<![CDATA[50501 Colorado]]>https://50501colorado.substack.comhttps://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!qls0!,w_256,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2F50501colorado.substack.com%2Fimg%2Fsubstack.png50501 Coloradohttps://50501colorado.substack.comSubstackWed, 02 Sep 2026 21:57:14 GMT<![CDATA[Someday, this will all be history]]>https://50501colorado.substack.com/p/someday-this-will-all-be-historyhttps://50501colorado.substack.com/p/someday-this-will-all-be-historySun, 30 Aug 2026 14:03:36 GMT

Hello, and welcome to the latest edition of our 50501 CO newsletter!

In this newsletter, we discuss a reason to have hope even on the darkest days. In addition, you’ll find information on upcoming activities from the 50501 calendar, actions you can take outside of protesting, and also find out about additional ways to connect with us.

See you on the streets! ✊✊✊

Actions and Activities

(Click the link/image below to visit the 50501 calendar, containing our list of upcoming events in the next 2 weeks)

Take me to the calendar (in case the image link isn’t working)

Someday, this will all be history

I’ve been searching recently for reasons to be positive. Some days, those reasons can feel few and far between. But there’s one reason I keep coming back to, no matter how bleak the situation feels: someday this will all be history.

If there’s one constant in the course of global politics, it is that regimes do not last. In good times, that’s a worrisome prospect. We want the ideals of equality, fairness, and mutual respect to last forever. But they do not. One doesn’t even have to look outside our own borders for evidence of that fact. The fall of Roe v Wade is a recent example. The waning support for affirmative action, for immigrant rights, and for LGBTQ+ rights as well. Trump’s regime is actively attacking all of these, and in many cases has eroded or done away with protections once thought sacrosanct.

Defenders of the status quo must win every time. Agents of change only need to win once. They only have to find a single leak in the dam, and through that leak they can force change to happen. Sometimes it’s the change they’re looking for, sometimes the change takes a shape even they didn’t expect.

Trump and his cabinet are attempting to inflict a new status quo upon us. One in which progressive votes don’t matter, in which our streets are covered by Flock cameras, and in which anyone who isn’t a heterosexual, cis white male is considered a second-rate human.

This new status quo is ugly, but they’re now the ones tasked with defending it. Inflicting the nightmares of Project 2025 over the long-term will not be the work of a single presidency, a single congress, or a single set of Supreme Court justices. They have to keep winning and maintaining power in perpetuity. And that’s simply not feasible. At some point, we – as the new change agents – will find a break in their dam.

Not only has MAGA assumed the mantle of defenders of a horrific status quo, they have to do it in perhaps the least conducive situation for such a shift in history. War-related death in the 21st century is the lowest it’s ever been. Violent crime is likewise falling in the US. I mentioned above that support for LGBTQ+ rights is waning, but it is still far, far higher than it was even during Obama’s presidency.

So MAGA not only has to defend their status quo. They have to defend a status quo that runs counter to the arc of history (which, as MLK told us, bends toward justice). That’s the thought giving me hope even on my darkest days.

I can say with certainty that MAGA will not last forever. In all probability, it won’t even last through the rest of Trump’s presidency. I want to be clear: that does not minimize the suffering, the death, and the corruption he has inflicted upon us in the meantime.

But someday the MAGA status quo will fall, same as they have broken through the previous status quo. Agents of change always get what they’re looking for in the end. Someday, we will look back and weep for the lost years and lost lives. Someday, either us or our descendants will promise themselves ‘never again.’

Someday, this will all be history.

Non-Protest Actions Bingo

The below bingo card contains a list of actions you can take (other than protesting) to help further the cause. If you get a bingo, tag us on social media to let us know!

Connect with 50501 on Social Media

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]]><![CDATA[Who Has the Cards?]]>https://50501colorado.substack.com/p/who-has-the-cardshttps://50501colorado.substack.com/p/who-has-the-cardsSun, 23 Aug 2026 14:03:22 GMT

Hello, and welcome to the latest edition of our 50501 CO newsletter!

In this newsletter, we discuss Trump’s famous claim that he holds all the cards. In addition, you’ll find information on upcoming activities from the 50501 calendar, actions you can take outside of protesting, and also find out about additional ways to connect with us.

See you on the streets! ✊✊✊

Actions and Activities

(Click the link/image below to visit the 50501 calendar, containing our list of upcoming events in the next 2 weeks)

Take me to the calendar (in case the image link isn’t working)

Who Has the Cards?

Trump and his team are fond of telling people they ‘don’t have any cards.’ Most famously, Volodymyr Zelensky. They say it with a sneer, with condescension.

And you know what? Maybe they’re right. They hold the House, the Senate, and the Presidency. They can gut USAID and loot the treasury and declare war, and it seems like there’s little that us folks on the street can do to stop him.

For someone who ‘holds all the cards,’ he sure is slowing down, though. Iran has weathered the worst of America’s missiles and forced Trump to all but accept military defeat, resorting to economic pressure instead. His efforts to force the SAVE act through have failed, and now even if it were passed tomorrow it’s practically impossible to put into effect before the midterms.

Heck, even his chosen candidates have taken a historic whopping in their respective primaries. At the same time, a resurgent left is chalking up win after win, even in states like Florida, where no one expected a progressive challenger to stand a chance.

Pollsters fully expect the Democrats to reclaim the house in this year’s elections, and the odds are steadily creeping up for reclaiming the senate as well. States that shouldn’t be in play, like Texas and Alaska and Ohio, are considered toss-ups (or, in the case of Alaska, some pollsters have it as leaning Dem).

And let’s talk about Ukraine. Nearly a year-and-a-half after Trump told President Zelensky that he didn’t have any cards, Ukraine is still fighting. They have crippled Russia’s oil network, fought to a near standstill on the ground, and brought Russian economic growth to a painful halt. For having no cards, they sure have accomplished quite a lot.

That’s the thing Trump and his people don’t understand. Holding all of the cards sounds like a heady statement at first. But if you think about it for more than a moment, you realize it all depends on which game you’re playing.

So maybe it’s true. Maybe we don’t have any cards. But maybe that means we’re about to win.

Non-Protest Actions Bingo

The below bingo card contains a list of actions you can take (other than protesting) to help further the cause. If you get a bingo, tag us on social media to let us know!

1. Chalk art/messages are legal in almost all CO jurisdictions, but please check your local laws to confirm just in case.

Connect with 50501 on Social Media

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]]><![CDATA[What 'Abolish ICE' Really Means]]>https://50501colorado.substack.com/p/what-abolishing-ice-would-reallyhttps://50501colorado.substack.com/p/what-abolishing-ice-would-reallySun, 16 Aug 2026 14:01:05 GMT

Hello, and welcome to the latest edition of our 50501 CO newsletter!

In this newsletter, we discuss what the rallying call to abolish ICE means. In addition, you’ll find information on upcoming activities from the 50501 calendar, actions you can take outside of protesting, and also find out about additional ways to connect with us.

See you on the streets! ✊✊✊

Actions and Activities

(Click the link/image below to visit the 50501 calendar, containing our list of upcoming events in the next 2 weeks)

Take me to the calendar (in case the image link isn’t working)

What Abolishing ICE Would Really Mean

Yesterday, I was speaking with a friend who expressed fear and confusion when I mentioned that I wanted to ‘abolish’ ICE. Admittedly, I can see how the phrase conjures images of open borders, with refugees and immigrants spilling in from all sides. Taken without context, abolishing ICE seems foolhardy.

The movement to Abolish ICE does not suggest that we do away with the valuable functions the agency performs. Only the thuggish agency itself. We still have need of workers to monitor immigration, visas, refugees, and implement our policies at a broad level. What we do not have a need for is yet another paramilitary organization cosplaying as soldiers on our streets.

Abolish ICE is a rallying cry for subsuming the mundane tasks of border maintenance into other, extant DHS agencies. ICE itself has only existed for 23 years, when it replaced the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS). If I may be allowed a tangent, I’d like you to think about what both names imply. Immigration and Customs Enforcement implies a need for punishment. It implies a transgressor. After all, without a transgressor, who would they be enforcing against?

On the other hand, Immigration and Naturalization Service implies a service we provide to immigrants and those seeking entry into our country. It almost places immigrants in the position of customers in the phrasing. The very names of the two agencies illustrate their counter purposes. I will admit that INS had its share of problems, but it did not reach the same heights of cruelty toward immigrants and citizens as ICE demonstrates daily.

When I say ‘Abolish ICE,’ I mean we ought to fire the officers who have killed or shot others, and abducted and separated families, as well as those who have denied care to the sick and abused their positions of power to serve themselves in a myriad of ways. I mean we ought to do away with the assumption that immigrants are a group that needs to be enforced against by default. We can deport those whom our government decides it needs to deport while still treating them like human beings.

I feel that bears repeating: We can deport those whom our government decides it needs to deport while still treating them like human beings. That means treating them with dignity. It means allowing them to see their family, and allowing their family to see them. It means holding trials where immigrants and refugees are assigned lawyers who speak their language and will do their utmost to ensure they receive a fair hearing.

These are ideals which ICE as an organization does not seem to agree with. This year, we have witnessed ICE attain new levels of corruption and violence. That is why the organization of ICE must be abolished.

Abolish ICE does not mean open borders. It does not mean giving up on immigration services. Abolish ICE simply means making immigration policy boring again.

Non-Protest Actions Bingo

The below bingo card contains a list of actions you can take (other than protesting) to help further the cause. If you get a bingo, tag us on social media to let us know!

1.Where you can, purchase products from blue states instead of red states (such as replacing Bourbon with another whiskey)

Connect with 50501 on Social Media

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]]><![CDATA[Birthright Citizenship]]>https://50501colorado.substack.com/p/birthright-citizenshiphttps://50501colorado.substack.com/p/birthright-citizenshipSun, 09 Aug 2026 14:03:40 GMT

Hello, and welcome to the latest edition of our 50501 CO newsletter!

In this newsletter, we discuss some of Trump’s Executive Orders this week. In addition, you’ll find information on upcoming activities from the 50501 calendar, actions you can take outside of protesting, and also find out about additional ways to connect with us.

See you on the streets! ✊✊✊

Actions and Activities

(Click the link/image below to visit the 50501 calendar, containing our list of upcoming events in the next 2 weeks)

Take me to the calendar (in case the image link isn’t working)

Birthright Citizenship and the erosion of rights

This week, Donald Trump signed two executive orders related to birthright citizenship: one that places restrictions on who is eligible for birthright citizenship, and one that places restrictions on pregnant travelers. This is after the ACLU convinced the Supreme Court to strike down his first attempt at canceling birthright citizenship back in June.

These executive orders come despite the fact that he has failed to provide evidence for his claims of ‘birth tourism’ and, in fact, has failed to provide evidence that the United States is experiencing any harms due to immigration or birthright citizenship as a whole. But he doesn’t have to.

His goal is not to convince our rational minds of the so-called dangers of foreigners. His goal (or more likely, that of the people who actually wrote the EOs) is to shift the Overton window and create an association in the minds of voting Americans between immigrants and the need to be punished. After all, only an abhorrent government would punish those who do not deserve it.

And America is good. Therefore, any punishment it inflicts must be deserved by those who suffer. If they committed no crimes and caused no harms, then to punish them would be evil. To round them up and deny them basic rights, as though they are sub-human?

America could not do such a thing. Not if the affected immigrants were anything other than criminals. Because America is good. To believe otherwise would be a contradiction in the minds of those who have blind faith in US exceptionalism, who light off fireworks in their own backyards every fourth of July because they’re so gosh-darn proud of the war their ideological antecedents fought against the British. To lock up the innocent and to separate families and to deny someone citizenship because of where they come from? Why, that would not be good.

And there can be no doubt. America is good. The attacks against birthright citizenship are only a new front being opened in the war against immigration on the whole. The goal remains the same, but the tactics slowly shift. Like water wearing down a stone, Trump and his government do not care where the stone is worn away. Only that it is. As long as the Overton window shifts.

There is a little good news and a little bad in this. The shift does not need to happen. If enough of us stand up – and continue standing up – to decry these injustices each time they occur, we can prevent the new status quo from being normalized. We have to be tireless in our defenses, since right now it is our own government which spouts these lies about immigrants, the ‘woke’ agenda, and trans men and women.

More than any other individual, our President could be said to represent America. Every time that he spouts his lies and isn’t met with vociferous opposition, he can shift the window by mere virtue of his authority. That is why we must have a revolving door of protesters and documenters and ICE monitors. You, individually, do not have to always be on duty. But as a society, we need someone to be.

If you have stepped away from protesting due to burn-out or the heat of the summer, I would urge you to make a plan for when you’re going to get back into it. The fight against tyranny is not a single event. It is a tour of service, and we’re always eager for more soldiers at the front.

Trump signed two more executive orders this week. With good luck and enough donations to the ACLU, maybe we’ll be able to win the battle on this new front and claw back the rights he’s trying to deny. Our cry is not ‘America is good.’ Nor is it ‘America is bad.’

To these new orders, my response is: this is not America, and this is not good. America itself is not fundamentally good. But it could be better.

Non-Protest Actions Bingo

The below bingo card contains a list of actions you can take (other than protesting) to help further the cause. If you get a bingo, tag us on social media to let us know!

1. Despite the fact that Home Depot has become a target for ICE raids, the company has remained silent. Visit the homepage for this boycott for more details and a full toolkit of actions you can take to help protest Home Depot’s inaction.
2. The list of CO events sponsored by Indivisible is available here

Connect with 50501 on Social Media

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]]><![CDATA[Forever Wars]]>https://50501colorado.substack.com/p/forever-warshttps://50501colorado.substack.com/p/forever-warsSun, 02 Aug 2026 14:02:05 GMT

Hello, and welcome to the latest edition of our 50501 CO newsletter!

In this newsletter, we discuss the war in Iran. In addition, you’ll find information on upcoming activities from the 50501 calendar, actions you can take outside of protesting, and also find out about additional ways to connect with us.

See you on the streets! ✊✊✊

Actions and Activities

(Click the link/image below to visit the 50501 calendar, containing our list of upcoming events in the next 2 weeks)

Take me to the calendar (in case the image link isn’t working)

Forever Wars

America has gotten in enough hopeless wars in the last 80 years that I thought I knew the recipe. Turns out I was wrong.

First, the President is supposed to have an inciting incident. Something they can point to as the cassus belli for spending the lives of our soldiers, as well as the innocent deaths which are inevitable and attendant to warfare waged not for protection, but for imperial aggression. For Korea and Vietnam, it was the Commy scourge. For Iraq the first time, it was the invasion of Kuwait. For Afghanistan and Iraq the second time, it was 9/11 and the mere suggestion of having nuclear material.

Next, they are supposed to refill the Strategic Petroleum Reserves. This ensures the pain of oil price spikes do not reach our shores, as happened in the 1970s. Keeping gas prices low is essential to maintain support for the war back at home. At least, that’s what I’d always believed.

Then, they are supposed to gather allies. A healthy contingent of allies lends validity to the cassus belli and ensures our country isn’t standing alone when the victims of our aggression bring their case to the ICC. As much as it’s nice to have more boots on the ground, we rarely need them. Rather, we need the political support and show of Western unity.

Above all, there are rules which can be bent but not broken deliberately. Attacking civilian infrastructure like roads, bridges, and energy plants. If the military bombs a school, it must be immediately decried as an accident, and the President resolves publicly that it will not happen again. Pinky promise, mothers-life commitments.

The war in Iran demonstrates that I was wrong about all of this. Donald Trump has given the lie to the formula. There has been no cassus belli, as we attacked Iran in the midst of peaceful negotiations. The SPR was not refilled, which is perhaps a blessing because – for some – high gas prices seem to be the main complaint here at home. Aside from Israel, no Western allies have stepped forward to pledge troops or munitions to the war effort. And we are destroying civilian infrastructure on a regular basis.

It turns out that you don’t need any ingredients of the recipe, except for one: a desire to dominate. Donald Trump’s ego has gotten us into this war in Iran, and that same ego won’t let him leave. If he’s baking the cake of a Forever War, he forgot the flour, the icing, the sugar, and even the butter.

But gosh darn it, he’s going to keep beating those eggs until they look like something. Not a cake – that would be impossible – but something that he and his sycophants can call a cake, if you’re willing to squint.

Non-Protest Actions Bingo

The below bingo card contains a list of actions you can take (other than protesting) to help further the cause. If you get a bingo, tag us on social media to let us know!

Connect with 50501 on Social Media

Thanks for reading! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support our work.

]]><![CDATA[ICE, the Uninvited Guest]]>https://50501colorado.substack.com/p/ice-the-uninvited-guesthttps://50501colorado.substack.com/p/ice-the-uninvited-guestSun, 26 Jul 2026 14:02:22 GMT

Hello, and welcome to the latest edition of our 50501 CO newsletter!

In this newsletter, we discuss the latest ICE killings. In addition, you’ll find information on upcoming activities from the 50501 calendar, actions you can take outside of protesting, and also find out about additional ways to connect with us.

See you on the streets! ✊✊✊

Actions and Activities

(Click the link/image below to visit the 50501 calendar, containing our list of upcoming events in the next 2 weeks)

Take me to the calendar (in case the image link isn’t working)

ICE, the Uninvited Guest

It’s once again time to talk about ICE shootings. Not because I want to, but because they keep happening. Renee Good. Alex Pretti. And in recent weeks, Lorenzo Salgado Araujo and Joan Sebastian Guerrero. I’m listing the ones who have grabbed headlines, but there are many more. In fact, with so many names piling up, it can be easy to lose track of the fact that these were all people, each with their own entire lives and their own friends and family who loved them dearly.

When you read their names, I want you to picture the holes of their passing. The empty chairs at dinnertime. The children with one less person to talk them through questions like how there can be so much evil in the world. The spouse who rolls over and cries a little when they remember why that side of the bed is always cold. The friend who buys a six-pack of beer, and returns home only to realize they have no one to share it with.

Think of the missed guitar lessons and games of pick-up soccer and silly songs that their children used to listen to with rapt attention. The inside jokes and date nights with spouses. The unique senses of humor, and perspectives, and companionship that have been lost.

That is what ICE has taken away. What it continues to take away. To us, these are members of our community. To those closest to them, they were a vital part of existence. Their loved ones are now forced to pick up the pieces and pretend there isn’t a hole, because a group of ICE officers got scared, or frustrated, or they simply decided to flex their authority in order to feel good about themselves.

I don’t know what else to say about this. I am enraged. I am disgusted. Let no soul tell me that America stands for freedom and justice while the ICE agents who have killed our people escape trial. If our country was worth a tenth of the chest-thumping claims that Trump’s most ardent sycophants make, we would not allow this to continue.

Action. Feedback I’ve gotten on some of these newsletters is that I should always end with actions for you to take. In Colorado, here’s your action: join the Colorado Rapid Response Network to help keep an eye on ICE in our state. Go to your city council meetings and demand that they do everything in their power to prevent ICE violence. And shout about this injustice from whatever rooftops you can find.

This is a travesty. Our country must do better.

This post was inspired by a passage from Ta-Nehisi Coates

Non-Protest Actions Bingo

The below bingo card contains a list of actions you can take (other than protesting) to help further the cause. If you get a bingo, tag us on social media to let us know!

Connect with 50501 on Social Media

Thanks for reading! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support our work.

]]><![CDATA[Concerning Hobbits]]>https://50501colorado.substack.com/p/concerning-hobbitshttps://50501colorado.substack.com/p/concerning-hobbitsSun, 19 Jul 2026 14:02:32 GMT

Hello, and welcome to the latest edition of our 50501 CO newsletter!

In this newsletter, we discuss the impact of hobbits on history. In addition, you’ll find information on upcoming activities from the 50501 calendar, actions you can take outside of protesting, and also find out about additional ways to connect with us.

See you on the streets! ✊✊✊

Actions and Activities

(Click the link/image below to visit the 50501 calendar, containing our list of upcoming events in the next 2 weeks)

Take me to the calendar (in case the image link isn’t working)

Concerning Hobbits

Whether or not you are a Lord of the Rings fans, I would bet you’re familiar with the concept of a hobbit.

Small, unassuming, proud beyond reckoning of the fact that they never get up to adventures or challenge the status quo.

The Lord of the Rings saga, of course, is about how a few brave hobbits band together to change the fate of the world. Heady stuff, but it cannot happen in the real world. The real world is dark and grim and not so simple. Right?

As confident as I am that you’re familiar with Hobbits, I would guess that fewer of you are familiar with the Dunnes Store strike. In the depths of Apartheid in South Africa, 11 women in Ireland refused to sell South African grapefruit. Eventually, their actions stirred Ireland into becoming the first Western country to ban goods from the South Africa so long as it remained an Apartheid state. Pressure from Ireland and other countries snowballed until it forced South Africa to abandon the practice.

Hobbits, indeed.

In Serbia, a group of 11 students calling itself Otpor pasted an image of Milošević, their then-dictator, on a trash can. For a single coin, those passing by could take a swing or a kick at their leader. In the course of a few years, Otpor grew to number in the tens of thousands, and on October 5th of 2000, the Bulldozer Revolution ended Milošević’s reign.

More hobbits afoot.

American history has its own hobbit moments. In San Francisco in 1966, a single trans patron of the 24-hour café known as Compton’s Cafeteria reacted to a cop’s attempting to arrest her for the crime of existing-while-trans by throwing hot coffee in his face. Other patrons – who were similarly tired of police harassment – joined in to force the police outside of the cafeteria, kicking off a series of riots that proved pivotal for transgender visibility, even before the Stonewall riots.

So, whenever you have the thought that you are only one person – that what you and others are doing is too small – I want you to call yourself a hobbit. And then (this is the important bit), remind yourself that tyrants have good reasons to fear hobbits such as us.

For, to paraphrase Tolkien, the time will soon come when Hobbits will shape the fortunes of all.

Non-Protest Actions Bingo

The below bingo card contains a list of actions you can take (other than protesting) to help further the cause. If you get a bingo, tag us on social media to let us know!

1. Despite being the sites of many of the worst ICE raids, both Target and Home Depot remain silent on the issue, and frequently allow ICE thugs to use their parking lots as staging grounds. Please boycott these companies until they do better.
2. The Indivisible calendar for Colorado is available here.

Connect with 50501 on Social Media

Thanks for reading! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support our work.

]]><![CDATA[America at 250]]>https://50501colorado.substack.com/p/america-at-250https://50501colorado.substack.com/p/america-at-250Sun, 12 Jul 2026 14:02:48 GMT

Hello, and welcome to the latest edition of our 50501 CO newsletter!

In this newsletter, we discuss the celebrations of America’s 250th anniversary. In addition, you’ll find information on upcoming activities from the 50501 calendar, actions you can take outside of protesting, and also find out about additional ways to connect with us.

See you on the streets! ✊✊✊

Actions and Activities

(Click the link/image below to visit the 50501 calendar, containing our list of upcoming events in the next 2 weeks)

Take me to the calendar (in case the image link isn’t working)

America at 250: The Audit Is Due

America just turned 250, and that sounds like the kind of milestone that should come with fireworks, speeches, parades, commemorative coins, and at least one politician using the word “freedom” so many times it starts to lose all meaning.

And yes, we got all of that.

But a 250th anniversary shouldn’t just be a birthday party. It should be an audit.

Not the fun kind. Not the “look how far we’ve come” slideshow with patriotic music swelling in the background. The real kind. The kind where we open the books, look at the receipts, and ask whether the country is actually living by the values it claims to celebrate.

Because right now, the numbers don’t balance.

We say we believe in liberty, while people are afraid to walk through their own neighborhoods without being questioned, detained, or disappeared into a system that treats due process like an inconvenience.

We say we believe in government by the people, while power keeps concentrating upward, away from voters, courts, agencies, cities, states, and anyone else who might say no.

We say we believe in equality, while entire communities are being treated as problems to be managed instead of people to be protected.

We say we believe in truth, while independent facts are attacked whenever they become politically inconvenient.

That is the contradiction at the center of the anniversary. The celebration wants us to look backward with pride, but the moment demands that we look around with honesty.

And honesty does not ruin patriotism. It saves it.

There’s a cheap version of patriotism that only knows how to cheer. It wants the flag, the anthem, the flyover, the clean story. It wants America to be a brand, not a responsibility. It treats criticism as disrespect because it confuses love with applause.

But real patriotism has always been more demanding than that.

Real patriotism asks whether the country is worthy of the symbols it uses. It asks whether freedom means anything if it only applies to the comfortable. It asks whether democracy is still democracy when people are told to vote, then ignored, silenced, or ruled around.

At 250, we should be mature enough as a nation to handle those questions.

A country this old should not need flattery. It should need accountability. It should be able to survive the truth about itself. If it can’t, then the problem was never the criticism. The problem was the weakness hiding underneath all the pageantry.

That’s what makes this moment so dangerous. Authoritarianism doesn’t just attack rights. It attacks memory. It tries to turn history into decoration, something polished and harmless. It wants the Revolution without the rebellion, the Constitution without the restraints, the flag without the people underneath it.

It wants us to celebrate independence while accepting obedience.

No.

The whole point of America, at least the best version of it, is that power is supposed to answer to the people. Not the other way around. Presidents are not kings. Federal agencies are not private armies. Courts are not props. Citizens are not subjects. Immigrants are not scapegoats. Protesters are not enemies. Facts are not optional.

That should not be radical. In 2026, somehow, it is.

So maybe the most honest way to mark 250 years is not by pretending everything is fine. Maybe it’s by refusing to let the celebration become camouflage. We can enjoy the fireworks and still notice the smoke. We can honor the founding documents and still demand that their promises apply in real life. We can love this country without lying for it.

That is the work now.

Not nostalgia. Not blind celebration. Not despair either.

An audit.

A clear-eyed accounting of what has been built, what has been broken, what has been stolen, and what still belongs to us if we are willing to defend it.

America turned 250.

The question is not whether we can throw a good party.

The question is whether we can still govern ourselves when the music stops.

Non-Protest Actions Bingo

The below bingo card contains a list of actions you can take (other than protesting) to help further the cause. If you get a bingo, tag us on social media to let us know!

Connect with 50501 on Social Media

Thanks for reading! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support our work.

]]><![CDATA[That Hope-y, Change-y Stuff]]>https://50501colorado.substack.com/p/that-hope-y-change-y-stuffhttps://50501colorado.substack.com/p/that-hope-y-change-y-stuffSun, 05 Jul 2026 14:03:21 GMT

Hello, and welcome to the latest edition of our 50501 CO newsletter!

In this newsletter, we discuss the results of last week’s primaries. In addition, you’ll find information on upcoming activities from the 50501 calendar, actions you can take outside of protesting, and also find out about additional ways to connect with us.

See you on the streets! ✊✊✊

Actions and Activities

(The below list contains details on all actions this week and next week which have been submitted to our 50501 CO calendar; click the link above for more details and the full calendar)

Virtual

Arvada

Aurora

Boulder

Brighton

Broomfield

  • 7/5: 10:00 - 11:30am - No Fascists! No Kings!

    • Northwest Corner
      West 120th Avenue & Sheridan Boulevard
      Broomfield, CO 80020

  • 7/12: 10:00 - 11:30am - No Fascists! No Kings!

    • Northwest Corner
      West 120th Avenue & Sheridan Boulevard
      Broomfield, CO 80020

Buena Vista

Castle Rock

Colorado Springs

Denver

Fort Collins

Golden

Hudson

Lakewood

Littleton

Lone Tree

Longmont

Loveland

Lyons

Northglenn

Parker

Pueblo

Superior

Thornton

Timnath

Walsenburg

That Hope-y, Change-y Stuff

I’m old enough to remember Barack Obama’s first presidential campaign. I’m young enough to have believed he would be capable of delivering all he promised and more. However you may feel about the job he did in office, it’s difficult to deny that there was a noticeable shift in the feeling of the Democratic party after he secured the Presidential nomination. This week, I felt an echo of that old feeling.

Melat Kiros. Phil Weiser. Julie Gonzales lost her primary, yes, but the contest was far closer than an incumbent senator usually expects. Last Tuesday wasn’t a total victory, but there’s a scent of that hope-y, change-y stuff in the air again.

I’d lost track of the years I’ve spent training myself not to expect anything from our government. Since Donald Trump’s first term, it has felt like our federal government only has two modes: slow clawback and fast clawback. Slow clawback claimed our reproductive protections at the national level in the form of overturning Roe v Wade. Fast clawback claimed Meals on Wheels and USAID and scientific research funding.

Many of us, I believe, have gotten stuck in this mode of cynicism. Expect nothing from your government, the wisdom goes, and you’ll never be disappointed.

But goddammit. That hope-y, change-y stuff is in the air again. Zohran Mamdani sprinkled the first motes into the air in New York, and it seems to be spreading across the country, even reaching as high as the beautiful Rocky Mountains.

America doesn’t have to be this way. Our government can serve us. It can do good things, because that’s what government is supposed to do. It can call a genocide a genocide. It can ensure children have meals, retirees don’t wind up on the street, and it can still have a bit left over for the poor and sick and hungry of other nations.

Donald Trump claims otherwise. Most of the establishment dems claim otherwise. This is the status quo, they say, and there is no changing it. Elect us not because we will make things better, but because we will make them less bad. When it comes to taking tangible actions? Sorry, that’s not our business.

As an Obama-era millennial, let me promise you: Kiros and Weiser and Mamdani will fall short of our lofty expectations. They cannot help it, no matter how hard they try. Our expectations of them are just too high.

But in the meantime, let us form those lofty expectations. Let us ask them for the moon. That hope-y, change-y stuff is in the air again. And I, for one, don’t intend to fight it.

Non-Protest Actions Bingo

The below bingo card contains a list of actions you can take (other than protesting) to help further the cause. If you get a bingo, tag us on social media to let us know!

1. Chalk art is legal in most Colorado jurisdictions, but please look up your local laws and ordinances just in case.
2. Stickers are available here
3. You can search through premade cards and download printable templates here

Connect with 50501 on Social Media

Thanks for reading! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support our work.

]]><![CDATA[DSA Barn-Burner]]>https://50501colorado.substack.com/p/dsa-barn-burnerhttps://50501colorado.substack.com/p/dsa-barn-burnerSun, 28 Jun 2026 14:02:47 GMT

Hello, and welcome to the latest edition of our 50501 CO newsletter!

In this newsletter, we discuss the results of the New York primaries this week. In addition, you’ll find information on upcoming activities from the 50501 calendar, actions you can take outside of protesting, and also find out about additional ways to connect with us.

See you on the streets! ✊✊✊

Actions and Activities

(The below list contains details on all actions this week and next week which have been submitted to our 50501 CO calendar; click the link above for more details and the full calendar)

Virtual

Arvada

Aurora

Boulder

Brighton

Broomfield

  • 6/30: 8:30 - 9:30am - Overpass Protest

    • Interlocken Loop Overpass on Hwy 36
      41 W Flatiron Crossing Dr

  • 7/5: 10:00 - 11:30am - No Fascists! No Kings!

    • Northwest Corner
      West 120th Avenue & Sheridan Boulevard
      Broomfield, CO 80020

Buena Vista

Castle Rock

Colorado Springs

Denver

Fort Collins

Golden

Greeley

Hudson

Lakewood

Littleton

Longmont

Louisville

Loveland

Lyons

Northglenn

Parker

Pueblo

Superior

Timnath

Walsenburg

DSA Barn-Burner

This week, New York’s primaries resulted in an effective DSA sweep. I remember when ‘socialist’ was treated as a dirty word, yet a recent Gallup poll found that among Democrats, socialism had a 66% favorability rating. In the same poll, capitalism scored only 42% favorable amongst Democrats.

Regardless of which side of the political divide someone is on, the message seems clear: America is hungry for change. Democratic voters are tired of the same neo-liberal policies that brought us to a position where fascism (which is the change always offered by the political right) somehow seems like an improvement. Republican voters are tired of corporate, neo-lib policies as well, which might be why candidates like Mandani and AOC attract voters who also support Trump.

Here’s the good news: if change is really what America wants, the flavor of change offered by DSA and socialist candidates should be far more attractive than that offered by MAGA. Things like Medicare-for-all, universal childcare, tuition assistance and student loan assistance all fit underneath that umbrella. Confronted with an AI-centric future, democratic socialist candidates can respond that we need basic incomes and worker protections to ensure that jobs taken by robots don’t result in commensurate increases in homelessness.

The constant refrain from the GOP is: you’re too Polyanna-ish. We can’t afford any of that. But their version of change costs just as much if not more. Thanks to Trump, we have evidence. The cost of weapons used against Iran and the accompanying increase in gas prices, for one. The cost of unnecessary tariffs. And above all, the cost of corruption, such as the no-bid contract to ‘fix’ a reflecting pool, which is already falling apart and now grows more algae than before. Trump and his family and friends are looting the United States for all that it has. That’s what their ‘change’ ultimately looks like: the spare change underneath the mattress, left not because Trump lacks the will to take it, but solely because he failed to notice it.

Primary voting in Colorado is happening right now, and will close on the 30th. If you haven’t already filled out your ballot, I want you to think about the change being offered by the different candidates. For too long, we’ve been lulled into complacency by candidates who spin narratives of change while their voting record reflects the status quo. For too long, we’ve been told to shut up and ‘vote blue no matter who’ for representatives who accept legalized bribes from the very entities they promise to place restrictions on. America is hungry for change. The candidates endorsed by DSA and Working Families Party (WFP) will deliver that change. Not so that we can return to what we had before. So that we can move toward something better.

Non-Protest Actions Bingo

The below bingo card contains a list of actions you can take (other than protesting) to help further the cause. If you get a bingo, tag us on social media to let us know!

Connect with 50501 on Social Media

Thanks for reading! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support our work.

]]><![CDATA[The Most Important Step]]>https://50501colorado.substack.com/p/the-most-important-stephttps://50501colorado.substack.com/p/the-most-important-stepSun, 21 Jun 2026 14:03:22 GMT

Hello, and welcome to the latest edition of our 50501 CO newsletter!

In this newsletter, we discuss the most important step anyone can take. In addition, you’ll find information on upcoming activities from the 50501 calendar, actions you can take outside of protesting, and also find out about additional ways to connect with us.

See you on the streets! ✊✊✊

Actions and Activities

(The below list contains details on all actions this week and next week which have been submitted to our 50501 CO calendar; click the link above for more details and the full calendar)

Virtual

Arvada

Aurora

Boulder

Brighton

Broomfield

  • 6/21: 11:30am - 1:00pm - No Fascists! No Kings!

    • Northwest Corner
      West 120th Avenue & Sheridan Boulevard
      Broomfield, CO 80020

  • 6/28: 11:30am - 1:00pm - No Fascists! No Kings!

    • Northwest Corner
      West 120th Avenue & Sheridan Boulevard
      Broomfield, CO 80020

Buena Vista

Castle Rock

Colorado Springs

Denver

Golden

Hudson

Idaho Springs

Lakewood

Larkspur

Littleton

Longmont

Louisville

Loveland

Lyons

Northglenn

Pagosa Springs

Parker

Pueblo

Superior

Thornton

Timnath

Walsenburg

The Most Important Step

In the past, the other person who writes for these newsletters has shared their interest in comic books. Lately, I’ve been coming back to my own nerdy hobby for inspiration: Fantasy novels.

Specifically, I’ve been thinking about a question posed by Brandon Sanderson in his Stormlight Archive series: What is the most important step a person can take?

When faced with the problems of our nation — ICE that still feels out of control, a war in Iran that keeps dragging on, and a President who appears to alternate between ill-timed naps, insane ranting, and demeaning anyone who even considers questioning him — Sanderson’s question feels pretty damn important.

What is the next step any of us can take? Individually, we can call representatives. We can protest. We can knock on doors for primary candidates in the hope of nominating people (**cough, Gonzales and Kiros**) who will actually stand up to Trump when they get to DC.* We can donate money to the ACLU and Colorado Immigrant Rights Coalition and even Greenpeace if they’re still around.

But none of these answer the question. Perhaps it helps to give some background on how the question is framed. The question (what is the most important step a person can take?) is posed to a deeply-flawed character named Dalinar, who has committed horrible atrocities in his past, for which he cannot possibly hope to atone. As is the way of Fantasy novels, he faces an enemy far stronger and more malicious than himself. If Dalinar fails to answer the question, the world will fall to darkness for several thousand years, or however long it usually takes evil overlords to die of a heart attack.

Then he discovers the answer: The next step. Always the next step.

When you ask yourself what is the most important thing you can be doing to help out right now, I want you to think about that. It is far worse to do nothing than to do something and discover later that there were better alternatives. Protesting can be your next step. Donating time or money to a political campaign can be your next step. Hell, talking with your friends and family can be a step too.

So, one more time, what’s the most important step a person can take?

The next one.

*While both Julie Gonzales and Melat Kiros are excellent candidates, the above is my own personal view and not necessarily the view of 50501 as a whole

Non-Protest Actions Bingo

The below bingo card contains a list of actions you can take (other than protesting) to help further the cause. If you get a bingo, tag us on social media to let us know!

1. Forming bonds through associations such as an HOA, tenant union, or even a group of folks you get together with to play games can help you cross the barriers and reach people who may be open to joining protests (or other actions) in the future.
2. Good organizations to sign up with include SURJ, Indivisible, or even 50501!
3. The list of CO events sponsored by Indivisible is available here

Connect with 50501 on Social Media

Thanks for reading! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support our work.

]]><![CDATA[Who Counts in America?]]>https://50501colorado.substack.com/p/who-counts-in-americahttps://50501colorado.substack.com/p/who-counts-in-americaSun, 14 Jun 2026 14:01:19 GMT

Hello, and welcome to the latest edition of our 50501 CO newsletter!

In this newsletter, we discuss who really counts in America. In addition, you’ll find information on upcoming activities from the 50501 calendar, actions you can take outside of protesting, and also find out about additional ways to connect with us.

See you on the streets! ✊✊✊

Actions and Activities

(The below list contains details on all actions this week and next week which have been submitted to our 50501 CO calendar; click the link above for more details and the full calendar)

Virtual

Alamosa

Arvada

Aurora

Boulder

Brighton

Broomfield

  • 6/14: 11:30am - 1:00pm - No Fascists! No Kings!

    • Northwest Corner
      West 120th Avenue & Sheridan Boulevard
      Broomfield, CO 80020

  • 6/21: 11:30am - 1:00pm - No Fascists! No Kings!

    • Northwest Corner
      West 120th Avenue & Sheridan Boulevard
      Broomfield, CO 80020

Buena Vista

Castle Rock

Colorado Springs

Crestone

Denver

Durango

Estes Park

Fort Collins

Golden

Granby

Grand Junction

Hudson

Lakewood

Lafayette

Larkspur

Littleton

Longmont

Louisville

Loveland

Lyons

Northglenn

Pagosa Springs

Parker

Superior

Thornton

Timnath

Trinidad

Walsenburg

Westminster

Windsor

Who Counts in America?

America is turning 250, and I wish that felt simpler.

Not simple as in sanitized. Not simple as in everyone waves a tiny flag and pretends the country has always been noble, fair, or honest with itself. America has never earned that kind of easy celebration.

But I do wish we could share one basic starting point: that this anniversary belongs to the people who kept forcing the promise open.

Because that is the real story of America. Not perfection. Not innocence. Not destiny. A fight over who counts.

From the beginning, the country announced beautiful ideas while denying them to millions of people. Freedom existed beside slavery. Equality existed beside laws that treated women as secondary. Liberty existed beside Indigenous removal, segregation, exclusion, redlining, internment, and every polite legal structure built to tell certain people, “not you.”

That contradiction is not a side note. It is the central tension.

America promised a new kind of political life, one where rights did not flow from kings and government answered to the governed. But almost immediately, the country began arguing over the fine print. Who is included in “we”? Who gets protected by “liberty”? Who receives justice, and who gets managed, contained, exploited, or erased?

That argument never ended.

We hear it today when immigrants are described as invaders before they are seen as families, workers, neighbors, and children. We hear it when people sneer at food assistance, Medicaid, housing support, or anything else that suggests survival should not depend entirely on luck. We hear it when prisoners are treated like they stopped being human the moment they were convicted. We hear it when women, queer people, trans people, people of color, disabled people, and poor people are told, directly or indirectly, that their dignity is negotiable.

After 250 years, this should not still be up for debate.

And yet it is.

That may be the oldest American argument: whether the promise applies to everyone, or only to the people power finds convenient.

The answer should be boring by now. Human beings deserve to be treated like human beings. That is not some wild left-wing dream. It is the floor. The absolute minimum. The first sentence of any decent society.

And yes, because I am me, I’ll say it: if aliens landed tomorrow, I’d extend the principle to them too. Star Trek got it right. Dignity does not shrink when the circle gets bigger.

That is what I want the 250th to mean.

Not forced unity. Not a demand that we ignore the damage. Not a glossy birthday card for a country that has too often confused power with virtue. I want an anniversary honest enough to admit the failures and brave enough to honor the people who challenged them.

The people who refused to accept the America they were handed as the only America possible. The abolitionists. The suffragists. The labor organizers. The civil rights marchers. The student protestors. The immigrants who built lives while being told they didn’t belong. The LGBTQ people who came out when doing so carried real danger. The disabled activists who crawled up Capitol steps because the country kept pretending access was optional. The veterans who served because the Constitution meant something larger than any president.

They are not interruptions in the American story. They are the reason the story got better.

That is the anniversary worth marking. Not America as finished, but America as unfinished on purpose. A country at its best when people refuse to let the powerful decide whose humanity is convenient.

So if we are going to celebrate 250 years, let’s celebrate the argument that moved us forward.

Let’s celebrate the people who said no when cruelty called itself tradition. Let’s celebrate everyone who insisted that rights are not rewards for obedience. And let’s make the next chapter plain:

All of us count. No exceptions.

Non-Protest Actions Bingo

The below bingo card contains a list of actions you can take (other than protesting) to help further the cause. If you get a bingo, tag us on social media to let us know!

1. You can sign up for the Colorado Rapid Response Network here. The Rapid Response Network is a group which sends out locals to scenes of reported ICE activity to observe, collect testimony, and ensure all involved parties know their rights.
2. Where you can, purchase products from blue states instead of red states (such as replacing Bourbon with another whiskey)

Connect with 50501 on Social Media

Thanks for reading! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support our work.

]]><![CDATA[The White House Is Not a Palace]]>https://50501colorado.substack.com/p/the-white-house-is-not-a-palacehttps://50501colorado.substack.com/p/the-white-house-is-not-a-palaceSun, 07 Jun 2026 14:03:15 GMT

Hello, and welcome to the latest edition of our 50501 CO newsletter!

In this newsletter, we discuss the import of Trump’s changes to the White House. In addition, you’ll find information on upcoming activities from the 50501 calendar, actions you can take outside of protesting, and also find out about additional ways to connect with us.

See you on the streets! ✊✊✊

Actions and Activities

(The below list contains details on all actions this week and next week which have been submitted to our 50501 CO calendar; click the link above for more details and the full calendar)

Virtual

Alamosa

Arvada

Aurora

Boulder

Broomfield

  • 6/7: 11:30am - 1:00pm - No Fascists! No Kings!

    • Northwest Corner
      West 120th Avenue & Sheridan Boulevard
      Broomfield, CO 80020

  • 6/9: 8:30 - 9:30am - Overpass Protest

    • Interlocken Loop Overpass on Hwy 36
      41 W Flatiron Crossing Dr

  • 6/14: 11:30am - 1:00pm - No Fascists! No Kings!

    • Northwest Corner
      West 120th Avenue & Sheridan Boulevard
      Broomfield, CO 80020

Buena Vista

Castle Rock

Colorado Springs

  • 6/10: 3:30 - 5:30pm - Overpass Protest

    • Monument Valley Pedestrian Bridge (between Uintah and Bijou)

  • 6/17: 3:30 - 5:30pm - Overpass Protest

    • Monument Valley Pedestrian Bridge (between Uintah and Bijou)

Denver

Fort Collins

Golden

Hudson

Lafayette

Larkspur

Littleton

Longmont

Louisville

Loveland

Lyons

Northglenn

Pagosa Springs

Parker

Pueblo

  • 6/13: 10:00am - 12:00pm - No Kings

    • Corner of Abriendo & 4th st (walgreens)

Superior

Timnath

Trinidad

Walsenburg

Windsor

The White House Is Not a Palace

The White House is not a palace.

That should not be a controversial sentence. It feels almost silly to say out loud, like reminding people that the flag is not a tablecloth or that the Constitution is not a decorative coaster. But apparently, this is where we are.

The White House is not supposed to belong to one man. It belongs to the office, and more importantly, to the people the office is meant to serve. We do not call it the Presidential Palace. We do not crown its occupant. We do not build a national identity around whoever happens to be living there.

At least, that is not what we are supposed to do.

And yet, as America approaches its 250th anniversary, the symbols around Washington, D.C. feel less like a celebration of the country and more like a tribute to a leader. Giant banners. His face on federal buildings. Branded spectacles. A cage-fighting event at the White House. An anniversary that should belong to the people is being pulled into the gravitational field of one man’s ego.

No, this is not the worst thing happening in the country. People are being harmed by policy. Families are being separated. Rights are under attack. Public institutions are being weakened. There are life-and-death issues that deserve our full attention.

But symbols still matter.

Authoritarianism does not only arrive through laws and police actions. It also arrives through decoration. Through habits. Through what we are asked to clap for. Through the slow conversion of public spaces into stages for personal power.

That is why this is troubling.

Washington, D.C. is not meant to be Trump City. It is not meant to be Biden City, Obama City, Bush City, or Reagan City either. The capital is not supposed to function as a fan convention for the current president. It is supposed to represent the ongoing, unfinished project of self-government.

That project has always been imperfect. Deeply imperfect. America has excluded, exploited, and betrayed people from the beginning. But the promise at the center of it still matters: government derives its power from the people. Not from kings. Not from strongmen. Not from celebrities with security clearances.

The 250th anniversary should be a moment to wrestle honestly with that promise. Not sanitize it. Not turn it into a parade-float version of history. Not pretend we have always lived up to our ideals. But also not surrender the whole story to personality worship.

This anniversary should be about the people who pushed America closer to what it claimed to be.

There is a reason dictators put their faces on everything. It trains the public to associate the nation with the leader. It blurs the line between patriotism and loyalty. It suggests that to celebrate the country is to celebrate the man in charge, and to criticize him is to insult the nation itself.

That is not patriotism. That is branding with a flag wrapped around it.

A democracy should not need a dear-leader aesthetic. It should not need giant faces staring down from government buildings. It should not need to turn the White House lawn into a spectacle of dominance to prove the country is strong.

Strength in a democracy looks different.

It looks like accountability. It looks like peaceful dissent. It looks like public spaces where no one has to wonder whether the building belongs to the country or to the ego of the person temporarily occupying it.

The White House is not sacred because a president lives there.

It matters because the presidency is supposed to answer to us.

That distinction is everything. And if we lose it, we lose more than good taste. We lose the civic muscle that knows the difference between leadership and rule, between celebration and propaganda, between a republic and a court.

America’s 250th should not be a birthday party for power.

It should be a reminder that no president owns this country.

The people do.

Non-Protest Actions Bingo

The below bingo card contains a list of actions you can take (other than protesting) to help further the cause. If you get a bingo, tag us on social media to let us know!

Connect with 50501 on Social Media

Thanks for reading! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support our work.

]]><![CDATA[Corruption]]>https://50501colorado.substack.com/p/corruptionhttps://50501colorado.substack.com/p/corruptionSun, 31 May 2026 14:02:49 GMT

Hello, and welcome to the latest edition of our 50501 CO newsletter!

In this newsletter, we discuss Donald Trump’s recent settlement with his own DOJ. In addition, you’ll find information on upcoming activities from the 50501 calendar, actions you can take outside of protesting, and also find out about additional ways to connect with us.

See you on the streets! ✊✊✊

Actions and Activities

(The below list contains details on all actions this week and next week which have been submitted to our 50501 CO calendar; click the link above for more details and the full calendar)

Arvada

Aurora

Boulder

Broomfield

  • 5/31: 11:30am - 1:00pm - No Fascists! No Kings!

    • Northwest Corner
      West 120th Avenue & Sheridan Boulevard
      Broomfield, CO 80020

  • 6/7: 11:30am - 1:00pm - No Fascists! No Kings!

    • Northwest Corner
      West 120th Avenue & Sheridan Boulevard
      Broomfield, CO 80020

Castle Rock

Centennial

Colorado Springs

  • 6/3: 3:30 - 5:30pm - Overpass Protest

    • Monument Valley Pedestrian Bridge (between Uintah and Bijou)

  • 6/10: 3:30 - 5:30pm - Overpass Protest

    • Monument Valley Pedestrian Bridge (between Uintah and Bijou)

Denver

Golden

Hudson

Littleton

Longmont

Louisville

Loveland

Lyons

Northglenn

Pagosa Springs

Parker

Walsenburg

Corruption

The struggle we find ourselves in isn’t a new one. In many ways, US history could be told solely from the perspective of the fundamental disagreement that Trump and his cabinet have pushed to the fore.

Are we the ‘give me liberty or give me death’ country? Are we the huddled masses yearning to be free? Do we believe in the ideals of liberty and justice for all, as our politicians so frequently claim?

Or are we the freedom-for-some country? The ‘everything for sale’ country? Morals, sympathy, common human decency – everything must go in our blockbuster, White House lawn sale! Are we the country to put price tags on laws and regulations and clean air, so that corporations can buy them out from under us?

Two futures spread out before us. On the first path, we successfully make a stand for human rights, decency, and people over profit. While I’m not naïve enough to claim this path leads to utopia, I believe there are certain benefits that would still be within our grasp. We can renew the EPA and curb the rights of billionaires to shove polluting data centers down our throats. Rewrite the immigration laws and enact Medicare-for-all.

On the other path lies tyranny and kleptocracy. A form of government to rival the worst the world has to offer, which only makes its presence known in our lives in order to assist the wealthy as they pick our pockets and benefit from our labor.

Donald Trump has proven himself the most corrupt, bribe-able president we’ve ever had. His $1.8 billion settlement with himself is an act we would have thought unconscionable just a few years ago. Likewise, his meme coin and acceptance of a private jet.

Congress and the Supreme Court have refused to stand in his way. In fact, they’re effectively paving the road to make his brazen theft easier. Don’t forget, the $1.8 billion settlement was paired with an agreement that the IRS will be blocked from reviewing any past tax filings by Trump.

This is why we need to find new, better ways of making ourselves felt. I know many of us are hoping for the mid-terms to right this ship, and I certainly hope that as well. At the same time, we should be prepared. If this is a fight for the future of our nation, we can’t expect victory to come easy.

Non-Protest Actions Bingo

The below bingo card contains a list of actions you can take (other than protesting) to help further the cause. If you get a bingo, tag us on social media to let us know!

1. Chalk art/messages are legal in almost all CO jurisdictions, but please check your local laws to confirm just in case.

Connect with 50501 on Social Media

Thanks for reading! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support our work.

]]><![CDATA[The Embers]]>https://50501colorado.substack.com/p/the-embershttps://50501colorado.substack.com/p/the-embersSun, 24 May 2026 14:03:28 GMT

Hello, and welcome to the latest edition of our 50501 CO newsletter!

In this newsletter, we discuss how a particular protest event winding down can be a good thing. In addition, you’ll find information on upcoming activities from the 50501 calendar, actions you can take outside of protesting, and also find out about additional ways to connect with us.

See you on the streets! ✊✊✊

Actions and Activities

(The below list contains details on all actions this week and next week which have been submitted to our 50501 CO calendar; click the link above for more details and the full calendar)

Virtual

Arvada

Aurora

Boulder

Broomfield

  • 5/24: 11:30am - 1:00pm - No Fascists! No Kings!

    • Northwest Corner
      West 120th Avenue & Sheridan Boulevard
      Broomfield, CO 80020

  • 5/31: 11:30am - 1:00pm - No Fascists! No Kings!

    • Northwest Corner
      West 120th Avenue & Sheridan Boulevard
      Broomfield, CO 80020

Castle Rock

Centennial

Colorado Springs

  • 5/27: 3:30 - 5:30pm - Overpass Protest

    • Monument Valley Pedestrian Bridge (between Uintah and Bijou)

  • 6/3: 3:30 - 5:30pm - Overpass Protest

    • Monument Valley Pedestrian Bridge (between Uintah and Bijou)

Denver

Golden

Hudson

Lakewood

  • 5/30: 11:00am - 12:30pm - Stand Up! Speak Out!

    • SE corner of W Alameda Avenue and S Wadsworth Blvd (by BELMAR sign)

Littleton

Louisville

Loveland

Longmont

Louisville

Lyons

Northglenn

Pagosa Springs

Parker

Walsenburg

The Embers: Who Keeps the Movement Alive?

Not long ago, the weekly protest I’d been attending ended. From a peak of dozens after the ICE surge and deaths of Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis, attendance had dribbled off until it was only four to eight of us showing up on the street corner on any given week. Eventually, the organizers decided to cancel the event.

Pulling together this newsletter each week, I can see something similar happening all across the state. While many weekly protests are still humming along, others have become bi-weekly or monthly, or disappeared like the one I was attending. There was a time when this ebb would have concerned me, but in the last few years I’ve come to see it as the natural tide of change.

If fewer people than before are going out to protest each week, it may be because they have decided to focus their energies on helping candidates in the primaries. It may be that they are organizing local networks and strengthening bonds with their friends and neighbors. It could simply be a pause like a collective inhale, in preparation for the next tragedy that is almost assuredly coming.

Don’t be mistaken. There are many still out there. Many protests that are still happening, on the same regular basis as always. For many, the muscle of protest has been built up strong enough that it doesn’t require a tragic headline to bend.

And, just as importantly, the rest of us are still here as well. Perhaps not on the streets every week, but present in spirit. Our signs await in garages and closets and musty basement rooms. Our megaphones may be brought out for Burn events and neighborhood parties for now. But, when the time comes, signs can be dusted off. Megaphones can echo the familiar chants through our streets once again.

This is what I believe, and I hope all of you do as well. In the wake of a protest ending – as mine did – there is much hope. Hope that new voices have been trained, new muscles developed. Those who are staying home now will come out again, whether at the next No Kings Day or Hands Off or some future series of protests.

To answer the question in the title of this article (who keeps the movement alive?): we do. Each of us, in our individual ways. We nurture the embers until a new spark reignites them, and then the fire will flare up even brighter than before.

Non-Protest Actions Bingo

The below bingo card contains a list of actions you can take (other than protesting) to help further the cause. If you get a bingo, tag us on social media to let us know!

1.Where you can, purchase products from blue states instead of red states (such as replacing Bourbon with another whiskey)

Connect with 50501 on Social Media

Thanks for reading! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support our work.

]]><![CDATA[Born Here, Still on Probation]]>https://50501colorado.substack.com/p/born-here-still-on-probationhttps://50501colorado.substack.com/p/born-here-still-on-probationSun, 17 May 2026 14:02:36 GMT

Hello, and welcome to the latest edition of our 50501 CO newsletter!

In this newsletter, we discuss the cruelty behind making citizens through birthright feel as though they don’t belong. In addition, you’ll find information on upcoming activities from the 50501 calendar, actions you can take outside of protesting, and also find out about additional ways to connect with us.

See you on the streets! ✊✊✊

Actions and Activities

(The below list contains details on all actions this week and next week which have been submitted to our 50501 CO calendar; click the link above for more details and the full calendar)

Virtual

Arvada

Aurora

Boulder

Broomfield

  • 5/17: 11:30am - 1:00pm - No Fascists! No Kings!

    • Northwest Corner
      West 120th Avenue & Sheridan Boulevard
      Broomfield, CO 80020

  • 5/24: 11:30am - 1:00pm - No Fascists! No Kings!

    • Northwest Corner
      West 120th Avenue & Sheridan Boulevard
      Broomfield, CO 80020

Castle Rock

Colorado Springs

  • 5/20: 3:30 - 5:30pm - Overpass Protest

    • Monument Valley Pedestrian Bridge (between Uintah and Bijou)

  • 5/27: 3:30 - 5:30pm - Overpass Protest

    • Monument Valley Pedestrian Bridge (between Uintah and Bijou)

Denver

Golden

Hudson

Littleton

Longmont

Louisville

Loveland

Longmont

Louisville

Lyons

Northglenn

Pagosa Springs

Parker

Pueblo

Superior

Thornton

Trinidad

Walsenburg

Born Here, Still on Probation

One of the ugliest things about this fight is how small they want some people to feel.

Born here. Raised here. Entirely woven into the life of this country. And still treated like your place in it is somehow pending. Like citizenship is not a fact but an argument. Like belonging can be reopened anytime power wants a smaller circle.

That’s what makes this attack on birthright citizenship feel so dark to me. It’s not just cruel, and it’s not just legally absurd. It’s revealing.

Because birthright citizenship is one of the simplest promises this country ever made. If you are born here, you belong here. Full stop. No bloodline test. No ancestry scorecard. No bureaucrat peering over a file and deciding whether your family counts enough. Just a clean answer to a basic question: are you one of us?

Yes.

That answer matters more than people realize.

It matters because this country has always had a nasty habit of trying to sort human beings into tiers. Real Americans and provisional ones. People who get assumed to belong, and people who are expected to explain themselves. People whose citizenship is invisible because it is never questioned, and people who can do everything right and still get treated like their place here is somehow under review.

Birthright citizenship interrupts that ugly instinct. It closes the argument before it can start. It says no, you do not get to build a caste system out of lineage and paperwork. You do not get to turn America into some inherited club where the right last name, the right parentage, or the right family tree determines who gets to stand here without being second-guessed.

That’s why they hate it.

Because authoritarian politics always wants the circle smaller. It always wants belonging to feel fragile for the people it doesn’t like. It always wants a category of people who can be reminded, over and over, that their place here is not secure. Not because those people have done anything wrong, but because insecurity is useful. A population that feels permanently judged is easier to control. Easier to silence. Easier to isolate. Easier to scare.

And once you accept that some people born here are still somehow not fully, unquestionably of here, you’ve already crossed into something ugly. You’ve turned citizenship from a shared civic identity into a kind of inherited favor. Something cleaner for some families than for others. Something sturdier for the right people, shakier for everyone else.

That is not a minor tweak. That is a different country.

And honestly, I think that’s the part that gets lost when this gets talked about like it’s just another immigration issue. It’s bigger than that. This is about the basic idea of what America even is supposed to be.

I am not naive enough to pretend this country has ever perfectly lived up to its promises. It hasn’t. It has excluded, sorted, brutalized, and lied about who belongs from the beginning. But birthright citizenship is one of those rare places where the principle is actually clean. If you are born here, you are part of the story. You don’t have to audition for membership in your own country.

Trying to unravel that is not some technical correction. It is an attempt to make belonging hereditary, debatable, and easier to weaponize.

It is an attempt to make some Americans feel like they were born on probation.

And I think we should say that plainly, because the plain version matters. A government that wants the power to argue people out of belonging will never stop neatly where it says it will. The whole point is the argument itself. The whole point is making some people live inside uncertainty while others never have to think about it at all.

No.

If you are born here, you belong here.

That should not be controversial. It should not be fragile. And it sure as hell should not be up for renegotiation every time someone in power decides the country would look better smaller.

Non-Protest Actions Bingo

The below bingo card contains a list of actions you can take (other than protesting) to help further the cause. If you get a bingo, tag us on social media to let us know!

1. Despite the fact that Home Depot has become a target for ICE raids, the company has remained silent. Visit the homepage for this boycott for more details and a full toolkit of actions you can take to help protest Home Depot’s inaction.
2. The list of CO events sponsored by Indivisible is available here

Connect with 50501 on Social Media

Thanks for reading! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support our work.

]]><![CDATA[They Want Voting to Feel Conditional]]>https://50501colorado.substack.com/p/they-want-voting-to-feel-conditionalhttps://50501colorado.substack.com/p/they-want-voting-to-feel-conditionalSun, 10 May 2026 14:03:18 GMT

Hello, and welcome to the latest edition of our 50501 CO newsletter!

In this newsletter, we discuss how Trump and his cabinet benefit from putting up new barriers for voting. In addition, you’ll find information on upcoming activities from the 50501 calendar, actions you can take outside of protesting, and also find out about additional ways to connect with us.

See you on the streets! ✊✊✊

Actions and Activities

(The below list contains details on all actions this week and next week which have been submitted to our 50501 CO calendar; click the link above for more details and the full calendar)

Virtual

Arvada

Aurora

Boulder

Broomfield

  • 5/10: 11:30am - 1:00pm - No Fascists! No Kings!

    • Northwest Corner
      West 120th Avenue & Sheridan Boulevard
      Broomfield, CO 80020

  • 5/17: 11:30am - 1:00pm - No Fascists! No Kings!

    • Northwest Corner
      West 120th Avenue & Sheridan Boulevard
      Broomfield, CO 80020

Castle Rock

Colorado Springs

  • 5/13: 3:30 - 5:30pm - Overpass Protest

    • Monument Valley Pedestrian Bridge (between Uintah and Bijou)

  • 5/20: 3:30 - 5:30pm - Overpass Protest

    • Monument Valley Pedestrian Bridge (between Uintah and Bijou)

Denver

Golden

Hudson

Littleton

Longmont

Louisville

Loveland

Longmont

Louisville

Lyons

Northglenn

Pagosa Springs

Parker

Pueblo

Superior

Thornton

Trinidad

Walsenburg

They Want Voting to Feel Conditional

One of the biggest scams in American politics is the idea that democracy should only be easy for people whose lives are already easy.

If you have a flexible job, reliable transportation, childcare, good health, spare time, and the right documents within reach, congratulations. The system was built with you in mind. Everyone else gets treated like a problem the second voting is made even slightly more workable.

This was never really about fraud. It was never really about “election integrity,” either, at least not in the way they say it. It’s about control. It’s about making voting feel less like a right and more like something you access only after clearing the right hurdles, proving the right things, and satisfying the right people.

In other words, they want voting to feel conditional.

And mail-in voting offends that worldview because it does something simple and deeply democratic: it meets people where they actually live.

People have jobs. They have kids. They have disabilities. They get sick. They work long shifts. They commute. They take care of aging parents. They don’t all have the luxury of standing in line for hours on a Tuesday like democracy is the only thing on their calendar. Mail voting acknowledges that real life exists. It says your life does not have to become frictionless before you’re allowed to participate in your own government.

That should be the baseline. Instead, the right has spent years treating convenience like corruption.

That part has always fascinated me, because it tells on them. They talk about ease of access like it’s suspicious, as if making voting easier for ordinary people is somehow a moral failure. As if a ballot only counts as legitimate if it was cast through enough inconvenience first. As if democracy is more pure when it is harder to reach.

That is nonsense.

Convenience is not cheating. Accessibility is not fraud. Making voting possible for more people is not a weakness in the system. It is the system functioning as it should.

And when they keep attacking mail voting, what they are really attacking is the idea that democracy should fit around human life instead of demanding that human life bend around it.

Because once voting starts to feel conditional, once it starts to feel like something that must be pre-cleared, narrowed, filtered, and second-guessed, the whole posture changes. You are no longer a citizen exercising a right. You are a person asking permission to participate. That is a very different relationship to democracy, and it is exactly the one they want.

It is also not an accident that this keeps happening after years of lies about stolen elections and fake fraud panics. If they cannot win cleanly, they make participation harder, more suspicious, more bureaucratic, and more exhausting. They wrap it all in the language of security and confidence, but the message underneath is obvious enough: voting is for the approved.

And the people who pay the price for that are never the people in power. It’s ordinary people with the least margin. People working hourly jobs. People juggling care and transportation. People whose lives do not leave room for a system built on suspicion and delay.

That is why mail voting matters so much.

Not because it is glamorous. Not because it is modern. Because it reflects a simple democratic principle that should not be controversial: if the public has the right to vote, then voting should be built for the public that actually exists.

Not the imaginary one with endless free time, perfect paperwork, and no complications.

The real one.

That’s why this attack matters. It’s not just about ballots. It’s about whether democracy is still something we mean to practice or just something power lets us borrow when it feels generous.

Non-Protest Actions Bingo

The below bingo card contains a list of actions you can take (other than protesting) to help further the cause. If you get a bingo, tag us on social media to let us know!

Connect with 50501 on Social Media

Thanks for reading! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support our work.

]]><![CDATA[When Resistance Stops Being Convenient]]>https://50501colorado.substack.com/p/when-resistance-stops-being-convenienthttps://50501colorado.substack.com/p/when-resistance-stops-being-convenientSun, 03 May 2026 14:03:05 GMT

Hello, and welcome to the latest edition of our 50501 CO newsletter!

In this newsletter, we discuss why May 1st was more than just another protest. In addition, you’ll find information on upcoming activities from the 50501 calendar, actions you can take outside of protesting, and also find out about additional ways to connect with us.

See you on the streets! ✊✊✊

Actions and Activities

(The below list contains details on all actions this week and next week which have been submitted to our 50501 CO calendar; click the link above for more details and the full calendar)

Virtual

Arvada

Aurora

Boulder

Broomfield

  • 5/3: 11:30am - 1:00pm - No Fascists! No Kings!

    • Northwest Corner
      West 120th Avenue & Sheridan Boulevard
      Broomfield, CO 80020

  • 5/10: 11:30am - 1:00pm - No Fascists! No Kings!

    • Northwest Corner
      West 120th Avenue & Sheridan Boulevard
      Broomfield, CO 80020

Castle Rock

Colorado Springs

  • 5/6: 3:30 - 5:30pm - Overpass Protest

    • Monument Valley Pedestrian Bridge (between Uintah and Bijou)

  • 5/13: 3:30 - 5:30pm - Overpass Protest

    • Monument Valley Pedestrian Bridge (between Uintah and Bijou)

Denver

Fort Collins

Frederick

Golden

Hudson

Lakewood

Littleton

Longmont

Louisville

Loveland

Lyons

Northglenn

Longmont

Louisville

Loveland

Lyons

Northglenn

Pagosa Springs

Parker

Superior

Walsenburg

When Resistance Stops Being Convenient

I think that’s why May 1 feels different to me.

A protest is one thing. A strike is another.

Showing up in the street costs time and energy. Refusing to work, refusing to shop, refusing to keep the machine humming like nothing is wrong can cost a lot more. It can cost money. It can cost routine. For some people, it can cost safety. That’s what made this different. This kind of action asks more from people, and that’s exactly why it matters.

We live in a country that is very good at absorbing outrage. We’re allowed to be upset, as long as we stay productive. We’re allowed to be alarmed, as long as we still clock in, keep buying things, keep the economy moving, keep acting like all of this is just background noise. Get mad online, then wake up the next morning and do your part to keep everything running on time.

May 1 pushed against that arrangement.

That’s what I like about it.

Not because it’s easy. Not because it’s clean. And definitely not because everyone can do every part of it. Some people can’t miss work. Some people can’t avoid spending completely. Some people have kids, medications, commutes, bills, jobs with no flexibility, or bosses who’d love an excuse. Some people are hanging on by a thread already. That’s real. Pretending otherwise doesn’t make a movement stronger. It makes it smug.

I have no interest in turning this into some kind of purity test.

If your idea of solidarity only works for people with disposable income, flexible schedules, and a high tolerance for risk, then it’s not solidarity. It’s a performance. The point is not to prove who can sacrifice the most beautifully. The point is not to shame people who can’t do this perfectly. The point is friction.

The point is refusal.

Because that’s what a strike is. It is a refusal to keep participating as if everything is fine. It is a refusal to keep feeding a system that keeps demanding more from ordinary people while offering less in return. It is a refusal to make power feel normal, inevitable, or smooth.

And I think that matters because giant systems are very good at pretending they run on their own. They don’t. They run because people show up. They run because people work, buy, commute, comply, and keep the gears turning. The machine always wants to look bigger than us, smarter than us, more permanent than us. But it still runs on human cooperation.

A rally says, “We’re angry.”

A strike says, “You depend on us.”

A protest gives you noise, bodies, and momentum. A strike is quieter. It asks for planning. It asks for inconvenience. It asks you to break routine on purpose. It asks you to feel how much of daily life is built around participation in systems we claim to oppose.

That discomfort is not a flaw. That’s the point.

Resistance gets real the minute it stops being convenient.

That does not mean everyone has to do the same thing. Maybe you can miss work. Maybe you can avoid spending. Maybe you can only do one part. Maybe all you can do is plan ahead, keep purchases to the essentials, support others who can do more, talk to people around you, and refuse to join the lie that everything is normal. That still counts.

Because what May 1 has really done is make something visible.

It is showing that our labor matters. Our money matters. Our participation matters. And if those things matter when we give them, then they also matter when we withhold them.

For one day, even imperfectly, we got to remind the system that it is not self-sustaining. It runs because we do.

Not with applause.
Not with another hot take.
With refusal.

Non-Protest Actions Bingo

The below bingo card contains a list of actions you can take (other than protesting) to help further the cause. If you get a bingo, tag us on social media to let us know!

1. Despite being the sites of many of the worst ICE raids, both Target and Home Depot remain silent on the issue, and frequently allow ICE thugs to use their parking lots as staging grounds. Please boycott these companies until they do better.

Connect with 50501 on Social Media

Thanks for reading! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support our work.

]]><![CDATA[The Election Needs to Look Broken First]]>https://50501colorado.substack.com/p/the-election-needs-to-look-brokenhttps://50501colorado.substack.com/p/the-election-needs-to-look-brokenSun, 26 Apr 2026 14:00:57 GMT

Hello, and welcome to the latest edition of our 50501 CO newsletter!

In this newsletter, we discuss why Trump needs elections to look broken in order to truly take over election infrastructure. In addition, you’ll find information on upcoming activities from the 50501 calendar, actions you can take outside of protesting, and also find out about additional ways to connect with us.

See you on the streets! ✊✊✊

Actions and Activities

(The below list contains details on all actions this week and next week which have been submitted to our 50501 CO calendar; click the link above for more details and the full calendar)

Virtual

Arvada

Aurora

Bailey

Boulder

Brighton

Broomfield

Carbondale

Castle Rock

Colorado Springs

Denver

Estes Park

Fairplay

Fort Collins

Genesee

Glenwood Springs

Golden

Grand Junction

Hudson

Lakewood

Littleton

Longmont

Louisville

Loveland

Lyons

Moffat

Morrison

New Castle

Northglenn

Pagosa Springs

Parachute

Parker

Pueblo

Routt County

Salida

Superior

Trinidad

Walsenburg

Westminster

The Election Needs to Look Broken First

One thing I keep thinking about is how an election doesn’t have to be literally taken over to be functionally warped. You don’t need tanks at polling places in every city. You don’t need some giant movie-scene coup. You just need enough people to start feeling like the whole thing is shady, fragile, corrupt, or dangerous. Once that mood is in the air, a lot of bad ideas start putting on a fake mustache and calling themselves “security.”

That’s the part I think people miss.

Interference doesn’t begin when somebody physically touches a ballot box. It begins much earlier, in the story people are taught to believe about the election itself. First the process has to look dirty. Then intervention starts sounding reasonable. First you create suspicion. Then you market control as reassurance.

It’s the same scam every time. Take something ordinary and make it feel sinister. Election workers become suspect. Routine administration becomes “what are they hiding?” Normal delays become “proof” of manipulation. Entire neighborhoods become places where results are treated as inherently less legitimate. Entire groups of voters get recast, not as citizens, but as possible contamination.

That’s why I keep getting stuck on certain words. Integrity. Fraud. Security. Oversight. Those words sound clean. Virtuous, even. That’s what makes them useful. Nobody wants to be against integrity. Nobody wants to sound soft on fraud. But once those words get detached from evidence and tied instead to vibes, they stop being safeguards and start being crowbars.

And let’s be honest about the emotional mechanics here. The goal is not just to win an argument. The goal is to train the public to experience democracy as stressful and suspicious. To make voting feel less like a normal civic process and more like a scene of possible disorder. To make some people feel watched, some people feel unwelcome, and everyone else feel tired enough to shrug and say, well, maybe stronger control is necessary.

That’s the pretext machine.

You can see how it works because it’s so repetitive. First comes the insinuation. Then the selective anecdote. Then the breathless language about chaos, lawlessness, or “concerns.” Then the demand for more force, more monitoring, more authority, more centralized control. The solution is always waiting suspiciously close to the panic. Funny how that works.

What bothers me most is how this changes the moral center of the whole conversation. In a healthy democracy, the burden should be on power to justify interference. In an unhealthy one, the burden shifts onto ordinary people to prove they deserve to participate without being treated like a threat. That’s a rotten trade. And once a country starts making it, the damage is bigger than one election. It teaches people that rights are conditional. That access can be narrowed if the wrong people make others uncomfortable. That citizenship itself comes in tiers.

I don’t think we should talk about this like the only danger is some final dramatic act in November. By the time it looks dramatic, the ground has already been prepared. The real work happens earlier, in language, in selective outrage, in who gets framed as trustworthy and who gets framed as suspicious by default. The election has to be made to look broken before a lot of people will accept efforts to “fix” it.

That means the fight is not only over ballots. It’s over legitimacy. Over whether we let fear dress itself up as procedure. Over whether we keep pretending every “integrity” panic is neutral just because it uses official-sounding words.

I’m not saying every warning is fake or every concern is invented. I’m saying authoritarian politics lives off the gap between a real principle and a weaponized version of it. Yes, election integrity matters. That’s exactly why the phrase is so easy to abuse. Same with security. Same with fraud. Same with order. The more sacred the word sounds, the more carefully I want to watch the hands using it.

So that’s what I’m watching now. Not just what anyone might do to an election, but what story they need us to swallow first. Because if they can make democracy feel dirty enough, a lot of people will let almost anything happen in the name of cleaning it up.

Non-Protest Actions Bingo

The below bingo card contains a list of actions you can take (other than protesting) to help further the cause. If you get a bingo, tag us on social media to let us know!

1. Despite being the sites of many of the worst ICE raids, both Target and Home Depot remain silent on the issue, and frequently allow ICE thugs to use their parking lots as staging grounds. Please boycott these companies until they do better.
2. The Indivisible calendar for Colorado is available here.

Connect with 50501 on Social Media

Thanks for reading! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support our work.

]]><![CDATA[Act Like a Crew]]>https://50501colorado.substack.com/p/act-like-a-crewhttps://50501colorado.substack.com/p/act-like-a-crewSun, 19 Apr 2026 14:01:23 GMT

Hello, and welcome to the latest edition of our 50501 CO newsletter!

In this newsletter, we discuss what it means to view Earth as a crew. In addition, you’ll find information on upcoming activities from the 50501 calendar, actions you can take outside of protesting, and also find out about additional ways to connect with us.

See you on the streets! ✊✊✊

Actions and Activities

(The below list contains details on all actions this week and next week which have been submitted to our 50501 CO calendar; click the link above for more details and the full calendar)

Virtual

Arvada

Aurora

Boulder

Broomfield

  • 4/19: 11:30am - 1:00pm - No Fascists! No Kings!

    • Northwest Corner
      West 120th Avenue & Sheridan Boulevard
      Broomfield, CO 80020

  • 4/26: 11:30am - 1:00pm - No Fascists! No Kings!

    • Northwest Corner
      West 120th Avenue & Sheridan Boulevard
      Broomfield, CO 80020

Colorado Springs

  • 4/22: 3:30 - 5:30pm - Bridge Brigade

    • Monument Valley Pedestrian Bridge (between Uintah and Bijou)

  • 4/29: 3:30 - 5:30pm - Overpass Protest

    • Monument Valley Pedestrian Bridge (between Uintah and Bijou)

Denver

Fort Collins

Golden

Lakewood

Littleton

Longmont

Louisville

Loveland

Lyons

Northglenn

Pagosa Springs

Parker

Superior

Thornton

Walsenburg

Act Like a Crew

I keep thinking about something Christina Koch said after Artemis II: Planet Earth, you are a crew.

Not a crowd. Not a brand. Not a battlefield. A crew.

That word hits differently because crew is not sentimental. It’s practical. A crew is a group of people tied together whether they like it or not. A crew shares oxygen, risk, responsibility, maintenance, and consequences. On a crew, you don’t get to pretend one side of the ship matters more than the other. You don’t get to decide some people are disposable and still expect the mission to succeed.

And that’s what makes the quote so beautiful to me. It’s hopeful, yes, but it’s also brutally honest.

Because here on Earth, we keep acting like we are not a crew.

We act like we’re isolated passengers, each of us entitled to our own private fantasy, our own curated facts, our own chosen enemies. We act like other people’s suffering is a niche issue, a side conversation, somebody else’s problem. We sort human beings into categories and then act shocked when the whole system gets colder, meaner, and less stable for everybody.

But a crew doesn’t work like that.

On a crew, if someone is locked out of safety, that is everyone’s problem. If someone is denied dignity, that damages the culture of the whole mission. If someone is targeted, scapegoated, disappeared, or treated like dead weight, the rest of the crew has learned something dangerous about what kind of ship they’re on.

That’s one reason authoritarian politics is so corrosive. It trains us to stop thinking like a crew. It tells us to see our neighbors as threats, burdens, or rivals. It tells us cruelty is strength. It tells us some people belong in the lifeboat and some people don’t. It teaches us to mistake domination for order.

But that is not how you keep a ship alive.

You keep a ship alive with competence. With truth. With trust. With maintenance. With the ability to respond to danger without deciding whole groups of people are expendable. A real crew understands that survival is shared. There is no successful mission where half the people onboard are treated as less human. The systems we rely on every day, from elections to schools to hospitals, work or fail together.

That applies to democracy, too.

Democracy is not just voting every so often and then going back to sleep. It’s the daily discipline of acting like we are, in fact, stuck with each other. It’s telling the truth even when it’s inconvenient. It’s protecting people even when they are not useful to us. It’s refusing the cheap thrill of dehumanization. It’s understanding that rights, safety, and dignity are not luxury add-ons for a select few. They are life-support systems.

And maybe that’s what moved me most about Koch’s line. From that distance, looking back at Earth, all the fake divisions must look even faker. Borders, parties, grudges, all the little stories we tell to justify contempt. From far enough away, what remains is the obvious thing: this is our shared vessel.

There is no backup Earth.
There is no separate escape pod for the morally superior.
There is no version of the future where we get to keep breaking trust with each other and somehow arrive safely anyway.

So maybe that’s the assignment.

Act like a crew.

Take care of the ship.
Take care of each other.
Stop cheering for systems that run on abandonment.
Stop calling cruelty realism.
Stop treating empathy like weakness and interdependence like failure.

Planet Earth is a crew. That is not just a beautiful thought. It is an operational reality.

The question is whether we’re finally ready to behave like it.

Non-Protest Actions Bingo

The below bingo card contains a list of actions you can take (other than protesting) to help further the cause. If you get a bingo, tag us on social media to let us know!

1. SURJ (Showing up for Racial Justice), Indivisible, and CORRN (Colorado Rapid Response Network) are all organizations which are doing great work in Colorado to counter the actions of the Trump regime

Connect with 50501 on Social Media

Thanks for reading! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support our work.

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