This morning I rose early to watch the day come to light.  As a wand of light touched the ridge, I immersed in clouds forming, floating  and dissipating like moments imbibed.   

This morning, after reading Molly Fisk’s poem “Growing Cynical”, I read how she was inspired to write the poem by Hannah Arendt’s book On Tyranny. Arendt wrote how the lies are not meant to fool us but to teach us not to believe anything.

We begin to question even what we know is true.  

In this place of entry, I come to poetry for support, and pull W.S. Merwin’s book The Moon Before Morning off the shelf.  I sit with the poem “The New Song”.  We bring forth a new song.

Last night I sat outside to watch for meteors.  The stars were out, owls were hooting, and I listened to the creek, and crickets.  I went out again this morning before four, and the fog had moved in so there was only one star visible, and then, none, only a blanket comforting the feeling of vastness, where I am a viable, conscious part of this spinning of connection, a vibration that trusts.

Yesterday was the 250th anniversary of the lighting of the lanterns in Boston’s Old North Church, which led to war and the establishment of our democracy.

Heather Cox Richardson ends her column today with these words: And once in a great while, someone will light a lantern—or even two—that will shine forth for democratic principles that are under siege, and set the world ablaze.

That’s happening, day by day.  It’s a thrilling time to be alive as we celebrate resurrection, awakening, and rebirth.  

May this be the example the country needs right now.

As I read Heather Cox Richardson this morning, I’m with these words from Writer’s Almanac.

On this day, in 1912, the RMS Titanic struck an iceberg and sank.  It was built to be unsinkable, but not to “scrape along the side of an iceberg for 10 seconds opening numerous separate compartments”.  

“The accident happened at 11:40 p.m.; less than an hour before, a nearby ship attempted to radio the Titanic to beware of ice ahead. The ship’s wireless operator on duty, overwhelmed with his job of relaying personal messages to passengers, replied, “Shut up, shut up, I’m busy …””

And here we are, very busy.

From Heather Cox Richardson: This evening, lawyers for the Department of Justice told a federal court that the administration does not believe it has a legal obligation to return Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia to the United States, despite a court order to do so. 

She explains what Trump is delighting in doing, and writes: When White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt says, “The president’s idea for American citizens to potentially be deported, these would be heinous violent criminals who have broken our nation’s laws repeatedly,” remember that just days ago, Trump suggested that a former government employee was guilty of treason for writing a book about his time in the first Trump administration that Trump claimed was “designed to sow chaos and distrust” in the government.

She goes on to conclude with this.  At least some people understand this. The president of North America’s Building Trades Unions, Sean McGarvey, received a standing ovation when he said to a room full of his fellow union workers: “We need to make our voices heard. We’re not red, we’re not blue. We’re the building trades, the backbone of America. You want to build a $5 billion data center? Want more six-figure careers with health care, retirement, and no college debt? You don’t call Elon Musk, you call us!… And yeah, that means all of us. All of us. Including our brother [International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation Workers] apprentice Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who we demand to be returned to us and his family now! Bring him home!”

And now back to the sinking of the indestructible Titanic.  Are we so busy with personal messages, we’re saying “Shut up, shut up, I’m busy …” as the ship of Democracy sinks, its separate compartments, its balance of power destroyed by the glacial greed and hatred of Trump and those who support him?

Meanwhile, this morning, blue sky, and when I look up I see the fog responding to the warmth of the last few days and venturing in.  

When my sons were young, Prop. 13 passed affecting the amount of money available in the elementary schools.  We parents united to raise money selling hot dogs, creating a Halloween carnival, inspiring our children to walk twenty miles in a Walk-a-thon, selling books, and on and on.  I taught computers.  The money we raised paid for art, music teachers, and computers, and we met each other, worked together, and we had fun.

I’m reminded of that today as I reflect on how much those of us who gathered yesterday to connect and protect this threat to our democracy and way of life felt happy, inspired, connected, and safe within a basket woven of threads of awareness and care.  Our gathered energy will defeat those who paid one million dollars a piece for a meal anchored with speeches of greed and hate.

I’m with these words of W.S. Merwin today.

Little breath, 

Breathe me gently. 

Row me, 

for I am the river I’m learning to cross.

Yesterday I, along with 5000 other people, attended the Hands Off protest at the Marin Civic Center.   It was a beautiful gathering that began with music from the 50’s and 60’s, and included inspiring speeches, including one by our beloved Jared Huffman.  We sang This Land Is Our Land and Tom Petty’s I Won’t Back Down.  I’m still vibrating with what it means to gather peacefully with people for what is right and good, and to save our Democracy and what’s been built and what it represents.

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