Freedom Writers 3/8/2025
The power of solidarity and hope
Hello, Freedom Writers!
In Today’s Post:
The power of solidarity and hope: Head high. Shoulders back. Don’t be shocked, be prepared.
Reading List - ‘This is going to pinch a little bit.’
INFO SHEETS - For Your Information
Actions > Actions > Actions
(If you’re reading this in the Substack app, you can use the little bars to the left to navigate between sections.)
The Power of Solidarity and Hope: Head high. Shoulders back. Don’t be shocked, be prepared.
We’re all feeling it. The news is ugly. It’s depressing and scary. And, unfortunately, it’s very, very real.
All of us are on edge. It’s important to acknowledge that, because the most important thing we can do right now is to find ways to support each other.
How do Ukrainians face these threats, Every. Single. Day? - Solidarity and hope.
How have African Americans faced these kinds of threats – THOUSANDS of times – throughout our history? - Solidarity and hope.
From Trump kissing Putin’s ring instead of returning the stolen children to Ukraine, to Chainsaw Musk and his teenaged mutant ninja racists slicing our democracy to shreds.
From the thin neck of Medicaid draped over the chopping block, to tariffs strangling our farmers.
From sea to shining sea, the news is heart breaking.
But our job remains the same: It all boils down to solidarity and hope.
It’s not going to help anyone to stop listening to the news.
A dear friend of mine told me recently that she had to put herself on a ‘news diet,’ so she wouldn’t get too depressed. I couldn’t agree more. Do what you must to protect your mental health, but don’t stop listening to the news altogether.
If Trump is allowed to, he’ll try to shut down our news sources (AP, NPR, MSNBC, etc). Be grateful that we still have access to them, at least for the time being. Meanwhile, we need to fortify our alternative networks of communication like Indivisible, this Substack and many other sources. If Trump is successful at shutting down our free press, these may be the only channels we’ll have left.
So, please, don’t be shocked. Be prepared. We can’t come together in solidarity and hope if everyone buries their head in the sand. We have to hold our heads high, shoulders back and stay tuned.
Reading/Watching List - ‘This is going to pinch a little bit.’
You know, when you hear a nurse say, “This is going to pinch a little bit,” but you can clearly see that she’s holding a BIG f***ing needle … you know she’s lying. It’s not going to pinch a little; it’s going to pinch A LOT.
Yeah, well, that’s what this reading list is like. So, govern yourself accordingly.
Facism is b**tch. It only comes in yucky, scary colors. No pastels.
But, the reason I put this list together because a lot of people have been talking to me lately about how ‘young people don’t really have a clue about what happened in Nazi Germany in the 1940’s,’ or Myanmar in 2016 for that matter. News flash: It’s not just young people. There are a lot of old farts out there who are also unaware … or just don’t want to remember. If you’re brave, and you want to be prepared rather than shocked, this is a list for you.
These works were selected with 2 things in mind:
First, all of these works are fiction because fiction can tell the story of the kind of choices we may all have to make far better than non-fiction can. As Sapiens (i.e., ‘fiction animals’), we learn things much better from stories than we do from non-fiction. This is both a blessing and a curse, when you consider that’s also the reason we’re so vulnerable to information silos … but that’s another post. The point is, fiction helps us learn quickly and deeply, so in this situation, fiction is a good thing, and there’s some excellent fiction out there on this topic!
All of the books/videos/films on this list end with the good people prevailing over the odds. Just barely, mind you, but, yes, most of them do prevail.
That second point there is the reason you won’t see “Anne Frank - The Diary of a Young Girl" on the list. Anne Frank was killed by the Nazis. Make no mistake about it: Fascism kills. Information silos kill, and AI algorithms that create information silos also kill, as they did in Myanmar. There’s no easy way to face up to these ugly truths about who we are as Sapiens. We really do all this nasty stuff. But stories about people who overcame Facism are helpful. They remind us that, even though we’re Sapiens, we’re not just mindless zombies. We DO have free will. (And that means we have a responsibility to use it.) We CAN make laws to govern information silos (i.e., the Fairness Doctrine) and we have made great societies that work for good. It’s our collective choice. Like we kinda, sorta, almost did in the US between the 1960’s and now. And like Canada and Europe are still doing.
So, to get our country back on track with them, we’re going to need A LOT of solidarity and hope. That’s really what this reading/watching list is about. These stories are all historically accurate tales of people who went through the hell of Facism and came out on the other side.
So, if you’d rather be prepared than shocked, read/watch some of these:
Books:
All the Light We Cannot See - Anthony Doerr -This story has the best depiction of how young boys were indoctrinated to become Nazi soldiers. Note the attention the Nazis paid to replacing these young men’s fathers with Hitler. That’s a standard Kremlin tactic, and one Trump is starting to mimic.
The Nightingale - Kristin Hannah - A great story of two sisters - one who resisted the Nazi occupation of France and the other who, for the sake of protecting her children, chose to comply. These are the choices Facism forces us to make. Unforgettable.
The Paris Library - Janet Skeslien Charles - This book is based on the true stories of a group of women who worked in an English library in Paris during the Nazi occupation in the 1940’s. They, too, were forced to make painful, and ultimately scarring decisions, about what to go along with vs. what to stand up to. Great story.
Gone to Soldiers - Marge Piercy - This book is an epic about WW2. Just read it. I don’t want to say too much here because this is hallowed ground. If you read it, you’ll see what I mean.
TV Series:
All the Light We Cannot See - Netflix - This short series is every bit as good as the book, but note that the series ends differently than the book. I think both endings are really cool. I’d love to hear your thoughts.
A French Village - This series is – hands down – the best depiction of the insidious ‘boiling the frog in the saucepan’ effect that Facism does so well. It shows you step-by-step how one small French village of “good people” were taken over by the Nazis occupying France in the 1940’s. It shows you exactly how the Nazis made simple, compromising **and terrifying** requests of the villagers, which – inch-by-painful-inch – made them complicit in incarcerating ALL of the Jews in their community, and then allowing them to be trucked off to concentration camps. If you’ve ever wondered how the ‘good’ people of Germany could have allowed Hitler to take over their country, this series explains it very clearly. Every American should watch this.
To my knowledge, this excellent series is only available on MHZ Choice, which is a European platform. The series is in French, but has English subtitles. Billy J and I easily binged the entire series within our 1-month free subscription to the MHZ Choice platform. We encourage you to do the same.
INFO SHEETS - For Your Information
If you’re new to the Freedom Writers, WELCOME! Check out these INFO SHEETS with lots of great background information:
Actions > Actions > Actions
These actions are designed for you to take with your Action Group or by yourself. Your ‘Action Group’ can be any group that meets regularly to protect our country’s democracy and freedom. It can be a church group, an Indivisible or Swing Left group, a Democratic Town Committee, or even just a pro-active group of neighbors. Just meeting regularly to talk about these issues is important by itself. These are scary times and we need to stay connected with each other. Additionally, we’re going to need thousands of these groups to be educated and ‘at the ready.’ So, whether you join an existing group and swell its numbers so it can divide into 2 groups, or you just start your own, the bottom line is: find a group, build it up, then teach others how to do the same.
Action 1: Call your Elected Officials - This is top priority - It really does make a difference!
If you’re new to calling your Elected Officials, PLEASE read our 5 Calls App info sheet to get started.
If you’re not sure why calling Elected Officials is so critically important, PLEASE watch these videos from AOC.
Then use the 5 Calls app to make these 3 sets of calls TODAY! You should find these 3 exact titles in the app.
Support Ukraine: Military Aid and Intel Sharing Halted
Protect the Department of Education - Trump EO Expected Soon
Request to Attend a March Recess Town Hall - Especially if you have a Republican Rep/Senator.
Action 2: Don’t Let Trump Cut Medicaid
The American Cancer Society needs us to contact our elected officials to protect Medicaid. Click here and follow their instructions: Medicaid
Action 3: 40-Day Boycott of Target stores
That’s Fredrick Douglass speaking there. He reminds us how long we’ve been fighting these fights. Standing up for solidarity and hope sometimes means we need to make sacrifices. For the next 40 days, that means we need to show Target our demand. For some great background information on this boycott, read this article from the AP.
Then go to https://www.targetfast.org/ to read about and participate in this action. It’s not just a boycott; it’s a boycott with data.
Action 4: Today! - March 8 Day of Action Events - From the Women’s March.
This International Women’s Day, March 8, Americans are fighting back to protect our freedoms—just like generations before us who marched, organized, and refused to stay silent. Use this link to find an on March 8 near you: Unite & Resist: A National Day of Action.
Hi, Ken. I believe only subscribers are allowed to leave a comment, however, all free subscribers should be allowed to comment. So, if the person you send it to is interested in becoming a subscriber (free or paid) they should be able to comment.
- Erin
If I forward this email will the recipient be able to contact you through the "leave a comment" link? Doing my best to spread you valued insights!