He is carelessly inflicting pain. The fact that anyone is okay with this – justifying it, being complacent about it or failing to care – is more dangerous than anything specific he is doing. He has traumatized so many people, creating panic about their money, their jobs, their very ability to survive. A healthy country would have only one response to this: “How f—ing dare you.” And something is starting to change. From Signalgate, to cruelty being shown to innocent immigrants, to the destruction of federal agencies, to threats to Social Security and Medicaid, to limits on academic freedom and freedom of speech, to now these irresponsible tariffs, I feel an electric charge running through the country. A lot more people are saying, “Okay, now he’s gone too far.” Sometimes Americans are slow to wake up, but we are not stupid. And once we do wake up, our spirit is something to behold. I hope that spirit will show itself on Saturday at all the Hands Off Rallies around the country. No one person, or even a hundred people, can make the difference. But the tide is shifting if even just a little. Let’s make it shift some more, and more, and more, and more. This is the moment and we must not let up.
A minute for peace. 6pm PT / 9pm ET. Daily. In 1940, the Nazi Luftwaffe bombed the city of London for eight consecutive months in what came to be known as the London Blitz. While Hitler expected the blitz to terrorize the British people into submission, their bravery and resilience proved him wrong. One of the many ways the British people responded to the Nazi attacks was with what came to be known as the Silent Minute. Each night at 9pm the bells of Big Ben would chime on the BBC before the nightly news, initiating a minute-long period of united prayer and meditation for peace. The King of England participated, as did Winston Churchill. Millions of people joined in, creating a spiritual network for peace amidst the horror and chaos of war. At 6pm PT/9pm ET every night, let’s create our own Silent Minute. It will help all of us feel we’re in this together. It will unite, protect, and bless us. Whether you participate prayerfully, meditatively, or simply in silent reverence, the energy created will be a strengthening of our hearts and a mantle of protection for our democracy. Prayer is not just a symbol and reverence is not just a feeling. Participating in the silent minute on a consistent basis will seriously contribute to our efforts to save our freedom. Do it as consistently as you can. And spread the word. Perhaps you’ll organize your own group to participate; whatever you feel might amplify the energy, please do. Call friends… post about it… consider making your own video content to support. There is internal as well as external activism. Both matter, both are powerful, and both are very important right now.
Despite Congress passing legislation saying all Epstein files should be released, the DOJ said today that having released 3 of the 6 million pages they’re done and they’re moving on. The worst part of this isn’t that we will not see more Epstein files. The worst part is that the administration simply doesn’t care what Congress says. They have proven this before, not distributing money Congress allocated. Plus they ignore judicial orders. They’re loud and proud about overriding two co-equal branches of government when it suits them. It’s unreasonable to assume these new “holding camps” are intended only for undocumented people. They plan to use them for whomever they damn well please. “What do we do?” is not the first question. It’s “What do we realize?” When enough Americans realize what’s actually happening – and we are starting to – we will rise into a mighty force of nonviolent democratic resistance. Our love of freedom is not negotiable. Just as with our forefathers – “with a firm reliance on Divine Providence” – no kings or tyrants will be tolerated here.
No one knows for sure how many people showed up on Saturday for No Kings Day, but clearly it was at least in the hundreds of thousands – some are reporting millions. And the numbers themselves don’t really matter. What matters is what the rallies stood for, and the tiny explosions of hope that filled the hearts of those who were there. The age of traditional political organizing has been superseded by an age of political theatre, and No Kings Day was political theatre at its best. But I mean that in a good sense. This wasn’t just a show. It was a genuine demonstration of the love, anger, frustration, hopes and yearnings of millions of people – I’m counting those who drove by honking! – who cannot believe our eyes at what is happening in America. I interviewed quite a few people at the protest I attended, and posted the interviews on my social media channels. Almost everyone I talked to said much the same thing: they’re horrified at what’s happening, and don’t have as much hope as they wish they had that we will be able to turn things around. All right, I’ll give it to you that I don’t think Stephen Miller lost any sleep last night. President Trump only knows what he saw on FOX. But what they can see is a very different thing than what really happened, because the important stuff occurred on the inside. People felt they were not alone. People knew what it was to feel patriotic. People could see and feel what it means to know you’re part of a mass movement. Of course officialdom will pooh pooh the whole thing. Johnson will pretend it meant little to nothing. The administration will continue with its cruel and illegal plans, as though this was a just a momentary show of pathetic complaint among lunatic lefties and losers. Lord knows, I’ve been called worse. But I’m starting to see that in a crazy world, being called crazy sometimes means that you’re sane. The point now is to persevere…. (Please read rest of article THE COUNTRY SHOWED UP at mariannewilliamson.substack.com or through Substack link link tree)
We must not stand for this
Remember what I heard in my heart when I visited the Jefferson Memorial recently: “Be at peace, Marianne. This is a great fever that had to occur.” i’ve learned in my life you can be deeply sorrowful and at peace at the same time. We have to take in the enormity of what is occurring, we have to really feel it in order to find the place within ourselves that is strong enough to handle it. And I think we are. I’m so impressed by some of the videos I see. Individual Americans standing up, speaking up, bravely taking it all on. We are a generation of patriots. Embrace the mantle. We will not cave.
That was my favorite sign that I saw on Sunday. There was a great amount of energy generated by the protests, and the challenge now is to keep it going. A non-violent revolution is not a particle but a wave. Think of Sunday’s protests not as a single event, but as activation for a continuing energy. Now all of us have to take it from here. Non-violence as a political philosophy isn’t simply a mode of activism, it’s a way of life. We can’t create a different kind of world unless we’re willing to be different people. The world as we know it is simply a reflection of who we have been; our most urgent task to arise from the malaise of our personal weaknesses to become people capable of taking on the challenges of this moment. It feels like each of us is embodying the larger struggle at hand, faced with the blocks to our better selves and the challenge of our need to remove them. The politics that will transform events is different than the politics of the past. That which got us here will not move us forward. The new politics is relational as opposed to transactional, attending to the vertical as well as the horizontal axis of life. It’s not just what we do but how we do it that matters. As Gandhi said, “The end is inherent in the means.” We have to be the change we want to see in the world, because otherwise we will never see it. “Ain’t it awful” is yesterday’s news. “Aint’ it wonderful” is the theme for today, so together we can co-create the tomorrow we wish to see. Yes, our political horizon is darkened now, but each of us can be a star in the sky. No one’s efforts are more or less important that anyone else’s. And none of this is random. We allowed the disrepair; now it’s our time to be the repairers. Show up for this moment. Be a guerilla for love. (go to my [email protected] and read GUERILLA LOVE to see the rest of the article)
Today the SAVE Act passed the House of Representatives. It’s a ridiculous bill that its supporters say will “ensure election integrity” but which everyone else knows is a voter suppression effort. If passed by the Senate as well, it will require proof of U.S. citizenship in order to vote. That alone, however, is not why I’m mentioning it. The larger point is the threat to women who got married and took their husband’s name (according to Brennan Center for Justice, that’s roughly 70 million women). You would have to prove your citizenship, which theoretically was established either at birth or sometime before you married him! So should this bill pass, if you’re a woman in that category you’ll need a birth certificate or passport to take with you to the polls! Start now….make sure you get your birth certificate or a passport and store them away someplace safe. Also – and this is important – this “married women” nonsense has to do with the Christian Nationalist view that since a man is the “leader of the household,” only he and not his wife should be allowed to vote. I KID YOU NOT. (Remember, Christian Nationalism has little to nothing to do with Christianity; it is an extreme right wing political agenda). Tomorrow, 4/11 at 5pm ET, I’ll be interviewing MONTE MADER live on my Substack. She has all the scoop on what’s going on there. Join us and spread the word. (MarianneWilliamson.substack.com – free to subscribe)
Remember the Hands Off protests are tomorrow all over the country! Check online for a location near you. Take your friends. Go there with love. Nonviolent protest. Let’s rock it.
Apparently up to 7 million people came out on No Kings Day to protest the policies of the Trump administration, yet both Republicans and legacy media downplayed the significance of the event. When asked about the massive numbers who attended the rallies, a White House spokeswoman responded, “Who cares?” President Trump acted – well, Trump-like – in posting an AI response that has all the markings of a petulant 12 year old boy. The President said the crowds were “small and very ineffective.” He said he people at the rallies “were not representative of this country.” But truth remains true. People rose up on Saturday, and 7 million is no small number. The fact that Republican leaders chose to minimize the importance of the day is no surprise; the fact that so many print and TV legacy news sources chose to do the same is genuinely disturbing. It’s a message that rings loud and clear: the voice of the people matters less and less in a world where money talks so loudly. But the message mattered nevertheless. The composite video above provides examples of people I spoke to at one of the rallies in Los Angeles, all of them filled with a fierce and decent dedication to our democracy. There was a spirit to the day, and the glow lasted through the weekend. One thing is clear, however, based on today’s news coverage. The system still doesn’t give a damn, and we’re going to have to do a whole lot more to disrupt the trajectory of what’s happening now. Violence of any kind is a terrible and totally unacceptable idea, primarily for moral but also for strategic reasons. Yet none of us should be naive. The Trump administration is on an authoritarian roll, and we the people will be challenged in the days ahead, every single one of us, to rise to the occasion in ways we might never have imagined. There will be more to do. Law firms caved. Media companies caved. Universities caved. Tech billionaires caved. We must not cave. The great ones never do.
There was a lot of energy generated in those protests yesterday, but the challenge now is to keep it going. Think of yesterday as an activation point, not a destination point. The point is to take it from here. Non-violence in politics is a wave, not a particle; a revolution of love that has to be activated and reactivated as we move along. The new politics is relational, not transactional. It happens on the vertical axis of life, not just the horizontal. The politics that will transform events is different than the politics of the past. The question now, is what will you do? Who did you see yesterday that you can meet with? What are the projects in your town, or state, or the country, that you feel moved to work on together? Complacency is what got us here; generative, invigorated energy is what will move us forward. “Ain’t it awful” is yesterday’s news. “Aint’ it wonderful” is the theme for what we’re creating now.
“We can’t go back to the status quo, the road we were on led us here. We need to wake up and get on another path.” – Brian Recker @berecker Watch my entire conversation with Brian: https://www.transformarticles.com/p/a-progressive-christians-response
You’ve probably heard me say how impressed I am by the women of America right now. Some of the online content made by women in response to this moment is so fabulous, I kvel. One of my favorites is @montemader, a woman whose journey from growing up in a conservative Republican Christian Nationalist home to rock ‘n roll brilliant goddess progressive champion gives her every word both political weight and modern magic. I’ll be doing a Substack live with her on Friday afternoon and I hope you’ll join us. She’s amazing and I know you’ll think so too.
With the death of Robert Skutch, the founding generation of those who brought A Course in Miracles into the world has passed. While I didn’t know all of them, I knew most of them. I think they will be remembered for many, many years to come. I want to take this opportunity to remind all Course students of what a blessing they bestowed upon us, how well they performed their function, and how much goodness and peace they brought into the world. All praise and gratitude to Helen Schucman, Bill Thetford, Judith Skutch, Ken Wapnick, Robert Skutch, Whit Whitson and Jerry Jampolsky. May their souls be blessed, and may we carry on the message of Course teachings with the same excellence that they brought to the task.
