History is Calling
April 21, 2025
Note: There’s a familiar refrain in this newsletter. I don’t hate to repeat myself (really, I do, but what the heck, I’m going to anyway). We are all in this together. We can’t wait around for someone else to step forward and save us. If we were in a board room or a meeting, we might ask ‘who is missing?’ But we’re in a fight for the future of our country, and if someone isn’t at a rally or march, they have a reason to step back and help from the sidelines. We must accept their support, listen to their advice, and fight twice as hard for those who aren’t there.
We represent ourselves and the unrepresented. It is our turn. Be bold.
March - it’s not a month, it’s a way to Winning
Tyrants prey on people who feel unsafe, vulnerable, and alone.
But when we find ourselves surrounded by courageous people and brave institutions, we can more easily find courage inside ourselves.
This is the beauty of solidarity.
Robert Reich
I am taking a day of rest. A pause. So we can start again.
By Sabra Briere
I never thought I’d be one of those terminally on-line people. I read books and newspapers. Or I did. Now most of my books are electronic. And I stopped reading many newspapers every day when they stopped providing unvarnished truth on their news pages.
So now I read blogs and Substack authors and social media. It’s all far more opinion than I can stand some days, but at least I know I’m reading opinion.
What we did — all of us, collectively, across the country — on April 5, on April 19, in every protest since Jan. 20 big and small — has been an act of faith and courage.
We are showing that we have faith in the process, and we’re going to continue to push it, increasing the participation, increasing the pressure, increasing the volume.
We are also showing our courage. This past week I heard from people who had never protested before — who wanted to know what to wear, how to prepare for conflict, what to put on their signs. Each one of these people was showing up because they weren’t willing to see the substance of our country be further eroded. If their leaders weren’t going to fight back, well, they were. Such courage. It should awe us all.
So are our peaceful demonstrations making a difference?
There are those who discount the rallies and marches and die-ins that Indivisible, 50501 and other national organizations are putting together, and that groups like Indivisible Sonoma County are building, person by person, event by event. Because we’re not breaking windows, or lighting buildings and cars on fire, or fighting lines of hostile police.
Oh, there are no lines of hostile police in Sonoma County, so there’s no photo of a young woman challenging them … and so these aren’t real protests. (Yes, I’ve heard that complaint.)
Where are all the Black people? Where are the immigrants? These can’t be real protests if they are just filled with Boomers! (Yes, I’ve heard that more than once.)
Across the US, there are counter protesters who are trying to foment violence. There are scattered pockets of pro-MAGA people who yell profanities. In some communities, there are hostile police, prepared for equally hostile groups of rioters. And they are all sadly disappointed.
So far, none of that has happened here. And if any of it does, we are prepared.
Because we’ve learned. No matter how righteous our cause, sometimes the best messenger is the most unlikely. And we old and wise people, who’ve cared about our country in so many different ways over the decades, are the perfect leaders for this time.
We are embracing ways to de-fuse any explosive moments.
We understand being non-violent. And we understand being unwavering. We’re not willing to pass on a damaged country when we leave this mortal coil. We’ve worked too hard to make another generation pay for the damage done by this one.
More than anything else, we must be sufficiently mature to understand that we don’t have all the answers, and that no political response is pure. So expect Indivisible to reject purity tests and divisive discourse. We’ve been there, those of us who have done politics for 50 years. We’ve seen the damage such division does to progressive movements, to coming together, to working effectively.
And this time, we all know, we’re in this together. All of us. And together, we must be Indivisible.
Showing Strength Makes Everyone Stronger.
Just a few weeks ago, we watched high-profile liberal law firms cave under the threats of retaliation by President 2.0’s administration.
That was followed by further threats against Ivy League Universities (looking at you, Columbia). And they started caving, too.
There was a moment of silent grief as we saw the end, again, of institutions that ought to have stood against tyranny.
But then. Then Harvard resisted. And the Big 10 Universities banded together to say that what happens to one, happens to all, and they will resist as one. And Columbia backed away from its total capitulation.
And a law firm rejected the threats, and sued President 2.0’s Department of (in)Justice. Other law firms picked up that tossed baton and carried it forward, suing in other courts.
And the courts! The courts! In case after case, the courts have rejected President 2.0’s absurd positions, now holding him in contempt. Even the Supreme Court, which I had thought had no sense of justice left, has said that this administration must obey the law.
There is hope. As long as resistance continues, there is hope.
Guest Editorials
Letters from an American: April 18, 2025
Heather Cox Richardson
Someone asked me once if the men who hung the lanterns in the tower knew what they were doing. She meant, did they know that by that act they would begin the steps to a war that would create a new nation and change the world.
The answer is no. None of us knows what the future will deliver.
Paul Revere and Robert Newman and John Pulling and William Dawes and Samuel Prescott, and all the other riders from Charlestown who set out for Lexington after they saw the signal lanterns in the steeple of Old North Church, were men from all walks of life who had families to support, businesses to manage. Some had been orphaned young, some lived with their parents. Some were wealthy, others would scrabble through life. Some, like Paul Revere, had recently buried one wife and married another. Samuel Prescott was looking to find just one.
But despite their differences and the hectic routine of their lives, they recognized the vital importance of the right to consent to the government under which they lived. They took time out of their daily lives to resist the new policies of the British government that would establish the right of a king to act without check by the people. They recognized that giving that sort of power to any man would open the way for a tyrant.
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Check our website for more information and to learn more about Indivisible. Don’t forget to bookmark our calendar (yes, it’s on the website!) Every protest, rally, action, postcard party, phonebank, and letter writing campaign we hear about we share with you. Rely on our calendar to get you started. Rely on us to keep you engaged.