Messaging Roundup: Hope and action in hard times

(Banner at JFREJ Mazals award ceremony. Photo credit: Kate Dalton.)

“Hope is when you observe and participate in the thing that carries out the truth of the theory that it will actually get better. So hope is connected to action, and you can’t take action without hope, but you also can’t have hope without taking action. So it’s a feedback loop.” - M. Gessen

Each week, we try to stitch together some messages, reflections, and ephemera from the internet with the hopes of advancing justice or at least sustaining ourselves. While we always don’t have all the answers, sometimes we struggle to find any answers at all.

The Supreme Court ruling Monday, which gives the greenlight for a fascist administration’s henchmen to discriminate in policing and detainment, felt like one of those times. The “highest” court in the land said it’s okay to interrogate and arrest people only because they have brown skin, or speak with a Spanish accent, or are wearing clothes fit for daylabor.

Artist credit: Matt Davies for the Washington Post

The ruling is sickening, and horrifying. We are left wondering: How did this happen? And how come so many people are letting it happen?

Of course, all that was before we were confronted with the latest instance of U.S. political violence, which was also gun violence, followed predictably by an avalanche of hateful, violent speech from the most powerful people in our government and their followers.

But then there’s this: Throughout this God-awful week, we carved out spaces of hope and community. It came in the form of earnest Resister responses about how they keep the faith on horrible news days. Wednesday evening, it came through a Los Angeles teachers union leader tearfully describing how LA schools are protecting their children and families, and through the Indivisible leaders from cities across the country meeting to prepare for the occupation of fascists.

(IndivisibleBK Visibility Brigade in Park Slope, Tuesday)

It was also the three separate NYC Visibility Brigade actions dropping resistance signs on overpasses, providing social proof in spades, including to the presidential motorcade. And it was Resister Dana’s organizing of her building, bringing neighbors together to write postcards and build collective resistance. And finally on Wednesday night, at the Mazals from Jews for Racial and Economic Justice, it was Zohran Mamdani, Brad Lander and M. Gessen signifying hope in who they are and who they call us all to be as we work to build a better world.

So this week, we’re going to be delving into instances of hope in the dark, with a full acknowledgement that things are indeed pretty damn dark, and looking ahead to action.

The Monday Signal Chat

It all started midday Monday, when the SCOTUS ruling dropped. Mandy wrote in the Resisters Signal chat: “What do you folks generally do when a piece of news makes the fight feel unwinnable?” And then a blossoming of responses. No one sugarcoated their feelings of outrage or despair, but they also shared what brings them solace. Here’s some of what they offered.

Adelia: I remember that the fabric of this fight has many threads, and this is only one of them.

Kate D: Days like today, I have a tendency to go for a walk in the cemetery and then look out across the harbor, as if I’m asking, “Still there?” Of course it’s just a statue, but I have a soft spot for what it represents. Here’s hoping a lot of people are ready to act like they do too.

(Photo credit: Kate Dalton)

Maya: Whether in hope or despair, use [these moments] for action, not passivity. Be an Eowyn not a Denothor, in Lord of the Rings terms.

Eliana: I am unendingly grateful to the Resisters for many things over these past 8 years. One of the biggest is, whenever I get hit with the sadness/shock/terror, I know I always have a next step to handle it. I’ve built up the emotional muscles to know that when this familiar pit comes to my stomach, I can take a breath, open my email, and do something tangible right now. Today I handed out zines to food vendors in lower Manhattan and called my NYS electeds to convene a legislative session. Still have the pit but it’s transforming away from despair.

Russ: A reminder that the people we may have elevated in our minds from history? Many of them were folks just like us.

People shared links to things they read for inspiration, like this, and this.

And, last but not least, Kate F sent this - a reminder that sometimes we need to step away, and find the beauty right in front of us.

(Photo credit: Kate Fermoile)

The Tuesday Call

Tuesday night, a few of us joined a Cities Unite call for Indivisible leaders in places currently under threat by Trump. Before breaking out into city-specific groups, Indivisibles Leah Greenberg facilitated a panel discussion with three leaders on the frontlines in D.C., Los Angeles, and Chicago.

Each of them spoke about what they’ve been doing, and what they wished they’d spent more time on before TSHTF (the technical term we seem to be using for when hostile federal forces descend on the vital urban places we call home). Over the course of months, all of them have developed incredible rapid response networks, Know Your Rights trainings, mutual aid collectives, and communication strategies.

(Cities Unite call, where leaders from across the country gathered to discuss Trump’s

attempted takeover of our cities.)

Alex Doods from Free DC emphasized the need to encourage “collective stubbornness,” as, for instance, when grand jurors refuse to indict their neighbors, a strategy known as “jury nullification.”

Betty Alzamora of Indivisible Chicago said Trump’s announcement of a “Midway Blitz” has galvanized the city.” She emphasized the importance of building coalitions across sectors like labor, healthcare, and education and among advocacy groups, including within Black, immigrant, and LGBTQ+ communities.

In L.A., Maria Miranda, from United Teachers Los Angeles, spoke emotionally about the fear and exhaustion following Monday’s SCOTUS ruling, as well as the concrete actions they have taken to stand with students and their families. Their most recent initiative is to launch a “sanctuary team” at every single public school in the city, across 900 campuses, that work to provide safe passage (including trainings for community patrols) for students traveling to and from school.

This left us thinking, among other things, about what more we could be doing, in collaboration with NYC public schools, to support and protect immigrant children and their families. Lots of other practical tips, advice, and plans came out of this discussion, and you’ll be hearing more about some specific initiatives in the coming days.

(Protest art by Julie Peppito)

The Wednesday Mazals 🎉

Thanks to Resister Joelle, a few of us had the opportunity to attend the Mazals awards ceremony put on by Jews for Racial and Economic Justice, aka JFREJ. It was a festive, intergenerational, multiethnic and multi-denominational affair. The sartorial vibe was a mix of eccentric, fabulous, and chic, and that included our dear friend Joelle.

(JFREJ honorees Zohran Mamdani and Brad Lander at the Mazals.

Photo credit: @zacharyschulmanphotography/JFREJ)

Honorees this year included our favorite Democratic primary dynamic duo Zohran Mamdani and Brad Lander, as well as leading dissident, writer and thinker M. Gessen. The night was one of community, affirming the progressive Jewish values as well as intersectional solidarity that help make NYC the best city in the world. Lander and Mamdani took time to acknowledge the pain of the ongoing genocide in Gaza, as well as the fact that Mamdani’s win provided evidence of just how many in this city are horrified by the what’s happening in Gaza as well. They also urged us to do the hard coalitional work necessary to achieve justice.

(Banner at JFREJ Mazals award ceremony. Photo credit: Kate Dalton.)

Mamdani acknowledged how “it can feel impossible to imagine light in this darkness, but together we have done the hard work of raising that hope, and the light that shines has made the world just a little less dark.” Gessen also noted that hope is just a belief in the possibility, but sometimes that is enough. And JFREJ leaders reminded us that they have been doing this work for decades, placing themselves on the right side of history as far back as 1990, when they welcomed Nelson Mandela to a Shabbat service and raised $50,000 for his anti-apartheid work, while across the board other Jewish organizations snubbed him for his support of Palestine.

Amidst so much darkness, it can be hard to lean into any moments of joy. But if you look to the people around you doing the work to make things better, whether that’s an LA educator protecting kids or a Listserv group that keeps on plugging away, you can hopefully catch just enough light to do the same.

Amplify This

• Let’s do some zine folding today! Join us at Hamilton’s around 6:15 or head over after Freedom Friday.

• Can’t wait for the October 18 No Kings mass protest? This Saturday, Rise and Resist has organized a big one outside Trump Tower.

  

• “They feast while Gaza starves.” Code Pink interrupts Trump’s dinner (h/t Cory)

• John Oliver on Trump’s war on higher education

• Some insights on how to talk, and feel, about Charlie Kirk’s murder

• Free Chicago has created a comprehensive website for the resistance. Can we get one of those? All you web designers out there, hit us up.

• Get out your wheatpaste! If you celebrate Sukkot, or even if you don’t, JFREJ has some excellent posters for your dwelling.

  

• Tips from a counter-recruiter on talking to National Guard troops and ICE recruits (h/t Eliana)

• This looks cool: an evening of Resistance Radio

• How MAHA influencers suck people in, and how we can help them find their way out, from the NYT

• Contact your electeds with this call script for Gaza.

And as always,

‘Til Next Time,

Julie, Kate, & the Messaging Team