Nine Is A Magic Number (It's Three 3s)
“‘You can't be neutral on a moving train,' I would tell them. . . . Events are already moving in certain deadly directions, and to be neutral means to accept that.” - Howard Zinn
Good morning, hot mamas and papas and awesome beings,
(Don't usually do two days in a row but the Google Maps things sparked something.)
I just want to say two quick things today. Do not obey in advance and Look at the helpers, a la Mr. Rogers.
1. DO NOT OBEY IN ADVANCE
I know things are hard and scary. I know many of us are furious that we’re in this place at all and are focused on who to blame. There may be a time for that, but it is not now.
We are here now.
We need to present now.
We need to act now.
Not by scanning the news or doom scrolling, but identifying how we can respond in ways rooted in our values and beliefs. By not obeying, we resist these actions from being normalized.
As you all know, I don’t usually do two days in a row, but hearing that Google was planning to change its maps from Gulf of Mexico and Denali and made it feel more urgent. Google going along very quickly with no resistance on this and this bodes really badly. More on that another time maybe. (https://www.reuters.com/world/us/google-maps-rename-gulf-mexico-gulf-america-us-users-2025-01-27/)
It would have mattered a lot if Google hadn’t just gone along. They didn’t. Now it’s time for us. There are various ways - write letters, put in corrections in Google once it changes.
To be clear Google had other options. For example, they could have done what the Associated Press is doing. https://apnews.com/article/ap-style-gulf-mexico-mount-mckinley-denali-13bd46d636cef6f2608bd5d2c3d907ee
Here’s Timothy Snyder talking about “Do Not Obey In Advance.” https://youtu.be/9tocssf3w80?si=Ts0taFh8D9HFO2Dz
2. LOOK AT THE HELPERS
You will not be alone. People are resisting. While it’s impossible to avoid the news that it’s hard and scary, what we may miss is that people are also doing incredible things. They are responding and resisting the power grab that is happening.
For example, as part of the erasure of DEI initiatives, the US Air Force planned to eliminate the mention of Tuskegee Airmen and Women Air Force Service Pilots. There was an immediate outcry and that stopped.
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c74e175p40qo
Federal employees leaking the memos on DEI, etc. The ALT National Parks accounts on social media.
Public school officials who are making sure ICE can’t get in. The Quakers have sued to maintain churches as sites of sanctuary.
Attorneys offering pro bono services to the DOJ staff terminated for doing their job on the Trump case.
There are more stories that I don’t have time to list and so many stories that we do not know.
Be a part of this.
Do not sit idly by.
If you want ideas, I can help you find them. Any area, any amount of time, virtual, in person. What are you interested in? What is your capacity? There is a place for you.
We only get through this together.
I love you, e
Kindness, Naomi Shahib Nye
Before you know what kindness really is
you must lose things,
feel the future dissolve in a moment
like salt in a weakened broth.
What you held in your hand,
what you counted and carefully saved,
all this must go so you know
how desolate the landscape can be
between the regions of kindness.
How you ride and ride
thinking the bus will never stop,
the passengers eating maize and chicken
will stare out the window forever.
Before you learn the tender gravity of kindness
you must travel where the Indian in a white poncho
lies dead by the side of the road.
You must see how this could be you,
how he too was someone
who journeyed through the night with plans
and the simple breath that kept him alive.
Before you know kindness as the deepest thing inside,
you must know sorrow as the other deepest thing.
You must wake up with sorrow.
You must speak to it till your voice
catches the thread of all sorrows
and you see the size of the cloth.
Then it is only kindness that makes sense anymore,
only kindness that ties your shoes
and sends you out into the day to gaze at bread,
only kindness that raises its head
from the crowd of the world to say
It is I you have been looking for,
and then goes with you everywhere
like a shadow or a friend.
[originally written on 1.28.2025]
