My loves,

I’m worried about what you are seeing day after day and what you are hearing hour after hour. You have come of age in the era of Trump.Since this is the only political environment you have ever been fully aware of, I want to be sure you understand that this is not normal. That our fragile democratic foundation is crumbling. I want you to believe that another way is possible. Let me speak from our shared love of the earth…

In nature, survival is rarely a solo act. Forests endure because trees share resources through vast underground networks. Roots and fungi cooperate, not out of altruism, but because life has learned that mutual support is the most reliable form of resilience. An organism does not thrive by terrorizing its neighbors.

Here, in the United States, we are moving in the opposite direction.

You are witnessing people being dragged from their homes through beat down doors. Children are learning fear before safety. They are being awakened in their homes by boots, by shouting, by breaking glass and splintering wood, by the kind of fear that doesn’t leave when the noise stops. Courageous mothers are hiding in cellars, clutching their babies and praying to remain invisible. Individuals are being terrorized and executed in our streets for daring to bear witness to the inhumane treatment of our neighbors. Black and brown communities, who have long carried the burden of systemic injustice, are now forced to navigate daily life with the added weight of suspicion, aware they may be asked to produce papers, to justify their presence, to prove they belong in places they have always lived.

My loves, this is not normal. This is not the way things are supposed to be.

We are also witnessing the power of the presidency being used not to protect the public, but to punish political enemies. punish critics, threaten political opponents, and take aim at those who refuse to obey. This behavior is reinforced by a relentless propaganda apparatus that reframes cruelty as strength, casts dissent as danger, and asks the public to distrust their own eyes and their own moral instincts.

My loves, this is not normal. This is not the way things are supposed to be.

In healthy ecosystems, imbalance is corrected through relationship. Here, imbalance is reinforced through fear. Governance is shaped less by stewardship than by forcible extraction of wealth, of loyalty, of silence.

This administration shows open disdain for democratic norms–for the rule of law, for an independent press, for the idea that power should serve the common good rather than personal enrichment of the already enriched. We are told to accept the erosion of rights as the price of “security,” to normalize the unthinkable one outrage at a time. That is how democracies rot. Not all at once, but slowly, while people argue over whether the smell is real.

What makes this moment additionally disorienting is the contradiction at its center. We are told our administration stands for democracy abroad, even as democratic foundations erode at home. We are asked to accept that an increasingly authoritarian leader (one who serves himself and his financial interests above all while his own nation slides toward fascism) should be entrusted with exporting democracy to Venezuela and other countries whose sovereignty we are threatening. The dissonance is impossible to ignore. A system that cannot practice mutual care at home cannot export democratic values abroad.

None of this happens in a vacuum. It is reinforced by a sophisticated propaganda machine that sells lies as truth through repetition, recasts cruelty as strength, and that trains millions to doubt their own eyes. It tells people that what they are seeing is necessary, justified, even patriotic– that the real danger is not authoritarian power, but those who dare to name it.

My loves, we have to keep naming truth anyway.

In the natural world survival is rarely achieved through domination alone. Forests thrive through mutualism: trees share nutrients through underground networks, fungi and roots cooperating for collective resilience, ecosystems balancing themselves through relationship rather than control. Life endures not by hoarding power, but by circulating it.

I find myself longing for our leaders to pause and walk through the woods in silence and with their eyes open and learn from a wisdom that predates politics. The earth teaches that dominance depletes, isolation weakens, and flourishing depends on reciprocity. Mutualism is not naïve. It is ancient. It is how life persists through crisis.

I am not writing to claim innocence (Lord knows I am not innocent!). I have at times looked away. I have at times tried to forget. I have at times leaned heavily into my own privilege and chosen the easy path of silence. I am writing to bear witness. To say that I see what is happening, and refuse to pretend it is normal anymore. I refuse to look away while my neighbors disappear, while fear becomes policy and democracy is treated as an inconvenience. Please understand that millions of decent people are trying to protect one another, are refusing to surrender our collective humanity, and still believe another way of living together is possible.

Together we can make a difference. I still believe this.

I have so much hope for what is possible! Hope that out of the ashes of whatever remains when this era is over, some new resplendent thing will rise up! Some way of living together that revolves around a desire for beloved community. A way that will be powered by a kind of love that welcomes and embraces neighbors and strives for a richly textured community, and has set a seat for everyone around the table. I may not see it in my lifetime, but I promise that as long as I have breath in my body I will work towards it for you, and for everyone who comes after you.

Democracy thrives when trust replaces fear, when people are connected instead of isolated, when both suffering and abundance are shared. Repair begins the same way ecosystems recover–through attention, relationship, and collective responsibility.

No society survives without learning how to care for one another. Love and care for everyone around you is the highest way to express your love for God. We have tried to teach you this, though not always perfectly. My deepest wish is that you will do whatever you are called to do toward the goal of creating a world that is more kind and hospitable, more gracious, more loving, more just and focused on the common good.

My loves, I promise I will press on as best as I can. I promise I will continue to bear witness to reality and do everything I can to advance an agenda of compassion. And I pray you will do the same.

Look for the Light, Be the Light. I Love you Always,

Mom