The Wild Reed

Saturday, November 07, 2026

Progressive Perspectives on the 2026 U.S. Midterm Elections

I really hope that the Democrats understand that the main reason they managed to win, and win big, is because of how poorly Trump and all his helpers have done since he was re-elected.

Trump made the economy his main point in 2024, then prompty crashed it so that he and other wealthy people could cash in. Then he decided to do whatever Netanyahu wanted, and now we’re at war with Iran.
lays out how midterm voters delivered a massive rebuke to Trump’s war on Iran, ICE terror, and soaring cost of living, electing insurgent progressives across the country.

People are fed-up with Trump and Team Red. It isn’t that they love the Democrats or that they approve of them more (they still have a shit approval rating), they just didn’t want two more years with zero opposition to Trump. Dems are already talking about building bridges . . . which seems like code for “move to the right.”

– Unknown
via social media
November 4, 2026

Following is a 14-minute segment of Democracy Now! in which hosts Amy Goodman and Nermeen Shaikh examine the results of Tuesday’s historic U.S. midterm elections with Daniel Nichanian, editor-in-chief of Bolts. And just how historic were these elections? Well, in addition to taking back the House and Senate, Democrats also made major gains at the state level and will control a majority of governorships for the first time in 16 years. Democrats also flipped 12 state legislative chambers.

“The size of the wins for Democrats in statewide races was wild,” says Nichanian. He identifies protecting abortion access, bolstering unions and ending police cooperation with ICE as some of the priorities Democrats are likely to pursue.

The broad strokes of the midterms are clear: a massive repudiation of MAGA’s fascist wave has ended the Trump 2.0 era of congressional complicity with his authoritarian takeover. Trump’s lame duck presidency now begins.

This lopsided electoral rejection is historically rare: Flipping control of both the House and Senate in a midterm has only occurred three times since World War II (1946, 1994 and 2006). The breakthroughs are astounding: the first Native American female governor and senator, five Black governors, the first majority of Democratic governors in 16 years, and critical downballot wins like the first Democrat to win as Texan oil regulator since 1990 and the first openly transgender state legislator in Alabama.

Authoritarians do not do well when trapped — and with a famously norm-busting president, anything is possible. But, critically, election deniers like Darline Graham and Greg Abbott are conceding their races. Donald Trump is already saying he’s “absolutely willing” to accept the results and told CBS, “Congratulations to the Democrats, and I look forward to working with you for the good of our country.”

[. . .] The wins were not universal, as some big losses cut deep. There’s a reality that all of this is ephemeral if Democrats cannot govern a policy of change – if we only manage an economic status quo it will disillusion and likely result in yet another whiplash election in the other direction.

Further, the attacks on elections were treasonous. I won’t list the complete litany of federal assaults – but we have a Department of Justice captured by authoritarian forces using its power nakedly for partisan goals. The far right openly prepared sham legal theories to refuse certification of Democratic representatives. While we did not get systematic federal law enforcement terror at polls, we saw National Guard throughout Washington, D.C. We still have too many election officials committed to the Big Lie. And ongoing structural impediments to a fair election are consequential: In Mississippi, the Senate margin remains tiny while any win may be marred by equipment trouble, poll changes, and voters unexpectedly removed by data purges from the voting rolls.

Notably, the election maps themselves have been gerrymandered by racists to ensure power – though their greed rebounded multiple losses in these redistricted seats. (Groups like Black Voters Matter deserve a huge shout-out for fighting in the South and in races Democrats had abandoned.)

Despite all that, we managed a pro-democracy win that was too big to rig. The country delivered a shellacking to MAGA politics – an encouraging sign for all of us who are hoping for a better future. Ultimately, the election proceeded with voters refusing to be intimidated.

– Daniel Hunter
Excerpted from "Voters Repudiated Trump.
Grassroots Momentum Will Shape What Comes Next”
Waging Nonviolence
November 4, 2026

Folks are celebrating all the blue this morning. Blue wave. Blue tsunami. Historic wins for women, Black and Brown candidates. But do the Democrats really know what to do with power once they have it?

Seriously. Because for the past two years, we have been watching Democrats behave like apathetic, helpless, timid, and perpetually concerned spectators to their own government. Every week there has been another outrage, norms shattered, institutions gutted, executive power grabs, and so on from the Trump regime. And too often the response from the Dems has been issuing a strongly worded statement, a cable-news appearance and somebody in our inbox telling us to donate $15.

Well, come January, the excuses are over! The Dems got the House. The Senate. You’ve got committees, subpoenas, hearings, confirmations and the power of the purse. I don’t wanna hear shit about “turning a page” or about healing, or unity, or “reaching across the aisle” or “restoring normalcy.” DO A PURGE! Purge every racist policy, MAGA parasite, grifter, Christian nationalist infestation and every piece of authoritarian rot they spent two years embedding in the government. The MAGATs have governed ruthlessly with a sledgehammer!

But I am not naive. Democrats have spent too much time acting like the Republican Party’s fraternal twin. Democrats have a record of being committed to many of the same systems they suddenly condemn when Republicans take them to their ugliest extreme. Same militarism, surveillance state, corporate donors and same willingness to criminalize and cage Black and Brown folk when it’s politically convenient.

Come January we shall see what they do. They won the midterms but they did not overthrow racist-ass America. The architecture is still standing and the foundation is still rotten as hell. The same systems that made Trump and MAGA possible will still be here in January but jusy wearing a different congressional majority.

– Stacey Patton
via social media
November 5, 2026

I remember in the wake of the 2024 election, some people speculated that we could be witnessing the end of the Democratic Party and its replacement by new, more effective channels of resistance.

If only it were that simple. While I believe that the general trajectory for an empire passed its prime like the U.S. is toward further polarization and the breakdown of the constitutional order, this general trend is punctuated by attempts from the forces of bourgeois democracy to stabilize the situation and hold capitalism’s contradictions together. I think we’re in one of those moments now.

The problem is: as the contradictions of capitalism accumulate and the empire’s capacity for plunder dwindles, these attempts at stabilization become more and more feeble, and the democratic rights they offer become more and more shallow. We can see this in the shift in Democrats’ rhetoric since 2018-2020. Back then, people like AOC were (correctly) calling the ICE detention centres “concentration camps.” They talked about defunding the police, believing sexual assault survivors, and defending trans rights.

This midterm season wasn’t just a rebuke of Trumpism, but also of the “Woke 1.0” civil liberties drive from the first Trump administration. This time, there was no talk about “concentration camps,” defunding the police, or Me Too. Trans rights were either ignored or treated with open hostility, such as in the Iowa Democratic Party. The gambit seemed to be that if they surrender the “culture war” to the right and strictly talk about the price of gas and groceries, they can win back their seats. That gambit turned out to be correct, but are we really in a better situation than we were in 2018?

I would say no. The Democrats were only able to win on the “affordability” question because they’re out of power, and can easily point to Trump as the reason for people’s problems. There’s no guarantee that they’ll actually lower people’s grocery bills if they retake the White House in 2028, and if the Biden-era economy is any indication, the opposite will happen. The GOP will come roaring back in 2030 and 2032, angrier than before, and the Democrats won’t even have the promise of defending civil liberties as a reason to keep people in the fold.

So while I don’t want to be a Debbie Downer, the worst thing we can do right now is breathe a sigh of relief and think we can go back to brunch. It’s not our job to celebrate temporary slowdowns in capitalism’s trajectory toward fascist barbarism, but to expose the forces of co-optation as counterproductive to our struggle against the far right, and to build an independent, working-class alternative. They’re not going to just disappear or be transformed for the better – they need to be actively fought.

– Ben Marenlensky
via social media
November 5, 2026

Following is a 13-minute segment of BreakThrough News in which host Rania Khalek “lays out how midterm voters delivered a massive rebuke to Trump’s war on Iran, ICE terror, and soaring cost of living, electing insurgent progressives across the country.”

“I am absolutely elated,” says Khaley. “But I'm also cringing because people like Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries are reaping the benefits of the backlash to Trump after taking zero accountability for the horrors their party unleashed.”

The Democrats won last night not BECAUSE of Jeffries and Schumer, but in spite of them. The credit belongs solely to the people of the United States. And they weren’t just repudiating old guard Republicans last night; they were repudiating old guard ANYTHING. Hearing Hakeem and Schumer speak today, they sounded frighteningly out of touch with what is going on here. They know it’s a tsunami, and they’re glad about it of course, but beyond that they seem to have little understanding of the power that’s washing up on the shore. Even much less, what it will be washing away. They seem not to understand that a tsunami, by all laws of nature, will inevitably remake the shoreline. The old will have to disappear, so new things can emerge.

– Marianne Williamson
Excerpted from “The Power of a Tsunami”
Transform
November 5, 2026

Trump’s era has been so bad that a blue wave probably smells like relief. The naked fascism feels like it took a hit. But don’t be deceived. Capital is still large and in charge and if it needs more fascism to lock in its vision, any relief will be short lived. Democrats are capitalists. They are war mongers. They are part of the ruling elites army to ensure capital accumulation continues unabated.

If you go back to brunch and run cover for this new crop of capitalist administrators, you will be doing a grave disservice to the people of the world who suffer under blue or red imperialism. The campus crackdowns under Biden? Fascism. “China is the enemy” nonsense from Biden’s State of the Union address? Fascism. Gaza under Biden? Fascism/imperialism. ICE? Trump’s brownshirts? Flock cameras? AI job displacement?

DSA is capitalist. They do NOT pose a threat to the rule of capital. The dictatorship of capital remains unfazed. They are imperialists as well. They are not socialists and they are content as class collaborators.

So breathe. . . . Yes it was good to remove some of the visible unchecked power. But it isn’t a real victory and those who pretend otherwise are not to be trusted. They are class collaborators as well.

– Steven D. Grumbine
via social media
November 5, 2026

No one faction of the Democratic Party can declare victory after the midterms. The Republican implosion is so great that all Dem factions won, from democratic socialists to corporate centrists. Fascism is not defeated by one election (it can always be reconstituted into something even more dangerous) but it can be defeated, and we know how to do it – with left economic populism. Too radical? Wrong. One of Trump’s most significant legacies is that he exploded the Overton window. Anything is possible - for worse and for better. That means Democrats no longer have any excuse not to run on – and deliver – the policies that will actually meet people’s basic needs and address our most pressing crises, from systemic political corruption to climate breakdown. Bold, people-first policies is how we beat back fascism for real.

– Naomi Klein
via social media
November 5, 2026

Alright, we’ve all enjoyed seeing the Republicans get thrashed. I don’t think anyone here is upset about that. But now we have to focus on a new problem: liberal complacency.

The Obama years taught us some important lessons. Leaving the Democrats on auto-pilot only leaves them to enact the same kinds of policies we would get under Republicans, only with a quieter media presence. There will be absolutely no material gains if we are not constantly disrupting the day-to-day and forcing them to acknowledge the will of the people. We have seen that liberals can at least mobilize on demand with the No Kings assemblies. Now expand on that. Keep protesting. Build up unions. Do not let your elected officials rest if they are plugging “across the aisle” rhetoric. Our society, and the entire planet, cannot afford the passive attitude that allowed Biden-Harris to sell missiles to Israel without impediment.

While keeping liberals in check is important, leftists also have an immense workload on their own plate. Expanding mutual aid networks is going to be vital, as there is still no real sign of economic recovery on the horizon. We need to continue educating, getting theory into the hands of as many people as we can (our album Theory for the People is a good place to start) in order to continue building a new level of class consciousness in the U.S. We need to be building up labour unions, tenants unions, and any other organization that directs political power into the hands of the proletariat.

I won’t pretend that I am not exhausted, and that these tasks don’t sound trying even as I write them out. But if we can keep pushing back against capitalism in every arena that it appears, I believe that we will see a new world in our lifetime. Keep struggling, comrades.

– Radical Dreamers
via social media
November 6, 2026

The “Blue wave” isn’t going to change the system underlying Trump and prior elitist presidents. I see many people wasting so much energy pointing to Trump as if removing him solves the problems today. It’s an entire system, an entire culture, and an entire empire.

We need more system level thinkers at the forefront of dialogue. But social media algorithms keep rewarding narratives that uphold the system and bring the chaos agents to the forefront. Then again, perhaps our culture is still addicted to that.

– Collective Evolution
via social media
November 6, 2026

Friday, November 06, 2026

Photo of the Day

Thursday, November 05, 2026

“Look for My Light in All Your Circumstances”

A spiritual resource that many of my Christian patients find particularly meaningful is Sarah Young’s devotional, Jesus Calling: Enjoying Peace in His Presence. It’s a collection of daily reflections written as if Jesus himself is speaking directly to us. They are words of encouragement, comfort, and reassurance based on Jesus’ own words of hope, guidance, and peace found in Scripture.

Now, I should say that as a pilgrim on the Sufi Way, a student of A Course in Miracles, and someone who defines their spiritual path as grounded in the “mystico/prophetic” tradition, I don’t share every theological understanding espoused by Sarah Young. For instance, I don’t view the Bible as “the only inspired, inerrant, unchanging Word of God.” Rather, I see the Bible as the word of humans about their experience of the sacred in their lives; as one source of wisdom and beauty among many that seek to document and explore such experiences – experiences that, in many cases, continue to unfold. I also don’t share Young’s atonement theology, believing instead that it is Jesus’ life and message that “saves us,” not his death willed by an angry and violent God. That all being said, I still find much meaning and beauty in Young’s writing.

One of her follow-up books to Jesus Calling is Jesus Always: Embracing Joy in His Presence. It’s also a collection of daily reflections based on the words of Scripture. Although I’ve used Jesus Always less frequently with my patients, I’ve discovered in its pages some reflections that greatly resonate with me. Following is one of them. It’s inspired by Habakkuk 3:18 and 1:6-7; Psalm 107:21-22; and Psalm 100:2.

_______________

I have good intentions for you. They may by radically different from what you hoped or expected, but they are nonetheless good. I am Light; in Me there is no darkness at all. So look for My Light in all your circumstances. I am abundantly present in your moments. Your purpose is to be open to Me and My ways with you. Sometimes this requires relinquishing things you had planned or dreamed. You need to remember and wholeheartedly trust that My way is perfect, no matter how hard it is.

I am a shield for all who take refuge in Me. When you’re feeling afflicted or afraid, come to Me and say: “Jesus, I take refuge in You.” I don’t shield you from things I intend for you to deal with, for you have an important part to play in this world. However, I protect you from more dangers and troubles than you can imagine. So make every effort to live the life I have given to you. Do this in joyful dependence on Me, and your soul will be richly satisfied.

Wednesday, November 04, 2026

In Minnesota, Greens Secure “Minor Party” Status

Last night I joined with candidates, supporters and friends of the Green Party of Minnesota at Pryes Brewing Company to watch the midterm election results come in. I have to say it was very satisfying to see Trump and his fascist agenda get so thoroughly repudiated by voters all across the country.

Above (from left): Seth Kuhl-Stennes, Green Party candidate for Secretary of State; Ngone Niang, Green Party candidate for State Senate, District 39; Cam Gordon, co-founder of the Green Party of Minnesota; and Jane Kirby, Green Party candidate for Lieutenant Governor.

Right: Green Party candidates for Governor and Lieutenant Governor, Steve Young and Jane Kirby.

For a June 2026 interview with Steve and Jane, click here.

The Green Party of Minnesota is a people-powerd party dedicated to building a more affordable, sustainable, and democratic North Star state. We had six candidates on the ballot in yesterday’s midterm elections. Along with the candidates mentioned above, there were two others: Bruce Johnson for Dakota County Soil and Water Conservation District 4; and Rachel Braaten for Three Rivers Park Board, District 3.

I voted yesterday morning before work (left). Given where I live in south Minneapolis, I could only vote for three of the six Minnesota Green Party candidates – Steve and Jane for Governor and Lieutenant Governor, and Seth for Secretary of State. I voted for all three.

Nationwide, Greens ran 300 candidates in 27 states in yesterday’s midterms. Thirty of these candidates won their races, including Pāʻele Kiakona, who flipped a state legislative seat in Hawaiʻi. (You may remember that I spotlighted Pāʻele here at The Wild Reed last week.)

Although all our Minnesota candidates campaigned strongly over the last six months, none of them won their races yesterday. As disappointing as this was, we did receive enough votes to gain minor party status under Minnesota law (more about this below). In addition, we were definitely heartened by the thorough troussing received by Republicans across the country, resulting in their loss of control in both the House and the Senate in the U.S. Congress.

Following are some encouraging facts about the Green Party of Minnesota’s showing in yesterday’s midterms.

• As Greens, Governor and Lieutenant Governor candidates Steve Young and Jane Kirby received the most votes (51,000) in a statewide race since 2010 when Annie Young ran for State Auditor.

• That same number of 51,000 votes is also the most received in a gubernatorial race since Ken Pental ran for Govenor in 2002, a time when we had major party status.

• Our statewide candidates did best in Ramsey County where they received over 2 percent of the vote.

• Collectively, our six candidates secured 3x the number of votes in Minnesota than did the 2024 Green presidential/vice presidential ticket of Jill Stein and Butch Ware.

Following is a statement shared on social media earlier today by Jane Kirby, Green Party candidate for Lieutenant Governor.

We got over 50,000 votes.

Our message of human and animal liberation, ending war and genocide, protecting our sacred Water and habitats and prosecuting the criminal federal thugs terrorizing our communities resonated with Minnesotans in every county in the state. We received 1.82 percent of the votes, with almost no money at all. We didn’t buy your support. We showed you a reasonable, sustainable and just plan of action. The Green Party has always been for universal healthcare, education and housing. It is the least we can do for each other.

Electing someone who wasted millions of dollars to attack their opponent and shine up their morally repugnant record of status quo racism, war mongering, and doing the bidding of the corrupt pedophiles is not the lesser of two evils. It’s just evil.

Peace be with you all, and may we continue to take care of each other, loving our dear neighbors without distinction.

Jane notes that the Green Party received 1.82 percent of the votes in yesterday’s midterm elections. This means that, as at other times in our history, we now qualify as a minor political party in Minnesota (a status that will be officially certified in the next few weeks).

A minor party qualifies for campaign subsidies under the state income tax checkoff (we can receive state funding, in other words) and can issue political contribution refund receipts. A minor party does not have, however, any of the other rights and privileges of major parties, such as guaranteed ballot access. We'll still have collect 2,000 signatures for each state level candidate we want to run, and 500 signatures for state House and Senate seats.

The state funding we’ll now be able to receve is a huge plus. Why? Because the Green Party very consciously chooses not to accept any corporate or special interest money. Not surprisinly, we also support public financing of campaigns.

According to state election laws, in order for a political party to receive minor party status, at least one candidate “must have received votes in each county” and “in total, the candidate must have received votes equaling at least 1% of the total number of individual votes cast in the election.”

Minnesota law also states that: “A party whose candidate meets these requirements becomes a minor party as of January 1 following that election and retains such status for at least two consecutive general elections, even if the party fields a candidate who does not win the requisite votes. If the party fails in each of two consecutive general elections to field a candidate who meets these requirements, however, the party will lose minor party status as of December 31 following the latter of the two elections.”

We intend holding onto our minor party status and building upon it in the years to come.

If you’d like to join us in this endeavor, click here

Tuesday, November 03, 2026

Something to Think About . . .

Related Off-site Links:
U.S. Voters Head to the Polls with Control of Congress in the Balance – Associated Press (November 3, 2026).
“Deeply Alarming”: Hours Before Midterm Elections, Trump Bombs Iran’s Qeshm Island – Jake Johnson (Common Dreams, November 3, 2026).
“Democracy Itself Is on the Ballot”: Voters Weigh 150+ Ballot Initiatives, from Wealth Tax to Abortion – Democracy Now! (November 3, 2026).
As Americans Head to the Polls, Here Are the Billionaires Trying to Buy the 2026 Midterms – Jake Johnson (Common Dreams, November 3, 2026).
Latino Voters Swing Away from Trump for “Terrorizing Our Communities”: Marisa Franco of Mijente – Democracy Now! (November 3, 2026).
Bernie Sanders Calls for “Fundamental and Immediate Reform” to Democratic Party If It Wins Elections – Julia Conley (Common Dreams, November 3, 2026).
Democratic Socialists on the Rise: Darializa Avila Chevalier and Claire Valdez Set to Win House Seats – Democracy Now! (November 3, 2026).
Renee Good, Alex Pretti, and Your Undocumented Neighbors Won’t Be Voting, But You Can – Will Bunch (The Philadelphia Inquirer via Common Dreams, November 3, 2026).

UPDATES: Abdul El-Sayed Becomes First Muslim Senator as Democrats Rout GOP Across the U.S. in Rebuke to Trump – Democracy Now! (November 4, 2026).
Trump’s Endless Lies, Deceit, Cruelty, and Corruption Comes Crashing Down – Bradley Blankenship (Common Dreams, November 4, 2026).

See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
• “It’s Very Clear That Something Is Brewing”
• A Spirited Exchange on Voting
• “On to the General!”
• Politics 101

Monday, November 02, 2026

Quote of the Day

A lot of people are saying, “when the rubber hits the road, liberals will always choose fascism over democratic socialism.”

While I agree with this in general, it doesn’t apply with Haley Stevens jumping ship to support Mike Rogers. Keep in mind that plenty of neoliberal, warmongering shitheads like Pete Buttigieg, Kamala Harris, Barack Obama, Chuck Schumer, Jim Clyburn, James Carville, etc. still support Abdul El-Sayed. That’s because El-Sayed isn’t a socialist at all (not by his policies or self-description), and isn’t really an anti-Zionist either. The American political scene is just so fucked up that anyone with normal liberal politics in any other country is considered “radical” in the U.S.

I guarantee that if there were an actual threat to capitalist order in the U.S., all the major Democrats – including the “progressive” ones – would link arms with the GOP to protect their property rights. Stevens’ defection is not about maintaining capitalist order – it’s just rank opportunism and careerism.

– Ben Marenlensky
via Facebook
November 2, 2026

Related Off-site Links:
Haley Stevens Endorses Republican Candidate in Michigan Senate Race, Spurning Abdul El-Sayed – Sam Gringlas and Barbara Sprunt (NPR News, November 2, 2026).
El-Sayed’s Primary Opponent Stuns Democrats by Endorsing Republican Opponent in Michigan Senate Race – Joey Cappelletti, Corey Williams, and Mike Householder, (Associated Press via PBS Newshour, November 1, 2026).

UPDATE: Abdul El-Sayed Defeats Mike Rogers Despite Haley Stevens Drama – CK Smith (Salon, November 4, 2026).

See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
• Abdul El-Sayed: The Disruptor Michigan (and the Country) Needs
• Why the American Political Establishment Is Panicking
• Four Political Commentaries Worth Viewing
• Abdul El-Sayed and the “Unforgivable Rehabilitation” of Kamala Harris

Sunday, November 01, 2026

Photo of the Day

See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
• Kyrie and Penny
• An Inquisitive Little Visitor
• Sleepy Eddie and Wide-Awake Ziggy
• Photo of the Day – October 27, 2012
• Photo of the Day – April 4, 2012
• Photo of the Day – July 15, 2010

Image: Michael J. Bayly.

Saturday, October 31, 2026

“It’s Very Clear That Something Is Brewing”

I think most of us here in the U.S. sense that in the political sphere, something indeed is brewing. I appreciate how Marianne Williamson writes about this without fear-mongering or going into panic mode.

Following (with added links) is an excerpt from her latest Substack post.

Our democracy, and at this point the security of our country, is threatened by a cabal of people deeply unworthy of the power they now hold in this country. This isn’t a moment to further analyze how we got here, however; it’s a moment to analyze where things have to go from here. Democrats gaining back the House and Senate will be a powerful win, if it occurs, but it in no way means that all our problems will be over. First of all, should that occur we have no idea what President Trump’s response would be. Many speculate he would become apoplectic, doing anything from suing State election officials to seizing ballot boxes and voting machines to even declaring martial law and seeking to interrupt the certification process. It’s long past time when any reasonable person should assume the rule of law means anything to Donald Trump. In his mind, the highest law is himself.

[. . .] Somehow, someday, we will get through this dangerous period.

Whether it will be sooner or it will be later, I do not know. But we should start articulating now what we want on the other side of it. Christopher Life, founder of United Independents, has said the values which should guide all policy decisions – independent of the limitations and biases of either major political party – are the following: 1) to prevent harm; 2) to reduce human suffering; 3) to increase the quality of life; and 4) to steward well the natural world. I could not agree more.

Having had my own experiences trying to articulate a more enlightened politics, I received regularly the mockery of those who run the political game as it now exists. Notice that to them it is a game, while to us it is our lives. It was said repeatedly that I was naive to think we could shift our political bottom line from corporate profits (in this case, the profits of war manufacturers) to humanitarian and democratic values. I said then, and I say now, that what’s naive is to think we will survive another hundred years on this planet if we don’t at least try.

We’re more than playing with fire at this point. The fire is already burning. May there be a concomitant fire within ourselves, as beginning now we rise to the challenges of this moment, preparing for next Tuesday, engaged on that day and every day thereafter in whatever way conscious citizenship demands.

The Pentagon has instructed major U.S. military bases to prepare to be able to function independently for ninety days. Several Western countries have warned their citizens to keep 3 to 10 days worth of survival supplies on hand in case of major disruptions. It’s very clear that something is brewing. Some believe that in the event of an all out war, the President might shut down the power grid to prevent Iran (or anyone else) from being able to attack it.

When reading about the Cuban missile crisis we learn there were people around Khrushchev, as well as Kennedy, pretty much gunning for nuclear confrontation between Russia and the United States. Yet there were also those around both of them who more than anything were citizens of the world, successfully advising both leaders to come back from the brink of nuclear war. Had the champions of brute force prevailed, it’s possible that none of us would be here today.

I was ten years old during the Cuban missile crisis, and I remember my parents glued to the TV news one night as events unfolded. I remember the seriousness of the looks on their faces, and one of them saying that we might go to war. I remember when my mother saw me standing at the door she said, “What are you doing up, Marianne? Say your prayers honey and go back to bed.”

Once again we’re in this terrible place, where the purveyors of war are on an outrageous rampage. In so many ways we’ve simply circled back to where this country has a habit of finding itself far too often. But I’m not ten years old anymore, and neither are you. Our mission now isn’t to pray and go back to bed. Our mission is to pray and wake up.