The Wild Reed

Sunday, January 18, 2026

Butch Ware: “People Really Want New Options in Politics”

Green Party candidate for California Governor, Butch Ware, was recently a guest on Travis Smiley’s podcast.

Right: Butch Ware, his mother Christine, and Travis Smiley. Christine is a friend of mine and fellow consociate of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet – St. Paul.

During their conversation Butch discusses the record low approval for Democrats and Republicans, and makes the case for an independent, non-corporate politics as the way forward in the Golden State and ultimately the nation.

Following is an 8-minute clip from Travis Smiley’s conversation with Butch Ware.

Says Butch Ware about the “real crisis in the political status quo” . . .

Both [major corporate-backed] parties are at record low approval rates right now. And it just shows that there’s a real crisis in the political status quo. So there's definitely an opportunity for somebody that’s coming from outside the system to make a difference and an impact in this moment.

Forty percent of American voters identify themselves as independents. Only 30% identify as Democrat; 25% identify as Republican. And when you poll registered Democrats, 53% of them say both parties do such a “poor job” that we need an independent third party. Forty-eight percent of Republicans say the same thing, and 70% of independents say this as well.

So the reality is that the talking points in the corporate-controlled media are going to be about blue various red. But on the ground, people are fed-up with Team Blue Genocide and Team Red Fascism because they both work for the same corporations, and people really want new options in politics.

[Independents parties have a hard time getting established] because we’re competing uphill against people that are swimming in blood money. Kamala Harris was able to spend $1.5 billion whereas we [the Jill Stein / Butch Ware Green Party presidential ticket] were being outspent a thousand to one. So they control most of the media outlets and are able to shape the conversation in significant ways.

But I will say this: a Green Party candidate almost ended Gavin Newsome’s political career before it started. Matt Gonzalez got 47% of the vote for mayor in San Francisco despite the fact that he was outspent 30 to 1. And right now, we just had polling come out that shows that I’m running even with a bunch of establishment Democratic candidates and ahead of some of the other Democrat candidates despite the fact that we’re being massively outspent. [And that’s] because we’re doing the work on the ground and we’re responding to this moment by not doing a fake culture war between, you know, so-called left and so-called right, and instead focusing on universal single-payer healthcare, affordable housing, taxing the billionaires, and taking the pressure off of working class families in the state of California. And everywhere I go, up and doen this state, people are responding to that message. And now we’re starting to see it reflected in the polls as well.

Butch is opposed to Prop 50 (a Democratic measure to counter Republican gerrymandering in California), saying . . .

[Activist and revolutionary socialist] Fred Hampton said it best. He said we don’t believe you fight fire with fire best, we believe you fight fire with water best. You do not fight disenfranchisement with disenfranchisement. You fight it with ranked choice voting, multi-member districts, and proportional representation. And the Democrats have fought those things tooth and nail, the same way that the Republicans have because their goal is not actually to restore democracy to the people. Their goal is to consolidate their own power. And they don’t want things that make the political process more open because as soon as you [embrace] proportional representation then winner-takes-all is out of the equation and they can no longer do the “lesser of two evils” argument; thety can no longer be a corporate party that is just a little to the left of the Republicans and then say, “Well, you can’t vote for those [third party] guys” because [with proportional representation] you can actually vote your conscience and make sound choices.

Saturday, January 17, 2026

Remembering the Visionary Leadership of Patrice Lumumba

“He sacrificed his life for us, to give us liberty.
So he’s a hero for us . . . a model for us.”

– Michel Nkuka Mboladinga

Today, January 17, 2026, is the 65th anniversary of the assassination of Patrice Émery Lumumba (1925-1961), a leader of the Congolese independence movement who served as the first Prime Minister of the independent Democratic Republic of the Congo (then Republic of the Congo). Throughout much of his adult life Lumumba challenged colonialism and corporatism, a defiant stance that led to his murder during a coup backed by Belgium and the U.S.

“Lumumba lived and died fighting for the liberation of African people from the shackles of colonial powers,” notes Gauri Lankes News. “His legacy lives in the struggle of African nations against neo-imperialism.”

As I’ve noted previously, I first became aware of and interested in the life of Patrice Lumumba when I attended a special screening of Haitian filmmaker Raoul Peck’s film Lumumba at the University of Minnesota Film Society in 2000. (Today, Peck is probably most well-known for his 2016 film I Am Not Your Negro, based on the writings of James Baldwin.)

According to The Guardian, Peak’s 2000 film, Lumumba, which features French actor Eriq Ebouaney in the title role, is a “commendable effort” and a “corrective to imperialism.”

After seeing the film shortly after its release, I did some research on Lumumba and found myself moved by the images that show him captured and bound while on his way to be executed. I was struck by his calm countenance, even as he no doubt knew what awaited him. To this day I find myself wondering if I could be so brave and calm in the face of torture and death.

In commemorating the life of Patrice Lumumba on the anniversary of his murder during a US-backed coup 65 years ago, I share a recent (and intriguing) news story from the Associated Press about Michel Nkuka Mboladinga, a man who has become a social media star for both his physical resemblance to Patrice Lumumba and how he uses this resemblance to support the Congo national football team.

________________

Statuesque Congo Fan “Lumumba”
Stands Above All Others at Africa Cup

By Ciarán Fahey

Associated Press
January 4, 2026

One fan is standing tall above all others at the Africa Cup of Nations.

He has even brought a pedestal to make sure.

Congo supporter Michel Nkuka Mboladinga has become a social media star for posing as a statue of the country’s assassinated independence hero Patrice Lumumba during games.

Lumumba Vea, as the sharply dressed supporter is known for his resemblance to the slain leader, raises his right arm and stays perfectly still, adopting the position of the Lumumba memorial statue in Kinshasa, and holds the pose for the entirety of games.

“I remain still to give strength to the team, to give energy to the players,” Nkuka Mboladinga told The Associated Press during an interview in his hotel room in Casablanca this week.

He said it was his last before the team plays Algeria in Rabat on Tuesday. Nkuka Mboladinga was clearly exhausted from relentless media attention after Congo’s first three games in the tournament, and exasperated after it seemed every media outlet had spelled his name wrong.

But he was grateful for the attention and pleased to bring Lumumba’s support to the team.

“He’s the one who gave us the freedom to express ourselves,” Nkuka Mboladinga said of the Congolese leader. “He sacrificed his life for us, to give us liberty. So he’s a hero for us, Lumumba is a spirit for us, he’s a model for us.”

Lumumba is widely hailed as the nationalist activist who helped end Belgium’s colonial rule over Congo in 1960. He became the new independent country’s first prime minister and was seen as one of Africa’s most promising new leaders, but he was killed within a year during a struggle against a Belgian-backed secessionist movement in the mineral-rich Katanga region.

Questions have persisted over how complicit Belgium and the United States may have been in his death. A Belgian parliamentary probe later determined the government was “morally responsible” for Lumumba’s death. A U.S. Senate committee found in 1975 that the CIA had hatched a separate, failed plan to kill the Congolese leader.

For many in Congo, Lumumba remains a symbol of the positive developments the country could have achieved after its independence. Instead, it became mired in decades of dictatorship that drained its vast mineral riches.

“He’s like family,” Nkuka Mboladinga said of the visionary leader.

Nkuka Mboladinga rehearses before each match by staying still for 45 to 50 minutes at a time. With Congo through to the knockout round, he also faces the prospect of having to stay in statue mode through extra time and penalties, when the fans around him are anything but.

“It’s difficult,” he acknowledged about staying still while supporters dance around and behind him. “Everyone plays their part, they play their role and I am in mine.”

He hasn’t met the players yet but has heard they appreciate his efforts.

“The players know me, but I haven’t spoken with them personally. They’re very happy with what I’m doing,” he said.

– Ciarán Fahey
Associated Press
January 4, 2026

For more on Patrice Lumumba at The Wild Reed, see:
• Remembering Patrice Lumumba
• Raoul Peck on Patrice Lumumba and the Making of a Martyr
• Bringing Lumumba Home
• In Congo, the Only Known Remains of Patrice Lumumba Are Finally Laid to Rest
• University of Antwerp Honors Patrice Lumumba
• Ludo de Witte on the Need for Truth and Justice in the Assassination of Patrice Lumumba
• Remembering Lumumba
• John Pilger on Resisting Empire
• Cornel West: “Our Anti-Imperialism Must Be Consistent”
• Resisting the Hand of the Empire

Related Off-site Links:
Brussels Marks 100 Years Since Birth of Patrice Lumumba, DR Congo’s Independence Leader – Belga News Agency (July 2, 2025).
Patrice Lumumba’s Life Defended in Oscar Nominated Documentary, Soundtrack to a Coup d’État – Chicago Crusader (February 28, 2025).
Patrice Lumumba (1925-1961) – Sean Jacobs (Jacobin, January 17, 2017).
In Search of Lumumba – Christian Parenti (In These Times, January 30, 2008).
Patrice Lumumba: The Most Important Assassination of the 20th Century – Georges Nzongola-Ntalaja (The Guardian, January 17, 2011).
Death of Lumumba – A History of Foreign Involvement – S.A. Randhawa (I/R/M, December 13, 2019).
Both Belgium and the United States Should Be Called to Account for the Death of Patrice Lumumba – Tim Butcher (The Spectator, March 7, 2015).
Congo’s Patrice Lumumba: The Winds of Reaction in Africa – Kenneth Good (CounterPunch, August 23, 2019).
The Tragedy of Lumumba: An Exchange – Ludo De Witte Colin Legum and Brian Urquhart (The New York Review, December 20, 2001).
Martyr by Choice – Catherine Hoskyns (The New York Review, April 5, 1973).
An Exchange on the Death of Lumumba – A.C. Gilpin and Catherine Hoskyns (The New York Review, April 22, 1971).
Who Killed Lumumba? – Catherine Hoskyns (The New York Review, December 17, 1970).
Belgium Faces Up to Post-war “Apartheid” in Congolese Colony – Jennifer Rankin (The Guardian, December 9, 2018).
Brussels Sets Straight Historical Wrong Over Patrice Lumumba Killing – Patrick Smyth (The Irish Times, July 5, 2018).
Belgian Princess Condemns Her Family’s Brutal Colonial History in Congo and Calls for Reparations – Democracy Now! (July 9, 2020).
“Deepest Regrets,” But No Apology: King Philippe Acknowledges Colonial Cruelties – Maïthé Chini (The Brussels Times, June 8, 2022).
Belgium Finally Returns Tooth of Assassinated Leader Lumumba to DRC – Maïthé Chini (The Brussels Times, June 20, 2022).
Congo Buries Remains of Independence Martyr Patrice Lumumba – teleSUR (June 30, 2022).
Reparations? No Consensus On How Belgium Should Apologise for Colonial Past – Maïthé Chini (The Brussels Times, November 28, 2022).
Maurice Carney on Patrice Lumumba – CounterSpin (January 20, 2023).
“‘The Cry Is ‘Lumumba Lives’ – His Ideas, His Principles”: An Interview With Maurice Carney on Patrice Lumumba – CounterSpin (January 20, 2023).

Friday, January 16, 2026

Marianne Williamson on How to Psychologically Endure This Moment

Dispatches from Occupied Minnesota

Since early last month (December 2025) the people of Minnesota have been dealing with the largest Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operation ever in the agency’s 23-year history. Thousands of ICE agents have been deployed – seemingly to, first and foremost, terrorize the immigrant community and intimidate those who protest ICE’s heavy-handed, brutal, and often indiscriminate and unconstitutional actions. Thousands have been arrested and disappeared, including U.S. citizens. And last Wednesday, January 7, an ICE agent shot to death Renée Nicole Good, a U.S. citizen and mother of three.

I appreciate CNN’s Stephen Collinson’s analysis of what is currently happening in Minnesota, the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul in particular: “This is ruthless crackdown theater choreographed by the president,” says Collinson. “Minneapolis has become a petri dish for his hardline immigration policies, zeal for militarized law enforcement tactics and attempts to use immigration as a cudgel to crush progressive values in cities that reject his strongman leadership.”

I’m still thinking about how and when I want to share my experience of Trump’s fascist occupation of Minnesota. Until then, here are eight on-the-ground reports from fellow Twin Cities residents.

_______________

A quick report on life in Minneapolis, especially for those of you who don’t live here. In short, things in our community are very bad, but are being met with a level of community care and resolve that is deeply inspiring.

ICE is rampaging through our communities every day, treating the community with contempt and aggression. They are stopping anyone who does not look white to them and demanding to see proof that they are citizens. They are racing through residential neighborhoods recklessly.They smashed into a car a few blocks from our kids’ school a couple days ago, and caused a car to crash in an alley two blocks from our home yesterday. They are physically attacking people, regardless of whether they’re suspected of any immigration violation. A woman [Aliya Rahman] in a car tried to explain that she needed to get to a doctor’s appointment on the street ICE was patrolling; they smashed her car window, cut her seat belt, and pulled her bodily from the car. They’ve shot countless rounds of tear gas, pepper spray, and rubber bullets at community members. And all of this is after they shot and killed Renée Good twelve blocks from our kids’ school. They are everywhere. We see reports of ICE attacks in South Minneapolis, in our neighborhood in Southwest, in suburbs like Richfield, and all over the metro. A family member witnessed them brutalizing someone in an inner ring suburb north of the city.

What’s inspiring is that the community is collectively linking arms and standing up to these fascists. Through all kinds of creative channels, people are organizing observers to notify residents of ICE presence, they’re coordinating meal delivery to vulnerable people, they’re raising money to support families torn apart, and they’re putting their bodies on the line. Every day I see dozens of parents standing outside all the neighborhood schools to try to protect our children, and hundreds more working to slow ICE’s assault.

This is not an incidental or minor reality. Alerts from hyper-local organizing channels pop up a hundred times an hour with people coordinating, resisting, and showing deep care for their community. It occupies close to 100% of our mental and emotional energy. And of course ICE is working to intimidate the community from supporting one another. Multiple U.S. citizens who have been detained describe being pressed to report on neighbors who are not white. Multiple observers who are following an ICE vehicle have reported that the ICE vehicle drove to the *observer’s* house and stopped, in an ominous signal that they know who the observer is and where they live.

Our family is not directly targeted and we are fine. But please use your voice, your connections, and your money to support those who are being targeted here. There is so much work to be done every day to take care of each other, and despairingly it feels like our elected officials do not have the courage to lead in this moment.

Don’t let the news cycle move on from this occupation. Don’t let anyone convince you it’s not that bad. It is that bad. And my biggest fear is that we’re at the beginning of something, not the end.

– Mike Spangenberg
via social media
January 14, 2026

It certainly feels like an occupying force. And that seems to be the way that they’re operating. They’re not working in coalition with other jurisdictions. They’re not working with our state government or our city government by any means. We have a sanctuary policy here in the city of Minneapolis. If our governor called up the National Guard, these different agencies would be working together. And that is not what seems to be taking place here. It feels like an occupying force. It feels like a rogue gang of armed militia.

That’s what it seems like. Most of the agents are masked, and you can only really see their eyes. So it’s hard to know their age or anything like that. But I said before the murder of the observer last week, it’s only a matter of time before someone gets killed. It’s only a matter of time. What’s happening is constant escalation rather than de-escalation. While I, of course, wish it hadn’t happened, I am not at all surprised that somebody was killed.

The thing about Minneapolis is we know who keeps us safe, and it’s each other. And so that’s what we’re going to keep doing. But it’s very tense.

– Christin Crabtree
Quoted in Trey Cook’s article, “A Minneapolis Mom
on the ICE Violence She’s Witnessed”
Jacobin
January 16, 2026

I live in St. Paul, Minnesota, a state now occupied by Trump’s ICE – 3000+ and growing. I’m finding myself constantly tired, wanting to stay in bed in the morning or take long naps once I’m up. It’s been over a week now since a woman was murdered by ICE. I’m depressed. I know, however, certain resources can help: prayer – talking with friends, my dog Mac. I’m not giving up hope, despite a President who loves to create chaos wherever he goes.

– A resident of the Twin Cities
who wishes to remain anonymous
via social media
January 16, 2026

This note is for those of you not in a heavily ICE-patrolled area. This inhumanity and cruelty is actually happening.

Keep in mind that I live in a fairly high-resourced, predominantly white suburb of St. Paul, and this is still our reality now. School buses in our district are being followed by ICE, and there are nearby reports of school buses being boarded by ICE agents with guns while kids are on them.

So, I have to talk to my kids about what to do, what to document, and how to keep our friends and ourselves safe if this happens on their buses.

Regular people are being stopped in Target parking lots and demanded to show their passports. The other day, ICE profiled a brown man at our local Target who then pulled out his TSA ID. No joke. A federal employee. It’s pure racism.

Folks are cancelling needed medical appointments or keeping kids home from school out of fear. People will die. Kids will fall behind. Black and brown people are afraid to leave their houses, despite being citizens or permanent residents. They can’t make it to grocery stores without feeling unsafe, so we try to find community groups to deliver groceries and help out.

Community members – mamas, sisters, brothers, daddios, many U.S. citizens or legal permanent residents – are being taken and detained. This recently happened to a staff member’s wife at a nearby school. They have children. How do you explain a mom’s absence to your kids? How is kidnapping someone’s mother improving our community?

I have had conversations with my 11-year-old about what to record and document if he sees ICE approach anyone. I have described to him what our rights are. These are not conversations to have with an 11-year-old.

My 9-year-old’s tennis class was dismissed early tonight because it’s next to the federal building where ICE is headquartered, and there was fear for public safety.

I had to snuggle my 9-year-old to sleep tonight because she understands enough to know that things are very wrong right now.

Our teachers have to patrol parking lots at school dismissal to ensure kids are safe. Communities are arranging systems to walk kids – even high schoolers – home from bus stops or schools.

These actions create generational trauma. And this is still the beginning of this attack on our city.

It’s cruel and inhumane how people are being treated – pulling their pants down and dragging them along sidewalks, throwing them face-first into icy snow, or shooting them through a car window as they’re driving away. No one feels safe.

Taxpayers are spending billions so good people can be harassed and taken from their families, and so kids can live in fear. This is not okay.

This is a pledge for all of us to stand up strong for the democracy we believe in – where we appreciate the melting pot we are. Those of us who are privileged to have white skin: now is the time, if there ever was one. Show up for your neighbors.

We in the Twin Cities – we are one. They should know by now that acts of violence and humiliation against our people only fuel our unity.

If this unsettles you, it should. Do not look away. Talk about it. Share this with people who believe this “can’t be happening here.” Support local mutual-aid groups, immigrant legal defense funds, and school communities doing the work to keep families safe. And demand accountability from anyone who claims this cruelty is necessary – or normal.

When Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey said, “To ICE: get the fuck out of Minneapolis,” he echoed a sentiment that should be shared across this nation. It is up to us to make sure that clarion call rings everywhere.

No one should feel unsafe in everyday life in America. The color of your skin or the depth of your American ancestry should not factor into whether you can move through the world without fear.

Democracy does not defend itself.

We do.

Watch out for one another.

– A resident of the Twin Cities
who wishes to remain anonymous
via social media
January 14, 2026

I’ve been so inspired by the thousands of Minnesotans who have been peacefully protesting the brutality of ICE agents who are illegally grabbing and detaining people in Minnesota. And most Americans agree with us. But I was depressed to see the tv news tonight - they focused on the fireworks protesters threw last night at ICE, the trashing of ICE vehicles - two hours compared to the weeks of peaceful protests. And of course Trump responded with threatening to invoke the Insurrection Act. We can’t give Trump any justification for calling in the military.

I understand the rage we all feel at having our beautiful city overrun with violent thugs, but I strongly believe we are more powerful with peaceful protests, with a majority of the population backing us, with the general strike called for January 23rd, not with violence against ICE.

I liked this letter from Alex Frecon in the Minnesota Star Tribune: “I’ve read a lot of comparisons to fascism lately. To Nazi Germany. But there’s a difference worth naming: Minnesotans aren’t letting this slide. We’re showing up. We’re making noise. We are not going gentle into the night. The response has not been apathy or silence. It has been loud, sustained and angry in exactly the way it should be.”

But peaceful and “loud, sustained, and angry”!

– T. Burke
via social media
January 15, 2026

To all of you wondering, MINNESOTA IS NOT HAVING AN INSURRECTION!

We are scared, angry and empowered.

We are peacefully protesting, supporting our black and brown neighbors who are being targeted by ICE for no reason but the color of their skin and their accent. We are driving students to and from school, parents to and from work, cleaning the streets after ICE deploys tear gas and chemical irritants and damages homes, businesses and cars. We are supporting businesses that are impacted by ICE’s dangerous and illegal tactics.

I am super proud to live in Minneapolis and it gives me hope to see so many people standing up for our community.

– Courtney Cushing Kiernat
via social media
January 15, 2026

I need people outside of Minnesota to understand the extent of what is happening here.

We need you to fight for us.

• ICE arrested two teenagers – U.S. citizens – while they were working at Target, bringing in carts. They slammed one of them to the ground in front of the store while he sobbed. They are still being held, and families are being denied information.

• ICE agents are sitting outside stores, ignoring anyone who looks white and seizing people with brown and Black skin or who are Asian. They stopped a Native individual who showed a tribal ID – ICE didn’t even know what it was.

• An individual was detained outside Roosevelt High during dismissal. ICE used tear gas that hit the students. Two teachers were assaulted and handcuffed while doing their jobs getting kids safely to the buses.

• Many stores in Latino and Somali neighborhoods are closed because people are terrified. Or they are keeping the doors locked and only allowing customers in.

• Families are afraid to go to the grocery store. Mutual aid networks are now shopping for them and delivering food.

• Minneapolis schools are providing an online option for the next weeks to try and provide safety for their students. It's likely those most scared to come will be our immigrant children which just furthers the disparities.

• Our nervous systems are constantly on edge. I went to a Hmong restaurant last night and felt fear for the Latino and Hmong people working there, which is nothing compared to what our immigrant community members are suffering.

• A mother of three was murdered. She had a glove compartment full of stuffed animals for her six-year-old. ICE [agent Jonathan Ross] screamed – “you fucking bitch” – as he shot her in the head three times. A doctor who offered to help was refused. The National Catholic Reporter called [Vice-president] Vance’s response to the murder of Renee Good a “moral stain on the collective witness of the Catholic faith.”

This is not an exhaustive list.

This is NOT the land of the FREE.

We are being terrorized by our own government.

And they are not stopping with Minnesota.

We have doors locked at both of my businesses 24 hours a day. We have a sign stated “All are welcome – EXCEPT ICE.”

For the human beings who voted for this administration I urge to look into your hearts and ask yourself is this consistent with your values and beliefs about our country and how we treat other human beings. This is not the Republican party you used to know, they are now monsters committing crimes against humanity.

– Laurie Schlosser
via social media
January 10, 2026

Above: ICE agents force Aliya Rahman, a U.S. citizen, into a vehicle after pulling her from her car in south Minneapolis on Tuesday, January 13, 2026 (Photo: Ben Hovland / MPR News)

I’ve been part of the response around George Floyd’s murder, Philando Castile’s murder, Jamar Clark’s murder, and now Renée Good’s murder. . . . [I do this because] the excuses for [the racism and misogyny that undergirds this kind of violence are grounded in a] kind of distorted Christianity, a kind of white Christian nationalism. And so it feels important for those of us who are Christian leaders to be here in the community in the same way that Renée Good was – to protest our neighbors and to say that this community is about belonging and connection and love, not the brutality and violence of ICE.

[My message for those outside of Minnesota is to] not believe the lies of Kristi Noem, of Donald Trump, of any in the Trump administration. The actions that Renée Good was taking were ones of a peaceful witness and legal observer. [Another message is that] our community is a beautiful community of diversity. We live in the Northland, and in order to survive we need each other. And we are connected to each other. Yesterday there was a beautiful gathering of the Somali community in which Somali beloveds were handing out sambussas, and we were feeding each other; we were lighting fires for each other to keep each other warm. Do not believe the rhetoric of hatred and division. We are here to love one another as neighbors.

– Rev. Dr. Rebecca Voelkel
Co-pastor at Lyndale United Church of Christ
January 11, 2026

“Resistance” – Minneapolis, MN, January 2026 (Folklore Photos).

Mike Figueredo on Why Trump Might Be Pushing the U.S. to the Brink of Collapse

Says Mike Figueredo in introducing the latest segment on his podcast, The Humanist Report:

As tensions ramp up in Minneapolis, Trump refuses to deescalate. In fact, he’s going out of his way to fan the flames even more by threatening to invoke the Insurrection Act, illegally cut off funding for blue states, and possibly even cancel the upcoming midterm elections. This volatile climate is totally unsustainable. Populations will only tolerate fear and intimidation for so long before society starts to break down. In this video we’ll talk about why Trump might actually be bringing about the beginning of the end of The United States of America.

Thursday, January 15, 2026

Maha D. Blackfeather’s Message to the American People: “We’re Finally Seeing the Truth”

To the American people,

Take a breath.

Not the shallow kind we’ve been forced into for years, but a deep one. The kind that reminds you that you are still here, that this country is still breathing, and that history has not ended in a scream just because it’s been loud.

I know many of you are tired. Bone-tired. Spirit-tired. Tired of waking up to outrage, of bracing yourselves before opening the news, of wondering how much worse it can get and whether the ground beneath you is still solid. I am writing to tell you that it is. And more than that, it always has been.

What we are living through is not the collapse of America. It is the exposure of it.

Every nation reaches a moment where the lies it has leaned on for too long begin to crack. Where the stories told to justify cruelty, hoarding, and domination stop working. Where the old order panics because it knows it cannot survive the light. That is where we are now.

The noise you hear is not strength. It is fear.

Authoritarian movements always get louder before they lose relevance. They shout, threaten, posture, and perform because they sense the shift. They know younger generations are not buying the mythology. They know women are no longer quiet. They know Black, Brown, queer, immigrant, and working people are no longer willing to sacrifice their lives for someone else’s comfort. They know the world is changing, and they cannot stop it.

So they try to exhaust you.

They want you overwhelmed, hopeless, frozen, convinced that you are powerless. That is the oldest trick there is. But look around. Look at who is organizing, teaching, feeding, building, healing. Look at who shows up after storms, after shootings, after laws fail. It is not the loud men on television. It is the people.

Power in this country has never flowed from thrones or podiums. It has always come from communities deciding they have had enough and moving together anyway. From workers. From mothers. From elders. From students. From artists. From those who were told they didn’t matter and proved otherwise simply by continuing to exist.

You are not alone, even when it feels like it. You are not crazy for sensing that something new is being born under all this chaos. That intuition is correct.

Empires do not announce their endings politely. They thrash. They distort reality. They elevate the cruel and the foolish because they think noise can replace legitimacy. It never works for long.

What comes next is not darkness. It is reckoning. And reckoning is not the same as destruction. It is truth rising to the surface so it can finally be dealt with.

There are more people committed to care than to control. More people invested in the future than in nostalgia. More people who understand that democracy is not a performance but a practice. You don’t see them screaming because they are busy doing the work.

So rest when you need to. Laugh when you can. Stay connected to each other. Do not let manufactured panic convince you that hope is naïve or that love is weakness. They are afraid of your calm for a reason.

This country has survived worse than this, not because it was perfect, but because ordinary people refused to let it belong only to the cruel.

The ground is steady. The tide is turning. And you are part of the force behind it whether you realize it yet or not.

Everything is not ending.

We’re finally seeing the truth.