Good afternoon and welcome folks. I want us all to start off with a couple of deep breaths. I know my nervous system is fired up right now. Just like they want it to be. I actually cringe every time I say reflexively say “How are you?” to anyone these days.
Take a long breath in. Slow breath out. And again. Look at this beautiful lake, at this beautiful volcano (isn’t she lovely?). Release your shoulders. Look around at these beautiful people. Thank you for being here instead of hate watching the president’s assistant yell at congress. You’re acting locally.
What a timeline we find ourselves in right now.
We wrote checks and balances into our constitution because we know how monarchs are. We know what golden toilets lead to. We know what a king looks like. Capricious, addled, sadistic, corrupted, and growing exponentially creepier and creepier while those propping him up get crueler. Make no mistake. These are not strong men. These are weak little man babies— like most monarchs are.
The gross mismanagement at the federal level is a spectacle. It’s a clown show cast of characters of the most trite 80s movie bad guys. And we are left with a government where the cruelty is the point. Of the bullies by the bullies and for the bullies.
The cruelty is the point.
And what they are doing is going to hit us on the ground, hard. Right here on Main Street in Lake County. Not as bad as in the red states. Here’s a little trickle down economics for you. $880 billion in Medicaid cuts on the ground here looks like rural hospitals and local clinics closing. Social services agencies in California would face 10-50 cents on the dollar cut from programs that help keep people housed. In Mississippi, it’s 75 cents of their dollar. Why? The Cruelty is the Point.
SNAP benefits, also on the chopping block. Do you know what SNAP does here up the supply stream for our agricultural community? I’ll give you a hint. It’s a USDA program. How much downstream goes to our locally owned grocery stores? Sissa taught me that this week. We get $1.70 back for every $1 that comes in from SNAP. Into Hardesters and into our locally owned Grocery Outlets. Into the small grocery store down the block. Why do that? The Cruelty is the Point.
FEMA cuts means the bark beetle tree cutting program and fuel management programs that Supervisors Pyska and Simon fought to deliver to us are up in smoke. Why risk fires and lives recklessly? The cruelty is the point.
And prices are going to go up. Especially after today’s tariff shit show. These bros are playing with our lives, and lives around the world like we’re their toys. Why? The cruelty is the point.
But we aren’t their toys. We are the People. Capital P, People.
Countries with best outcomes prioritize health care, education, equity, and basic needs as fundamental rights that the People pay for. For those services, we the People can provide the stability of nationhood. We allow them to be our government. We vote them in or out every 2-4 years. If elections are fair. And free. Then we decide. And, we “decided” pretty poorly this time. But they aren’t the majority, and they know it. They are less than 1/3 of the voting population. So…
Right now. What can you do? How can you take action that is meaningful to you? That regulates your nervous systems need for justice.
You can download the five five five app and make calls to congress.
You can act locally. Like you are right now. You can help with the food bank’s spread the love campaign, like some folks in our local dem party did. The Lake County 2050 plan is being decided. You can participate. You can join the local party. You can join local indivisible. You can help with the county’s watershed programs. You can make art in Middletown. We can make a network of lawyers and upstanders with phone cameras if we see someone’s rights being violated by ICE. We can vote with our dollars and support local aligned businesses. Find them!
A butterfly gets droned in Ukraine and we feel it here. We can make changes on the ground wherever we are that make ripples around the world. Not every action will be for you. Find yours. Take care of yourselves so that you can do the work and not burn out.
That is what it means to have agency. Find your agency. I have a dear friend who took his life in January 2017. He was almost 27. The world looked pretty bleak to a kind young man like him. And he used to say that to us, Find your agency. So, that’s what I’ll leave you with today. Find Your Agency.
By Nara Dahlbacka, March 4, 2025