What Is My Line?
A Contemplation for Greater Clarity and How We Are Caring and Sharing
Dear Ones,
As seems to be the pattern this season, I’ve been writing and rewriting this newsletter under shifting sands with all that is arising and changing - until, in the 11th hour, some common thread emerges. This time it’s a question that has been arising over and over in my conversations and in my own thoughts; “What is your line?”
Sunday night I attended another soulful jazz performance by my brother and his musician friends at a local venue. It was fun to meet new people and experience songs from their new album - until I started to realize I was having trouble breathing. This has happened on rare occasions before, so I recognized I was having an allergic reaction to the unfiltered wheat beer my husband picked out for us to enjoy while we listened.
I let my husband know what was going on, but ultimately I had a decision to make. I wanted to be there in support of my brother, spend time in community and I was really enjoying myself, but I had no allergy meds or rescue inhaler with me. At what point might this cross the line into a health crisis that could impact others as well? What was my line - my boundary - at which point I simply had to leave? When any deep breath I took resulted in an uncontrollable urge to cough, I decided it was time to go.
Last week I met with several friends old and new. We’ve been talking about what’s happening to the government of our country and how it's affecting us and those we know and love. We’ve also been sharing how we’ve been responding, how we’re caring for ourselves and each other, and our contingency plans for an uncertain future. Many are wondering about certain “lines in the sand.”
I have a number of friends who are both US citizens and immigrants. These friends make our country better and stronger in so many ways. Yet they are finding themselves in the horrible position of asking, “Do I need to consider leaving this country on my own terms before I’m suddenly kicked out?” This is how they really feel.
More than 1,600 [US scientists] answered our poll; [75%] said they were looking for jobs in Europe and Canada.
- Nature, a leading international weekly journal of science
This is not hysteria. Something like this happened to US Citizens of Japanese descent during World War II who were wrongfully removed from their homes and imprisoned in camps in the name of national security. They lost their jobs, businesses, homes, and savings. Private businesses and predatory land speculators made huge profits from their forced labor and theft of their belongings.
Much better, my friends rightly speculate, to prepare their children, sell their homes, and protect their assets, then to be suddenly ejected or to never return from a trip abroad.
As expected, more people are being disappeared with increasing impunity. If you dare, notice what arises in you as you view the chilling video below of Tufts international graduate student Rumeysa Ozturk (a valid F-1 visa holder) being abducted off the street by masked people outside her home in Massachusetts (though no charges had been filed against her).
Being socialized in this country as a woman, even with my other relative advantages, I was riveted. I can’t imagine the terror of this.
Anyone could dress all in black, claim they are government officials, and abduct any of us off the street to extort money, use us for other purposes, or simply extract revenge. Removing the requirement for federal officials and their proxies to identify themselves and the right to due process has serious consequences for us all. Kidnapping is big business in countries that cannot or will not protect their people.
Now imagine the consequences if a person with certain targeted identities understandably “stood their ground” against masked unidentified abductors that turned out to be federal agents or their proxies. During our Finding Steady Ground meeting this weekend we expressed what it has been like to carry the realities of this version of America around with us in our daily lives.
This has been the hidden reality of some people here in the US all along.
Is this your line? There is nothing to stop this from happening to you or I except more of us expressing our unified, unequivocal, nonviolent dissent. We are Ozturk, she is us.
The question is not whether speaking out carries risks; of course it does. The question is whether the risks of silence have become greater—and increasingly, the answer seems clear.
- Mike Brock, The Silence of the Reasonable
Voting is essential, but it may not be enough. Trump has begun the predicted effort to try to end free and fair elections, including the 2026 Midterms, through disenfranchising voters and causing chaos. He is announcing this openly. Those who have held fast to the theory of this president simply being a blundering bombast and remained stalwart in their faith in democracy are now acknowledging there may be something more troubling going on.
Is this your line? I will talk about this further as well as other cruelties and injustices after the paywall.
If the administration is working not to save money but rather to destroy the government, the cuts that threaten the well-being of American citizens make more sense.
- Heather Cox Richardson, Historian
KMBC News 9 coverage of the Tesla Takedown in Kansas City Saturday
Hope in the Darkness
There is hope in the darkness. I was surprised and touched Sunday night when my brother dedicated a song to me he wrote; a song of hope called Soon To Be. When I’ve asked myself “What is my line?” it has been around knowing when to shift the bulk of my energies from resistance to acceptance.
Like my brother’s song, I still feel much hope in what might be. I continue to resist, imagining in some small way I’m helping to decrease suffering and making space for a liberatory future.
Musk is indicating he will not overstay the 130 day limit as a “special government employee”, which will end May 30th. This is evidence we haven’t made this as profitable or fun for him as he imagined. In the meantime, the people are uniting in solidarity in ways that we haven’t in a long time.
We are inviting friends and neighbors into our living rooms to reach out to voters in postcard campaigns. A group attended by a friend of mine, sent 120 postcards to voters about the April 1st special mail ballot elections in Kansas using $95 worth of donated stamps and postcards, markers and pens.
There’s also Project Yellow Brick Road by Boots on the Ground. Folks are sending yellow bricks to their Kansas senators to help them “find their way back home” (a reference to the famous Wizard of Oz movie). These are kitchen table events where friends and neighbors paint little cardboard boxes gold, sign them with their name and city/county, and add a personal note. Then they either mail them to their senator or deliver them directly to their offices.
...we need to find ways to bring people around the table again — doing so is critical for our individual and collective wellbeing.
- Jan-Emmanuel De Neve, director of Oxford’s Wellbeing Research Centre, professor of economics at the University of Oxford, and an editor of the World Happiness Report
One of my meetings this week was with Lindsay from The Voter Network. Her team is providing reliable, nonpartisan election resources to Kansas so they can feel more informed and engaged and make their voices heard. If you live in Kansas you can volunteer to become a Voting Ambassador and join a team to encourage everyone you know to get out and vote in upcoming elections. They also offer a toolkit of voter resources.
Last weekend I had the conundrum of choosing between the March for Democracy protest, a Tesla Takedown, and a Finding Steady Ground gathering. I was reflecting on how wonderful it is that we now have so many options for nonviolent resistance!
We’re also finding creative ways to source goods and services that are in greater alignment with prosocial values. Since money and power are primary drivers of this administration, withdrawing financial support of their supporters is key - and we are seeing that this type of nonviolent resistance is effective.
For many years now I’ve been increasingly turning to Etsy instead of Amazon to purchase handmade, customized, or repurposed items from the US rather than mass produced items of uncertain origin. Below is a photo of a slipcover designed and sewn by a woman in Florida for our disintegrating pleather ottoman. I will share some other suggestions for financial resistance after the paywall.
Ultimately, I believe that we need to make cultural and systemic shifts that help ensure we don’t repeat the mistakes we’ve been enacting upon country and the planet. The 13th edition of the World Happiness Report was recently released and it reinforced what many of us know in our hearts to be true - happiness is found where people are caring for and sharing with each other.
...people are much happier living where they think people care about each other.
- John F. Helliwell, economist at the University of British Columbia and founding editor of the World Happiness Report.
Though there are unlikely to be concrete answers, it can be a useful practice to ask yourself and to discuss with friends, “What is my line?” What might cause me to courageously and openly take a stand, to inconvenience myself by divesting from familiar systems, to move from resistance to acceptance and survival, or to beat a hasty retreat?” Gaining greater clarity around these questions can help guide our actions while there is still some freedom to speak and act. Maybe it already has…
After the paywall, I will explore some of the most pressing issues that are informing my response to this question, as well as some more reasons for hope - and of course I will provide many resources. As always, reach out and ask me to lend a hand if financial barriers prevent you from subscribing, but you’d really like to read on.
Wishing you Clarity and Happiness Through Caring and Sharing,
Tracy
