How did we get here?

Marking July 4

It is a sobering moment to mark our country’s 250 anniversary.

Darth Vader, our ignorant, warmongering chief executive, has gutted environmental protections; beat back progress in science, health, education, civil liberties, racial justice, immigration, free speech, foreign relations; and so much else. At the same time, he peddles hate and division, and enriches himself and his family with previously-unimaginable levels of grift and corruption [$2 billion this term, the NY Times reports.]

Below is a picture of the empty mall in Washington. Very few people have chosen to go to the administration’s “Great American State Fair,” which features a confederate flag in the North Carolina exhibit, and, rumor has it, a place where visitors can get baptized.

Picture from the Daily Beast.

The Supreme Court has become Darth Vader’s enabler. It has shredded our civil rights and civil liberties. It has grossly empowered the chief executive at the expense of Congress, the judiciary, and formerly independent agencies that protect our health and wallets.

The American people have only just begun to feel Darth Vader’s impact. It is on us to rise up and fight the tsunami of assaults on our democracy. Fortunately, we’re answering the call.

Georgians defeat an effort at redistricting. [Getty Images]

Minnesotans fight ICE.

Where does this terrible retrenchment from an expanding, inclusive democracy come from?

Readers, we have a past. The retrenchment was not born with Darth Vader and will not end with him. We were founded on slavery and a genocide. Despite Darth Vader’s and the Republican party’s efforts to cancel our history, we can’t just shove the past under the carpet. We ignore it at our peril.

As Justice Jackson said in her brilliant concurrence in the recent birthright case in the Supreme Court:

[F]ading memories are not the only danger. The distortion of historical facts—retellings that reimagine and repurpose past events to lend credence to misbegotten aims—may be an even greater threat.

You can find Justice Jackson’s full opinion here. Check out the footnotes for some great reading suggestions.

Thank you to Loyalty Bookstores, here in DC, for putting together a fantastic reading list to learn about unsung stories from our history.

I’ve read a bunch of these books, and look forward to reading more. Standouts include: Isabel Wilkerson’s CASTE, Ned Blackhawk’s THE REDISCOVERY OF AMERICA [indigenous history], Roxane Dunbar Ortiz’s AN INDIGENOUS PEOPLE’S HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES, Clint Smith III’s HOW THE WORD IS PASSED [which I reviewed here], and Michael Harriot’s BLACK AF HISTORY.

Authoritarians want to intimidate us. They want to scare us into submission. I am so proud of us for standing up and saying no. They may use their playbook; let’s use ours. Let’s make ourselves heard.

Below, I’m on my way to our weekly Visibility Brigade—our neighborhood protest to express our views and commune with rush hour traffic along one of Washington’s busiest streets. There are Visibility Brigades all over the country.

If you want to gather neighbors to send postcards to voters around the country, check out this website.

I had fun last weekend discussing DUET FOR ONE at a friend’s house in the neighborhood. I love visiting book groups!

Here’s to a peaceful 4th.

Love,

Martha

P.S. ICYMI, here’s my most recent newsletter/Substack, “Where do civil rights and rock n roll meet?”