Democracy Out Loud #435:We cannot be silent
Now is the time to press forward with everything we've got.
Dear friends,
Authoritarian actions by this administration and its minions are escalating, so the courts, the Congress, all institutions, and especially we the people must escalate our opposition. The next few weeks, there is a lot going on, and many opportunities to join the fight for democracy and freedom.
At the top of our minds this month are the state and federal budgets. The NC budget that passed the NC House is problematic, but the NC Senate budget might turn out worse. Find out who represents you in the NC General Assembly and call your Senator about what you do and do not want to see in the budget.
The US House of Representatives passed a dystopian budget which now goes to the US Senate. We need to call Senators (202) 224-3121, or use 5 calls.org. We plan to show up at both our Senators’ offices on June 18 at 11 am. Save this date, and let us know if you can work on press, outreach, or logistics on that day.
We hope to join with the Union of Southern Service Workers, the Poor People’s Campaign, and the NC Justice Center for other actions, likely at community health centers, hospitals, and food pantries beginning on June 9. Stay tuned for details.
The budget is terrible in every way we can imagine.
Massive cuts to Medicaid and food stamps (SNAP) partly in the form of work requirements in order to fund massive tax cuts for the wealthiest 1% (161 billion dollars in 2026 alone). Senators who say are not cutting Medicaid are lying, because they support the work requirements, which have been shown over and over not to increase employment but to add to administrative costs and kick eligible people off their health care. (See Work Requirements Produce the Same Result Over and Over.) Also, there are provisions in the federal budget which will end North Carolina’s Medicaid expansion; this covers 650,000 people. This budget will cause millions of people who desperately need food assistance to lose it.
All these cuts are so that the extremely wealthy can continue their tax cuts.
The budget contains an increase in Trump’s border and immigration agenda of 160 billion dollars bringing Department of Homeland Security’s annual expenditures to 260 billion dollars, most of which will be used to imprison undocumented people and move them out of the country. This increase will expand the number of detention beds from 41,000 to 100,000. It will fatally embolden ICE.
You can phonebook with Indivisible: Stop the Trump Tax Scam on Wednesdays and Thursdays at 11 am. Find out more and register at this link.
Tomorrow, Sunday June 1, you can join the online Resistance Lab from 11 am to 1 pm with US Representative Pramila Jayapal. A previous one got rave reviews. Find out more at this link.
On June 7 at Avila Center for Community Leadership in North Durham, Swamp Jam will bring together environmental activism, the arts, and the community creating the world we want to live in. It is free; you can register at this link.
On June 11 at 7 pm in Fuquay-Varina, you can learn about the SAVE act and how to empower your vote. Find out more and register at this link.
The Trump Administration is pushing hard to deport millions of undocumented and legal immigrants, and we have to push back. More about this as we go along, but just for today, the Venezuelan community in North Carolina - approximately 25,000 people - are going to have to navigate the consequences of the US Supreme Court decision to end their temporary protected status. You can find out more as well as how to help at this link.
Find a June 14 protest near you and join it. We need more people out on the streets than ever before in the history of our country to counteract the message of Trump’s simultaneous military parade, which will cost at least $45 million dollars.
A whole lot of bills will be coming up in the NC General Assembly starting this week, and Mark Swallow’s Legislative Response Team is watching all of them. You can see his spreadsheet of bad bills they are monitoring at this link, and join the team by emailing him at DemocracyOutLoud@gmail.com.
If you can, join Maddie on Tuesday June 3 from 8 to 9:30 am as she registers voters outside the General Assembly to bring attention to HB 127, which will make it illegal to register voters (NOT kidding!). You can find out more and sign up at this link. There will be a committee meeting at 10 am in the Legislative Building (North Carolina General Assembly) in room 1328. This is the last chance for possible public comments about this egregious voter suppression law. Contact your NC Representative and Senator and the bill’s sponsors: Warren, Blackwell, Echevarria, and Loftus. Find their email and phone numbers at this link.
Our next book group is on June 4, Wednesday, at 3 pm. We are reading White Poverty: How Exposing Myths about Race and Class can Reconstruct Democracy by Rev. Barber and Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove. Email Marci at democracyoutloud@gmail.com if you want to be added to the book group. The zoom link will be different from our usual one.
Neighbors on Call and County2County are sponsoring phone and in-person canvasses. These are always well-organized and perfectly targeted to make effective use of your time. This is a really good way to fight for our democracy.
I’m leaving tomorrow for Washington DC to take part in the Monday action with Rev. Barber and the Poor People’s Campaign (you can stream it at this link), and I hope to join the Tuesday climate action there on Tuesday (see toolkit to participate at home). Karen and Joe Beardon will lead our zoom on Tuesday June 3. Everyone is invited to join us every Tuesday from 11:30 am to 12:30 pm (“doors open” at 11 am; come early if you are new). If you don’t have the link, email Jewel at DemocracyOutLoud@gmail.com.
All indications are that we are headed into a very rough time, so we are all called to do what we can. Enough of us standing up for human decency in our own way according to our own capacity is immeasurably powerful. May we ground ourselves in all that is nourishing and gives us joy, and stay connected to the people who we love and trust. We can meet this moment and expand.
love, Karen
“Even a wounded world is feeding us. Even a wounded world holds us, giving us moments of wonder and joy. I choose joy over despair. Not because I have my head in the sand, but because joy is what the earth gives me daily and I must return the gift.” - Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants
(After watching Beyonce’s concert, The Reclaiming of America,) “I felt jolted into a realization. The idea of losing the country can become a self-fulfilling prophecy. Fuck that capitulation. She is not capitulating. You shouldn’t either. This is her country. This is your country. This is my country. Reclaim it. Remember that politics is downstream of culture, and you have to make your case in the culture if you are to have any hope down where politics begins. Refuse the stories that erase you. Refuse the idea that they can steal your country from you.” - Anand Giridharadas, The Inc, May 29, 2025
“The greatest thing you can do in a season of lies is to tell the truth.” - Rev William Barber, in conversation with Robert Reich, “Our Moral Moment”