Divest to Protest
Acknowledging Mistakes, Learning and Growing
The truth does not change according to our ability to stomach it.
- Flannery O’Conner
Times like these wake people up with identities like mine. I’m awakening yet again to advantages I’ve taken for granted. Its amazing how even minimally competent governance makes life seem that much easier - how the idea of not having daily drama in the news cycle feels like a far off peace.
I’m also learning it can be an obnoxious sort of peace as Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. once called it. My elders tell me again and again what we’re experiencing is not new, and as I educate myself I find they are in many ways right. I see and hear the same phrases and strategies from the past repeated, but executed with new and staggering technology and resources.
I’ve made lots of mistakes over the years and that’s just part of becoming. In many ways, I’ve been a gullible participant in the plunder of our being, though I was simultaneously recoiling and rebelling from an early age.
Yes, I’ve internalized mainstream cultural myths and diligently followed some of society’s most powerful rules. But, with the support of my family, being curious, asking questions, going away for higher education and learning new things, meeting new people, and stepping outside my immediate orbit, real life experience put the lie to certain non-realities. A fair number of these myths have gone by the wayside over the years, but the deepest of them continue to be unearthed.
I’m continually humbled by the degree to which I have assimilated a false narrative. The current US administration and its previous iteration supercharged these revelations.
Still, some of these nonconforming ideas can seem pretty radical to me. I feel a rigid shield rise up in my core when I hear what initially seems like some kind of far-out notion. I’ve learned to let that feeling pass and remain open - to keep listening. Currently its around tenant issues, which are newer to me, though I was a renter of terrible dwellings for years. I’m asking myself, what does it really mean to call a place home?
The president recently publicly told military leadership they should use US cities, which are homes to many beings, as their training grounds. I’ve heard this all before in my research. US military forces have a long and documented history of using the Caribbean, South and Central America for training, exercises, and other operations. Military interventions have been an enduring feature there for over a century (Chile, Cuba, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama...)
Now there is a deadly target practice happening in the international waters of the Caribbean. Perhaps there will soon be a deadly target practice in our homes. Perhaps there already has been.
I wish this was deeply disturbing to every heart. But, I recently read an article that reminded me that peoples’ lives are like so many disposable chess pieces to a certain caste of rich and powerful old men. At some point it becomes only the capital of humanity that matters. Capital proffers power, which in turn (often) diminishes humanity.
This may sound dramatic to some - and indeed most battles on US soil right now are being fought through lawsuits rather than with bombs. But I ask you, how much “ammunition” do you have at hand for such a battle? Legal battles are costly and time consuming. They can take months and even years, with typical lawyer fees being anywhere from $150-$1,000+ per hour including a retainer paid up front.
The cost of defending strategic lawsuits against public participation (SLAPP - frivolous lawsuits meant to silence criticism) is typically in the tens of thousands of dollars range. If the plaintiff voluntarily dismisses their claim any time before a court can rule on it, the defendant may not be able to recover any of their legal expenses. Luckily there are some organizations that are helping us with this, such as:
the American Civil Liberties Union (which has been protecting free speech and civil rights since the early 1900s)
Democracy Docket (which has valiantly been holding the ever eroding line for voting rights for almost a decade) and
Protect Democracy (which is currently leading the lawsuits against the administration’s indiscriminate use of force by “federal agents” and defending the frivolous lawsuit against James Comey).
This brings me around to two related points I hoped to make today and which I think deserve further elaboration and clarification.
The first is a point I have already written about a bit on the Midwest Alliance for Mindfulness blog. It is important that we acknowledge we are imperfect beings who are vulnerable to making mistakes. Its also important that we are willing and able to share our learning around these mistakes.
For this to be possible we will need to agree that, in fact, making mistakes is a necessary part of learning, growth and development. It will be helpful to normalize and value the sharing of mistakes as acts of service for the prevention of unnecessary suffering and supporting the greater good. For this to be possible we will also need a basic understanding of our interconnection, a capacity for self-awareness and self-regulation, universal empathy and wise compassion.
The second point, which I’d like to explore more here, is that the primacy of capital in our society has made it such that protest, though important, will not likely be enough to protect democracy or living beings on this planet.
We the people will have to withdraw our resources, this “lifeblood” that feeds an addiction. It is a cancer that eats away our hearts and minds, our deepest values, and will to do what it takes to collectively thrive. Not many people can resist its seduction.
More and more are agreeing that we must, as best we can, withdraw our commodified attention, time, our labor, and funds from those who have amassed vast power and are abusing it. We can instead reallocate these resources toward activities, entities, and policies that strengthen our collective well-being. But, we must stand in solidarity in order to make the cost of doing otherwise too high, too unattractive, too unpleasant to continue. And we have to offer a better alternative.
Divesting
Terrible policies are having and will continue to have “natural” consequences for those who have the most power to put a stop to them. We’ve already seen some of these consequences play out. For example undocumented immigrants wield about $300 billion in buying power, according to the American Immigration Council. The cruel (and some likely illegal) immigration tactics enforced by the current administration have negatively impacted:
farmers whose crops require hand-harvesting and are having to allow fruits and vegetables rot in the fields due to labor shortages.
69% of small businesses who (according to this study) say they have lost customers.
President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown has many recent immigrants terrified, hunkering down and holding onto their money…Big companies like Coca-Cola and Constellation Brands report that their Hispanic customers are withholding some of their $2 trillion in spending power. “What you’re seeing here is these big companies experiencing this across lots and lots of markets at a sufficient enough level for them to put it in their shareholder statements. What happens economically to the Latino community happens to the country.”
- Eric Rodriguez, Senior Vice President of Latino civil rights organization Unidos US
Until a well-organized divestment movement emerges, there are many things we can do according to our own particular needs and situation. The most obvious, but not necessarily easiest thing is to divest from the president and his cabinet members and supporters. Some of the companies they run or are involved with, contribute to or benefit from, directly or indirectly, the activities of the administration.
Did you know three of the largest asset management groups are deeply entangled with the Trump administration? A bit of work you can do is to disentangle your resources as much as possible from these entanglements. If you invest, check your portfolio and opt out of investments that belong to complicit companies or CEOs that finance harmful initiatives (such as these, private prison groups like CoreCivic, Geo Group, LaSalle Corrections, Management and Training Corporation, etc.).
BlackRock: The largest asset manager globally and in the U.S.
Vanguard Group: Often ranked second.
State Street Global Advisors: A significant manager.
Some more accessible things we can do to divest include:
Continue what is already working - join existing successful efforts such as the Amazon, Target and Tesla boycotts already in progress.
Follow the General Strike US and Blackout the System movements.
Leave major social media platforms that are owned by people or companies supporting the current administration and its harmful policies. I have been doing this gradually and am using Bluesky, Substack and Proton more and more.
Share, Reuse and Repair - Give your local craftspeople your dollars by getting your tools, garments and accessories cleaned, sharpened, serviced, and repaired. I took some classes on learning to sew. My husband has used youtube videos to learn to fix some things around the house. We have bought and sold on certain marketplaces. You could also look at second hand stores and donation places. Look up your local electronics recycler rather than sending those things to the landfill.
In Kansas City we have this wonderful organization called Re.Use.Full that connects people and nonprofits with donations. I have taken webinars with them. The offer repair cafes and classes on gardening, canning, green burials, and so much more.
Buy small business and local - Instead of buying from the entangled big players consider buying local, buying used, repairing or going without. For example we choose our locally owned Ace Hardware store rather than the big box hardware stores as much as possible.
Eat small and local - several of the larger grocery chains are entangled. We tend to use Costco and Trader Joe’s. We’ve also tried local CSAs though we’ve found it could be tricky in the city with just two people. Farmer’s markets can be wonderful too! And maybe grow a “victory garden“ this spring!
How are these two points related? Part of what keeps many people stuck in inaction is a fear of making mistakes. Its like the saying about the perfect being the enemy of the good. It helps me to remember how little ones learn to walk, with lots of support, one faltering step at a time and maybe a few goose eggs too!
And if we stay humble, we can inoculate ourselves against the addictive aspects of power. Power can amplify our human vulnerabilities, so self-awareness is very important, but transparency, accountability and openness to feedback is probably even more important. Checks and balances have been dismantled by our current administration, so its left to We the People to withdraw our support.
I hope many of you may be joining me at one of the No Kings democracy protection events happening across the nation October 18th. In my area, check out the Boots on the Ground Midwest calendar which is chock full of events.
With Appreciation,
Tracy
Resources
Divest to Protest document on Proton
Saturday October 11, 2025 Savor the Season: Mindfulness Lessons from Nature with Jeanie Bunker & Julia Billquist from 10 am – 1:30 pm
at Shawnee Mission ParkFinal Mondays 7pm - 8:30pm EDT Resilient Activist Conversations - An online gathering offers the opportunity to connect with a community that gets you, share your current emotional experience, and gain resilience insights to sustain you in your activist practice
Thursdays at 9 am Central time Meditation Practice in person with Nettie Zan at Aimwell Yoga Kansas City (free)
October 31, 2025 at noon Central time Mindfulness and the Crisis of Belonging: Finding Our Ground in a Divided World with Oren J. Sofer
Healing Justice: A Whole Person Wellness Initiative to Reduce Recidivism and Crime in Kansas City starting January 2026
Trump considers $10 billion bailout for farmers as tariffs disrupt the market - Farmers in North Dakota and Ohio and the President of the Iowa Farmers Union talk about the current crisis and its cascading effect on their communities.
Re.Use.Full: Connecting people with stuff to donate with nonprofits that can put it to good use.
What Democracy Looks Like: an eight-part report from Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington for reforming the federal government (Dec 2020)
Gerald Zernig, Christoph Hiemke; Making the Case for ‘Power Abuse Disorder’ as a Nosologic Entity. Pharmacology 31 May 2017; 100 (1-2): 50–63.
Ecopsychepedia - a trusted source for current research and thinking on how psychological factors drive the climate crisis, how the worsening crisis affects us psychologically, and what we can do about it
In April 2023 Stephen Miller suggested blowing up migrants’ boats with drones arguing people onboard ship heading to US were not protected by constitution, according to Book by Miles Taylor
Almanac.com: Plant a Victory Garden - Find out why we call it a victory garden, what’s planted in a victory garden, and how to start a victory garden in modern times.
