Today I Feel Like I'm Climbing up a Crumbling Hill. How's YOUR Day Going?
In this morning’s Julie’s Pod Coffee Hangout, I told folks I felt like I was climbing up a crumbling hill. Picture it. I climb, but with every step some bit of the soil beneath me crumbles. I brace myself with my hands. I press my knees and hips into the clumps of soil for stability. I’m holding on to it to hold myself up, and I will fall without this hill, but this hill will also fall if I don’t hold it together.
Picture the effort, the futility, and the madness.
Yep that’s how I’m feeling on this Thursday as my phone alerts me that the SAVE Act has passed the House and threatens the right to vote for all people whose current name doesn’t match their birth certificate, as Kilmar Abrego Garcia’s wife is moved to a safe house because DHS exposed her address on X, that the U.S. Department of the Interior will fast-track drilling for oil and gas on public lands, as DOGE continues to dismantle U.S. aid to suffering people around the world.
My lizard brain wants to fight, freeze, or flee but I’m a grown ass person with a bunch of degrees and responsibilities in the twenty-first century. And what I’m feeling right now is What role is there in this for most of us who just feel helpless because we’re not on the front line? But if I can’t help with any of this, then do I exist? Do I want to exist if I’m not able to help with this?
Saying it aloud helps me cope. And I’m saying this to you because I know I’m not alone.
Share YOUR Truth:
What’s getting you down about the impact of the Trump administration, today? Reply in the comments. We’re in this together.
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xo
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I have a number of Asian friends, some Chinese. With the increased news of the Chinese tarriffs I hear too many people vilifying "the Chinese" without real substantiation of anything but a mimicing of what is on social media. The Chinese tradition, 2000 years long, has been one of trade - they have a rich trading history (silk road, maritime silk road) and, to my knowledge, have only fought when attacked so they are not the aggressors from a physical standpoint. As our trading doors close, they will open more other places in the world. The Chinese businesses are adept at training personnel to design new products and new manufacturing systems and that is a strength that is hard to duplicate in Western nations. I am tired, tired, tired of the "othering" to find someone to make our country the victim. We are no longer, as a nation, working to our strengths and losing, by the day much brainpower and manpower. This makes no sense to me, to become isolated and lose our voice on the world stage.
Every bit of it gets me down. And yet I persist by attending every rally I can, by volunteering for my local group that protects our undocumented community, by supporting THE RESISTANCE orgs like ACLU. Action battles my feelings of hopelessness, and yet I fear for my millennial kids and my very first, soon-to-arrive grandchild. SHE also gives me hope ❤️.