Today we protest, remembering to celebrate and sing like the birds, as we vibrate and fling forth Compassion, Community, and Joy!
Terry Tempest Williams:
Once upon a time… there was the simple understanding that to sing at dawn and to sing at dusk was to heal the world through joy. The birds still remember what we have forgotten, that the world is meant to be celebrated.
Trump continues to work to destroy the world. He is a mob boss.
Heather Cox Richardson: Trump’s son Eric appeared to confirm that the tariffs are a shakedown when he posted: “I wouldn’t want to be the last country that tries to negotiate a trade deal with [Trump]. The first to negotiate will win—the last will absolutely lose. I have seen this movie my entire life.…” Foreign affairs journalist David Rothkopf was more graphic: “These aren’t tariffs,” he wrote. “They are a horse’s head in the bed of (almost) every world government and business leader.” Hedge fund manager Bill Ackman suggested that if a government refused to negotiate with Trump, that country’s major companies should deal directly with Trump, exempting that company’s products from tariffs in exchange for a new factory or some other investment Trump wants.
Trump is overturning the past 80 years of global trade cooperation in order to concentrate power in his own hands. He’s not content to destroy the U.S. He wants to destroy the world.
This Saturday, April 5th, is a day of protest. While Trump is golfing, the people will be protesting.
You can find information here at Hands Off:
https://handsoff2025.com/?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email
April Fool’s Day turned into April Celebration day. We’ll never forget this day with Cory Booker speaking over 25 hours for freedom, and Judge Susan Crawford soundly defeating Musk’s attempt to buy an essential election.
This is a photo of The Flame of Liberty memorial in Los Gatos, CA. It is dedicated to U.S. military service members, first responders, and the two local 9/11 heroes, Todd Beamer and Mark Bingham, who were “Killed In Action” during the events of 9/11.
The memorial incorporates symbols like the Statue of Liberty’s torch, an eternal flame, and a soldier’s cross, representing freedom, remembrance, and sacrifice.
Today we drove north along 85 and 280 with rainbows leading and arching over our way.
Yesterday we attended a Little League game of five year olds. What a treat! Amazingly the children improved in the three innings, as they began to understand running when you hit the ball and running around to four bases. The coaches on both teams were the epitome of patience, and it was a respite from the news as children learned teamwork, cooperation, and sportsmanship. Quite fun, and a reset for my system.
We, our body-minds, have no straight lines. Everything spirals.
The political system is currently spiraling out of control. It’s time to bring it back into an alignment that spirals and rounds in unity and connection to benefit all, the wholeness we share.
John McWhorter: The Trump administration’s list of words that are now unwelcome in government and government-funded documents — such as “trans,” “privilege” and “female” (?!) — also includes the word “pronoun.”
Simon Rosenberg: Trump is now, clearly, a mad, early stage tyrant, and is doing extraordinary harm to the American people and our country every day. With students disappearing from our streets, legal residents ending up in foreign prisons, universities and law firms being terrorized, alliances being torched and our government being systemically, illegally and unconstitutionally dismantled, there is great urgency now for the pro-democracy forces in the country to rise up and find more effective ways to challenge him and stop his rancid efforts to turn the US into Russia and to turn us from a free people to cowering subjects gratefully kneeling before a Mad King.
I keep thinking of the Danish tale, The Emperor’s New Clothes. It took a child to point out: “The emperor has no clothes.” And now, the emperor is being exposed, is seen as having no clothes or agenda, other than himself, as his cloak unwinds and dissipates, exposing deceit, incompetence, ignorance, greed, and lies.
The weather just dropped over 20 degrees today and the wind is a vigorous howl. I sense Mary Poppins landing down with her umbrella bringing with her a spoonful of sugar, and common sense.
Yesterday I ambled through a magical place.
Ron Charles writes this in his weekly column in The Washington Post today.
In his 2006 biography of Andrew Carnegie, David Nasaw notes that the fabulously wealthy industrialist “would live his final years in disappointment that he had not met his lifelong goal of giving away all his money.”
It wasn’t for lack of trying. At the start of the 20th century, Carnegie was building two libraries a week. In 1903, he doubled that pace. Before he died in 1919, he’d given away money for the construction of more than 2,500 libraries.
Last Friday night, Donald Trump fired off another havoc-wreaking executive order. Among other things, this one calls for gutting the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS).
Every year, that little-known agency supports America’s museums and libraries with grants totaling about $266 million, which is close to what Elon Musk spent to put Trump back in the White House.
Charles goes on and concludes with this:
Yesterday, Trump replaced acting IMLS director Cyndee Landrum — an actual librarian — with Deputy Secretary of Labor Keith E. Sonderling, a former employment lawyer. Sonderling immediately laced up his jackboots and issued a statement that says, in part: “I am committed to steering this organization in lockstep with this Administration to enhance efficiency and foster innovation. We will revitalize IMLS and restore focus on patriotism, ensuring we preserve our country’s core values, promote American exceptionalism and cultivate love of country in future generations.”
Anybody who’s marching in lockstep with a political ideology needs to spend more free time in a well-funded library.
“There is never time in the future in which we will work out our salvation. The challenge is in the moment. The time is always now.”
James Baldwin
We spent the night at Safari West, a refuge for animals, the environment, and visitors.
Here’s Adam Schiff, an example of courage:
And he’s right.
If Trump gets the GOP spending bill passed, it’s on all of us. We have to take the risk.
I’m with the words of Paul Valery:
One might be light like the bird, not like the feather.
A feather has weight. We feel the force of gravity when we hold it in our hand. Each feather, each individual, has weight, and when feathers and people come together, there is flight, flight that enables us to see the whole picture and fight, and we are, and we will continue until the insanity ends, and we are again a country of which we can be proud.
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