Published in The Daily News on April 11, 2025
The recent months have ushered in tremendous and devastating changes in our country. Our democracy, government agencies and international relations, which we assumed were staples of our nation, are being torn apart.
Immigrant children are afraid to go to school and parents don’t know how to protect their families. ICE has progressed from deporting people who are undocumented to those who have green cards or are studying at university.
Research grants are being revoked, including grants devoted to finding cures for cancer, children’s illnesses and Alzheimer’s. Universities, businesses and organizations are dropping their commitment to DEI, while food banks and schools are not receiving the food they need to feed people who are food insecure, including children.
Commitments to address the climate crisis are on the chopping block, along with protections for members of the LGTBQ+ community. Black, brown and Indigenous people are living with hostile racism directed at them in full force.
Sadly, there are many other examples I could list.
We have to stop this fire.
I’ll offer three suggestions that are part of how we resist what is happening.
First, we must act together. This is no time to argue over outdated concerns or small matters. This is a time to work with those who look different than you, are of a different economic status, or have different religious beliefs.
This is a time to become conscious of our biases, which we all have, and do something about them. You can take free tests to understand our implicit biases through Project Implicit https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/aboutus.html.
Our common welfare and the future of our democracy and the Earth must come first. We must plan, collaborate and engage together. We need to cook together, talk and listen, and create a way forward together. Strong and enduring relationships are built through shared experiences of challenge and adversity. We have that opportunity today.
Coming together in rallies, community organizing and conversation creates a force far stronger than any of us can be alone. Our collective voice and actions are loud and strong. Our collective wisdom will find creative and subversive ways to resist all the wrongs that are happening, while our collective joy will still rise from heartbreak.
Second, we must stop blaming each other, especially those closest to us, when we have differences of opinions on how best to act. The problems we are facing have to do with people, actions and systems of oppression that are perpetuating the destruction of our democracy and the safety of immigrants and other historically marginalized people.
The problem is not whether someone goes to a rally or chooses to cook a warm and healthy meal for the people who return from the rally disheveled and hungry. It is not our job or our right to judge the actions or ways our friends, neighbors, and fellow citizens and church members are making it through this time, unless of course, the people are involved in the destruction I describe at the start of this article. Then it is very much our job and responsibility to do what we can to stop them.
Third and equally important, we have to live balanced lives that include the ordinary, the joyous and the sublime, as well as the heartfelt and committed work of resistance to all that is happening right now. We must have people we want to be with who help us hold onto hope and feel inspired. We need places to go where we know we belong, and we must be part of communities that hold our common values.