Democracy Out Loud #440.1:Honoring the legacy of John Lewis

This week, Say something. Do something.

Dear Friends,

This week, we remember and honor Congressman John Lewis. We can do this in many ways: by reading about him, watching movies and videos about him online, reading his words, showing up on Thursday July 17, and taking other actions related to defending our democracy. I do not need to tell you we are in an emergency now. We can invite his courage and determination into ourselves and our movement.

“We had a moral obligation to say something, to do something, to speak up and speak out. We may get arrested, we may get thrown in jail, we may be beaten, left bloody, left for dead. But we couldn’t stop. And it became a way of life for many young people….When you see something that is not right, not fair, you have to say something. You have to do something.” - The Honorable John Lewis, The Soul of America

Facing down Jim Crow required painstaking organizing, deep faith, and astonishing courage. We need all of that right now. Voting rights, the Constitution, and our democracy are being simultaneously destroyed by our state and federal governments.

This Thursday July 17 is the anniversary of Congressman John Lewis’s passing. It is also Good Trouble Lives On, the first mass mobilization since June 14. You can find the one closest to you at this link.

Check out Southern Pines, Asheboro, Hillsborough, Raleigh, Pittsboro, Chapel Hill, Durham and Wake Forest, or see the entire map and put in your zip code for details. (I’ll be speaking in Wake Forest thanks to Dewey.)

“The Trump administration is launching a full-scale attack on our civil and human rights. In North Carolina, the GOP in the State Assembly are similarly working to eliminate voters from the rolls and make it more difficult to vote. But we know the truth: in America, the power lies with the people, and we’re rising to prove it. This is more than a protest; it’s a moral reckoning. A continuation of the movement Lewis helped lead, and a new front in the struggle for freedom.” (GoodTroubleLivesOn.org)

We have to out-organize and out-mobilize the now fully-funded police state that the Trump administration is busy building.

Mindy helpfully included the definition of a concentration camp in her most recent newsletter. See also the description of the new one in the Florida everglades, where people with no criminal history are being held in cages under deplorable conditions.

Call your Senator and Representative:

Thom Tillis: D.C. (202) 224-6342 Raleigh (919) 856-4630 Charlotte (704) 509-9087

Ted Budd: D.C. (202) 224-3154 Raleigh (984) 349-5061 Advance (336) 941-4470

Find your Representative

or use 5calls.org or subscribe to ChopWoodCarry Water

While taking action, we have to allow ourselves to feel our grief about all of this. And of course everything we do is in the illuminating, worsening shadow of what is happening in Gaza and the rest of Palestine. Jewish Voice for Peace continues to be at the forefront of this fight, and one simple thing you can do is join them. Their most recent campaign for those starving in Gaza is Let Gaza Live! by Triangle Jews For Justice. You can read about it and respond at this link.

Democracy Out Loud continues to meet every Tuesday on zoom from 11:30 am to 12:30 pm - “doors open” at 11 am; please come early if you are new so we can welcome you. If you need the zoom link, write to Jewel at DemocracyOutLoud@gmail.com.

At that same zoom link is our guided meditation every Thursday at 10 am. This meditation was developed by Lama Rod Owens, who will be giving a public talk at Eno River Unitarian Universalist Fellowship at 7 pm on Thursday July 24. You can register at this link or pay $15 at the door. This is a teacher attuned to what is happening on the planet right now; he speaks directly to how it is affecting us and what we can do.

Don’t forget to sign up for the Indivisible training “One Million Rising: Strategic Cooperation to Fight Authoritarianism” beginning July 16; there are details in the previous newsletter.

If you are feeling like all of this is a heavy lift, you are right. If you are feeling pressure, me too. The thing is we have to deeply realize that this is a collective effort. Systems are collapsing, including our own government. We were born for this fight, and collectively we can rise to the occasion. We have no choice now.

love, Karen

Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson said that “the state of our democracy”keeps her up at night. “I would say that I am really very interested in getting people to focus and to invest and to pay attention to what is happening in our country and in our government.” The Washington Post, July 10, 2025 (gift article)

“These people ae trying to insist that the country is theirs, and they are going to do everything in their power to make it so. ICE, the largest federal law enforcement agency: Its charge is to make American white again. All the other stuff is lies.” - Eddie S. Glaude PhD, Weekly Wrap Up, July 11, 2025

“Don’t tell me you’re a Democrat, but you’re kind of disappointed right now, so you’re not doing anything. No, now is exactly the time that you get in there and do something. Don’t say that you care deeply about free speech and then you’re quiet. No, you stand up for free speech when it’s hard. When somebody says something that you don’t like, but you still say, ‘You know what, that person has the right to speak.’ … What’s needed now is courage.” -President Barack Obama, July 11, 2025, CNN

(below, a lovely way to support our LGBTQ community and cultivate joy; register here or just come)