No One Is Coming to Save Us

The other day, while I was babysitting my five-year-old grandson, Erik, we called his uncle in Vanuatu.

When my son Andrew answered, I said, “Hey Darling.”
It’s what I’ve always called his uncle and his dad

Erik paused.
“Gran,” he asked, “why do you call him Darling?”

I smiled and said, “Because I love him. I say that to people I love.”

He was still a little puzzled, so I tried again.
“It means you’re so special to me. It’s my way of saying, I love you.”

I gave him examples.

How his family calls him Snuggles. His dad calls him Bud.
How his grandfather calls me Sug (short for sugar)
How my son’s French partner says mon cœur…my heart.

These are terms of endearment. A way of saying, you matter.

That seemed to land.
And honestly? I think I’ll start calling Erik Darling.

Love Needs Language

Because love needs to be spoken out loud. And especially now. 

Erik and I playing Connect Four

Tenderness Exits Alongside the Terror

A constant hum of dread has entered our lives now.
Too much news. Too much scrolling. The swing between grief and fury.
The relief after calling your senators and representatives, wondering if it makes a difference. (It totally does…they tally every call.)

We are watching a nation turn from democracy to fascism. 

A president who operates above the law and gets away with it.
Armed agents who kill with no consequence. 

We now live in a country with detention camps...concentration camps by any honest historical definition...where people are brutalized and are disappearing while private corporations grow richer by the day. This is what it looks like when a government treats human lives as disposable.

This is Authoritarianism, Not Chaos

The dark side of this country has always existed.
Now it’s no longer hidden.
It’s policy. It’s practice. It’s public.

And here’s the truth:
Outrage is not a problem.
Outrage is information.

Grief is not weakness.
Grief is clarity.

The swing between the two is what creates movement.

Choosing Action Over Paralysis

So I’m choosing movement.

I’m choosing action over paralysis.
I’m calling my representatives every single day.

I’m saying: Defund ICE. Dismantle it. End it.

I’m telling Democratic leaders in my state: take the gloves off…fight. Speak up. Stop being polite. 

If you're in a red state, you can let your Republican leaders know that this is not right. 

Fight relentlessly.

This is about democracy versus domination.
Decency versus cruelty.

No One is Coming to Save Us

And now it’s on us.

We the people.

There is no cavalry. No rescue team. No reset button.

We save ourselves…by refusing to look away and by working together.

Minnesota, you are showing us the way. 

You are the best of America.
You have written the playbook… protect your neighbor and stand together.

Don’t know what to do? Start with this: 

Call your representatives. Every day.
Use 5calls.org.

Tell Republicans in Congress you’re watching them and that you know they could end this brutality today.  Push Democrats to do their job, even without power.

Join Indivisible.org. Get involved locally.
Listen to historians like Heather Cox Richardson. Learn what patterns look like.

Read my friend Dave Van Manen’s articles on Substack for inspiration. 
Talk to your friends. Resist together.

I think it will be the older women…the ones who will protect their grandchildren fiercely, who know history, who aren’t afraid to speak up…who call their children Darling…who help lead us back to sanity.

This is my friend, Helene Van Manen. She is a woman who fights every day for women's rights, for freedom, and democracy

Fight like a girl.

Fight like an old woman who knows history.
Fight like a grandmother who calls her children Darling.
Fight like someone who understands that love is not passive.

Because love is not just tenderness.
Love is protection.
Love is action.

And that is how we find our way back…to each other, to sanity, and to the country we are still capable of becoming.

And now it’s up to us.
 

We the people.

OVER TO YOU

Choose one action.
Do it today.
Repeat tomorrow.