiverights.gov can now be accessed at reproductiverights.org.
Thank you, friend. I’m glad it is back up.
Great article, Jess. This was in the news yesterday from Associate Press. "Within hours of President Donald Trump’s inauguration, the new administration took down the Spanish-language version of the official White House website." Here in New Mexico, we are pretty much bilingual. This may be a major problem with our residents.
From what I can see, they should just rename it 'House of Trump'. It no longer bears any resemblance to a site worthy of the White House.
Re hite House.gov site and dup reply above: "Re site: All just pics now of Dear Leader, nothing else, no Constitution, no ex. orders, just Dtrump doing something or just standing."
Greetings, fellow New Mexican. Our state will stay strong ❤️ we are a living, breathing example of multiculturalism and diversity. It's part of what makes New Mexico New Mexico
"Trump-proofing" at the state level is a good example of doing our best where we can, but it will not stop, and may scarcely impede, the progress of federal neofascist control. States rights were a fine rallying cry for them when it suited them...
I will keep writing about a topic on which I have expertise (like you do for local politics - that's not my forte, but the science of transgender physiology is), in hopes that a few people can be swayed.
About two hundred years ago Leo Tolstoy advanced the opinion that a single soldier could change the entire course of a battle. He was, in my opinion, simply anticipating the so-called "butterfly effect" more formally known as deterministic chaos. And he had a good point, even if it doesn't always work. We should believe in that power.
I really like the Butterfly as a symbol for our power. It's final form is only made possible through transformation. The "butterfly effect" with it's focus on the ripple effects of one small gesture on the entire quantum realm represents that even the things we do that we think are not making a difference are still going out into the world and affecting it in ways we may never fully see or comprehend, but which are still of utmost importance in delivering the outcome we desire.
There is an excellent book about how each of us and what we do matters. It is called “Fluke” by Brian Klaas.
Hi Jess,
I lived in Missouri from 1981 to 1998. I left and moved to Massachusetts. You are a braver woman than me, I could not raise my children in that environment. You are not alone in your terror. The resisters that I know here are ill with fear, and, are not quitting. Last night, our senators Markey and Warren gathered 1100 MA resisters in a Zoom meeting to remind us all that they are fighting and they need us with them. Please consider yourself an honorary sister of Massachusetts and turn to us for support. Thank you for your work. Jean
Can we all come, too?