Hope, Resistance, and the Power of Community

In “Imagining the Unimaginable,” by Ellen Hopkins, Phoebe pours herself a double. Phoebe is embarrassed to find herself a little breathless watching the gardener tend the roses outside. She returns to the living room to read a story from Look magazine about movie awards, skipping a story about a wave of terror that threatens the South. Phoebe feels that she’s heard enough about uprisings.

In The Nightmare Before Kissmas, by Sarah Rausch, the Prince of Halloween’s hands hang at his sides, loosely clenched in fists, most of the fingers set with thick silver rings. An announcer calls out the royal house of Halloween—King Ichabod Hallow, Queen Carina Hallow, and the son Prince Hex Hallow. Prince Hex’s name rebounds in Coal’s head.

 Coal doesn’t know how to apologize for messing things up with Hex. Kris comments that the sleigh ride was something. Coal imagines he must be really morose, because Renee’s cooking is losing its appeal.

Hex texts Coal that he has learned a lot about him. Coal texts back that he is not going to call Hex “Daddy.” Hex responds with. “Hm. We’ll see.”

Coal lets Iris push him into a seat at a long table. Christmas has always been “masked behind performative lead-up celebration stunts.” For a second, being close to Hex is all that exists.

There is a gauze ghost on the bedroom floor because Hex tells Kris to fuck him. Hex feels like the situation is dangerous. Coal thinks he has experienced the full width of human emotion in the last forty minutes.

In Go Luck Yourself, Kris has realized that Iris is not in love with him. What keeps him pinned to the wall in the staircase is the realization that she knew he’d been trying to be in love with her their entire friendship, and that she had been dreading that proclamation the entire time. It had made sense that they would be together since they were 12 years old.

Whatever Kris felt toward the study-room guy “had to have been base-ass lust.” Reconsidering that as a bad choice of words, he admits “it was straight up lust.”

The amount that Christmas is planning to use as repayment to the winter holidays shrinks each time a chunk is stolen. It gives them the taste of what it was like for the winter holidays Kris’s dad stole from. It’s way too much to ask his dad to swallow his pride and fix this.

The tray Kris grabs has a pitcher of water and a plate piled high with bacon, eggs, tomatoes, mushrooms, and beans. The smell smashes into him. Kris slams the cloche that was covering the plate back down. Kris feels half out of his mind. With other people he was attracted to, he would have to actively remember that he liked them. In retrospect, that should have been a tell.

According to a post by the ACLU (”Trump’s Expanded Domestic Military Use Should Worry Us All”), concern is growing that President Trump is going to invoke the Insurrection Act to deploy National Guard troop sunder his command and deploy them within the U.S. The unprecedented use of the Insurrection Act to activate federal troops for mass deportation would also be unnecessary and wrong. The ACLU article goes on to recall the military’s properly limited role on U.S. soil and the dangerous steps the President is already taking.

In the background, DOGE is threatening non-profit organizations that provide a check on Donald Trump. They are doing so by tactics like withdrawing government funds, and infiltrating the organizations in order to rip them apart from the inside. Organizations are banding together to create a statement to tell the administration to leave philanthropic organizations alone.

The megalomaniac is definitely flying his fascist colors by attempting to destroy anyone who dissents or disagrees. Our only hope is for brave people in the executive branch to not follow unlawful orders and the U.S. Marshals, who answer to the judiciary, to hold Trump accountable for his deeds.

The Fourth Amendment and the right to due process applies to every person, not just U. S. citizens. Being a gang member is not a crime. Having a tattoo is not a crime. Being a willing part of a coordinated criminal activity is a conspiracy and is punishable under conspiracy and accessory laws. Even that, however, requires due process before conviction.

In Atlanta, Georgia, a Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) was issued in the case of 133 student plaintiffs across the country. The government has been ordered to reinstate the plaintiff’s statuses on the SEVIS system. Akiva Freidlin, Senior Staff Attorney at ACLU-Georgia said: “The Constitution protects everyone on American soil, so the Trump administration cannot ignore due process to unjustifiably threaten students with the loss of immigration status, and arrest and deportation.”

President Trump’s administration is being sued in federal court by the American Civil Liberties Union for targeting international students, and revoking their legal status. The unilateral and unlawful termination of their lawful student status creates dire circumstances for the students. They are also not able to obtain their degrees and work after graduation as allowed by the Optional Practical Training Program.

In West Virginia, a Marshall University student is having his F-1 visa revoked with only four weeks left until graduation. Aubrey Sparks, the ACLU West Virginia Legal Director, says that part of their federal lawsuit is to get clarity from the federal government. They want to know if he has the legal status to be here now to finish his last few weeks of classes and be able to graduate on a strong note as he deserves to.

Saturday, April 19 was another 50501 rally at the Utah State Capitol. I made this rally, intending to staff the ACLU of Utah booth. They had plenty of volunteers and lots of people stopping by wanting to know how they can help and how they can get involved, including a legal aide and a photographer who cares about disabled veterans. I helped inform people on the ways in which they can help: donate, sign up for action alerts, or contact the Community Engagement Director if they want to volunteer. Other people were asking about LGBTQ+ legal help, in which I directed them to the Rainbow Legal Clinic, and how to run for office as a Democrat, in which case I directed them to the Utah Stonewall Dems.

Listening to NPR, I learned that Elon Musk likens himself to the rich bumbling space captain Zaphod Beeblebrox, a character in The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, a nonsensical science fiction book that portrayed the lack of empathy of the ultra rich for those they felt beneath them. I also learned that his “anti-wokeness” is based on being forced to care enough for his transgender daughter for her to be put on puberty blockers. To Elon, his son is dead, but his healthy and happy daughter has disowned him because of his toxic attitude.

My experience is that when people start treating you like a ghost in your own home, you want to become one. It’s far better to leave the toxic environment and find a family that will support you for whoever you are.

Musk so identifies with the elite race that he feels that social safety nets are a waste, and it's better to weed out the poor and the hungry by letting them starve to death. He has no true interest in altruism. He worships the stars and any path that will get him to Mars. He would sooner leave everyone behind.

For our Easter service, Reverend Lora spoke about the message of friendship and hope. When cast in a certain light, Jesus was surrounded by friends, both male and female. They traveled together, they broke bread together, and they ministered together. This was very much the communal Nazarite tradition.

Jesus preached about having empathy and caring for one another in an environment where people were quick to judge and hate one another. He dared to go against the Roman and Philistine and Sadducee orders, and was tried and executed as a seditionist. His message of solidarity was too much of a threat to the powers that be. The story that he appeared to each of his friends after his death to inspire them to have hope is an inspiration to us to grieve for those we have lost, but also to keep their memory alive and to not give up hope that love and empathy, togetherness and belonging hold the promise of a better world than the one in which it is divided into spoils to be fought over.

Yesterday, I went up to the Utah Capitol for the March for Justice Rally. For some reason, I had the wrong time, but I was there when the Earth Action Rally started up. At our current CO2 emissions we are on track for an extinction-level event in the next 22 years. I listened as some seniors talked about how we used to have more glaciers. We have to each do what we can.

After the rally, I attended panels for the candidates for Utah State and Salt Lake County executive positions. After having listened to the responses, I have a good idea on where my votes will be cast. One executive committee position that will be decided one week later is the chair of issue caucus chairs. I have been campaigning for that seat, and picked up support from another caucus. I haven’t heard of anyone else running for that position, but it is one that is incredibly important, as it gives the caucuses a voice on the committee, and a chance to help the caucuses learn from one another.

This afternoon, the Utah Stonewall Dems hosted “Oh No They Didn’t.” This annual legislative wrap-up is an opportunity where we invite a panel of legislators and a couple of influential people as moderators to help the LGBTQ+ community connect with our legislators, understand how things operate, and learn how they can be involved. In a world that so often feels fractured by greed, fear, and cruelty, it is easy to lose hope—but we must remember that every act of solidarity, every moment of compassion, every rally, every vote, every conversation matters. Whether we are fighting for the rights of students, the dignity of immigrants, the survival of our planet, or the simple human right to be seen and loved for who we are, we carry forward a legacy of resistance and hope. We are the inheritors of movements built on courage and friendship, and like those who came before us, we are called to dream bigger, fight harder, and love deeper. Together, we can still shape a future that honors justice, embraces empathy, and believes, fiercely, in a better tomorrow.