SO, WHAT TO DO:

If you. need a place to do some work before the election, check out Marilyn’s Everyday Election Activism. You can also work with your local precinct; many of them have “get out the vote” projects now.

Join Siembra NC’s wonderful project “Hellbender Voter Canvass” and talk to voters in key swing districts. You can read about it and sign up at this link. Check this out: “The eastern hellbender is the largest salamander in the Americas, and is crucial to our state’s western ecosystems. We’ve been inspired by the grace, wisdom, and persistence of our aquatic neighbors. We’re in rough waters. The terrain is rocky. We need to find and fight for clean environments where our future generations can survive. We’re hellbenders.” We can sign up for dates between September 12 and October 31 at this link.

Attend “What’s the Plan?” with Ezra Levin and Leah Greenberg any Thursday at 3 pm; register here. Attend the No Kings Kickoff Call; register at this link.

It is really, really important that we spread the word to vote NO on all the amendments. Kate Fellman will be our guest on September 15; she will talk to us about the amendments. If you miss that, register at this link for the webinar on this same topic by the NC Budget and Tax Center on September 21.

We must re-elect Justice Anita Earls to the NC Supreme Court. On Tuesday September 8 at 9 am the Court returns for oral arguments. “Under Newby, the Court has let Duke energy give us illegal rate hikes (Newby owns Duke stock), has allowed the legislature to rig our electoral maps (Newby is allied with legislative Republicans) and has allowed the legislature to violate our constitution and underfund public schools.”

People from Indivisibles and other groups around the state are coming to Raleigh from long distances to attend this event. We want to fill the Court gallery to let them know we are watching. You can find out more and sign up at this link.

On Saturday, September 12, we can canvass in Raleigh with AFL-CIO. You can find out more and sign up at this link.

Team Up NC is an amazing organization “dedicated to restoring Democratic leadership in NC’s state legislature.” We have learned in the past several years how incredibly important that is. They are sponsoring both in-person and phone canvassing through all of September and October. You can get more information at this link.

2026 General Election Dates and Deadlines

• Sept. 4: Absentee ballots must be available and distributed to military and overseas voters. For more, see Vote by Mail.

• Oct. 9: Voter registration deadline (5 p.m.).* For more, see How to Register.

• Oct. 15: In-person early voting begins; same-day registration available. For more, see Vote Early in Person. For early voting sites and schedules, see Early Voting Sites.

• Oct. 20: Absentee ballot request deadline (5 p.m.).*

• Oct. 31: In-person early voting ends (3 p.m.).

• Nov. 3: Election Day. For more, see Vote in Person on Election Day; Absentee ballot return deadline (7:30 p.m.).*

Our Legislative Response/Board of Election Team made a huge effort to object to the voter-suppressing rules proposed by the newly partisan NC Board of Elections (NCBOE). Deb’s leadership is deeply appreciated. I just listened to the NCBOE disregard all the objections. Like Trump, they do whatever they want. In short, they have made it much more difficult to vote by mail.

Tell people who vote by mail in NC to be extremely careful to follow instructions to the letter and seal both the inner and outer envelope. Also, someone can’t drop your absentee ballot off anymore unless they are a “near relative.” These partisans are making it newly easy to throw votes out in response to very small infractions.

This is why we have to vote and get out the vote! There is a very good chance we can flip the NC House and end the supermajority in the NC Senate, and get rid of some of the worthless US Representatives who just do whatever the fascists want.

Not directly related to the election, but health care is a big issue for everyone: There is a proposal afoot to hand over control of WakeMed from the Wake County Commission to Atrium Health, one of the largest and most expensive hospital systems in the country. WakeMed is based in Wake County, but this takeover would increase healthcare prices statewide. It would put even more money into the pocket of Atrium’s CEO, who made $25.8 million in 2024. There is a coalition of community groups urging the Commissioners to vote NO. If you would be willing to speak against the deal at the Wake County Commission meeting this coming Tuesday at 5 pm in Raleigh, sign up at this link. You can also submit online comments on Tuesday morning at this link.

Everyone is invited to join us every Tuesday from 11:30 am to 12:30 pm (“doors open” at 11 am) for our weekly meeting/rally on zoom. If you need the zoom link, email Jewel at democracyoutloud@gmail.com and tell her a tiny bit about yourself.

This week from Tuesday evening September 8 through Thursday morning, I will represent Democracy Out Loud at the Blueprint statewide Convergence in Wilmington NC; am very excited about this.

I am so grateful to Larissa for leading Thursday’s meditation on September 10, which is also open to all. The zoom link will be different from usual (Thursday only) since she is also hosting the zoom; Jewel will send it out to the Thursday mailing list.

There are many reasons to believe that things are going to shift. Where we are now is unsustainable, and people are increasingly waking up to what is actually happening. Keep the faith and keep going.

love, Karen

Manifesto: The Mad Farmer Liberation Front

Love the quick profit, the annual raise,
vacation with pay. Want more
of everything ready-made. Be afraid
to know your neighbors and to die.
And you will have a window in your head.
Not even your future will be a mystery
any more. Your mind will be punched in a card
and shut away in a little drawer.
When they want you to buy something
they will call you. When they want you
to die for profit they will let you know.

So, friends, every day do something
that won’t compute. Love the Lord.
Love the world. Work for nothing.
Take all that you have and be poor.
Love someone who does not deserve it.
Denounce the government and embrace
the flag. Hope to live in that free
republic for which it stands.
Give your approval to all you cannot
understand. Praise ignorance, for what man
has not encountered he has not destroyed.

Ask the questions that have no answers.
Invest in the millennium. Plant sequoias.
Say that your main crop is the forest
that you did not plant,
that you will not live to harvest.
Say that the leaves are harvested
when they have rotted into the mold.
Call that profit. Prophesy such returns.

Put your faith in the two inches of humus
that will build under the trees
every thousand years.
Listen to carrion – put your ear
close, and hear the faint chattering
of the songs that are to come.
Expect the end of the world. Laugh.
Laughter is immeasurable. Be joyful
though you have considered all the facts.
So long as women do not go cheap
for power, please women more than men.
Ask yourself: Will this satisfy
a woman satisfied to bear a child?
Will this disturb the sleep
of a woman near to giving birth?

Go with your love to the fields.
Lie down in the shade. Rest your head
in her lap. Swear allegiance
to what is nighest your thoughts.
As soon as the generals and the politicos
can predict the motions of your mind,
lose it. Leave it as a sign
to mark the false trail, the way
you didn’t go. Be like the fox
who makes more tracks than necessary,
some in the wrong direction.
Practice resurrection.

-Wendell Berry (August 5, 1934 – August 31, 2026)

The stakes could not be higher. See Robert Reich’s article in Common Dreams (8/9/26), “You Could Be Next: Trump’s Gestapo Tactics Are Getting Worse.” This might be a good one to send to undecided voters. “Imagine living in a country that can arrest and imprison you whenever it wants, without any judge or jury deciding you did anything wrong. It can call you a “domestic terrorist” and put you in prison for life. It can even execute you on the basis of nothing more than its own decision that you’re dangerous.” He then documents every one of these claims, and reminds us that we are living in that country right now.

The Department of Homeland Security and ICE are more desperate, cruel, and fascist every day. Check out their recent videos, notably the obscene one they posted on social media about Haitian immigrants.

The situation of Haitians is truly desperate. There is a reason why people applied for asylum status, and they really need it. That is why we need to call our Senators to urge them to pass S 4814, the Haiti TPS Extension Act. I hope everyone has Senator Tillis and Senator Budd, or whoever your US Senator is, on speed dial, but if you don’t: Tillis (202)224-6342 or (919) 856-4630, Budd (202) 224-3154 or (336) 941-4470, Capitol switchboard (202) 224-3121.

Our government is flying people, in shackles, to dangerous countries they have never seen before. The cruelty is mind-boggling. ICE arrested 50,000 people in July alone, and almost none of them had any kind of criminal record.

Joyce Vance reported today that according to their lawyer, five-year-old Liam Ramos (the kid we remember wearing the bunny hat) and his dad were deported to Mexico by ICE yesterday. Her entire article is worth reading. Five-year-old Liam Tadeo and his dad were deported to Mexico on Tuesday.

Language is important. We have to stop using the word “deportation.” When people are abducted without due process, it’s called kidnapping and it is against the law. And when they are sent across borders against their will so that billionaires can make a profit, it is called human trafficking. A prison with no way out where people are held under harsh conditions because of their ethnicity is called a concentration camp.

Also, the recent actions of ICE have nothing to do with immigration, proven by the way white South African immigrants have been welcomed by the Trump Administration. Also, most people do not realize that being undocumented (and most people being deported now are actually in the country legally) is not a criminal offense. It is a civil offense. It is insane to treat them like criminals.

So many people are fighting back. A Texas mom researched and posted such a good interactive map of who profits from ICE that she is considered a threat by the feds. Here is another good searchable resource about local businesses who work with ICE.

The Corruption of the Trump Administration is impossible to miss and another reason to feel that a landslide defeat of Republicans is imminent. According to this detailed report, “Trump’s corruption is costing Americans in higher prices, fewer services, health and safety risks and less of a say in any of it,” and 89% of Americans are reportedly aware of this.

For people who are struggling to survive, who have lost benefits or jobs or simply can’t afford food and gas anymore, government corruption is a powerful incentive to vote.

Economic disparity is insane, and people are feeling it. There is recent talk of cutting Social Security benefits and the system becoming insolvent, but there is a very easy way to fix it (below).

Surveillance: James Talarico, Democratic candidate for the US Senate in Texas, running against none other than Ken Paxton, has taken a strong stand against Flock cameras. May this be a winning strategy. (Check the DeFlock map to see where they are near you.). Many NC counties including Harnett are fighting back; Durham and Wake, according to this statewide map, Durham and Wake are not yet among them. People do not want to be surveilled.

Americans overwhelmingly oppose AI data centers now. It’s an issue that unites people across political parties.

I’d planned to continue to write about actions we can take related to the election, but this is getting too long. I’ll do that in part two. No matter what happens, we need to hold steady now and keep helping to protect the election, educate voters, and organize so we can meet whatever challenges arise after November. Have faith. The politicians won’t save us, but the people will prevail.

love, Karen

“Election analyst Charlie Cook told Republicans today to ‘brace themselves’ for the midterms. ‘The three most plausible outcomes are that it will be bad, really bad, or truly horrible.’” - Heather Cox Richardson, 9/4/26

“In 2024, in the aftermath of Kamala Harris's loss to Donald Trump, Moulton became one of the earliest to embrace a new, albeit rare, line of thinking among some Democrats: that transgender individuals were to blame for the election, and that sports bans on transgender youth are good to embrace……….Markey used the moment to differentiate himself, championing transgender people at every turn, and the issue became a defining point of difference between the two candidates at debates and rallies. Now we have a final result: Markey has trounced Moulton, winning 65 to 35 in a race that some polls once showed as fairly close early on.” - Erin in the Morning, 9/2/26

“Probably the best way to prevent Muslim immigrants from coming here or attacking us is to stop killing them and destroying their countries for Israel”……..“The populist Left has all the energy now. Trump’s broken promises over immigration, Iran & Epstein have completely deflated any enthusiasm on the Right.” - Nick Fuentes, prominent white nationalist commentator, quoted in the New York Times, 9/4/2026

Two great people died this week, Gloria Steinem and Wendell Berry. Below photograph is by Gloria’s friend Jenny Warburg. Gloria repeatedly said that feminism’s true pioneers were Black women.

Please consider finding out more and supporting their work at this link.

This week we celebrate 500 continuous weekly meetings/rallies. We have learned so much and met so many amazing people who continue to uplift and inspire us.

(Below, some of us on November 17, 2017, in front of the Federal Building. We were there every week from January 2017 until March 2020 when Covid forced us to zoom.)

Thanks to Elena, we have booked Pullen Memorial Baptist Church in Raleigh for a real celebration on Friday, September 11. We are going to have a potluck lunch, which has always been one of the things we do very well. We will gather a 11 am (setup at 10:30 am) for a fun review of our work so far and then we will look to the future, eat around noon, and end around 1:30 pm. You can RSVP at this link.

UU Justice NC is offering a 3-part training series to teach us how to resist Christian Nationalism through canvassing, phone banking, and everyday conversation. I signed up for the third cohort. You can get more information and sign up at this link.

Please spread the word to clergy and other faith leaders to sign this “national sign-on letter calling for moral courage, democratic participation, and the protection of our communities.” Here is the link.

Governor Stein vetoed NC HB 958, which he correctly described as an “anti-voter law.” Stay tuned for our actions around the expected veto override vote.

The little-noticed “technical corrections” to the NC Budget contained more power grabs and corruption, and one of the worst things is that it authorizes public schools to provide 4 hours a week of “religious instruction.” See this explanation by Pastors of NC Children about what this means. This is a nationwide issue, incredibly dangerous.

If you have legal skills or are a lawyer, please consider signing up to help answer the phones at the NC Election Protection Hotline (888-OUR-VOTE). Callers ask questions about how to register to vote, how to cast their vote, and/or report voting problems. You can learn more at this link.

This Monday August 31, Heather Morrow & William Donovan Stanley face federal charges related to Operation Charlotte’s Web in November of 2025. If you are near Charlotte, consider coming to help Indivisible Charlotte, Indivisible Lake Norman, and 50501 pack the courtroom and stand in solidarity with them. You can get more information and RSVP at this link.

This Tuesday, our guest is Rev. Lisa Garcia-Sampson, Director of UU Justice Ministry. She is going to tell us about the Chill Team, which is a great way to help protect the upcoming election. Chill Team is a collective of trained volunteers who bring community-based safety skills in nonpartisan spaces during Early Voting and on Election Day. These volunteers will be deployed to election sites either preemptively or in response to reports of voter intimidation/harassment and other threats. The Chill Team works in partnership with the NC Election Protection Hotline.

Everyone is welcome to join us this Tuesday and every Tuesday from 11:30 am to 12:30 pm at our weekly zoom call. “Doors open” at 11 am; come early if you are new so we can welcome you. If you need the zoom link, email a little bit about yourself to Jewel at democracyoutloud@gmail.com.

Everyone is also welcome to come to our weekly Thursday meditation at 10 am at the same zoom link.

We are all holding a lot. Even just being alive right now and paying attention to what is happening is a lot. Now that we are entering election season, there are so many opportunities to volunteer and raise awareness. My hope is that we can find the work that is ours to do, work that may be difficult yet feels satisfying. And may that work bring us joy and community. Let’s pace ourselves, find our balance, and keep going.

love, Karen

“You do not have to make people believe the lie. You only have to wear them down until they no longer believe anything at all. Exhaustion, not conviction, is the goal.” - Hannah Arendt

“It’s time to believe again. It’s time to believe the heart and soul of this democracy can live. With every breath we have, while we still have time, together let’s rise up and do more to build a true one America that works for all of us.” - Bishop William Barber

(“Tuesdays with Tillis” in front of the Federal Building in Raleigh, December 10, 2019)

Below, Rev. Gregory Drumwright addressing the vigil at the First Baptist Church in Murfreesboro last Friday.

Just before the vigil, I was away for a whole week at a silent meditation retreat. Re-entry has been very slow and a bit overwhelming. I am realizing that each of us are going to have to continue to find ways to stay grounded and find joy during this apocalyptic time. We are going to have to figure out increasingly ingenious ways to support each other.

Yonat Shimron, a Senior Editor for the Religion News Service, wrote a really nice article about us, “Not Giving Up: a group of social justice warriors sustains the resistance with community and meditation.” I think it captures well some of our strengths and features our weekly meditation - which everyone is invited to every Thursday at 10 am. (Email Jewel at democracyoutloud@gmail.com for the zoom link.)

Below, the pop up choir at the vigil, led by a young woman who came all the way from Asheville. She has done this same work at Delaney Hall and other ICE facilities.

Everyone is invited to join us tomorrow, Tuesday, and every Tuesday from 11:30 to 12:30 am for our weekly zoom call. “Doors open” at 11 am; come early if you are new so we can welcome you. If you need the zoom link, write a tiny bit about yourself in an email to Jewel at democracyoutloud@gmail.com.

I am excited that Will and Shaun Ingram will be our guest speakers tomorrow. They co-lead the Richmond County Coalition for Justice and Black Empowerment. They will talk about the data center fight in Richmond County and more.

The news is overwhelming. It’s all designed to depress us and make us think there is nothing we can do to make a difference. Over the years, we have learned otherwise. Keep the faith. Everything you do to keep going and help those around you do the same is more important than you can imagine.

love, Karen

“We are not contending against flesh and blood, but against the principalities, against the powers, against the world rulers of this present darkness, against the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.” - Ephesians 6:12, RSV

“All began in love, all seeks to return in love. Love is the law, the teacher of wisdom, and the great revealer of mysteries.” - Starhawk

I am so grateful to all the people who took care of everything while I was away for a week meditating. Weeklong silent meditation retreats are not exactly a vacation, but they do get us away from the news.

TOMORROW, Friday August 21 the weather may include not only heat but also lightning and rain, so the Winton ICE Processing Center prayer vigil location has been changed due to inclement weather.

It will be inside the First Baptist Church, 230 US-158 BUS, Murfreesboro, NC 27855.

Please share!

There was a good article about the Winton concentration came in the Daily Tar Heel a few days ago. You can read it at this link.

A large coalition of groups are working with us on this, including a lot of local people. It’s a long drive for most of us, but if we ever wondered what people were doing in Germany while the concentration camps were opening, and wished we could have done something to stop them, now is our opportunity.

Whatever you are doing to build kindness and caring community, resisting cruelty and indifference, let’s keep going.

love, Karen

.”We have, in five and half months of an illegal and immoral war, wasted enough money to pay for everything the current Congress told poor and low-income people we could no longer afford just last year. Just five months from now, we can imagine a Congress that holds the executive branch accountable to law, ends an illegal war, claws back the ridiculous sums of money that have been invested in ICE extremism, and confronts the illusions that emerge from the White House. With the real work of a Third Reconstruction in America, we can imagine a country five years from now that looks very different from the one we live in now.” -Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove and William J. Barber II, “On the Situation of MOST Americans: When we look back at this era, what will we see as our moral obligation?”, August 17, 2026

I mean for example the hundreds of people who rallied outside an ICE facility in Ohio, expressing support for their Haitian neighbors. And the trans men who bravely staged a revolt against the proliferation of laws which demand that people use bathrooms corresponding to their genitalia.

Below, from Erin in the Morning today, the trans men illustrating exactly what “obeying the law” with regard to Kansas SB244 means.

My email is stuffed with people fighting back against data centers, ICE, pipelines, assaults on democracy, genocide, corporate takeovers, and senseless wars. It’s quite hopeful.

Most of all it is stuffed with things we can do to feed our vision of a future with a multiracial democracy, clean air, clean water, respect for the rights of nature, a sustainable way of life, healthcare for all, a living wage, and accountability for billionaires and corrupt politicians.

Bishop William Barber has started a weekly podcast, “The Repairer’s Brief.” You can listen to the first episode at this link.

The same coalition that brought us the two vigils in Raleigh this summer mourning those who have died in ICE custody is producing a vigil in Winton NC, where a massive for-profit ICE detention center is about to open. You can get more information and RSVP at this link. It’s a long drive, but the prospect of North Carolina hosting one of the largest concentration camps on the east coast is a strong motivator.

Pay attention to the language promoting this vigil, because most of us do not live in the area and some local people will welcome the good-paying jobs. “SAY NO to ICE tactics of violence, cruelty and dehumanization of immigrants who will be held at the Winton Processing Center in Hertford County, NC.

“Join us on Aug. 21 as we amplify the message that these mass detentions are immoral, inhumane, and un-American. With one person dying daily in ICE detention, let’s raise our voices to stop all cruel ICE actions in our state!”

Spread the word, and if you know people in or near Hertford County, invite them to come. If you know of clergy or press contacts in the area write to democracyoutloud@gmail.com attn: Mary and Lisa.

Bad news below (thanks, Lisa). See the CNN report.

Marilyn Hartman continues to update her “Everyday Election Activism” newsletter on Substack. She just came out with a new issue to help us figure out how to take action.

There are many great summaries about how to protect our elections. The most accessible is a speech that Mark gave. A longer one, “A State and Local Democracy Framework” was sent to us by an Indivisible group in California.

Think now about how you want to be engaged during early voting and on Election Day. There are suggestions in last month’s newsletter. More will be forthcoming.

If you get on the mailing list of Team Up NC, you will know about a lot of great opportunities to canvas and make phone calls to support specific candidates in the November election.

Rania Masri, Co-Director of the North Carolina Environmental Justice Network, continues to do brilliant organizing around AI data centers. You can get on her mailing list by emailing her a rania@ncejn.org. We all need to learn more about how to fight these things. RSVP to the event below at this link.

The People’s Action Institute is offering a series of trainings on Deep Canvassing, beginning this coming Saturday August 15. Find out more and register for one of these trainings at this link. Deep Canvassing is a tool that has repeatedly shown that we can build relationships across differences and help people understand that our vision actually includes everybody. It uses curiosity and storytelling to give us a new perspective and energy to keep fighting for change.

Red Wine and Blue is offering a webinar, “Flock Cameras 101: The Threat to Privacy and How to Fight Back” on Tuesday August 18 at 8 pm; you can get more information and sign up at this link.

You can check to see if your license plate has been “flocked” at this link.

Eyes on ICE continues to be a great source of shocking yet true stories about what ICE is up to, notably, “Debt Slavery Through ICE Fines: Follow the Money.” Jenn Budd, a former Border Patrol Agent, is also keeping us up to date on ICE crimes, especially those against women and children.

Deep gratitude to Rev. Lisa Garci-Sampson, Director of UU Justice NC, who hosted me and Mary at her Friday Action Hour last week. She helped us develop this summary about ICE with action items that I hope others will find useful. You can sign up for these wonderful action hours at this link.

I leave tomorrow for a one-week silent meditation retreat in New Hampshire with my teacher, Lama Rod Owens. I am so grateful to the many people who keep the work of Democracy Out Loud going, especially Eloise who will lead the zoom on Tuesday, Karen and Joe who will host it, Jewel who will send out the reminders and the chat, and Michelle and Larissa who will lead the Thursday meditations.

Everyone is welcome to join us every Tuesday from 11:30 am to 12:30 pm (“doors open” at 11 am; come early if you are new so we can welcome you). If you need the zoom link (not the same as usual this coming week), email Jewel and tell her a bit about yourself at democracyoutloud@gmail.com.

The Thursday 7 Homecomings meditation will also happen as usual, online only, and if you don’t regularly get the reminders and need the links, email Jewel as above. Much gratitude to Larissa for leading the meditation tomorrow and Michelle for leading on Thursday August 20.

We are experiencing the collapse of an empire, a collapse that is long overdue. Every day we can keep alive the vision of the world we want, in which everyone has a home and food to eat, a vote, and a living wage. In this world we rejoice at the wonder of life and treat each other (no exceptions) with respect and kindness. This world is already here even as we struggle to give birth to it. Let’s keep pushing.

love, Karen

“An old Cherokee grandfather tells his grandson about two wolves fighting inside every person. One is dark — anger, envy, fear, resentment. One is light — joy, peace, love, hope.

“The grandson asks: ‘Which wolf wins?’

“The grandfather answers: ‘The one you feed’.” - Maxima Nsimenta, The Part of the Two Wolves Story that Nobody Tells You, Medium, December 31, 2025

The basic strategy of authoritarianism is to make people think they are alone in their thoughts and feelings and to divide them from each other. “You are not alone” may be the most subversive thing we can say to each other. We are all feeling an almost unbearable sense of urgency, and we are all traumatized and grieving, whether we fully realize it or not.

Continuing to learn and to take action with others who feel the same is comforting and healing. Right now, there are so many wonderful national, statewide and local groups working on the election. Check out and bookmark Election Defense Scenarios from Indivisible and/or sign up for Election Protection 101 and 201. Connect with and support NC organizations working on election protection: Democracy NC, ACLU, Forward Justice, NC Black Alliance, Common Cause NC, Southern Coalition for Social Justice and NC For the People. Consider what you want to be doing during the November election: work at the polls as an election official, be an election protector, or volunteer for your local precinct.

Above all, check your registration and encourage everyone you know to do it too. Talk to everyone you meet about voting. In the 2024 election, 89 million people didn’t vote. Incredibly, that is more than the total number of people who voted for either Harris or Trump.

Our Immigration/ICE affinity group continues to work on creating awareness around the domestic terror organization called ICE and the planned concentration camp in Winton NC. Mary and I were grateful to be Rev. Lisa’s guest at her Unitarian Universalist Justice Ministry Friday Action Hour. With her help we created a document summarizing some background information about the prison and about ICE and helping us to call elected officials.

The News and Observer reported this week that surely as a result of public pressure, US Representative Deborah Ross wrote to Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin. She asked him to “reconsider opening an immigration detention facility in Eastern North Carolina, citing concerns about strain on local public services and potential staffing loss at state prisons.”

Keep your eye on data centers. People all over the country are pushing back, and the 200 people who showed up last week to fight the one in Richmond County were especially inspiring. You can read about that at this link.

There is an article in Truthout this week about how the fight against AI data centers and ICE detention centers are the same fight.

(below, outside the hearing in Richmond County last week; photo by Zachary Turner/WFAE)

As most of you know, Atrium is trying to take over Wake Med, which would have very bad consequences for patients, healthcare workers, and the community. At the hearing last week 200 people came and spoke against it, and this movement is gathering steam. Next steps: RSVP at this link to join the Patients Union and partners in Wake County on Thursday August 13 at 6 pm. Critical updates and future plans will be discussed.

Then, people are needed at the Wake County Board of Commissioners Meeting on Monday, August 17 at 2 pm. Sign up here to attend and if possible plan to speak.

Everyone is invited to join us every Tuesday from 11:30 am to 12:30 pm for our weekly zoom call. If you need the zoom link, email Jewel at democracyoutloud@gmail.com and tell her a bit about yourself. “Doors open” at 11 am; come early if you are new so we can welcome you.

Everyone is also welcome to come to our weekly meditation on Thursday at 10 am. This Thursday I will be leaving for a meditation retreat and I am grateful that Larissa will lead the meditation as well as host the zoom and Jewel will send out that zoom link.

Nearly ten years ago, some of us began to protest at the Federal Building, and while I don’t think we made any difference at all to our target, Senator Tillis, an unexpected and much more important thing happened. We found each other, and we discovered that taking action together is inspiring and healing. We made lifelong friendships, and we learned a lot. As Democracy Out Loud we have continued to strengthen our connection with each other and with other organizers and groups that expand our understanding.

So, let’s continue to reach out and invite others to join us here and in the other movement spaces in which we find ourselves. The quality of our relationships, and our ability to tend to our own panic and grief without weaponizing this suffering, are crucial now. I am endlessly inspired by this community. Keep going.

love, Karen

“Nothing we do will matter unless we are able to mobilize massive turnout in the. midterm elections. If this election does not give Democrats the power to hit the emergency brake in January, this country will be in freefall. And if the Democrats get that power and hesitate to use it, this country will be lost.” - Sherrilyn Ifill, Substack, “Republican Senate Confirms Todd Blanche as Attorney General,” August 8, 2026

DEAR THE HUMAN RACE , FROM 2026 YOU HAVE TWO LIFE OPTIONS. TO BE SLAUGHTERED LIKE SHEEP OR TO FIGHT LIKE LIONS. THERE IS NO LONGER A THIRD OPTION. Roger Hallam (caps are his), quoted by Thanissara, “Time to Disembark Capitalism and its Logic Or Face Civilizational Collapse And Extinction,” Substack, August 8, 2026

This happens on many levels, and I think we see it repeatedly in the NC General Assembly. Republican legislators who have won their seats through aggressive gerrymandering demonstrate their dominance by bullying and silencing the opposition. Last week during the NC Senate vote on the latest monster voter suppression bill, we watched Democratic Senators offer at least 10 reasonable amendments. NC Senator Sydney Batch spoke eloquently, connecting this bill with the legislation that ended Reconstruction and unleashed white supremacist violence. Then, just as eloquently, she silently left the chamber. As usual, the bill was passed without even a discussion of the proposed. A few of us chanted “The people united will never be defeated” and, as usual, got thrown out of the gallery.

ICE is targeting children and young people. See the wide-ranging interview with Jenn Budd and sign up with the ACLU for more information and to alert legislators.

Israel is deliberately targeting Palestinian children, and children continue to be killed by bombs in Gaza.

Some people may feel far away from this, but the truth is that we are all in danger. Marco Rubio’s speech and Stephen Miller’s speech at the international conference on terrorism were both filled with lies. They said that “left-wing violence” is now rampant and must be eliminated by any means necessary. Personally I am not witnessing any “left-wing violence” but I am witnessing plenty of violence by ICE, police, and our military. People in the White House consider us (people who resist fascism) “enemies of civilization.” We have to realize the magnitude of the threat to us all and act accordingly, nonviolently yet forcefully and in great numbers.

Our ICE/Immigration Team is keeping an eye on the plans for an ICE prison in Winton NC. Stay tuned for actions.

If you missed the vigil we did a few weeks ago, here is a YouTube video with recaps.

Read “The Fight Against ICE Has Entered a New Phase” by Kelly Hayes. (thanks, Karen and Joe)

Check out Billy Ball’s YouTube video (Cardinal & Pine), “Trump, ICE Have Big Plans for North Carolina.” (thanks, Lisa)

Join Siembra NC in Raleigh on August 8 for “We Will Dwell in Safety,” a Day of Prayer and Action at Halifax Mall from 10 am to 3 pm. Find out more and sign up at this link.

If you can, show up for the NC House vote on HB 958 and HB 377, both of which already passed the Senate. The votes are expected at 4 pm tomorrow, Tuesday. These bills are power grabs which make our courts and our elections partisan. They make us all less safe.

The address of the North Carolina General Assembly (NCGA) is 16 W. Jones St in Raleigh, and there is parking on the next block.

People in the galleries of the NCGA are expected to be perfectly silent. This behavior normalizes the bullying and lies of the (illegitimate) majority. Democracy is being dismantled, and it is not dangerous to voice our opposition in that chamber. Next time you hear chanting in the gallery, I hope you will join us. And stay seated until it is clear that you will be arrested if you don’t leave.

It can be uncomfortable to disregard the powerful impulse to be well-behaved and compliant, especially when surrounded by police officers. But it feels a whole lot better than remaining silent. And some of the Democratic legislators who fought for us the hardest reportedly appreciated even our mild attempt at disruption last week. They deserve that.

There are so many opportunities to work for a landslide victory in November. Check out opportunities offered by Wake County Democrats, Durham Democrats, Democracy NC, YouCanVote, Durham Dems Action, Indivisible, and Down Home, or your other favorite organizations.

We send loving gratitude and prayers for Margaret Herring, a longtime activist who died early this morning. She said, “You can’t just stand by when you see injustice.”

We remember with love and gratitude Dr. Becky Campbell, who died on July 9 after a long illness.

Everyone is invited to join us for our weekly meeting on zoom from 11:30 am to 12:30 pm on Tuesday. Email Jewel at democracyoutloud@gmail.com if you need the zoom link and tell her a bit about yourself. If you are new, come early so we can welcome you. “Doors open” at 11 am.

Everyone is also invited to join us at our weekly meditation on Thursday at 10 am at the same zoom link. Jewel sends out these reminders, so let her know if you want to join this group.

Write to democracyoutloud@gmail.com if you would like to join our ICE/Immigration Team, Legislative Response Team, Voter Protection Team, or the group monitoring and responding to the recent partisan actions of the NC Board of Elections.

Bayo Akomolafe has urged us to adopt a “slower urgency.” His counsel is very wise. Most of us can’t do more, but we can learn how not to exhaust ourselves doing things that are not ours to do. May we listen more deeply to how we are called to action in this urgent time, and do it carefully, maybe even slowly. May we allow ourselves to rest and be with people who inspire or comfort us. We are here for a reason. Keep going.

love, Karen

“I constantly oscillate between being devastated by the deaths and scared about where things are going, especially given how high the number of arrests has risen, but also it’s been inspiring seeing people rise up in Houston, seeing the incredible work that happened in small towns around the warehouses, and seeing how strongly people are holding onto and normalizing the idea that ICE does not need to exist. I think there is a lot of opportunity. We need to keep this going and make sure we sustain it over time.” - Silky Shah, in conversation with Kelly Hayes, “The Fight Against ICE Has Entered a New Phase.”

“The truth is incontrovertible. Malice may attack it, ignorance may deride it, but in the end, there it is.” - Winston Churchill

We are in for a long hard fight that will involve study and action. From 50501, “7 Ways to Fight ICE from Home.” See also Borderland Talk with Jenn Budd and Eyes on ICE.

There are about 100 days before November 3 and we all will need to lean into this election now and for months to come. On Saturday, August 1 from 1 to 4 pm, there will be an important training by Engaged Defenders 4 Democracy, League of Women Voters, and union representatives at St Paul’s Lutheran Church in Durham. You can find out more and sign up at this link.

Consider whether you can be a poll worker; you can apply at this link. There are 100 counties in North Carolina and together we have to make sure we have free and fair elections in each one. Check out your county Board of Elections and if possible attend a meeting. Be a local Elections Advocate. Stay tuned for information about how to be an Election Protector or a member of the Chill Team (De-escalation).

Some of the brilliant organizing to prepare for elections is evident on the websites of Protect Our Vote NC, Democracy NC, and Forward Justice.

I learned at a conference last week that many attorneys are already hard at work protecting our election in North Carolina. If you are a lawyer, apply to join them at this link. You are needed if you have legal training regardless of specialty.

Sign this petition: Wake County Commissioners are about to decide if Wake Med will remain accountable to the people of Wake County or if it will be turned over to a private multi-billion dollar entity. If Atrium takes it over, there will be less charity care and more bankruptcies as a result of medical bills, and patient care will suffer.

Everyone is invited to the Town Hall: The Future of Wake Med TONIGHT at 6 pm at St. Ambrose Episcopal Church in Raleigh; there is more information and the RSVP at this link. There is a phone bank this Thursday and a canvass this Friday.

Many of you are participating in the street protests and bridge brigades sponsored by Engaged Defenders 4 Democracy. These are a really important way to alert the general public to the threats to our democracy and our neighbors. They are happening every day of the week all over the area and you can get more information and sign up at this link. This is very important to create general awareness leading up to the elections

Mark and his Legislative Response Team were present on Sunday at Wake County Indivisible’s wonderful election event. He and Deb had posters and materials which were stunningly informative and professional, and these (like our memorial from Wednesday) are ready to travel.

It took us almost ten years of meeting together every single week, first protesting on the street and then on zoom, to become such a resource for each other and for our communities. I am so moved by who you all are and what you all are doing.

Marilyn’s Everyday Election Activism is about talking to voters. We have to especially talk to everyone we know about voting for Justice Anita Earls so she can retain her seat on the NC Supreme Court.

Keep using 5Calls.org to call elected officials. Right now, especially call Senators about opposing Todd Blanche’s nomination for Attorney General.

Everyone is invited to join us every Tuesday from 11:30 am to 12:30 pm for our weekly zoom call (“doors open” at 11 am; come early if you are new so we can welcome you). If you need the zoom link, write to Jewel at DemocracyOutLoud@gmail.com and tell her a tiny bit about yourself.

Everyone is also invited to join our weekly guided meditation every Thursday at 10 am at the same zoom link.

An inner discipline is required now of each of us. It involves limiting our reading of the news, paying attention to people we trust who are working as hard as we are to stay informed and stay afloat. The regime wants us to be overwhelmed, paralyzed, and hopeless. But the truth is that history is on our side now, and all we have to do is look around at the overwhelming number of others who feel the same way we do.

We are up against a monstrous government that has turned its weapons against its own people, committed to ethnic cleansing and just fine with genocide. Crucially, each of us has to find a way to take action, every day, even if some days it is just talking to one person. It doesn’t look this way yet, but enemies of freedom and democracy around the world are increasingly desperate, and they are losing. We are building relationships, building community, and building the muscles of faith, hope, and love. Keep going.

love, Karen

“The revolution happens in stages…first the curtains fall and we see each other and get on the streets, resist, have some successes… Then the reaction from the ruling powers…they think they won, but the giant is not asleep. It’s gathering more info, learning, strategy, allies, deepening its power of conviction and spirit…and it waits…until that divine spark lands. Then the clock strikes, ricocheting into infinity. Without fanfare, suddenly, it’s time to finish the task.” - Thanissara, Substack, July 25, 2026

The response by the people of Maine to the murder by ICE of 25-year-old Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero, and protests against ongoing atrocities all over the country, are quite hopeful. That particular murder has upended Maine’s Senate race. Two things are the story this week: our unstoppable movement to abolish ICE and our growing determination to overcome voter suppression and election subversion so that we can elect leaders who truly represent us.

This Wednesday July 22 at 11 am, our “ICE OUT OF NC” vigil is finally happening in front of the General Assembly. We have been planning it for weeks, and I hope you will help spread the word. People can RSVP at this link.

That same evening, Wednesday July 22, Makom in Durham is sponsoring a vigil at The Leaf (across the street from the Farmers Market) from 6 to 7 pm.

If you don’t feel like leaving home, on that same night there is a zoom call with SURJ: “Learn History and Smash ICE” at 8 pm. You can learn more and RSVP here.

On Friday July 24 there is a vigil in Raleigh at Halifax Mall at 4:30 pm, “Bearing Witness: Standing with Farm Workers.” You can get more information and RSVP at this link.

Indivisible’s founders, Ezra Levine and Leah Greenberg, lay out “How to Respond to Trump’s Secret Police” in this week’s What’s the Plan? podcast.

Indivisible is running an Immigrant Justice Training series this summer. Here is a link to the workbook, and the next of five trainings is online on Thursday, July 23 at 8 pm. You can sign up at this link.

Little Gitmos Everywhere is a deeply disturbing video about the Administration’s plan to establish concentration camps all over the world. We still have time to interrupt this by contacting our Representatives and making people aware of just how dystopian these plans have become.

On the same subject, see “These Concentration Camps Are Being Built For Us. We Can Stop Them,” in Substack, July 17, 2026. Then take action: “Call your representatives’ and senators’ offices. Ask for the staffer who handles immigration, not the general line. Tell them specifically: DHS posted a solicitation on SAM.gov this month for offshore detention facilities holding up to 1,000 people each, and you want your member of Congress to intervene immediately, demand oversight, and block the funding before this contract goes any further. If you live near an existing ICE or DHS facility, make the same call to your local officials and show up at the protests that are surely happening around you.”

It is rare that we can see such an atrocity before it actually arrives and have the agency to help stop it.

If you have the stomach for it, also check out “The 22,500 Child Bounty System: A look inside the 287(g) slush fund and the multilayered contracts hiding ICE's disturbing cash incentives” on Substack.

I found Heather Cox Richardson’s explainer of Trump’s situation: “What Will Happen When the Truth Comes to Light?” quite hopeful.

All of us are thinking about how we can intervene in the GOP’s dastardly efforts to subvert the November 2026 election. Our NCGA/NCBoard of Elections response team is delving into the details, meeting each week, and taking many kinds of actions. If you want to join this team, email DemocracyOutLoud@gmail.com with request to join the NCGA/BOE team or forward to Mark in the subject line.

If you read nothing else, read Joyce Vance’s Substack from July 18, “A Feel Good Moment.” We keep lifting each other up.

If you can, find out where and when your local Board of Elections meets, and attend meetings. Voter suppression and election subversion happen at many levels including this one.

See, “We Know How To Beat Voter Suppression” with Bishop William Barber and NC Democratic Party Chair Anderson Clayton, and sign up here for Rev. Barber’s 100 days of mobilization and 1000 marches to the polls. There will be a mass meeting online this Thursday, July 23 at 8 pm; RSVP at this link.

The heat wave we are enduring and the many wildfires this summer remind us to join with those who have been organizing around the climate crisis for many years. Our own Karen Bearden is moderating, “How Climate Change Impacts Our Health and our Healthcare Systems” from 7 to 8 pm on Wednesday July 22 online. This program is hosted by 350 Triangle and Carolina Advocates for Climate, Health, and Equity (CACHE). You can RSVP at this link.

Everyone is invited to join us every Tuesday from 11:30 am to 12:30 pm for our weekly zoom call (“doors open” at 11 am; come early if you are new so we can welcome you). If you need the zoom link, write to Jewel at DemocracyOutLoud@gmail.com and tell her a tiny bit about yourself.

Everyone is also invited to join our weekly guided meditation every Thursday at 10 am at the same zoom link.

There is so much ignorance and so much violence right now. Yet, increasingly, people who do not want their neighbors shot or trafficked are working really hard to show up. Organizers all around us are doing magnificent work fighting on so many fronts while the desperation of the despots becomes increasingly clear. We can start to feel that the tide is turning. Keep going.

love, Karen

The meaning of the Declaration of Independence “flows less from the men who signed it than from those who heard its words and took ownership of them as a standard for their freedom and independence — not from Britain, but from bondage. It is this Declaration — the slaves’ Declaration, the abolitionists’ Declaration, Lincoln’s Declaration — that is the beating heart of the American project. It is this Declaration that still lives as a promise to the people who call this nation home, as a challenge to those people to live up to their ideals and aspirations, and as a bulwark against those among them who would sacrifice their freedom for the false comfort of tyranny.” - Jamelle Bouie, New York Times, July 1, 2026

“This pathetic testosterone campaign is more than one fool’s macho obsession. It is a fantasy of racial and imperial resuscitation. When the old patriarchs are visibly deteriorating, the white birthrate is falling, the population is becoming less white and the Empire itself looks exhausted AF, Hegseth offers the regime a syringe and calls it readiness. In his demented mind, American dominance can be restored by identifying the correct bodies, purging the supposedly defective ones and chemically juicing up the ones selected to carry white power into the future without end.” - Dr. Stacy Patton, US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth Is Turning the US Military into a White Supremacist Testosterone Factory, July 18, 2026

“It is not clear at all that the combination of Donald Trump and Stephen Miller are the braintrust that will finally break America. The future is not written yet, and we still have the chance to be the people who choose to learn from history instead of repeating it.” - Jim Stewartson, “Stephen Miller’s Ministerium: The Most Dangerous Speech Wasn’t Trump,” July 27, 2026

Robert Reich devoted his newsletter to ICE today ending, “Above all, do not be intimidated by ICE and the police state Trump and his assistant Stephen Miller are creating. Its purpose is to intimidate. We have a responsibility to one another and to future generations to resist it with the same sort of courage and commitment to democracy our founders summoned just over 250 years ago.”

Joyce Vance writes today, “ICE may be off our radar screen, but the agency still has not managed to prevent its agents from shooting people on American streets. Each shooting must be investigated individually to determine whether circumstances warranted it. But it’s a dangerous moment in American history when the presumption is we cannot trust law enforcement to tell us the truth about what happened. And that’s precisely where we are.”

People are suffering and dying in ICE custody, and the UN is calling for an investigation into these deaths.

WHAT TO DO:

You can RSVP for our vigil on July 22 at 11 am outside the NCGA in Raleigh at this link. We ask that you spread the word by disseminating this link and one of the graphics below to your networks.

If you are in the Charlotte/Mecklenburg area, register for the ICE watch training on Sunday July 26 from 3 to 5 pm.

Everybody: Sign up for the SiembraNC training on July 13 from 7 to 9 pm, “Protecting Immigrant Drivers Organizing Meeting.” RSVP at this link.

Sign up for the Immigrant Justice Training Series by Indivisible beginning tomorrow July 9 at this link. Recordings will be made available; this is a five part series.

If you know undocumented people, stay in touch with them. Networks of friends and neighbors all over the country are chipping in to help detained people get lawyers or to help families pay rent when the breadwinner gets detained. Massive contact of Representatives and Senators in some cases can effect release. Ongoing organizing can get us ready for the kind of quick and sustained action by friends and neighbors that can really help change an individual situation.

Below, protest by ACT UP at Grand Central Station in NYC June 26, 2026. Photo by Ken Schles, used by permission.

On Sunday, July 12 at 3 pm, Bull City Durham is showing the film, “Join or Die.” Check out the RSVP for details about this and subsequent meetings.

Randa and I will be on vacation for the next 10 days and I will not be reading email. Much gratitude to Joe and Karen Bearden for holding down our regular zoom meeting on Tuesday July 14 from 11:30 am to 12:30 pm (“doors open” at 11 am; come early if you are new so we can welcome you). Jewel will send out that different zoom link. If you need the zoom link, email Jewel at democracyoutloud@gmail.com and tell her a tiny bit about yourself.

We continue our guided meditation on Thursday July 16 at 10 am. Larissa will lead the meditation and also host the zoom. Jewel will send out the different zoom link.

Much gratitude to Jewel, Larissa, Joe and Karen and all of you who are still working on all of our projects while I am taking a breath.

I hope we can all figure out how to rest and pace ourselves so we can keep doing the work. Clearly the people and systems of violence and grift are falling apart, and our movement is getting stronger every day. I am so grateful to be alive right now and be standing with all of you.

love, Karen

Below, Philadelphia on July 4, 2026 posted on Facebook by Veterans for Peace.

“On this anniversary, hundreds of veterans and military families have come to sound an alarm for democracy, as our national leaders ignore these basic truths, trample our rights, and treat us as subjects of them and the billionaire class, not as self-governing equals.” - Michael T. McPhearson, Executive Director of Veterans For Peace

See also Bishop William Barber’s powerful and inspiring statements about July 4 and what we must do moving forward, “It’s Time To Light It Up,” July 7, 2026.

(Below sent by Janine. Perfect.)

I know you are experiencing the same thing, and I apologize for adding to your email.

Against the backdrop of the heat and the feeling that everything is falling apart way too fast, we keep doing the work.

The New York Times reported a surge in ICE arrests a few days ago: 10,000 in five days. This is terrifying, and we are all going to have to figure out how to respond.

VERY IMPORTANT: Sign up for the SiembraNC training on July 13 from 7 to 9 pm, “Protecting Immigrant Drivers Organizing Meeting.” RSVP at this link.

This is in response to the recent override by Republicans in the NCGA of the Governor’s veto of SB 153, which will escalate the terror campaign which is being unleashed against immigrants and, let’s face it, all people of color.

See “Ethnic Cleansing in Ohio? Nazi Lies in Vance’s America” by Timothy Snyder, and “Buffalo New York: Racist Comments Flood after Somali Flag” from Eyes on Ice.

Some of us have been working with other community groups on a vigil outside the NCGA in Raleigh at 11 am on July 22. Please help us spread the word; RSVP at this link. We want to especially call attention to the planned ICE detention prison in Winton, NC and raise the alarm about the baseless and cruel attacks on our neighbors.

Sign up for the Immigrant Justice Training Series by Indivisible beginning July 9 at this link.

M. Gessen’s article about the recent US Supreme Court decision about transgender athletes, “The Transgender Sports Decision Was about Something Deeper than Law,” is brief and clear.

The General Assembly is not in session again until the end of the month, but there is plenty to do. In Raleigh on Monday July 6 at 1 pm, we can stand against the takeover of WakeMed by Atrium. We can sign the petition at this link and RSVP for the 1 pm press conference here. The County Commission meeting is at 2 pm; you can sign up at this link to give public comment between 9 and noon on Monday. Hospital mergers increase costs and surrender community control to distant corporations.

Big shout out to Anna, who leads Bull City Indivisible, for recommending the film Join or Die and telling us how to host a screening. She is inviting us to come to Bull City Indivisible’s next meeting (and bring a friend), on July 12 at 3 pm (RSVP here).

The astonishing corruption which continues to escalate may be seen as an indication that Empire knows its time is running out; its servants are grabbing wealth and destroying life as fast as they can. Trump has gained 2.2 BILLION dollars since returning to office, mostly in crypto. (This interview beginning around minute 13 taught me some things about cryptocurrency.)

We know for sure that Trump and the GOP are actively working to undermine the November 2026 elections. Sign up for Indivisible’s Action Protection Corp at this link.

Much gratitude to Mel for sending this remarkable recent speech by Representative Jon Ossoff at Beulah Missionary Baptist Church, “We See a Faithless President.”

I’m writing this on the 4th of July. Reading and hearing Frederick Douglass’s powerful speech about this day has been a balm of truth in a sea of lies; it is clarity in the midst of chaos.

If you haven’t re-read the book recently (or even if you have), watch Timothy Snyder’s short and very powerful video, “On Tyranny: The 250th Edition.”

Everyone is invited to join us every Tuesday from 11:30 am to 12:30 pm for our weekly zoom call (“doors open” at 11 am; come early if you are new so we can welcome you). If you need the zoom link, write to Jewel at DemocracyOutLoud@gmail.com and tell her a tiny bit about yourself.

Everyone is also invited to join our weekly guided meditation every Thursday at 10 am at the same zoom link.

May we continue whatever practice brings us clarity, and may we continue to connect with those who are grounded in the truth. Hold on. Better days are ahead of us.

love, Karen

“I am not included within the pale of glorious anniversary! Your high independence only reveals the immeasurable distance between us. The blessings in which you, this day, rejoice, are not enjoyed in common. The rich inheritance of justice, liberty, prosperity and independence, bequeathed by your fathers, is shared by you, not by me. The sunlight that brought light and healing to you, has brought stripes and death to me. This Fourth July is yours, not mine. You may rejoice, I must mourn.” - Frederick Douglass, July 5, 1852, “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?”

“..What history will the rest of us write for ourselves? When we are confronted with street terror, concentration camps, and mass deportations, as now in the United States, the thought of historical precedents arises — and is usually suppressed. ‘It can’t happen here,’ we think, so this must not be ‘it.’ When we take the focus down from the national to the local, to the story of Springfield, this is a bit harder to maintain. The ‘it’ is right there in front of our faces.” - Timothy Snyder, “Ethnic Cleansing in Ohio? Nazi Lies in Vance’s Ohio,” Substack, February 1, 2026

We will have to keep a very close eye on how these bills affect public and higher education and the work of the House Oversight Committee (AKA The Inquisition).

Durham Representative Marcia Morey’s newsletter this week is a great summary of the veto overrides and the election bill, which may be voted on this week. Check the NCLeg website for when.

NC Senate Bill 1084 cuts early voting from 17 to 10 days. Find out more and contact your legislators at this link. Public pressure is important; this bill has not yet passed either the House or Senate, and its next destination is the Senate Rules Committee.

The anti-homeless encampment bill, NC HB437, has passed the Senate but not the House. Contact your legislators about this bill; it essentially criminalizes homelessness and homeless service providers.

Common Cause NC offers a terrific summary of the current NC Board of Elections proposed rule changes and an easy way to offer public comments. The public comment portal will close on July 15.

One of the veto overrides this week was NC SB153, which will force local sheriffs to cooperate with ICE and force State Highway Patrol to be trained as ICE agents. Suddenly the 560,000 North Carolinians who are not citizens are less safe, and we are already seeing the consequences of this.

(Text and graphic below are from Siembra NC)

Protecting Immigrant Drivers Organizing Meeting (ENGLISH)
July 13, 2026 7pm-9pm

We Will Dwell in Safety: A Day of Prayer & Action
August 8, 2026 6pm-8pm • Raleigh

What can we say about the Supreme Court? The decision this past week rescinding TPS (Temporary Protected Status) for Haitians and Syrians, is one of their worst and most consequential. Marc Elias of Democracy Docket has detailed more very consequential decisions that will come out tomorrow.

Trump’s plans to sabotage the November 2026 election are out in the open. Indivisible’s newsletter from last week is a quick way to read about this. You can join Indivisible’s Thursday 3 pm meetings at this link. You can sign up for updates from Indivisible about how to protect the election at this link.

Check out the Guardian article about Minnesota, “Anti-ICE Organizers Shift Focus to Defend Democracy From Trump Assault.” I liked what one of them said at the end:“We don’t need perfect leaders. We just need a regular person that can take responsibility of something, anything, whether it’s a smaller block or a small floor in a building, that’s fine, but take responsibility of something. We need as many people as possible right now.”

If you missed the lobby day, here is the fact sheet about why we need a moratorium on data centers. It is important not to use AI unless you really need it. For routine searches on the internet, use Duck Duck Go or enter search topic, add a space, then type -AI (dashAI).

Everyone is invited to join us this Tuesday and every Tuesday from 11:30 am to 12:30 pm (“doors open” at 11 am) for our weekly zoom call. If you need the zoom link, email Jewel at DemocracyOutLoud@gmail.com and tell her a tiny bit about yourself. If you are new, come early so we can welcome you.

Everyone is also invited to our guided meditation every Thursday at the same link.

In the stairwell of a retreat center years ago, I saw this quote, which has been attributed to many different people. “Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle.” This is especially true now. Some days, simply extending kindness to ourselves and each other is all we can do. It is no small thing.

May we all keep doing the work to stay afloat, and remember that joy is resistance, rest is resistance, and freedom is a constant struggle.

love, Karen

“Any result short of victory for Trump and his allies will be denounced as “fraud.” Not because there is anything wrong with the system, but because, as they see it, this is their country and theirs alone.” - Jamelle Bouie, New York Times, June 17, 2026, “The Real Reason Why Trump Never Stops Talking About Voter Fraud.” (gift article)

“Authoritarians deliberately target marginalized groups, knowing that they will rarely be large enough to topple a regime. A serious opposition movement demands that people who are not in the political cross hairs intervene on behalf of those who are. These interventions don’t have to be heroic. They can be small, specific and social.” - Julia Angwin and Amir Fields-Meyer, New York Times, June 16, 2026, “The State of American Resistance is Stronger Than You Think.” (gift article)

• Attacks our Votes At All Levels.
  From state legislators to local elections boards, HB958 would give partisan extremists unprecedented power to suppress our votes and invite brazen attempts to steal our elections.

• Represents a Wish List of Corrupt Officials.
  New changes could fulfill an anti-voter “wish list” concocted by an extremist State Auditor and Elections Board that has proven over the past weeks it will stop at nothing to influence our 2026 elections.

• Highlights Lawmakers’ Misplaced Priorities.
  When election cuts come out before a state budget, politicians in Raleigh prove they’d rather prioritize their political futures over the basic needs of our people.

If you can, go to the Auditorium, 3rd floor of the Legislative Building (between the Senate and House galleries) at 9 am. The room fills up quickly; it opens at 9:30 am.

(Below, some of the patriots who showed up Monday in sweltering heat to protest the bill. Photo by Jenny Warburg, used by permission.)

Tomorrow at the exact same time Data Center Lobby Day is also happening at the General Assembly; you can find out more at this link. There will be a press conference at 11:30 am in the press room with community leaders from areas fighting data centers. Read this brief fact sheet and give it to your legislators.

Read this especially if you are authorized to sign a letter opposing federal legislation making data centers easier to build.

This week, I highly recommend “What’s the Plan?” which happens every Thursday from 3 to 4 pm on zoom, a conversation with the founders of Indivisible, Leah and Ezra Levin. You can sign up at this link.

Also by Ezra Levin, “Trump’s Plans to Sabotage the Midterms and What We Can Do About It.”

I truly enjoyed the conversation between Joyce Vance and Timothy Snyder about how dictatorships fail and what we need to think about after Trump’s reign of terror ends.

This has to be a short newsletter because I wanted to alert you about tomorrow, and I’m off to my next zoom meeting, but the most important thing I have read in a long time was recommended by Cliff: “Did Kamala Harris’s Silence on Gaza Cost Her the White House?” written by Ta-Nehisi Coates.

Check out NC Warn’s report on Duke Energy and use it to conveniently contact Governor Stein. It is important to understand their scandalous behavior and join those who have been tracking and lobbying for ratepayers over shareholders.

Have you seen this “Troublemaker’s Guide” from the Catalyst Project?

I have to go to my next zoom meeting, so I will stop here. I love that President Obama had a sign on his desk, “Hard things are hard.” We are working to resist a huge wave of fear and cruelty and violence. It is difficult to keep pushing and keep lifting at the same time, yet that is what we are doing every day. We are doing fine. We just have to keep going.

Take very good care of yourself. You are needed.

love, Karen

(Below, photo by Jenny Warburg, used by permission, from Monday’s rally.)

Common Cause NC confirms that this bill, would give “partisan extremists unprecedented power to suppress our votes and invite brazen attempts to steal our elections.”
Deep gratitude to the progressive legislators and to all the groups who mobilized this past week, and deep gratitude to our own Legislative Response Team, which was brilliant. We will likely need to be at the General Assembly (16 W. Jones Street) this week as this and other really bad bills are reconsidered in committee and in the House and Senate.

The Democracy Out Loud legislative response team held up red penalty cards in the Committee meeting as Republicans defended their bill before walking outside to a sea of red cards and chants of SHAME. (photo credit: Lynn Bonner/NC Newsline)

There was some good news coverage by ABC 11, NC Newsline, News and Observer, and Democracy Docket. Please pay particular attention to the Carolina Public Press, which clarified the timeline of the bill. This last article also explains how another bill pulled from the Rules Committee at the last minute, HB 1038, is designed to dilute the power of Black voters. We met three of the Black City Council members from Jacksonville NC who are fighting this bill because they know it is designed to replace them with white people. We need to fight along with them for the defeat of this bill. Call your NC Representative and Senator; find them here.

We also need to fight HB 437, which essentially criminalizes homelessness. (Follow the money: there are so many ways that billionaires make money from poor people in for-profit prisons.) You can read more about this and take action with the NC Justice Center at this link.

I’m writing this on Juneteenth, acutely aware that we need to call in the energy of the abolitionists in the 1800’s and the civil rights movements in our lifetime. If you haven’t watched the dedication of the Obama Library yesterday, you can still do it on the website. If you missed Rise Up, Sing Out: A Concert For the First Amendment last week, you can still watch it online. I also recommend the PBS documentaries about Representative Barbara Jordan and W.E.B. DuBois as well as so many great documentaries about Black artists. Reading the news from our government these days is a bit like ingesting poison, and we have to keep filling ourselves up with the antidote.

(Below image is from the Revolutionary Love Project.)

The choice before us as a state and a country is increasingly stark. Do we want a country where taxes are used for the good of all, or do we want greedy billionaires to use the system and the US treasury to become obscenely wealthy? Do we want safety and the rule of law for everyone, regardless of who they are, or do we want police and ICE agents to kill or abduct people without due process because of the color of their skin? Do we want a democracy in which every citizen gets to vote and their vote is counted in free and fair elections, or do we want the party with an increasingly fascist ideology to control elections? These are the kinds of questions we need to be asking the authors of these bills, because they are intentionally creating a particular kind of country with these laws, and it is not the country most of us want to live in.

In Ohio, the FBI seized laptops and cellphones of a voting rights group, and this sweep has expanded to a national voting rights group, America Votes, which has now been subpoenaed by the feds. Fifteen anti-ICE protesters in Minneapolis were indicted for conspiracy. Karen M sent this important article about how the feds infiltrated Signal chats and how to protect yourself. Here’s a good resource, “If An Agent Knocks.”

Things are moving very fast, and everything is connected. I think all of us are feeling that there are things we have to let go of and things we have to learn how to do. We’re feeling the importance of building relationships and community.

Join us every Tuesday from 11:30 am to 12:30 pm for our weekly zoom call (“doors open” at 11 am); if you need the link email Jewel at democracyoutloud@gmail.com and tell her a bit about yourself. Everyone is also welcome to join us at 10am on Thursdays for our guided meditation.

At the end of every Tuesday meeting, we chant “Forward Together. Not One Step Back.” We mean it with all our hearts. Those who are trying to drag us back to Jim Crow, and worse, will not succeed.

I hope to see a lot of you on Monday at the rally (below) and during the week at the NCGA (depending what is on the calendar). Keep the faith.

love, Karen

“People should be able to trust our elections and know that their vote counts. Yet, this bill erodes trust by injecting more politics into the State Board of Elections and limiting access to the ballot box. It makes it harder for service members overseas than other North Carolinians to meet voter ID requirements, makes it easier for the State Board of Elections to hire partisans rather than election professionals and invites the Auditor and State Board to sow mistrust in elections. This legislature must stop undermining our elections and inventing new ways to cling to power. I encourage all North Carolinians to contact their legislators and make their voices heard.” - Josh Stein, North Carolina Governor

At the same time, let’s block what we can. Let’s do our best to disrupt plans to undermine the election and to perpetuate racist violence.

From Carolina Forward:

Republican leaders of the NC General Assembly just dropped a “big, unannounced, 36-page omnibus bill stuffed to the brim with new voting restrictions and elections changes.” NC HB 958 is a voter suppression wishlist. See the proposed changes (PCS) to HB 958, “Various Election Law Changes.” This is a very big deal. Here’s the summary:

• A total ban on encouraging voter turnout: State and county board members are prohibited from any public statement “encouraging or promoting voter turnout in any election.”

• The Republican State Auditor is granted total discretion to audit all machines, county offices and personnel involved in any election.

• Campaign finance transparency is reduced by waiving or significantly raising the dollar thresholds for required reporting of dark money.

• A ban on any ranked-choice voting in any primary or general election statewide.

• Some overseas voters are stripped of their eligibility to vote in any state elections.

• Partisan staffing of the Board of Elections is once again increased, with 25 professional staff at the State Board of Elections changed from career civil staff to partisan political appointees.

• Petition gathering is banned.

The NC House Committee on Election Law will vote on this bill on Tuesday, June 16 at 10 am in room 1328 in the Legislative Office Building.

NC Democrats are calling for people to be at the General Assembly all day on Tuesday, packing this meeting and also the rules committee which meets at 2:30 pm in the auditorium of the main building.

Meanwhile, NC SB 1084 would cut a full week of early voting. Common Cause summarizes this and makes it easy to contact legislators at this link.

The newly partisan NC Board of Elections keeps coming up with ways to destroy our elections. See this summary of their most recent rules, also by Common Cause, and please make a public comment. The NC BOE hasn’t made it easy to comment, but we have to do it. Even if we can’t block these egregious assaults on democracy we need to have a public record.

Attacks will continue to escalate, as in Ohio this week when the FBI raided the office (and went to the homes) of a group which promotes voter registration.

People continue to die in ICE custody, and we must block the planned ICE prison in Winton NC as well as ICE in general. Write to democracyoutloud@gmail.com if you are interested in working with us on this. Eyes on ICE is a Substack newsletter which is quite useful.

On average, one person in ICE detention dies every single week. Indivisible is beginning an Immigrant Justice Summer Training Series beginning July 9. You can get more information and sign up at this link.

Indivisible called our attention this week to the Anti-Authoritarian toolkit that connects us with people fighting for democracy all over the world.

June is LGBTQ pride month, and Indivisible is offering a zoom call on Tuesday June 16 at 7 pm, “Leading with Inclusion: Solidarity across LGBTQ+ communities.” You can register at this link.

Below are pictures of Gaza before and after it was destroyed, its people were driven from their homes, and at least 80,000 people were killed, 50% of them children. This is the mindset which is driving the war in Iran and the cage match at the White House.

It is also the mindset which is driving public policy in Raleigh and Washington. It is power at any cost and destruction of the rule of law, public education, healthcare, human rights, mercy, and compassion. It has not always been this way.

Tonight, Sunday, the Committee for the First Amendment is hosting Rise Up, Sing Out: A Concert for the First Amendment. You can host a watch party by inviting a few friends or neighbors over, or just watch it yourself at this link.

There is a Substack newsletter which follows data centers in North Carolina. It follows new projects, moratoriums, and cancellations. Rania Masri has also informed us of a new national coalition and a new website calling for a moratorium on the building of new data centers. And, there is a lobby day at the NCGA to talk to legislators about data centers in North Carolina on June 24; you can find out more and sign up at this link.

Everyone is invited to our weekly zoom call on Tuesday from 11:30 am to 12:30 pm (“doors open” at 11 am). This week we will continue some discussion of AI and data centers, check in on what is happening at the General Assembly, and talk about ongoing work around detention centers/ICE and elections. If you don’t get the weekly reminders, email Jewel at DemocracyOutLoud@gmail.com and tell her a tiny bit about yourself.

Everyone is also invited to our weekly guided meditation at 10 am. Jewel sends out reminders with the zoom link for this too.

I hope we can all find time to spend with nature and with people (and animals). This is the labor that builds our power and our magic.

love, Karen

I don’t know what was the worst part of the ongoing nightmare this week. Was it the “Aliens” website posted by the White House that portrayed undocumented people as terrifying and dangerous beings? Exact quote at the end: “If you’ve witnessed an Alien abduction, do not be alarmed. The Alien is in good hands. We will take care of it (sic)… and return it (sic) safely to its place of origin.” (See “Trump’s ‘Aliens’ Website Is Grotesque and Terrifying and Juvenile.”)

Or was it the ICE funding bill that passed the Senate (with a vote from both NC Senators), that gave ICE $70 billion dollars for “immigration enforcement” without restriction (and did not block Trump’s 1.776 billion dollar slush fund)?

Perhaps it was the Supreme Court decision about Congressional districts in Alabama, which essentially said that it is constitutional to engage in racial discrimination.

Here’s what keeps me from despair: people. People keep showing up, in magnificent ways. The beautiful large crowd in front of the Durham Courthouse on Wednesday before the public hearing on Duke’s request to raise electric bills, the great speakers, and the wonderful drag show gave me so much hope.

There are brave legislators and citizens who keep standing up and telling the truth despite a daily onslaught of lies and cruelty in statehouses and in Washington. There may not be enough of us yet, but we will keep fighting for as long as it takes.

There are people doing painstaking research and organizing creative and clever things like this billboard protesting the private prison in Winton NC which is being turned into a “detention center.” People in our Democracy Out Loud affinity group are pressuring New South Construction to stop the construction on this site and asking faith communities to sign this letter. What if, in Germany, builders had simply refused to build the concentration camps?

People all over the world are fighting back. This week, the Lakota people won a great victory in the Black Hills, driving a corporation permanently away from their sacred lands through a combination of direct action and lawsuits. “Prayer, presence, law, and community. All of it at once.” It worked.

Jewel reminded me to look to Hungary for hope, because despite autocratic breakthrough (“the point after which it’s impossible to unseat an autocrat using elections”) the people of Hungary got rid of Orban. M. Gessen tells us how they did it in this New York Times gift article, “This is the Formula That Defeated Orban. It Would Defeat Trump, Too.” Check out the Forbes piece, “Reality Strikes Back: The Fall of Hungary’s Post-Truth Era.”

Breathtakingly huge protests are happening in Albania because Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump are building a 1.9 billion-dollar luxury resort on protected wetlands. I have not seen coverage about this in mainstream media; see the Guardian article for some details and videos.

There are so many people who meditate and pray and organize, people who get up every day and try to figure out how to help. I have no doubt that as the pressure on all of us increases, we have what it takes to keep pushing back. It takes a warrior spirit and the heart of a healer to keep stepping out beyond what is comfortable and easy. All over the world, we keep doing this, and we will continue because every time we do it, we find that we are not alone.

Paul Krugman is a respected economist who is speaking out about ICE “detention centers.” I especially appreciated his recent Substack, “Pogroms, American Style: The Trump Administration’s Attacks on Immigrants Isn’t About Rule of Law, crime, or jobs. It’s racism and sadism all the way down.”

There are many people working to support the detainees at Delaney Hall, and there is much we can do even from a distance. This toolkit is wonderful.

There is so much to read and study that being an engaged citizen right now is much like enrolling in graduate school. Check out the proposed Pentagon budget and what we could have instead with 1.5 trillion dollars of our money.

On June 14, while the president enjoys his obscene birthday celebration in Washington, many of us will be gathering friends and neighbors to watch “Rise Up, Sing Out,” an all-star performance live-streamed from Town Hall in NYC at 7:30 pm. Your event can be public or private; sign up at this link to host a watch party.

Since the Democratic Party autopsy of the 2024 presidential election was not all that helpful, I’m including here something more illuminating, “Yes, Elon Musk Did Buy the Election.”

Below, the Raging Grannies at the Drag Down our Electric Bills Rally and Drag Show in Durham on June 3 - below photo by Jenny Warburg, used by permission.

Please join us this Tuesday June 9 from 11:30 am to 12:30 pm for our weekly meeting. “Doors open” at 11 am; come early if you are new so we can welcome you. If you don’t have the zoom link, email Jewel at democracyoutloud@gmail.com and tell her a tiny bit about yourself.

We also continue our guided meditation every Thursday at 10 am at the same zoom link. If you’d like a reminder about that with the zoom link, please email Jewel.

If you are feeling unsettled and sometimes overwhelmed, you are in good company. I hope you will find people with whom to talk, eat, meditate, pray, and/or take action. Relationships and community are not only how we will survive this but also how we are building something that is a genuine alternative to all of this suffering. Keep the faith. We are becoming something new and building something different.

love, Karen

“A revolution requires that a people go beyond struggling against oppressive institutions and beyond victim thinking. A revolution involves making an evolutionary/revolutionary leap toward becoming more socially responsible and more self-critical human beings. In order to transform the world, we must transform ourselves.” - Grace Lee Boggs, Revolution and Evolution in the Twentieth Century

This week on Substack, I reposted Heather Cox Richardson - and Thanissara reposted that reposting, with this comment:

So this last week we saw a quiet bill going thru the House to merge the U.S. and Israeli military (while the Pentagon has released a high alert warning of deep invasive Israeli spying??).

And now $70 billion going to ICE. This can only translate as MAGA’s private militia with no checks and balances.

If this all goes ahead it means an agenda of endless war, the normalization of genocide, US concentration camps, mass deportations, and normalization of torture and extrajudicial killings.

Somewhere between the hunger games, the handmaiden’s tale and game of thrones supercharged by a billionaire class who have assigned themselves control of planetary destiny…

For sure, push-back is happening… is it a revolutionary pulse moving from the wings onto center stage or a last ditch effort … or somewhere between? Right now, each day the stakes supersede our ability to mobilize.

Yet, still it’s not done, by any means - Clarity is coalescing within the deeper undercurrents of the collective, awakening to the immense dangers we face.

While no exact clear political strategy has emerged that appeals beyond manufactured divisions, nor a credible, collective vision beyond this hellscape, a clear NO is moving through the bones of humanity.

This NO is getting louder each day. In that, I have some hope.

Right now, isn’t the time to give up. It is the time to increase pressure until the NO pushes us past our long embedded obedience to centralized, abusive, violent systems of power.

Keep going, friends, keep going 🙏❤️‍🔥✊🏼✨🪶

We are finding out how much effort it takes to stop a detention center or a data center. People all over the country are doing this work, and we are learning how to join them. For example, organizers figured out that New South Construction, based in Atlanta (1180 West Peachtree St, NW, Ste 700, Atlanta, GA 30309, 404-443-4000) with an office in Durham at 1715 Camden Ave, Durham, NC 27704 (919-683-1701), is involved in the work to reopen the former prison in Winton NC (Hertford County) as an ICE detention center. Their trucks have been seen there. You can write to its officers to express your outrage about this. Why would a respected company want to be involved in opening a concentration camp?

The weekly protest at Roxboro and E. Club by Engaged Defenders 4 Democracy every Tuesday from 4:30 pm to 5:30 pm offers the opportunity for protest signs very near the New South Construction offices. This is a lovely protest with lots of honks of approval; you can sign up at this link or just show up with your sign.

This group now has 35 weekly demonstrations, and not all are in the Triangle. Weekly demonstrations are how Democracy Out Loud started 487 weeks ago. They are a way to build community and general awareness, meet people, and have some fun.

“Drag Down Our Electric Bills” was rescheduled for this coming Wednesday June 3 at 5:30 pm at the Durham County Courthouse (510 S. Dillard St). This rally precedes the NC Utilities Commission and protests Duke’s efforts to raise our rates. Naomi Dix is the featured drag artist, (pay my) Bills Gates and Jeff Bozos are featured. The Raging Grannies and all our fearless defenders of the environment will be there and people will speak at the public hearing scheduled for that evening at 7 pm.

A NEW WEBSITE called “Radical Public Safety: Safety Resources for Rad People and Movements” is amazing. Note all the information about digital and protest safety, the information about ICE/CBP, and the Signs and Symbols Database. I have never seen so much crucial and well-organized material on a single website before. Bookmark and spend time with it; this is the kind of information we will increasingly need, and it is presented in an especially user-friendly way.

We are all tired of calling legislators, but reminding ourselves about 5calls.org needs to happen on a regular basis, because these folks make it easy to do. Oppose the expansion of AI data centers, Stop Trump’s Slush Fund, No War with Iran, and a whole lot more is spelled out for us.

A huge shoutout to Deb, Mark, and their teams as well as other individuals and organizations that made sure the “Rule of 10” was activated so that some of the new voter suppression rules by the NC Board of Elections is at least delayed. To learn the rules well enough to skillfully challenge them and then to organize and mobilize enough volunteers is painstaking work. My friend Cliff refers to this as a “bureaucratic knife fight.” We are going to need a lot more of this particular strategy as we move toward the next election.

This week, three of the leaders of Democracy Out Loud joined 750 organizers of May Day Strong from all over the country at a conference in St. Louis, Missouri. The purpose of the conference was to “build a plan to respond in the event that Trump and his MAGA allies attempt to steal the election” and figure out how to “accelerate a Real Affordability Agenda” at the same time. Mark, Marci, and Leigh will be our speakers this coming Tuesday June 2 from 11:30 am to 12:30 pm to share what they have learned and help us connect to these efforts. “Doors open” at 11 am.

I especially appreciated the Durham Dems Action newsletter this week and its subject, “Anger, Joy, and Action,” and Starhawk’s newsletter, “Strategy and Ritual: What They Have in Common.”

She writes, “Together at the crossroads we choose the path of justice, love and wisdom. With hearts broken open, we channel our love and rage into action to defend justice and the sacred. We awaken from hibernation the fierce, life-serving powers to protect the generations to come.”

This time is demanding the best of ourselves, a determination to do whatever hard work is before us, and a will to stay flexible and be rooted above all in compassion. I am so grateful to you for reading this newsletter and being part of a huge and growing movement for democracy and freedom. Keep the faith.

love, Karen

“If I have one message to give to the secular American people, it’s that the world is not divided into countries. The world is not divided between East and West. You are American, I am Iranian, but we talk together and we understand each other perfectly. The difference between you and your government is much bigger than the difference between you and me. And the difference between me and my government is much bigger than the difference between you and me. And our governments are very much the same.” -Marjane Satrapi

For over nine years we have been waiting for Trump to go so far that Republicans in Congress will begin to resist him. This is finally happening, and the backlash against his deadly policies is growing. Meanwhile we are doing more than simply reacting to them. We are creating a different world with our organizing, friendships, mutual aid, and faith in what is true and life-giving.

I’m excited about the press event and rally on Tuesday, May 26 at 2 pm, co-sponsored by the ACLU of NC, Stop Detention Centers North Carolina, and Democracy Out Loud. You can find out more and RSVP at this link. Bring signs if you can.

ICE was given enough money to deport, brutalize, and imprison not only undocumented people but also Trump’s political enemies. Check out “Why Power Analysis is Key to Fighting Ice” from Waging Nonviolence (4/30/2026) and the toolkit from ACLU North Carolina, “Immigrant Rights in North Carolina.”

Some of us will be headed to Durham immediately after the press event in Raleigh to protest a local corporation. New South Construction’s vehicles have been seen at the Winton NC facility. We don’t know what they are doing but their website advertises that they work on jails and detention centers. Pressure on them is one way we can fight that particular ICE facility. You can get more information at RSVP at this link.

Marilyn Hartman just put out a new issue of “Everyday Election Activism.” It is full of ways you can contribute to the one thing we absolutely have to do: make sure there is overwhelming and educated voter turnout in November. You can view it at this link.

Anna’s Bull City Indivisible Substack this week is full of great information (see the Skills Training on June 7). Kathryn’s Engaged Defenders 4 Democracy Substack every Friday details protests every day of every week throughout the Triangle and beyond.

On Monday, May 25 from 2 to 4 pm, many of us will be at A Memorial Day Observance for ALL Victims of War at Blue Hill Event Center, 200 S Elliott Rd, Chapel Hill. We will grieve for the countless lives lost and shattered by wars and recommit to our responsibility to end all wars, including US-Israeli wars on Iran, Lebanon, and Palestine.

For a taste of what the MAGA leadership of the General Assembly is doing, check out Mark’s meticulous and continuously updated spreadsheet. Of particular note is the NC Senate vote this week to cut early voting days from 17 to 10. This is vicious voter suppression for many reasons. For one, simultaneous actions by the newly MAGA leadership of the NC Board of Elections will mean that a lot of legitimate voters will get kicked off the rolls for no good reason, and only early voting allows us to re-register and vote the same day. The group that tracks such legislation as well as the NC Board of Elections meets weekly; if you want to join it, email democracycoutloud@gmail.com and indicate this in the subject heading.

We can learn more about the proposed Constitutional Amendment called “Right to Work” at a briefing on zoom, Tuesday May 26 at 7 pm. RSVP at this link.

Blueprint is repeating their indispensable Safety & Security School training. . You will learn signs and symbols of threat groups and de-escalation. It’s free and on June 6th from 10-4pm in Raleigh at the Fruit of Labor. You can RSVP at this link.

Sometime we all get overwhelmed by the news and by the things we feel we need to do. We can simply do one thing at a time and remember that when we need to rest, others are still doing the work. I am deeply grateful to Jewel, Karen B, Joe, Michelle, and the Raging Grannies, who made it possible for me and Randa to get some rest this week.

If you haven’t already, join some of the many people who are doing great organizing right now, people who inspire you. We are learning a lot from each other.

Everyone is welcome to join us every Tuesday from 11:30 am to 12:30 pm on zoom. “Doors open” at 11:00 am. Come early if you are new, and if you need the zoom link, email a tiny bit about yourself to Jewel at democracyoutloud@gmail.com.

Everyone is also welcome to join us every Thursday at 10 am for our guided 7 homecomings meditation, at the same zoom link.

We will never have a world without suffering but to cultivate the courage to keep growing, and to disrupt as much suffering as we can, is a great use of a human life.

love, Karen

“We who believe in freedom will not rest. They don’t know what they’ve done. But we do…Let’s get to work.” - Dr. Eddie S. Glaude Jr. Weekly Wrap Up 5/22/26

“It means having the courage to imagine, make mistakes, trust, listen, learn, think, and rethink; to resist punditry, pedestals, and perfection; to reject cynicism and embrace critical analysis; to plot; to hold on; to care and commune; to show up; to love.” - Miriame Kaba and Kelly Hayes, Let This Radicalize You: Organizing and the Revolution of Reciprocal Care

If everyone on the planet decided right now to participate in a way of life that allowed all beings to be free, safe, and resourced, we could do it. We just need enough people to agree to work in this direction.

The collapse of systems of violence is inevitable. Our work is to bring about a new world, partly by the things we do and partly by what we are becoming, both individually and collectively.

There is a discipline to focusing on the things that are coming to life, within and among us, instead of the things that are dying. A lot of us are learning to spend more time with nature, more time meditating, or some other life-giving choice. Meanwhile, we know we are facing the fight of our lives so we must be strategic in our organizing.

The most important fight is for democracy. O’Linda just sent me Marc Elias’s newsletter which outlines the Republicans’ plans to subvert the November election in the name of “election integrity.” He writes, “To be clear, there is nothing truthful or honest about what Republicans call ‘election integrity.’ Their operation has always been nothing but a voter suppression and election subversion machine, trying to mislead voters into thinking they are strengthening and protecting our electoral system.”

This is all very close to home for us in North Carolina. The newly MAGA-controlled NC Board of Elections will vote on a second set of voter-suppression laws soon. Democracy NC has done a beautiful job of explaining a few of them and showing us how to make the necessary public comment. Please read and respond at this link or at the NCBOE website here.

Mark Swallow and our Legislative Response Team are following all these rules as well as upcoming bills (and the budget) in the NCGA. If you are interested in working with them, email democracyoutloud@gmail.com and put “forward to Mark” in the subject line.

ACLU, Democracy Out Loud and Stop Detention Centers in NC are collaborating on a press event and rally outside the North Carolina General Assembly on May 26 at 2:00 pm. We demand that our lawmakers publicly condemn any plans to expand ICE detention in North Carolina and take all actions within their power to keep this cruelty out of our state and end ICE and CBP terror. You can RSVP at this link.

I highly recommend taking the time to listen to this interview with Graham Platner (NYT gift article), Democratic candidate for the US Senate in Maine.

You can register for the Strategy Briefing (below) at this link. It feels important to me.

I am sure there are so many other things I should be writing about, but that is all I have today. I’m about to take a few days off and am grateful that Joe and Karen Bearden are hosting the zoom and leading the discussion for our weekly meeting this Tuesday from 11:30 to 12:30 pm (“doors open” at 11 am). Thank you Michelle for hosting and leading our guided meditation on Thursday at 10 am. Please note these are both at different zoom links than usual; Jewel as usual will make everything possible by sending out the zoom links at 8 am on Tuesday and Thursday.

If you do not already get these emails from Jewel, email her at democracyoutloud@gmail.com and tell her a tiny bit about yourself.

The shift that is happening in this world system is also happening within each of us. We can’t fight it but we can learn to relax our aversion and soften around our resistance. Tending to our grief and rage and being very kind to ourselves and each other are some of the most important things we can do right now. Each of us is here on this planet at this particular time for a reason. We are discovering exactly what our work is, and we are doing it. We are becoming the people and becoming the change.

love and gratitude, Karen

“And now to all I say: Falter not. Lay bare the inequities of capitalism; expose the slavery of law; proclaim the tyranny of government; denounce the greed, cruelty, abominations of the privileged class who riot and revel on the labor of their wage-slaves.” - Albert Parsons, just before his execution in 1887

“Scarcity is a lie, a political invention, used to cover up vast reservoirs of capital and technology that could be marshaled to meet the needs of every person in this country and the world.” - Liz Theoharis and Noam Sandweiss-Back, You Only Get What You Are Organized to Take: Lessons From the Movement to End Poverty p. 10.