While many of this nation’s Founding Fathers are household names, one name might not be as familiar. Yet, this lesser-known statesman who was elected to the Continental Congress in 1775 successfully lobbied his colleagues to declare independence from the British crown and in 1776, he added his signature to the Declaration of Independence.
 
During his career as a politician, Elbridge Gerry served in Congress and was later a diplomat to France before becoming the governor of Massachusetts in 1810. He also served as James Madison’s vice president from 1813 until his death in 1814.
 
Characterized as somewhat of a maverick, Gerry was an outspoken anti-Federalist who feared any concentrated power, particularly in the federal government. He held strong views on the delineation of powers between the federal government and the states as well as between Congress and the president. For example, he argued successfully for Congress to have the right to override a presidential veto. At the Constitutional Convention in 1787, Gerry was one of three members who refused to sign the Constitution. One of his objections was the lack of a Bill of Rights, which he successfully pushed to be added later.
 
Although not initially in favor of political parties, late in his career, Gerry joined the Democratic-Republicans. He saw the opposing party, the Federalists, as wanting too much centralized power in the federal government.
 
In 1811, while he was serving as the governor of Massachusetts, Gerry became obsessed with the Federalists’ opposition to President Madison’s foreign policy and believed they would ultimately destroy the republic. His fears got the better of him as he took matters into his own hands by firing Federalist state employees and replacing them with Democratic-Republican loyalists, using his attorney general to prosecute Federalist newspaper editors for libel, and taking control of Harvard’s Federalist-dominated board.
 
In the meantime, the Democratic-Republican party controlled the Massachusetts state legislature and they wanted to keep it that way. In 1812, they drew up a bill that created new redistricting maps for state senate seats that would keep themselves in power. Governor Gerry signed the bill into law, enabling his party to win 29 of 40 seats.
 
As legend has it (there is more than one story on this), at a dinner party hosted by a Federalist shortly after the new redistricting maps became law, Gerry was the butt of a joke. The new map for Gerry’s own state senate district was satirically drawn by Elkanah Tisdale, a political cartoonist in attendance at the dinner party. His rendition resembled a mythical, fire-breathing salamander with wings. According to this story, someone else at the party combined Gerry’s name with the word “salamander” to say that changing district maps was “gerrymandering.” The Federalists publicized their cartoon and joke and, as they say, the rest is history.
 
Today, gerrymandering is not a joke. It is defined as the implementation of electoral district maps to intentionally advantage one political party over another. While US House districts are drawn by the states every 10 years based on new US census data, often these maps are drawn unfairly. Voters can be disenfranchised by either diluting their votes when they are spread across many districts (called “cracking”) or by consolidating many voters into one district (known as “packing”). Other gerrymandering techniques are called “hijacking” when two districts are combined to force one incumbent official out and “kidnapping” when an incumbent’s address is moved to another district to make it difficult for them to be re-elected.
 
With the aid of computer software, maps can be drawn with laser precision to carve out or include any group of voters. It is illegal to gerrymander districts to discriminate against voters based on race, but not on party affiliation. The US Supreme Court, in Rucho v Common Cause (2019), claimed the Court did not have the jurisdiction to rule in the case, thus essentially allowing gerrymandering based on party affiliation.
 
In August, this administration asked the governor of Texas to redraw the state’s maps so that five currently Democratic districts would flip to Republican, thus increasing the odds for a Republican-majority US House win during the 2026 mid-term elections. These new maps are likely illegal and unconstitutional as they appear to be based on race which will violate the rights of millions of Texans.
 
This administration is so afraid their party will lose their House majority that they are resorting to extraordinary measures by breaking precedent to redraw their districts mid-census. This is a flagrant power grab to ensure the US House remains under Republican domination for potentially decades to come and to ensure this unpopular administration remains in power.
 
In response, Gavin Newsom, the governor of California, has begun a campaign to redistrict California’s maps to change five districts to benefit the Democratic party to neutralize Texas’ gerrymandering. Under the California constitution, district maps are drawn by a nonpartisan commission and any changes to this process require a state constitutional amendment that must be approved by a majority of California voters. If approved by voters in November, this redistricting plan, under the proposed Election Rigging Response Act, would only occur if Texas or other Republican states change their maps. If they do, then California’s new maps would take effect, but only through 2030 when the independent commission would take over to redraw the maps with new census data for the 2032 elections. It is worth noting that Newsom supports federal legislation to make it mandatory for all states’ maps to be drawn by nonpartisan commissions.
 
It is interesting to note that if approved by CA voters, the redistricting maps as proposed will be legal. And temporary. As Newsom says, we must fight fire with fire. It is analogous to a nuclear arms race: we must build our own weapons if only to deter the other side from using theirs. If Texas redraws their maps, California will redraw theirs to neutralize Texas’ impact.
 
The rules of the game, as well as what have been norms, have changed. The Democratic party must play by the new rules. Democracy and free and fair elections are at stake. So, too, is the opportunity to hold this administration accountable for its cruel and authoritarian actions as it militarizes our cities, kidnaps our neighbors, and strips away government services and programs, all while giving huge tax cuts to the very wealthy.
 
One might wonder why control over the US House matters. If one party holds the presidency and the majority in the US Senate, does it matter if the opposition party wins the majority in the House? Yes, it matters tremendously.
 
The US Constitution gives Congress the power to create federal laws, to control taxation (including tariffs), to control federal government spending, to create federal agencies, to determine financial sanctions against foreign entities, and to declare war, among many other powers. Having a divided Congress makes it difficult for the party of the president to unilaterally do any of these actions.
 
The Constitution also enumerates many powers specifically to the US House. There are many ways these powers can be exercised by the Democratic party if it holds the majority in the House in 2026, even if the Republicans still control the Senate. They can stop any legislation the Senate tries to pass to further this administration’s dictatorial goals. The House, not the Senate, holds the power to initiate revenue bills (like the one big awful tax bill passed in July). The House has the sole power to impeach, and not just the president, but also cabinet officials, federal judges, and other federal officials. The House alone has the power to elect the president if the Electoral College ends in a tie. Also, if the president and vice president are unable to serve, the speaker of the House, typically the leader of the majority party in the House, becomes president.
 
Another way the Democrats, if they hold the majority in the House, will have control is through the work of the House committees, which is where most of the legislative work is performed. All legislation comes through a committee before it is sent to the full House for a vote. The majority party controls who chairs each committee and how many members of each party sit on each committee.
 
Not allowing the current majority party to rig the system to keep themselves in power in the US House for years to come is extraordinarily important. The rules of US politics have changed and the minority party must play by the new rules. Extraordinary times call for extraordinary measures. Or all will be lost. Our democracy with all its liberties and freedoms, with its rule of law, will be gerrymandered out of existence if this rigging of our elections by the GOP is not countered and neutralized.
 
Elbridge Gerry, the maverick politician, who feared his opponents’ power and wanted to hold onto his own so they could not win against him, is now remembered, not for all the good he did at the start of this nascent republic, but by the power grab he made to insulate himself and his party from losing. How ironic that after the first gerrymandered maps were implemented, Gerry lost his re-election. And how ironic that someone who was against concentrated power in government did not mind if the power was concentrated in him. And now he is on the wrong side of history and except for his legacy of “gerrymandering,” he would be utterly unknown to us today.
 
 
 
 
 
Text and photograph copyright © 2025 by Dawn Dailey. All rights reserved. Photo of the Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco, California.
 
 
Not a subscriber to the monthly blog posts? Click here to subscribe. Subscribers receive an email each month that includes the post with the lead photo as well as bonus photos not posted on the website. Email addresses are never sold or shared.
 
 
 
A NOTE ON SOCIAL JUSTICE:

Jesus says the greatest commandments are to love God and to love people (Matthew 22:37-40). The Christian faith boils down to these two precepts.

Social justice puts that love into action by helping individuals who are oppressed, mistreated, or suffering, and by pursuing ways to dismantle systems of oppression. How we treat others, particularly those less powerful in society than ourselves, matters (Matthew 25:31-46).

Racial justice is one aspect of social justice. Check out my web page on “Justice Matters” to find resources and to connect with organizations engaging in the cause of racial justice.  Click here to learn more.

I arrive with my timed-entry ticket and join the queue. As the line moves forward, we are herded into an elevator and sent to the top floor. The exhibits throughout the museum are both thought-provoking and gut-wrenching.
 
This was a visit to the US Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, DC. On a hot summer day, the museum was packed with visitors inching their way through the exhibits that contained photographs and narratives that sent chills down my spine. Hitler’s rise to power seemed strangely familiar.
 
While the circumstances of pre-Nazi Germany are not the same as today in the US, there are striking similarities. The signing of the Versailles treaty after World War I was viewed by many Germans, especially those on the right, as being grossly unfair. The stock market crash of 1929 threw multitudes of workers into unemployment. Social and political unrest became the norm. Democracy was at risk. Hitler took advantage of this destitution and political unrest to become their savior. In the 1920’s, his political party, the National Socialist German Workers’ Party (NSDAP or Nazi) was considered radical and fringe, but by 1932, it was the largest political organization in Germany.
 
Unable to form a government without the far-right parties, including the Nazi Party, President Paul von Hindenburg was persuaded to name Adolf Hitler as chancellor in January of 1933. Those advisors knew Hitler was trying to garner power but they felt they could rein him in. How wrong they were.
 
Within a month of Hitler becoming chancellor, there was a fire in the parliament building. Hitler quickly seized on this incident to blame the Communists, an opposition party, for arson and to declare a national emergency under which he created a police state that remained in place until 1945. This emergency allowed him to bypass many of the checks and balances that, under normal circumstances, would have restrained the chancellor’s impulses.
 
To create a following, Hitler espoused racist ideas and white Aryan supremacy. He gave his followers something to hate, to blame their troubles on, and to scapegoat: the Jews. They were falsely and unjustly blamed for the economic woes of the country. While they were clearly the most targeted, there were many other people groups on the hit list, like the Soviets, Poles, Serbs, Slovenes, and especially Roma. Other targeted groups included people with disabilities as well as gays, lesbians, and transgender people.
 
The members of parliament, who had become the chancellor’s rubber stamp, passed two laws: one stripped citizenship from Jews and the other forbade marriage or sexual relations between Jews and Aryan citizens.
 
Thus began the round up and deportation of Jewish people as well as other non-Aryans. They first were held in squalid ghettos in the cities and then later shipped to concentration camps. Many were worked to death and others were killed in the gas chambers. At least 13 million people, including over six million Jews, were literally exterminated. The word “genocide” became part of our lexicon.
 
When I look at the world today, I see a similar situation here in the US. The widening wealth gap and income inequality over the past few decades fuels a far-right coalition that won the White House and the majorities in both chambers of Congress. Anger and fear, provoked by racism, xenophobia, and transphobia, drive this coalition whereby the executive branch scapegoats and targets immigrants for detention, deportation, and rendition to a third country.
 
On his first day in office this term, the president declared a national emergency at the southern border under the false pretense of the border being overrun by undocumented immigrants bringing fentanyl across the border. (In fact, at the time, border crossings were down and where fentanyl is brought into the US, it is typically by US citizens or by those authorized to cross into the US, not asylum-seeking immigrants.) Presidential orders consolidate executive power while the Republican majority in Congress rubber-stamps the president’s wishes. The administration wants to scrap birthright citizenship and has begun to prioritize the denaturalization of naturalized citizens. The similarities between this administration and the Nazi regime are chilling.
 
One such congressional rubber-stamping is the “Big Beautiful Bill” that was passed by the Republican-led Congress at the behest of the president and ceremoniously signed into law on July 4th. One major provision in this law creates additional funding of $170 billion for border and immigration enforcement. Of that amount, $46.5 billion will go for border walls and related infrastructure. In addition to their annual $8.5 billion budget, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) will receive $29.85 billion for hiring and training agents as well as facility upgrades and the like, making its budget larger than those of the militaries in every country in the world except the top 15. Together with the $45 billion for more detention centers, ICE’s budget increase is $74.85 billion. Note these additional funds are available until September 30th, 2029.
 
Unlike other American law enforcement agencies, ICE does not require its employees to take an oath to uphold the Constitution. Its training curriculum is not as rigorous and its employment standards are not as high. In fact, ICE agents wear masks and no badges to keep their identities secret. (Currently, Senator Alex Padilla (D-CA) has introduced a bill to require ICE agents to be maskless and wear ID badges.)
 
When creating a police state is part of this regime’s equation, they just won the jackpot. Of course, they had help from Congress where all Republicans but 2 in the House and 3 in the Senate voted for this bill. (All Democrats and Independents voted against it.)
 
Hitler’s Brown Shirts performed a similar function to ICE. It did not bode well for the targeted scapegoats nor for the rest of society. It took a world war to end the atrocities.
 
Being an immigrant to the US is not a crime. Arriving here illegally is a civil offense, not a criminal one. Yet, this regime claims to be sending violent criminal immigrants to gulags in El Salvador, to places like war-torn South Sudan (where the immigrants are not from and have never been to), and to prisons and detention camps here in the US, even though most detainees have no criminal convictions. This dragnet is also sweeping up US citizens as well as green card holders. The rights to due process and to an attorney are stripped away. The latest detention camp, dubbed “Alligator Alcatraz,” is an inhumane facility in the Everglades that the administration jokes about as if those detainees, people who came to the US to find a better life, are not even human. It is beyond the pale how anyone with any shred of decency can find this humorous. Cruelty is the point.
 
And this is indeed no laughing matter. People’s lives are at stake. According to the fact-checking website Snopes.com, 72% of detained immigrants do not have any criminal convictions. While 25% do have pending criminal charges but have not been convicted of a crime (which could range from traffic violations or nonviolent crimes to violent crimes), it is important to note that less than 9% have any history of violent crimes. The administration’s assertion that it is detaining only “dangerous criminals” is obviously false.
 
Many of these detained immigrants have been in this country for decades and are following the proper legal path to stay here. Some of them are being detained when they show up for their required check-ins with the immigration court. Obviously, the immigration system has been politicized for the benefit of those in power and to terrorize all immigrants and naturalized citizens.
 
Two thousand years ago, Jesus came to free the captives*, those who were imprisoned unjustly under a cruel and corrupt Roman regime. May we work to free those unjustly and inhumanely treated, whose detentions seem to be for the amusement of this cruel administration. We the People have the power to peacefully stop this cruelty before it escalates into something worse. It only takes 3.5% of the population to turn the tide.
 
As I left the museum that day after a very sobering experience, I pulled out the “identification card” I had picked up while standing in line to enter the exhibits. Each booklet tells a story of the life of a child during the Holocaust. The one I happen to select tells the story of a child born in Mannheim, Germany, in 1930. Because of the kindness of strangers, she survived the camps and the war and ultimately emigrated to the US. There is hope.
 
 
 
 

*In Luke 4:18-19, Jesus reads what is essentially his mission statement from the scroll of Isaiah (from Isaiah 61:1-2): “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”
 
NOTE: If you are curious about fascism in the US, Rachel Maddow’s new book Prequel traces American fascism in early to mid-20th century and serves as a shocking reminder that we have been here before. Fascism did not win. And it cannot win now.
 
 
 
Text and photograph copyright © 2025 by Dawn Dailey. All rights reserved. Photo of a Metro station platform in Washington, DC.
 
 
Not a subscriber to the monthly blog posts? Click here to subscribe. Subscribers receive an email each month that includes the post with the lead photo as well as bonus photos not posted on the website. Email addresses are never sold or shared.
 
  
A NOTE ON SOCIAL JUSTICE:
Jesus says the greatest commandments are to love God and to love people (Matthew 22:37-40). The Christian faith boils down to these two precepts.

Social justice puts that love into action by helping individuals who are oppressed, mistreated, or suffering, and by pursuing ways to dismantle systems of oppression. How we treat others, particularly those less powerful in society than ourselves, matters (Matthew 25:31-46).

Racial justice is one aspect of social justice. Check out my web page on “Justice Matters” to find resources and to connect with organizations engaging in the cause of racial justice.  Click here to learn more.
 
 
All scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com The “NIV” and “New International Version” are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.™

Trains are often part of the landscape, especially when traveling outside the US. From bullet trains in Japan to the Glacier Express in Switzerland to the Welsh Highland steam engine train that runs through Snowdonia National Park, traveling by train is a wonderful way to experience new places. When embarking on a train journey, I always double and triple check that I have my ticket, that I am getting on the right train, and that it is going where I want go.
 
The times we are living through get more difficult every day. Maybe it feels like a roller coaster ride rather than a train ride. But using the train analogy, we would never get on a train we did not know where it was going, would we?
 
It appears we did. And the train has left the station.
 
The democracy of this American republic is a train wreck waiting to happen. Or perhaps it has already crashed. The November election installed a party that promised to bring down food prices and inflation, to deport (only) violent criminal immigrants, to stop current wars, and to not create new wars. It has not kept its promises. Instead, this administration has launched initiative after initiative to intentionally destroy our democracy, including our rights and our freedoms, and to install an autocracy in its place.
 
Many of those who voted for this regime believe the system is rigged against them. Indeed, it is. The political and economic systems are rigged against anyone who is not a billionaire, whether they are MAGA or not. And the gulf between the “haves” and the “have nots” continues to grow wider. Perhaps we can find common ground here. But crossing the proverbial aisle, however, is difficult because the culture wars have artificially divided us. The oligarchs are playing us against each other, just like the Southern slaveowners did when they kept poor whites and Black slaves from uniting against them because they were afraid of being outnumbered and losing their power. Racism continues to undergird the inequality and fuels the hate that further divides us.
 
Knowing this nation’s history so we do not repeat its mistakes is important. Before the founding of this country, there was racial discrimination and violence against Indigenous Americans and African slaves which continues against their descendants, extends to immigrants and the trans community, and permeates our society today.
 
During the last 40 years, policies, especially tax policies, have enabled the wealthy to gain more power and money, shifting wealth from the middle and working classes to the wealthy, thus widening the gap between the rich and the poor. Trickle-down economics (aka Reaganomics) allowed the rich to get richer at the expense of the poor through tax cuts to the wealthy. Tax cuts since then by other Republican presidents have widened the wealth gap. Over the past 40 years, $50 trillion in wealth has transferred to the top 0.1% from the bottom 90%. Just in the last 10 years, the top 1% have increased their wealth by $33.9 trillion. All of this means that workers have lost ground over time. For example, workers in the bottom 90%, on average, have lost over $1,100 in wages every month, every year. To put a finer point on it, someone making a median salary of $36,000 today loses out on $28,000 of additional annual wages. This loss of income coupled with rising costs of living squeezes the middle and working classes today.
 
In addition, over the past 40 years, the racist “welfare queen” trope influenced those in power to cut back on entitlement programs which hurt the poor. Unbridled capitalism allowed corporations to succeed at the expense of the consumer and the environment. Only the wealthy and corporations have benefited under this system. It is no wonder people are disenchanted with the “American dream” and stressed over job opportunities and finances.
 
Propaganda from within the US and through foreign interference has radicalized people who felt cheated by the system to vote for a savior-would be-dictator. The divisiveness promoted by his party is a divide-and-conquer strategy, fueled by racism, hate, and fear, that created polarization over issues that did not matter so the oligarchs could win and take away our rights, freedoms, and power. These oligarchs do not believe in democracy: they believe poor people are parasites and they believe they (the oligarchs) deserve to rule. It is pure greed at work. Except it is not pure.
 
Greed of power, greed of money, greed of narcissistic adulation. These oligarchs are the goats - not the greatest of all time - but the ones, in the parable of the king, Jesus places on his left, the ones who did for themselves, not for the least of these. At the end of the track, they will find their reward of eternal condemnation. (See Matthew 25:41-43, 45-46*)
 
In the meantime, it is not enough to say what we are against. We also must articulate what we are for. We must elect politicians who will work to restore democracy at federal, state, and local levels of government. In addition, laws need to be established that undo the policies of this oligarchy so democracy can be resuscitated.
 
Maybe the part of the government that should experience a train wreck is the electoral college; if abolished, voters directly elect the president with a simple majority. Drawing congressional districts by nonpartisan experts allows better representation in the US House. Creating term limits for Supreme Court justices keeps our highest court relevant to the electorate and allows each president to have the same number of appointees. Passing campaign finance laws that limit the contributions a candidate can accept levels the playing field for all candidates. Restoring the Voting Rights Act allows for a functioning democracy. Promoting truth and trust in the news cycle discredits lies and propaganda.
 
If a healthy democracy can thrive, the quality of life for those who are not wealthy has a chance to improve. Instead of cutting budgets for Medicaid and for Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), we create a government-provided healthcare system for all Americans (like all other wealthy nations have) and provide programs to ensure no child in the US goes hungry. Creating a fair tax system starts to close the wealth gap. Raising the minimum wage to a livable wage, providing training for higher paying jobs, removing roadblocks to build more and affordable housing, and creating a viable path to citizenship would increase the quality of life for “we the people.”
 
Opportunities for advancement, enough money to provide for our families, affordable healthcare and housing are issues most people can agree are important to all of us. If only we had a system that worked for "we the people." And just for the record, “we the people” does not mean only rich white men.
 
The way to restore democracy and to improve the quality of life for Americans requires us to stand up to the oligarchs and their leader. Now. Before it is too late.
 
On June 14, the same day as $45 million of our tax dollars promoted a paltry show of military force in a particular parade in DC, over 5 million people peacefully protested a would-be king. Many more supported those rallies even if they did not attend. According to Erica Chenoweth at the Harvard-Kennedy Center’s Carr-Ryan Center for Human Rights, it takes a movement of only 3.5% of a population standing against a government to bring it down. The US population is currently at 342 million so we need at least 12 million to stand up for democracy in order to bring about change. We the People can change this corrupt and unfair system. We can restore democracy. We can create a better world. We can turn this train around. I think we can, I think we can…
 
 
 
 
*Matthew 25:41-43, 45-46: “Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.’…’Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’ “Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.”
 
 
NOTE: As of this writing, the US Senate has just passed their version of the "Big, Beautiful" tax bill which permanently extends the 2017 tax cuts to the wealthy and corporations. This will continue gutting the middle and working classes' wealth and shift it to the top 1%. Please call or email your representatives in Congress to express your opposition to this bill. This version goes back to the US House for approval. (There are other provisions that should be resisted as well.) If you hear the bill only costs $442 billion, please be aware that this cost calculation EXCLUDES the cost of the tax cuts on the grounds that they are merely an extension of the 2017 tax cuts. (This is like a business owner saying they do not have to budget salaries and benefits for employees who are already hired! Who does that??) The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) calculates the tax cuts to add $3.3 trillion to the national debt.
 
To pay for these tax cuts, this bill also includes almost $1 trillion cuts to Medicaid that would, according to the CBO, knock 11.8 million people off their health insurance. Because Medicaid also pays for long-term care in skilled nursing facilities, these draconian cuts mean that not only could long-term care patients lose their care and residence, but nursing facilities who have a large proportion of Medicaid patients could lose enough funding that they would have to shutter, creating havoc for families who depend on this care, even if the patient is not a Medicare recipient. Rural hospitals could likewise close without Medicaid funding. Employment in these facilities would also be impacted. Often in rural areas, the hospital is the largest employer. It is estimated that more than 50,000 Americans will die because of these budget cuts. The impact of this bill is far-reaching and disastrous. Members of Congress who vote for this bill, who approve of shifting wealth to the wealthy and gutting health insurance and SNAP, need to be held accountable; they do not deserve to lead this country. Vote them out in 2026.
 
 
Text and photograph copyright © 2025 by Dawn Dailey. All rights reserved. Photo of train tracks in Hastings, New Zealand.
 
 
Not a subscriber to the monthly blog posts? Click here to subscribe. Subscribers receive an email each month that includes the post with the lead photo as well as bonus photos not posted on the website. Email addresses are never sold or shared.
 
 
 
A NOTE ON SOCIAL JUSTICE:

Jesus says the greatest commandments are to love God and to love people (Matthew 22:37-40). The Christian faith boils down to these two precepts.

Social justice puts that love into action by helping individuals who are oppressed, mistreated, or suffering, and by pursuing ways to dismantle systems of oppression. How we treat others, particularly those less powerful in society than ourselves, matters (Matthew 25:31-46).

Racial justice is one aspect of social justice. Check out my web page on “Justice Matters” to find resources and to connect with organizations engaging in the cause of racial justice.  Click here to learn more.
 
 
All scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com The “NIV” and “New International Version” are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.™

Standing in the bright green grass where rows upon rows of white crosses mingle with white stars of David, I feel overwhelmed with a sense of loss. Literally thousands of soldiers were given their final resting place here.

The storming of the D-Day beaches in Normandy, France, on June 6, 1944, proved to be the turning point of World War II. The soldiers who stormed the beaches in the early hours of that day fought for freedom and democracy and against dictatorship and fascism. Thousands paid with their lives. Here, in the Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial at Colleville-sur-Mer, the 9,387 graves, mostly of those who died during the invasion, are a stark reminder of the horrific cost of human life in the fight for freedom and the accompanying grief experienced by their families and descendants, friends, and comrades.

Today, as then, we as a country are experiencing collective grief. While there may be those who cheer on the destruction this administration has wrought and continues to wield, there are many of us who find ourselves in a state of grief.

While it has been said that the stages of grief are denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance, I would argue that these stages may not be all encompassing and we may not move through them linearly. The “shock and awe” of the first 100 days of this administration is wearing off. It is exhausting and overwhelming by design. It is normal to grieve the destruction of our democracy as the US slides towards authoritarianism.

Some of us may be in denial and may ignore the news because it is just too overwhelming. Would-be dictators prefer a nation that either does not know the truth or has given up trying to discern truth. Ignorance is a tool that they use to gain power. Staying informed without feeling overwhelmed is crucial to resisting the whims of this administration. Also, resisting the temptation to normalize this administration’s ways is important. Otherwise, we are lulled into complacency. Not allowing ourselves to become numb to all the changes is essential to vigilance.

Some of us may be at the stage of anger. We may be angry at this administration and at those who voted for them. But at some point, many of these voters will come to the realization that the actions and policies of this administration are either not what they thought they were voting for or they will realize they are negatively impacted by this administration’s actions. When that happens, we must put aside electoral differences and welcome them into the big tent of resistance. 

We may be angry at the Democrats for failing to act. As the opposition party, the Democrats do not have a majority in either chamber of Congress and so they are limited in what they, as elected leaders, can do. It is often difficult to understand what, if anything, the Democratic party is doing to stop this slide towards authoritarianism and to feel anger towards their seeming inaction.

There are a few members of Congress speaking up, while others seem to be trying to figure out how to respond. Within the halls of Congress, Democrats are beginning to resist strategically and to proclaim the harm that the party in power is wreaking on the American people. They need to loudly participate in resistance to this regime, to be the party that stands with the average American, and to offer abundance as a stark counterpoint to the other party’s use of scarcity. Instead of taking away programs and fear-mongering, I hope they will provide concrete plans for practical uses of tax dollars that will benefit the working and middle classes, not the wealthy and oligarchs.


In the meantime, while we wait for Democratic party leadership to evolve (and for enough Republican members in Congress to resist), we, the people, need to put our anger and our grief over losing our democracy to good use. Peaceful protests and boycotts do have positive impacts. Protests in previous times were successful in gaining voting rights for women, people of color, and the LGBTQA+ community. Protests were also successful in bringing the Vietnam War to a close. In other countries around the world, protests have brought down regimes in Argentina as well as Ukraine (in 2014). Perhaps a more relevant example of the positive results of peaceful protests are the weekly Tesla Takedowns across the country and across the globe. They have been successful in highlighting how unpopular DOGE is and have been a key force in driving out its leader from the government while financially impairing his company, its stock, and his personal wealth. 

There is power in peaceful protests. Authoritarian leaders cannot take power unless the people allow it. Protesting is a way to vote in the court of public opinion. Channeling our anger in peaceful protests is a way to exercise our power.

I hope we never get to the last stage of grief called acceptance. We must not accept the destruction of our democracy. We must continue to use our voices to resist. By contrast, silence is complicity. Those who do not speak up against this slide towards authoritarianism are indeed enabling it. Whether they are members of Congress or members of the public, the time to speak up is now before it is too late. We cannot give up on democracy. We cannot let the thousands who died for freedom on the beaches of Normandy and elsewhere to have died in vain.

Dictators and oligarchs want us to be divided and feeling alone. When we channel our grief and anger into working for the collective good with the endgame of democracy, we will find our voice and our power. When we protest peacefully together, we generate hope and energy. There is power in our solidarity. Being part of something bigger than ourselves connects us to each other in ways not possible without this collective grief experience. It is indeed good grief.



WHAT WE CAN DO:

The federal budget and tax bill, aka “the Big Beautiful Bill” (or – the Big Brutal Bill), recently passed the US House and is currently in the Senate. If it passes in the Senate, it will cut SNAP by $300 billion, impacting over 40 million people that rely on food assistance. The bill will also cut Medicaid by over $700 billion over the next 10 years, impacting 72 million people’s health care, including kicking 10.3 million people completely off their medical insurance. It gives tax breaks to the wealthy, costing the rest of us $1.7 trillion. It will also increase the national budget deficit by $3.8 trillion. There are other issues tucked into this bill, like limiting federal courts’ power to enforce contempt citations as well as increasing ICE’s detention budget from $3.4 billion to $48 billion and their transportation and removal operations budget from $721 million to $14.4 billion.

Call your representatives in Congress to voice your opinion and to specifically call out this reverse Robinhood bill that takes from the poor and gives to the rich. The congressional switchboard number is (202) 224-3121. If that line is busy, call your representative at their DC or local office. Check their websites for contact info. 

5calls.org is a great resource when contacting your congressmember or senator. Current issues are listed on this website along with scripts by issue to use in your conversation with your representative. Let your voice be heard!

Check out Indivisible.org for peaceful protests and other events where you can get involved.

Check out NOPE (Neighbors Defending Democracy) to see how you can get involved.

Plan to participate in the “No Kings” rallies around the country on June 14 as a counter to the military/birthday parade scheduled in DC. (See Indivisible or NOPE for more info.)


JUNE IS PRIDE MONTH! Check out history.com.
​

Text and photograph copyright © 2025 by Dawn Dailey. All rights reserved. Photo of Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial at Colleville-sur-Mer, France, the largest American cemetery outside the US.


Not a subscriber to the monthly blog posts? Click here to subscribe. Subscribers receive an email each month that includes the post with the lead photo as well as bonus photos not posted on the website. Email addresses are never sold or shared.



A NOTE ON SOCIAL JUSTICE:

Jesus says the greatest commandments are to love God and to love people (Matthew 22:37-40). The Christian faith boils down to these two precepts.

Social justice puts that love into action by helping individuals who are oppressed, mistreated, or suffering, and by pursuing ways to dismantle systems of oppression. How we treat others, particularly those less powerful in society than ourselves, matters (Matthew 25:31-46).

Racial justice is one aspect of social justice. Check out my web page on “Justice Matters” to find resources and to connect with organizations engaging in the cause of racial justice.  Click here to learn more.

We often take things for granted. Maybe we do not fully grasp the history and hard-won fight behind it and just accept it as part of life today, never thinking that it could be taken away from us in the future.

Democracy is something we take for granted in the US until its fragility comes into focus and we fear losing it. There are many aspects of our democratic society that are currently being dismantled and every day brings new destruction of the pillars upon which our democracy stands. There are so many issues, but today we will focus on a particular one: under that large umbrella of liberty and individual civil rights is something that we often take for granted and the unsung hero who fought to provide it.

Labor laws as we know them today were not always part of our American heritage. The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire of 1911 in Manhattan highlighted the unfair labor practices of employers that literally endangered workers’ lives. During the deadly blaze, the 146 workers, mostly women and girls, were trapped in the building because the doors were locked to prevent them from taking breaks. All of them died. This horrific loss of life made a deep impression on a young woman who witnessed the fire. She would become a relentless and successful pursuer of workers’ rights in the US.

Frances Perkins (1880-1965) lived in NYC and worked in the NY office of the National Consumers League at the time of the Triangle Shirtwaist tragedy. She went on to work in the New York state government, holding positions where she was able to implement safety standards. She made it her life’s mission to advocate for the masses of powerless workers who faced harsh working conditions under the oligarchs who employed them. Employers were getting rich off the literal backs of their workers who were paid mere pennies for their long hours on the job. Because of her compassion, supported by her faith, Perkins succeeded in making a difference, not just in the lives of her contemporaries, but for all future workers in the American labor force.

Today, we might give little thought to whether there are overhead sprinklers or exit doors in our office buildings, warehouses, manufacturing plants, and other public buildings. As a direct result of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire, Perkins established fire safety regulations in the state of New York which were adopted in all other states.

But her influence spread further than just fire safety. When Franklin Delano Roosevelt became the president in 1933, he asked Perkins to lead the newly created Department of Labor. On one condition, she replied: her laundry list of workers’ rights would be implemented. FDR agreed and Frances Perkins became the first female Cabinet secretary in US history.

Undaunted by the sex discrimination against her by many of her male colleagues, Perkins went to work to create a safer and more equitable working environment for her fellow Americans. Besides her intelligence, her super power was her ability to “read the room” and to observe and understand her adversaries so she could persuade them to her perspective, all with the end game of passing legislation that promoted laborers’ rights.

As a result of her tenacity, her art of persuasion, and her compassion for workers, Perkins succeeded in implementing all her agenda (except one). Because of her untiring work, we have laws regarding: a 40-hour work week (instead of 70+ hours), minimum wages, child labor restrictions, unemployment insurance, disability insurance, and perhaps her crowning achievement, Social Security. The one agenda item that eluded her was medical insurance for all, something that still eludes us today.

In December 2024, President Biden officially recognized Frances Perkins and her incredible achievements. While most people have never heard of her, Biden memorialized her life in a statue that is now installed in Ithaca, NY, home to Cornell University where Perkins taught after leaving her government career.

Today, I wonder if many of us take these accomplishments of Frances Perkins for granted, not realizing that the fight for fair labor practices was arduous. Sadly, Social Security, a benefit that positively impacts the lives of millions of retirees and their dependents, survivors of deceased workers, and disabled workers, has never been fully accepted by some conservatives, not in her time and not in our time.

When the government seeks to roll back Social Security by cutting funding, firing employees, or eliminating services, we must ask ourselves this fundamental question: What is the purpose of the federal government?

Does the federal government exist to protect human and civil rights? Does it exist to provide a safety net to its most vulnerable citizens? Should it provide protection to its citizens via the military and national security? Perhaps the role of the federal government is to do what we ourselves alone cannot do. And collectively, we can provide all of this through our representatives in government working to appropriate our tax dollars in ways that work for the common good.

Or, conversely, does the government serve to protect the interests of the wealthy at the expense of everyone else? In an oligarchy, the rich are out for themselves and will bend the government for their further enrichment. It is no longer a government for the people, only a government for the few.

This fundamental question on the purpose of government was turned on its head with the appointment of Frances Perkins as Secretary of Labor. She changed the trajectory of the labor force in profound and enduring ways which helped to navigate the US through the Great Depression, World War II, and beyond. By protecting workers, she paved the way for the creation of a middle class. By providing retirement benefits, she gave seniors the right to dignity, to not depend on their adult children, and to allow their adult children to prosper without the financial burden of their aging parents.

May we not take her hard-won victories for granted. May our compassion for the vulnerable and our own faith enable us to protect her legacy and the rights of workers today. May we take a stand against cutting Social Security benefits, Medicare, Medicaid, SNAP, Head Start, veterans’ benefits, and other programs that serve the common good. Billionaires do not need tax cuts funded by the rest of us. The Gilded Age is history. May it remain so.


If you are curious about the remarkable Frances Perkins and her fight for the rights of American workers, I highly recommend The Woman Behind the New Deal: The Life of Frances Perkins, FDR’s Secretary of Labor and His Moral Conscience by Kirsten Downey.

NOTE: The Social Security Act, passed by Congress in 1935, excluded certain workers, such as domestic and agricultural workers. As a result, 65% of Black workers and 27% of white workers were initially excluded from participating in Social Security.


WHAT CAN WE DO?
Call or email your representatives in Congress to voice your opposition to cuts to Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, SNAP, Head Start, and veterans’ benefits, all of which are on the chopping block as they craft a new budget. This and other issues with possible phone scripts can be found on 5calls.org.

Check out Indivisible.org for peaceful protests and other events where you can get involved, including the schedule for boycotting the billionaires.

Give money to legal organizations on the front lines of court battles, such as American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) (not tax-deductible), ACLU Foundation, Americans United for Separation of Church and State, Brennan Center for Justice, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), Democracy Forward Foundation, GLBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders (GLAD Law), Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) (not tax deductible), Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF), NAACP Legal Defense Fund, and State Democracy Defenders Fund.

Stay in the fight for our democracy. Even when it feels exhausting and overwhelming. Do it for your future self and generations to come. Resist. Persist. Never give up.




Text and photograph copyright © 2025 by Dawn Dailey. All rights reserved. Photo of Lower Manhattan and the Hudson River as seen from the Empire State Building, New York City.


Not a subscriber to the monthly blog posts? Click here to subscribe. Subscribers receive an email each month that includes the post with the lead photo as well as bonus photos not posted on the website. Email addresses are never sold or shared.



A NOTE ON SOCIAL JUSTICE:
Jesus says the greatest commandments are to love God and to love people (Matthew 22:37-40). The Christian faith boils down to these two precepts.

Social justice puts that love into action by helping individuals who are oppressed, mistreated, or suffering, and by pursuing ways to dismantle systems of oppression. How we treat others, particularly those less powerful in society than ourselves, matters (Matthew 25:31-46).

Racial justice is one aspect of social justice. Check out my web page on “Justice Matters” to find resources and to connect with organizations engaging in the cause of racial justice.  Click here to learn more

“’I never thought leopards would eat MY face,' sobs woman who voted for the Leopards Eating People's Faces Party." This 2015 tweet about a fictitious political party by @cavalorn went viral. It applies even more today.

As humans, we have an uncanny ability to live in denial. We deny all sorts of things by pretending a problem does not exist like addiction, abuse, or a health problem needing medical attention. We pretend that something is not happening when it clearly is. And we deny the possibility that what is happening to other people could happen to us. Until it does.

In Germany, Martin Niemöller (1892-1984) worked as a Lutheran pastor. He voted for Hitler as chancellor in 1933 and was supportive of the Nazi party until he realized the party intended to control religion and the churches. He then regretted his silence, his inaction, and the resulting complicity. The following quote comes from speeches that he delivered. This version, from the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust, UK, says it all:

“First they came for the Communists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Communist
Then they came for the Socialists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Socialist
Then they came for the trade unionists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a trade unionist
Then they came for the Jews
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Jew
Then they came for me
And there was no one left
To speak out for me.”

Niemöller was silent when groups he did not care about suffered at the hands of the Nazis. He only began to speak out with other pastors about the dangers of Nazism once he realized it would impact him personally. But by then, it was too late. He was arrested in 1937 and spent eight years in prisons and concentration camps, including Dachau, before being rescued by the Allies in 1945.

Too often, we stand by and watch as those around us are vilified and dehumanized. We watch from the sidelines as they are arrested, imprisoned, or deported. Our denial that this could be our same fate prevents us from actions that could help. Our lack of compassion blinds us to the reality that vulnerable people are being hurt. Perhaps fear of the consequences of speaking out silences us. Or maybe we identify as part of a protected or majority class because of the color of our skin, our gender, our sexual preference, our political or religious views, or our citizenship status. That will not save us from the leopards in blue suits.

A recent example of this “leopard” phenomenon is in Afghanistan. Since 2021, the government has forbidden girls to attend school after the sixth grade. Women are forbidden to leave their homes without a male family member as an escort. Their employment opportunities are also curtailed. More recently, the government pronounced that a woman’s face can only be seen and her voice can only be heard inside her own home, never out in public. As women’s and girls’ rights were being systematically dismantled, men might have felt safe. But very recently, the government ordered all men in Afghanistan to discard their Western clothes and don only traditional Afghan garb. Men must also not be clean-shaven, but instead, they must grow the traditional long beards. What was once their freedom to wear whatever they want and to groom themselves however they want has now been taken away.

As my mother always said, “If you give them an inch, they will take a mile.” These days, if we do not speak out, they will take more than a mile: they will take everything.

In the US, consider the increasing number of recent arrests and deportations of immigrants, some of whom clearly have legal status here. In all these cases, the detainees have not been given due process of law, meaning they did not receive an immigration hearing, were detained without officially being charged with a crime, and/or were not given the opportunity to speak with an attorney. Of the more notable cases, one was deported to their country of origin, one was violently interrogated and detained, another was arrested and transported to a prison over 1,000 miles away, while over 200 immigrants were deported to a notorious prison in Central America. The point is not whether they should be detained or deported. The issue is HOW they are being detained or deported: without being able to exercise their legal rights. In the US, someone is presumed innocent until proven guilty. Without due process, a guilty verdict is pronounced without any factual evidence being produced. It is a slippery slope that ends with taking away due process rights from anyone else here in the US, native-born or otherwise. When we do not have the rule of law, we no longer have a democracy.

These horrific events are intended as frightening examples of this regime’s power, but they are also meant to divert our attention away from the bigger picture: our democracy is quickly being dismantled. By standing in solidarity with others who also fear losing our democracy, we can push back against this would-be dictator. This means putting aside our political divisions and pending our differences in policy so we can together resist this slide towards dictatorship and oligarchy.

Will we succumb to the denial, silence, and inactivity that Niemöller came to regret? Will we regret not helping others? Or will we only regret not helping ourselves?

May our compassion expand to those who are vulnerable now, notably immigrants and transgender people. May we speak out for them now. May we link arms with our equally concerned comrades to resist this regime.

Let us not be like the fictitious woman in the tweet who was only concerned for herself and was shocked when the “Leopards Eating People’s Faces” came for her.

Alas, I hear knocking. Is it my door? Or my neighbors’?



WHAT CAN WE DO?
These are indeed frightening times as we watch our democracy being dismantled bit by bit.  It is normal to feel afraid or angry or both. It is also exhausting. This regime wants us to give up. As civil rights activist and former US House Representative John Lewis said, “Don’t give up! Don’t give in! Keep the faith! And keep your eyes on the prize!”

It is easier to give up and give into despair than to expend energy to do something. So first, take care of yourself. Take frequent breaks from the news cycle. Do what recharges you. And jump back into the fray.

This democracy is being tried in courts of law and well as in the court of public opinion. Your voice matters. More than ever.

As we have recently seen in the news, this regime is going after immigrants. Also at risk recently are universities (because dictators do not like an educated public) and prestigious law firms (whose clients could win in court against the regime). If they do not bend the knee, they are punished. But when they capitulate, the risks that this regime will go after others like them increases. Bullies must be stopped early on as they pick on a few at first to test the waters and to create terrifying examples of their bullying. It will only get worse. But, in solidarity, universities and law firms can resist and stand together. They have more power than they think.

And so do we. For the rest of us, speak out. Speak loudly. Resist. We may only have a small window of time to speak up and to protest peacefully. If you cannot wrestle up the compassion for those more vulnerable than you, then do it for yourself now. Your future self will thank you.

Unfortunately, those who seek power will stop at nothing and no one is safe, not even members of their own “class.” If we all have the “leopard” attitude, then we will certainly lose democracy and all our rights and freedoms. We all need to resist now.

Check out Indivisible.org for peaceful protests and other events where you can get involved, including the schedule for boycotting the billionaires.

Give money to legal organizations on the front lines of court battles, such as American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) (not tax-deductible), ACLU Foundation, Americans United for Separation of Church and State, Brennan Center for Justice, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), Democracy Forward Foundation, GLBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders (GLAD Law), Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) (not tax deductible), Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF), NAACP Legal Defense Fund, and State Democracy Defenders Fund.

Keep calling your representatives in Congress. Each new week brings new issues upon which to voice our opinions. The issues and possible phone scripts can be found on 5calls.org.

Find your people. Stay connected. Take care of yourself. Use critical thinking skills as you stay informed by consuming news from reputable news sources. “The point of modern propaganda isn’t only to misinform or push an agenda. It is to exhaust your critical thinking, to annihilate truth.” – Garry Kasparov on Twitter, 12/13/16. We cannot let that happen.

Never give up.



Text and photograph copyright © 2025 by Dawn Dailey. All rights reserved. Photo from the Fleischbrücke across the Pegnitz river in Nürnberg (Nuremberg, Germany). I chose this photo because Nuremberg was home to both the Nazi rallies leading up to WWII and to the Nuremberg Trials after the war. The word “zeitgeist” on the building in this photo made me pause: has the zeitgeist of this current era shifted? Are we entering a new era marked by fear, division, and isolationism? Together, in solidarity and with courage, we can change that.


Not a subscriber to the monthly blog posts? Click here to subscribe. Subscribers receive an email each month that includes the post with the lead photo as well as bonus photos not posted on the website. Email addresses are never sold or shared.



A NOTE ON SOCIAL JUSTICE:
Jesus says the greatest commandments are to love God and to love people (Matthew 22:37-40). The Christian faith boils down to these two precepts.

Social justice puts that love into action by helping individuals who are oppressed, mistreated, or suffering, and by pursuing ways to dismantle systems of oppression. How we treat others, particularly those less powerful in society than ourselves, matters (Matthew 25:31-46).

Racial justice is one aspect of social justice. Check out my web page on “Justice Matters” to find resources and to connect with organizations engaging in the cause of racial justice.  Click here to learn more.

Cruelty and loyalty. Two hallmarks of this current regime. We have all witnessed the loyalty part where the only requirement for high-level government positions is loyalty to the king, not competency or experience. Just blind loyalty.
 
It does not require much digging to unearth ramifications of this regime’s cruelty. The billionaire waving a chainsaw at a recent event while gleefully reveling in his recent escapades as head of the “efficiency” effort is probably all we need to know.
 
But the casualties are not just budgets. The slash-and-burn method of cutting costs reverberates all the way down to people’s lives and livelihoods in the US and abroad. USAID (United States Agency for International Development) is one of the first casualties and the carnage continues. Literally. 
 
USAID is an independent federal agency that employs over 10,000 Americans who are deployed throughout the world and partner with many humanitarian aid agencies. Created in part by Congress through the Foreign Assistance Act and from an executive order by President Kennedy in 1961, USAID’s original purpose was to counter Soviet influence during the Cold War while creating soft power (trust and loyalty) for the US through socioeconomic development in low-income countries. USAID works across the globe to provide aid during disasters; food, healthcare, and education support to poverty-stricken areas; administration of funding allocated for geopolitical purposes; and assistance in helping low-income countries manage their resources. Some of these services are directly linked to national security and some ensure elections in developing countries are not fraudulent.
 
Historically, USAID has received bipartisan support in Congress with a budget between $40-60 billion, which is less than 1% of the total federal budget. (In 2023, an extra $16 billion went to help rebuild Ukraine.) While many other countries contribute a larger percentage of their budgets to foreign assistance, the US contributes the largest dollar amount.
 
On January 24, 2025, an executive order put all funding to USAID on hold, ostensibly for an efficiency review. In any organization, there is room for improvement and certainly efficiencies can be realized. But Congress, not the office of the president, is given the authority by the Constitution to create and fund federal agencies. The legal way to perform an efficiency study and to decrease funding is for Congress to act.
 
The “move fast and break things” mantra of an unelected billionaire has created chaos and traumatized federal workers, including USAID employees. Lawsuits have been filed to stop the funding freeze. But so far, this regime has not complied with any court orders to resume funding and the process by which agencies can request an exemption to the funding freeze does not work. Funds still have not been received by those granted exemptions.
 
The impact of shuttering USAID is felt around the world. Its employees are left without support, sometimes in dangerous countries and situations, and some must navigate evacuation on their own and without funding (including without their last paycheck). Even if they travel back to the US, they do not have the resources to pay for housing and oftentimes, they left most of their personal belongings behind. These hard-working civil servants do this difficult work at great risk to themselves and their families while providing extraordinary services abroad. They have served the US government and now they are cruelly cast aside as if their years of service meant nothing. This type of loyalty is obviously not valued.
 
The shuttering of USAID impacts other Americans as well. USAID pays $2 billion annually to US farmers for food they grow that is distributed through USAID agencies. When funding stopped suddenly, not only do these farmers have fewer prospects of selling their crops going forward, but they have not received payments for all their current shipments. Farmers and companies who supply food to USAID are left holding the bag. And $450 million worth of food is rotting in warehouses because there is no one to distribute it.
 
Around the world, this funding freeze impacts USAID partnering organizations. Without funding, many of these organizations are forced to shut down. A brand-new and much-needed hospital in Haiti was forced to close because now it does not have the funding to pay its medical staff. $200 million of emergency aid to feed over 700,000 children in South Sudan is stuck at a port in Kenya. In addition, it is estimated that 200,000 children will be paralyzed by polio while 2.3 million children per year will die of diseases because they can no longer be vaccinated.
 
The victims of this funding freeze are not just statistics. A 71-year-old woman from Myanmar who was living in a displacement camp in Thailand (since the military coup in Myanmar) was one of the first victims of this crisis. She frequently had to go to a nearby hospital for oxygen as she had a lung disease. When the funding freeze began, the hospital had to close and she was discharged. She died several days later because she could not get the oxygen she needed. Others in the same camp also have died for the same reason.
 
USAID partners operate hospitals and clinics that provide medical care, vaccines, and treatments for many illnesses, including smallpox, malaria, tuberculosis, and HIV. Their life-saving work also helps contain epidemics like Ebola. It is projected that the HIV treatments for 20 million people, including 500,000 children have been disrupted and as a result, there will potentially be a 400% increase in HIV-related deaths across the globe. Babies born with HIV have weakened immune systems; without HIV treatments, they will succumb to infections and other diseases that will kill them, most likely before they turn three years of age. One adult HIV patient begged the staff at the clinic to give her 18 months of medication so she could live to see her son graduate.
 
Knowing their aid supplies will be gone soon and their clinics will be shuttered, the staff at these clinics must make the gut-wrenching decision regarding which patients will receive their dwindling supply of medications. These workers are there literally to save lives but now they will grieve those they cannot save.
 
Providing food and medicine is a compassionate and humane response to the suffering around the world, but keeping people fed and healthy lowers the risk of wars and other unstable forces which increases Americans’ national security. By providing vital aid and by being often the largest donor in a country, USAID builds good relations between the US and other countries. Without this positive influence, the world will become less stable and the US will have fewer international allies.  Foreign assistance also keeps Americans healthy as it contains and even eradicates epidemics in other countries that, without this intervention, could spread to the US.
 
When the world’s wealthiest nation turns its back on its less fortunate neighbors, there will be consequences. People around the globe are already dying and many more will die. Thousands of dedicated workers are placed in dangerous situations without assistance from their home offices. They are now unemployed with no severance pay nor their most recent pay checks. The soft power provided to the US through USAID will now be garnered by two powerful countries who have historically not been American allies.
 
Cruelty, not compassion, rules the day. Providing aid to the world’s most vulnerable is a moral obligation as part of our common humanity. I keep coming back to Jesus’ words in Matthew 25:40 when he says, “’Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’ Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.”
 
We cannot be complicit in the destruction of this life-saving aid to millions of people around the world. They are neighbors. They are created in God’s image. They may be the least of these in terms of wealth, but helping them is the least we can do. And in helping them, we help ourselves. How can we afford not to?
 

 
ON UKRAINE:
Friday’s debacle in the Oval Office was staged to humiliate the Ukrainian president to force him to capitulate to Russian demands. The American president and vice president revealed their hand in supporting Russia in its aggression against Ukraine. In doing so, they sold out both the Ukrainian people, the American people, our European allies, and our democracy. It is beyond disgraceful. But democracy is not a spectator sport.  See below as to what you can do about it.
 

REMEMBER:
1 – The executive branch enforces the laws made by Congress. It does not create them. Executive orders by the president are instructions for how the executive branch is to operate; they are not laws.
2 – The legislative branch makes the laws and authorizes funding of the agencies and programs it creates. The executive branch has no authority to impound or freeze funds that Congress has approved.
3- The judicial branch interprets the laws and does not create them. They have the power to say whether the executive orders and laws are constitutional and therefore enforceable, or not.
4 – Each of the three branches of government is a check on the other.
5 – This unelected billionaire does not have the authority to access sensitive data within the executive branch or independent agencies nor does he have the authority to hire and fire federal employees. The Office of Personnel Management can only hire or fire their own employees, not those in other agencies, and should not be able to control the firing of employees across the federal government.
 
 
WHAT YOU CAN DO:
1 – Keep calling your representatives in Congress:

• Voice your support for USAID. Currently, the courts are involved but the regime is trying to keep the funds frozen.

 

• Express your embarrassment over last Friday’s meeting in the White House with the president of Ukraine. It is obvious our president and VP are on the side of Russia. Declare your support for Ukraine and ask your representative to stand with Ukraine and make a public statement accordingly. Also, remind them that the Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA) passed by Congress in 2017 means that the president cannot unilaterally lift sanctions against Russia without congressional approval.

 

• After the president this week suspended military aid to Ukraine, demand that Congress step up and send the previously authorized military aid to Ukraine. The president cannot unilaterally impound that aid.

 

• Tell them your outrage over the “efficiency” office’s gutting of federal agencies by shutting down programs and firing federal workers as well as the illegality of the actions of this unelected billionaire, including accessing your personal and financial data.

 

• Ask your House rep to vote NO on the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act which, if passed, would suppress voter participation by requiring in-person proof of citizenship to register to vote or to change a voter registration (for example, for a new address or if you have been accidentally purged from the voter roll). This negatively impacts half of Americans who do not have passports, expats and military overseas who cannot be in the US in person to change their registration, as well as women who changed their name upon marriage as their photo IDs will not match their birth certificates. There is no mention in the proposed law regarding using marriage certificates or change-of-name documents to prove legal name changes. The SAVE Act will effectively eliminate the use of mail-in registration, online registration, Automated Voter Registration (AVR) via motor vehicle agencies, and get-out-the-vote efforts. It must not pass.

 

• Ask your senators to vote NO on all executive branch positions requiring their confirmation. The incompetence and inexperience of these nominees disqualifies them for these high-level positions of power.

 

• Ask both your House rep and senators to vote NO on the upcoming budget. To pay for tax cuts to the wealthy and to corporations, Republicans in Congress are willing to cut programs and services used by millions of Americans. It plans to slash up to $880 billion in Medicaid spending over 10 years, which provides affordable health insurance for over 72 million people and funding to health care providers, nursing facilities, and hospitals. One in five people in the US receive either health insurance or long-term care through Medicaid. Two-thirds of patients in nursing facilities are on Medicaid. Reducing Medicaid to nursing facilities will result in closures, sending families scrambling to find other facilities (even if their family member is not on Medicaid themselves). Cutting funding to hospitals risks their closure. Rural hospitals are at particular risk; when hospitals close, patients must drive long distances to receive care and rural hospitals are often major employers so the local economy will be impacted. Other potential cuts are $238 billion to SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, aka, food stamps) and $330 billion in education. All of this is to pay for tax cuts to the wealthy. This is Robinhood in reverse. (If your rep’s office denies the current budget resolution contains the Medicaid cut, ask them where the $880 billion is coming from that the Energy and Commerce Committee is tasked with finding; Medicaid or Medicare are the only options for that large of a cut.)

 

• Regardless of which party is represented by your senators and US House rep (or whether you voted for them or not – they still represent you in Congress), calling them to voice your opinion makes a difference. 5calls.org has a list of current issues and talking points to use and can help you contact your Congress members.

 
2 – Consider donating to foreign aid organizations to fill in the gap. Charity Navigator evaluates charity organizations and has posted a list of charities affected by the USAID funding freeze.  Click here.

3 – Consider donating to organizations on the front line of filing lawsuits against the power grab by this regime, such as American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) (not tax-deductible), ACLU Foundation, Americans United for Separation of Church and State, Brennan Center for Justice, and Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington.
 
4 – Peacefully protest; see Indivisible.org and Political Revolution.
 
5 – Boycott products produced or sold by these billionaires.
 
6 - Stay informed.
 
 
 
Text and photograph copyright © 2025 by Dawn Dailey. All rights reserved. Photo of field of blooming rapeseed near Sancerre, France; the photo with its colors are in support of Ukraine.
 
 
Not a subscriber to the monthly blog posts? Click here to subscribe. Subscribers receive an email each month that includes the post with the lead photo as well as bonus photos not posted on the website. Email addresses are never sold or shared.
 
 
 
A NOTE ON SOCIAL JUSTICE:
Jesus says the greatest commandments are to love God and to love people (Matthew 22:37-40). The Christian faith boils down to these two precepts.

Social justice puts that love into action by helping individuals who are oppressed, mistreated, or suffering, and by pursuing ways to dismantle systems of oppression. How we treat others, particularly those less powerful in society than ourselves, matters (Matthew 25:31-46).

Racial justice is one aspect of social justice. Check out my web page on “Justice Matters” to find resources and to connect with organizations engaging in the cause of racial justice.  Click here to learn more.
 
 
All scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com The “NIV” and “New International Version” are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.™

After a long hiatus from my hobby of photography, I took up my camera again when I began to hike. As a late-blooming hiker almost 15 years ago, I struggled to keep up and the trails often took me out of my comfort zone. But when I got to the top of an elevated trail, the view was magnificent. All the hard work getting there paid off in all the gorgeous scenery and the images I captured with my camera, something I totally would have missed if I had not pushed through my fear and persisted during my climb to the top.
 
Persistence and overcoming fear are required today. Since the recent inauguration, the “shock and awe” of all the executive orders leaves me feeling exhausted. Perhaps you are, too. Maybe, like me, you are worried and frightened about the near future and what it means for you, your family, friends, and neighbors. The speed at which this administration is moving to destroy democracy and the federal government is designed to exhaust and frighten its opponents into submission. This tactic is called resilience targeting, typically used during disasters, that intentionally overwhelms people with chaos to keep them vulnerable. While it might feel easier to pull the covers over our heads, we cannot roll over and give up our power.
 
One sliver of hope is knowing that this president won only 49.9% of the popular vote, meaning more voters voted for someone else other than for him. This clearly is not a landslide victory, despite his fabrications to the contrary, which means he does not have an overwhelming mandate to do whatever he wants. Even a survey by the conservative Wall Street Journal showed that 75% of Americans oppose mass deportations, a key campaign promise.
 
A recent AP poll found that only 12% of Americans believe the president should take policy advice from billionaires. Yet on January 20th at the Inauguration in the Capitol building’s rotunda, the richest men in the world were sitting comfortably inside while many of his base with their purchased inaugural tickets were left out in the cold. Literally. That scene speaks volumes for whom this regime plans to support. And it is clearly not the American people, not even his base.
 
Contrary to distancing themselves from it, this regime, marked by cruelty and loyalty, is using the draconian Project 2025 to remake the government into one controlled by an authoritarian dictator and owned by his buddies, the wealthy oligarchs. (An oligarchy is a government run by a few wealthy and powerful elite.)
 
While this regime tries to usher in a “Golden Age,” there are some parallels to the Gilded Age of the late 19th century which saw the rise of industrialization and with it, the oligarchs of the day, often referred to as “robber barons” or “industrialists.” Men like Andrew Carnegie, JP Morgan, and John D. Rockefeller gained their wealth by exploiting workers, eschewing business regulations, and by bending the government through corruption to further enrich themselves. Then, as now, there was great wealth inequality. The wealthiest 2% controlled more than a third of US wealth. Now, thanks to trickle-down “Reaganomics” from 1981 and forward, coupled with GOP tax cuts for the wealthy, $50 trillion in wealth has moved from the bottom 90% of Americans to the top 1% from 1981 to 2021 before “Bidenomics” began to reverse the trend. Today, the top 1% controls 30% of all US wealth.
 
What we are seeing today is the rise of a dictator, aided by his oligarchs, all of whom are in it for power and money at the expense of the American people. Divide and conquer is their strategy by scapegoating and dehumanizing immigrants and trans people as well as blaming the “deep state” in the federal government. They exploit us as we fight each other over their made-up culture wars, shifting more wealth and power to themselves under this smokescreen that they are just doing business as usual (à la robber barons). They hope we will not notice that they are getting richer while many Americans struggle to put food on the table.
 
Their goal is to destroy democracy and all the institutions that support it to solidify their control. They bankroll the religious extremists who want to impose their far-right agenda called Christian nationalism (which in no way resembles Jesus and His teachings, but rather is an ideology based on white supremacy and patriarchy). Our rights and freedoms are being taken from us in the name of religious freedom and is another way for them to consolidate power and control. All of this started on Day 1, the day he promised he would be a dictator, the day he began this new reality show with the flourish of his Sharpie to a blitz of executive orders.
 
What exactly is an executive order and who can issue one? The president has the sole power to issue executive orders which are directives for how the executive branch is to operate and how they are to enforce (or not) the law. Congress can counter an order by refusing to fund an initiative or by passing a law to override a particular order. The courts can deem an executive order unlawful or unconstitutional.
 
One noteworthy observation is that despite the blatant unconstitutionality of some of these orders, no lawyer in the Oval Office stopped the president from issuing them. The guardrails of his previous term in office are gone. Now he is surrounded only by people who are totally loyal to him and who will not challenge him. Term 2 is exponentially worse and more destructive than Term 1.
 
The decrees issued since January 20th provide a wrecking ball that is literally destroying the federal government. While we think our institutions are solid, we are seeing in real time their dismantling which allows the oligarchs to take control while profiting from its demise. It also enables the president to consolidate his power. Without a functioning government, this country will indeed become the “failing nation” this regime has been saying for months. While the US is not perfect, it definitely was not a failing nation before January 20th.
 
“Flooding the zone” with so many decrees is designed to overwhelm us, instill fear, and intimidate us. But more importantly, many of these decrees consolidate power into the office of the presidency by taking power from independent federal agencies like the CDC, by seeking to control departments like the Justice Department, or by usurping Congress’ power, especially their power to fund the government.
 
This regime and its oligarchs do not believe in democracy. Rather, they believe that a few people (themselves) should control everyone else. They view diversity, not as enriching our society, but rather as weakening it. By deporting immigrants, firing employees in DEI departments, and purging the federal workforce without just cause, they can increase their power by filling jobs with conservative straight white men whose only qualification is loyalty to them, not to democracy.
 
After the recent horrific plane and Army helicopter collision over the Potomac River, the president, rather than showing compassion to victims’ families, blamed DEI for the accident, insinuating that women, people of color, and people with disabilities were somehow responsible for these untimely deaths. The regime continues to use sexist, racist, and ableist rhetoric to divide us. This cruel and hateful blame game obfuscates the real issues in this particular instance of the lack of funding for more air traffic controllers (one decree froze federal hiring), the lack of oversight (one decree fired all members of the congressionally-mandated Aviation Security Advisory Committee), and the lack of leadership (one oligarch pressured the FAA head to resign on January 20th because his space enterprise company had been charged with safety violations and slapped with a fine).
 
It is impossible to cover all the executive orders issued since January 20th, but generally, these decrees instruct independent federal agencies to stop important work that keeps the public safe, like orders to the CDC forbidding it to communicate their reports and to coordinate with the World Health Organization (another decree removed the US from the WHO, a post-World War II pillar needed for global stability and security). Some decrees directly target federal employees, either by unjustly firing them or offering them a “buyout” to resign (which was accomplished via a Twitter-esque email sent to most federal employees). All DEI programs were dismantled and those workers were put on administrative leave which disenfranchises those who rely on their services and support groups, including disabled veterans.
 
Other decrees strip rights of transgender people, including declaring there are only two genders (in an attempt to erase trans people), barring trans people from serving in the military (there are at least 15,000 people in the military who identify as trans), limiting access to gender-affirming care for trans youth, and ordering federally incarcerated trans people to medically detransition and be housed in facilities corresponding with their sex at birth (which puts them at risk of physical danger).
 
Decrees related to immigration are designed to instill fear in both undocumented immigrants and those with legal status. Canceling the appointments asylum seekers made via the CBP One app for legal immigration means they are now stuck in limbo in Mexico. Raiding schools and churches to arrest immigrants instills fear in whole communities. The executive order to forbid birthright citizenship to babies born in the US (with caveats around their parents’ immigration status) is clearly unconstitutional but it will probably wind its way up to the nation’s top court which is not known for upholding precedent. Many of these executive orders are intentionally designed to test the limits of the Constitution.
 
Numerous orders have been met with lawsuits by nonprofits, states’ attorney generals, and individuals to push back on their legality and constitutionality. This was especially visible when one decree froze federal loans and grants to many federal programs, including Meals on Wheels and Head Start. Congress received a deluge of calls from constituents and impacted organizations. That pushback, coupled with lawsuits challenging the decree, caused the regime to backtrack and rescind it. There is power in our collective resistance.
 
In addition to the executive orders, the presidential pardons of more than 1,500 January 6th insurrectionists, including those who assaulted police officers, unleashes violent offenders into society and signals that any future violence done in the name of the regime can be done with impunity, making our communities less safe and creating a sense of lawlessness. This is ironic for the party of “law and order” and the president who claimed other countries were unleashing their criminals into the US.
 
The Right Reverend Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde’s sermon in a service at the Washington National Cathedral the day after the Inauguration gives me hope that there are courageous people who are willing to speak truth to power, in this case, from literally 40 feet away. Her example was a respectful reminder to the president that God is merciful and that we are called to treat each other with mercy, respect, and compassion, especially when we hold positions of power. I hope it emboldens other faith leaders to speak out.
 
Bishop Budde reminds me of how Jesus stood up to power on behalf of those being oppressed by the regime. She is a good example of how all of us can speak truth, with gentleness and kindness, and encourage others in our sphere of influence toward compassion and mercy.
 
We are at a “speak now or forever hold our peace” moment. We cannot sit on the sidelines while democracy crumbles. We must resist and persist. The mountain in front of us may look daunting, but together we can scale the obstacles to win back our democracy from this power-hungry authoritarian regime.
 
Like those who have come before us, whether colonists defeating a king for their freedom, soldiers fighting for democracy on foreign battlefields, or civil rights activists marching on Selma or Washington, we can prevail. This is our American heritage. The path will not be easy. But together we can make a difference. Our future and the future of those who come after us depend upon it.
 
 
WHAT WE CAN EACH DO:
 
1 – Take care of yourself. Do one thing every day that brings you joy. Create with art, crafts, and music. Learn something new.
 
2 - Support those who are engaged on the front line of litigation. Donating money to support the organizations that are filing these lawsuits will allow these nonprofits to pay their staff and to hire new attorneys. Their caseloads will be heavy. Give what you can to help them fight against this authoritarian regime. Even small amounts make a difference. Some notable organizations to donate to are:  American Civil Liberties Union* (ACLU), ACLU Foundation, Americans United for Separation of Church and State, Brennan Center for Justice, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, Democracy Forward Foundation, GLBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders (GLAD Law), Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, League of United Latin American Citizens* (LULAC), Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF), and NAACP Legal Defense Fund.
 
*For the orgs above noted with an asterisk, contributions are not tax-deductible.
 
Just Security is an organization that is tracking the lawsuits against the current regime. Click here to learn more.
 
3 - Support local news media and independent media who are boldly proclaiming the facts. Find and support writers, journalists, and podcasters who are standing up to power through their words of truth. They, too, need financial support and words of encouragement. Some of my favorite media are: Associated Press, Axios, BBC, Bloomberg, NPR, Politico, ProPublica, Reuters, and The 19th. My favorite independent writers are all found on Substack: Heather Cox Richardson, Robert Reich, The Contrarian (with Jennifer Rubin and Norm Eisen), and The Convocation (with Diana Butler Bass, Kristen du Mez, Robert P. Jones, and Jemar Tisby).
 
Many of the above also provide news and opinions via podcasts and videos. Other informative podcasts include: Assembly Required with Stacey Abrams (episode “Cory Booker on Winning the Messaging War Against Trump with Radical Empathy” was especially helpful), Pod Save America, and What A Day.
 
4 - Get involved in local communities that are pushing back. Or create one. There are good grassroots-type organizations that are making a difference. Many have a national presence, too. Check out the League of Women Voters (disclaimer: I am a member; views expressed in this post are solely my own) and Red Wine and Blue.
 
5 – Immigrants have rights if they are approached by ICE but they may not know what those rights are. For example, they do not have to speak with an agent from ICE or let them into their home without a proper warrant. To help educate any immigrants in your sphere of influence, you can print down “red cards” that are translated into different languages and spell out their legal rights. Check out the Immigrant Legal Resource Center here. Consider making a tax-deductible contribution toward their work.
 
6 – Call your representatives in Congress to voice your opinion and to encourage them to do the right thing when voting on bills (House and Senate), Cabinet positions (Senate), and judicial appointments (Senate). The congressional switchboard number is (202) 224-3121. If that line is busy, call your representative at their DC or local office. Check their website for contact info.
 
5calls.org is a great resource when contacting your congressmember or senator. Current issues are listed on this website along with scripts to use in your conversation with your representative. Check out https://5calls.org/ and let your voice be heard!
 
7 – Read books on democracy, oligarchy, authoritarianism, and Christian nationalism. My recommendations are: Democracy Awakening by Heather Cox Richardson, The Hidden Roots of White Supremacy by Robert P. Jones, How Democracies Die by Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt, Jesus and John Wayne by Kristen du Mez, Minority Rule by Ari Berman, On Tyranny by Timothy Snyder (this is a very short but informative book – I highly recommend!), Power Worshippers by Katherine Stewart, Shadow Network by Anne Nelson, and Tyranny of the Minority by Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt. Money, Lies, and God: Inside the Movement to Destroy American Democracy by Katherine Stewart will be available on February 18.
 
8 – We all have a sphere of influence. Ensure you use yours to promote truth with compassion.
 
 
 
NOTE: Regarding immigration, the president signed into law on 1/29/25 the Laken Riley Act passed by Congress which now makes it possible for undocumented immigrants to be imprisoned or deported based merely on being accused, not convicted, of crimes, even petty crimes, like shoplifting. Immigrants’ rights to due process under the law are stripped away. This is a slippery slope to eliminating everyone’s due process rights. To see how your representatives in Congress voted, click here.
 
 
NOTE: If this post sounds alarmist, it is written to inform and to galvanize people to resist. My 9/4/24 post entitled, “Take Two”, might have sounded alarmist at the time regarding a possible second term for the now-president, but the horrific agenda outlined there in Project 2025 is now being implemented.
 
NOTE: If you need a refresher on Christian nationalism, check out my blogs entitled, “A Slippery Slope” (posted 10/4/23) and “Monsters, Inc.” (posted 11/1/23). Also relevant are my posts on how democracies die and what we can do to prevent it. See “Death of Democracy” (posted 1/3/24) and “Democracy Matters” (posted 2/7/24).
 
My blog posts can be accessed here.
 
 
FEBRUARY IS BLACK HISTORY MONTH – despite the Pentagon and the US State Department banning it this year!
 
Click here for a thoughtful article by Jemar Tisby on Black history month.
 
Also check out https://blackhistorymonth.gov/.
 
 
 
Text and photograph copyright © 2025 by Dawn Dailey. All rights reserved. Photo of Reine, Norway, in the Lofoten Islands.
 
 
Not a subscriber to the monthly blog posts? Click here to subscribe. Subscribers receive an email each month that includes the post with the lead photo as well as bonus photos not posted on the website. Email addresses are never sold or shared.
 
 
 
A NOTE ON SOCIAL JUSTICE:
Jesus says the greatest commandments are to love God and to love people (Matthew 22:37-40). The Christian faith boils down to these two precepts.

Social justice puts that love into action by helping individuals who are oppressed, mistreated, or suffering, and by pursuing ways to dismantle systems of oppression. How we treat others, particularly those less powerful in society than ourselves, matters (Matthew 25:31-46).

Racial justice is one aspect of social justice. Check out my web page on “Justice Matters” to find resources and to connect with organizations engaging in the cause of racial justice.  Click here to learn more.

You are to love those who are foreigners, for you yourselves were foreigners in Egypt.  Deuteronomy 10:19
 
 
Fleeing for their lives in the middle of the night, they head for the border towards safety, or so they hope. Will they be accepted in this foreign country where they do not speak the language nor look or dress like their soon-to-be neighbors? How will they survive? Will they find work? Amid the myriads of anxious thoughts and worse-case scenario fears, they hurriedly make their way over the dark and dangerous path to the land of promise and protection.
 
This is not the harrowing tale of a modern-day immigrant traveling a dangerous journey to cross the US southern border. Instead, this is an ancient story of a Middle Eastern family who fled to Egypt to save their child from being killed by a Roman ruler.
 
Mary and Joseph with the infant Jesus fled from Israel to Egypt immediately after the visit from the Magi as King Herod sought to kill the Christ Child, his presumed rival. Even though God, through a dream, told them to go, I wonder if Mary and Joseph may have experienced fear and worry along their journey. Perhaps the gold given to them by the Magi helped to tide them over until Joseph could find work as a carpenter. Maybe they found kindness from their new neighbors. Or maybe they found hatred and scapegoating instead. The Bible does not say. But it does contain quite a few verses on the importance of showing hospitality and even love to foreigners (i.e., immigrants).
 
A big part of the far right’s Project 2025 and the incoming administration’s agenda includes rounding up undocumented immigrants* whom they scapegoat for this country’s problems. In their previous term, immigrant families were separated at the border and children were held in wire cages. Today, many children who were separated from their families have still not been reunited with them, despite efforts to help them.
 
The incoming administration will most likely have the same people in charge of the border that were in charge in their previous term. Their plan is not only to separate families at the border, but to round up 11 million undocumented immigrants, detain them in camps, centers, and even prisons (it is no coincidence that the day after the election, the stock prices of two private prison firms skyrocketed), before trying to deport them. This is only the beginning: there are talks on the far right of rounding up those here legally and even newly naturalized citizens.
 
We have been here before. The internment camps in the 1940’s are a dark spot on this nation’s history where 120,000 Japanese Americans were stripped of their civil rights and property and relocated to crowded detention camps. Although some reparations were made decades later, the emotional and financial toll on these families is unfathomable. Apparently, this nation has not learned its lesson on racism. And those who do not know (or care about) history are doomed to repeat it.
 
Did those who voted for this mandate truly understand what they were voting for? In a post-truth world, perhaps some myth-busting is in order. Here are some common myths about immigration:

1. Immigration, especially at the southern border, is overrun with “illegal” immigrants trying to sneak into the US.
2. Immigrants take jobs away from native-born Americans.
3. Immigrants are murderers, rapists, and escapees from prisons and insane asylums.
4. Tight border controls, including a wall, will keep immigrants out.

 
Fear is a powerful emotion and has been used to raise false alarms over a “crisis” at the southern border. This view would have us believe there is total chaos at the border and that a stream of ruthless criminals invades this country every day. This is simply fear-mongering. The facts point to the failure of politicians to address the needs of the immigration system over decades, often for lack of care or understanding and lately, for the desire to use immigration as a political wedge issue.
 
Most immigrants (77%) arrive legally to the US and are issued visas. Of the ones deemed unauthorized, they have either entered the country without legal permission (and have no documentation), have overstayed their visas, have protected temporary status, or are awaiting the processing of their asylum claims. Those allowed to stay under asylum claims typically must wait 4-5 years or even as many as 10 years for their asylum claim to be processed. Currently, there is backlog of 3 million immigration court cases.
 
Immigration is typically cyclical and we are most likely to hear about it when there are larger numbers of immigrants at the border waiting to be processed. Politicians and journalists are typically silent when those numbers drop. Immigration ebbs and flows based on weather, perceived job opportunities in the US, and spikes in violence in immigrants’ countries of origin. When the weather is nicer, more immigrants are likely to leave their homes and make the trek to the US. Likewise, when the unemployment rate in the US is low, immigrants are more likely to try to enter the US because they believe more jobs are available.
 
It is important to understand that in the past, immigrants were invited to come to the US to fill worker shortages. Even today, it is expected that 18 million immigrants and their children will replace retiring baby boomers.
 
Contrary to current perceptions, up to half of immigrants are returned to their countries of origin upon arriving at the border. Some immigrants fly here rather than arriving on foot through Mexico. Some are in the US on student visas while many immigrants have jobs waiting for them.
 
The jobs immigrants typically perform are not ones that native-born Americans want to do. Immigrant workers are often employed in agriculture, construction, meat-packing plants, the hospitality industry (such as in restaurants and hotels), domestic work, child care, and elder care. These jobs help make the American economy go ‘round. Without these essential workers, economic growth would stagnant and perhaps plummet. We would see shortages of goods, particularly food, which would lead to higher prices. Fewer houses being constructed would drive up prices for both home purchases and rentals.
 
There is no evidence that immigrants are a fiscal burden on the government. In fact, most arrive ready to work, to provide for their families, and often to send money back to relatives in their home countries. Immigrants, including undocumented ones, pay taxes and contribute to Social Security and Medicare. But most undocumented immigrants do not reap any benefits from their contributions. They are not welfare burdens on the state. They pay more into the system than they receive.
 
Statistics show that immigrants commit fewer crimes than native-born Americans. They generally are more law-abiding than native-born Americans and do not want to attract the attention of the police for fear of deportation. While some violent crimes committed by immigrants have received much media attention, these crimes are not the norm. For example, in Texas where they track arrests by immigration status, undocumented immigrants have the lowest crime rates. Native-born Americans are twice as likely to be arrested for a violent crime than undocumented immigrants. Documented immigrants fall in-between the undocumented and the native-born in terms of crime rates. There is also evidence that immigration often makes neighborhoods and cities safer: where there are higher concentrations of immigrants, there is, on average, less crime and violence.
 
The incoming administration has conflated “asylum seekers” with inmates from foreign asylums when in fact, “asylum seeker” simply means someone who applies for and is awaiting asylum or protection in another country due to violence or political retribution in their home countries. Thus, this word mix-up increases the perception that immigrants are dangerous which is clearly not based on facts.
 
We often think that locking down the border is the best way to control immigration. Studies have shown that tighter border controls actually increase immigration. While this may sound counter-intuitive, evidence shows that when borders are more open and visas are more easily obtained, immigrants will not feel as desperate to enter because they know they can enter at any time. But when there are crackdowns at the border, immigrants may feel that this is their only chance to enter the US and their journey is more likely to involve more dangerous treks led by traffickers with higher numbers of immigrants entering at points other than official ports. Conversely, if the opportunity to immigrate is viewed as equally available in the future, immigrants may choose to wait. Also, when the border is more open, seasonal workers can enter and then return to their home countries, knowing they can return later.
 
Viable solutions to the problems of immigration are complicated and can only be achieved when we consider the facts rather than the myths.
 
Far-right politicians campaigning on the issue of immigration instill fear in voters of a border being overrun by criminals (and of pets being eaten by Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio). Dehumanizing immigrants makes it more palatable to promote the use of internment camps and deportations.
 
Rounding up undocumented immigrants is only the tip of the authoritarian iceberg. The rest of the incoming administration's agenda is equally chilling.
 
The immigrant baby-turned-rabbi stood up to power for the sake of the most vulnerable. Now it is our turn.
 
 
 
What you can do to help – Read up on immigration to know the facts. One helpful book is How Immigration Really Works by Hein de Haas. Call out disinformation and the myths around immigration when you hear them. Check out local agencies in your community that work with immigrants to help them find housing and jobs, learn English, or study for their citizenship tests. Consider volunteering or donating to these organizations.
 
 
 *I prefer to use the term “undocumented immigrant” or “unauthorized immigrant” rather than “illegal immigrant” because a person cannot be considered “illegal.” However, the phrase “illegal immigration” can be used to describe a process.
 
NOTE: In this recent election, over 80% of white evangelical Christians and 60% of white Protestants and white Catholics voted for the incoming administration despite the plans to round up undocumented immigrants and separate families in the process. Jesus’ mission as stated in Luke 4:18-19 is to stand up for the helpless, the marginalized, and the vulnerable. Many of those who claim to follow Jesus seem to have no compassion or mercy. “Love thy neighbor” feels particularly hollow.
 
 
Text and photograph copyright © 2025 by Dawn Dailey. All rights reserved. Photo of setting sun over Saguaro National Park, Arizona.
 
 
Not a subscriber to the monthly blog posts? Click here to subscribe. Subscribers receive an email each month that includes the post with the lead photo as well as bonus photos not posted on the website. Email addresses are never sold or shared.
 
 
 
A NOTE ON SOCIAL JUSTICE:
Jesus says the greatest commandments are to love God and to love people (Matthew 22:37-40). The Christian faith boils down to these two precepts.

Social justice puts that love into action by helping individuals who are oppressed, mistreated, or suffering, and by pursuing ways to dismantle systems of oppression. How we treat others, particularly those less powerful in society than ourselves, matters (Matthew 25:31-46).

Racial justice is one aspect of social justice. Check out my web page on “Justice Matters” to find resources and to connect with organizations engaging in the cause of racial justice.  Click here to learn more.
 
 
All scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com The “NIV” and “New International Version” are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.™

"I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality. This is why right temporarily defeated is stronger than evil triumphant." – Dr Martin Luther King, Jr.
 
 
Devastated. Disillusioned. Defeated. The list goes on regarding my emotional state since the most recent US election. Trying to make sense of it, I follow the political pundits’ election postmortem. One thing, at least, is clear – lies and hate carried the day. Truth and love were sidelined.
 
In 1964, speaking at his acceptance speech in Oslo, Norway, Dr Martin Luther King, Jr, as the recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize, had the hope that “unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word…” Dr King’s hope was forged through repeated lynchings of Black Americans, through Bloody Sunday in Selma, Alabama, and through the untold and many injustices perpetrated since chattel slavery reached the shores of this country. Yet, Dr King was not pessimistic about the future. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 had just been signed into law by President Johnson a few months before. Perhaps that glimmer of hope emboldened Dr King’s enthusiasm that truth and love would ultimately win.
 
Dr King’s sense of truth was unarmed and the love he encouraged was unconditional. His faith in the hopeful prevalence of truth demanded nonviolence to the oppression he encountered for he knew that violence only begets more violence. He spoke truth to power to call out oppression and injustice. He loved unconditionally for he saw the image of God in all he met. He envisioned a time when there would be no divisions between races, genders, or nations because people would love without limits, restrictions, or borders. Dr King’s theology cost him his life. Yet his followers persevered.
 
Truth and love matter.
 
And they have mattered since the dawn of time. Two millennia ago, the birth of a Jewish baby in a stable coincided with horrific Roman oppression. This baby-turned-itinerant preacher taught his followers how to live and love, even in the worst of times. His purpose was to bring good news to the poor and to set the captives free, propositions that required changed hearts and minds. To love God and to love people, he preached, was the most important thing of all, along with providing for the “least of these.” He spoke truth in an era where truth was scarce. The poor and the curious flocked to him. The powers that be plotted against him. Undeterred, he spoke truth boldly, even to Pontius Pilate, who had become so impervious to the truth, that he dismissed this King of the Jews.
 
Armed only with truth and love, Jesus did not resist arrest. He was executed as a nonviolent activist, one who preached love, not hate; unity, not division; peace, not war. His unconditional love for the oppressed motivated him to speak truth to power. It cost him his life. His followers, after a huge setback, regrouped and persevered.
 
Like those who have come before us, we, too, must take on the mantle of truth and love. And we must persevere. Because even during a setback, we are still stronger than the forces of “evil triumphant.”
 
In this Advent season, may we not forget that this Christ Child was born into poverty and oppression to teach us how to live in truth and love. May we never waver in our pursuit of unarmed truth and unconditional love.
 
 
 
 
Text and photograph copyright © 2024 by Dawn Dailey. All rights reserved. Photo of the Vågan Church, often called “Lofoten Cathedral,” near Svolvær, in the Lofoten Islands, Norway. Designed in the Gothic revival style and consecrated in 1898, this church is the largest wooden structure in Northern Norway. It was built large enough to accommodate (and include) all the fishermen who came there in the fishing season.
 
 
 
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A NOTE ON SOCIAL JUSTICE:
Jesus says the greatest commandments are to love God and to love people (Matthew 22:37-40). The Christian faith boils down to these two precepts.

Social justice puts that love into action by helping individuals who are oppressed, mistreated, or suffering, and by pursuing ways to dismantle systems of oppression. How we treat others, particularly those less powerful in society than ourselves, matters (Matthew 25:31-46).

Racial justice is one aspect of social justice. Check out my web page on “Justice Matters” to find resources and to connect with organizations engaging in the cause of racial justice.  Click here to learn more.