Resistance and Hope

Last week I promised a friend that I would write blog posts about reasons to hope and about ways to resist. Then came a week of urgent medical errands, and here I am at Friday, only now getting to the task. But—here I am also with hope and resistance. 

Resistance first, because hope grows out of resistance. Today, February 28, is the first of many days of national protest. Today is a “consumer blackout, a day to buy nothing from Amazon, nothing from Target, nothing from any big merchandiser, manufacturer, peddler of gas or automobiles or a hundred, a thousand other profit centers for the oligarchs. Today is a day to buy only from small local stores and restaurants, especially in immigrant corridors (Lake Street, University Avenue) struggling to survive as fear keeps customers hiding at home. 

Vu at Nonprofit AF has a long, long list of “everyday actions you can take to keep the world kind, just, and joyful amidst the rise in hate and bigotry.” Mindful spending/not spending tops the list:

“Dramatically reduce spending. I’m only spending money on necessities and only at BIPOC and/or LGBTQ+ local businesses in my rural area. I grocery shop at the Mexican grocery. Buy eggs from a neighbor who happens to be a member of the LGBTQ community. I’m having the heater core in my car changed out by a Mexican American owned mechanic. I have yet to figure out the gas piece beyond dramatically reducing my driving – taking transit, carpooling with friends, walking, grouping trips.”

Refusal to buy from the DEI-denying, profit-maximizing oligarchs is the first act of resistance. Other scheduled consumer actions in the near future:

• March 7-14: “Oligarch #1 Protest – Amazon” – No purchasing from Amazon for one week 
• Friday, March 14: National Strike, No Work for 24 Hours – All Workers, All Businesses, All Higher Education Organizations (3/14- 12am-11:59pm local time) 

Resistance comes in large and small acts. Also from Vu’s long list:

“Care for your own and other’s hearts and nervous systems. Share/host a meal for your friends and colleagues. Do art together — and before you say you can’t do art, yes you can. Collage, doodling, coloring pages, and friendship bracelets are all easy activities. Reminding ourselves of the joy of connection and creativity are needed.”

Caring for yourself and the community in small ways is an act of resistance. 

Legal challenges to the Trump/Musk regime are large, and cost large amounts of money. Pick a nonprofit organization and support it. You know the ACLU. A few others, in no particular order: CASA, Asylum Seeker Advocacy Project, Public Citizen, Electronic Privacy Information Center. 

Financially supporting legal actions against the Trump/Musk regime is a third act of resistance. 

From acts of resistance come signs of hope: 

• A federal court ruled that the Office of Personnel Management broke the law when it ordered other federal agencies to fire thousands of “probationary” employees.
• Fourteen MN Republican legislators wrote to MN Republican Congressional Representatives, Trump, and the acting administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to ask them NOT to cut Medicaid. 
• In state after state (Georgia, Oklahoma, Wisconsin, California …), Republican Congressional Representatives were jeered and booed at their own town hall meetings, with constituents demanding that they stand up to the Trump/Musk regime. 
• The Supreme Court ordered reinstatement of U.S. Special Counsel Hampton Dellinger. 
• Dellinger then successfully argued before the Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB) and won reinstatement of six probationary employees fired by six separate agencies. 
• 21 employees of the U.S. Digital Service quit in public protest over that agency’s transformation into DOGE, writing in a public letter: “We will not use our skills as technologists to compromise core government systems, jeopardize Americans’ sensitive data, or dismantle critical public services.”

Resistance and hope: more to come in the days ahead.