Fridays in Trumpland: 4.18.2025

No rest for the weary

This week, I tried to take some time off. My kids needed some time with me, and I needed a break.

To be candid, it was really hard. As much as we all preach that rest is resistance– and that is true, particularly for those who have always carried the weight of the labor of social justice and change in this country (i.e. Black women)-- actually resting in this era is extremely difficult.

Just this morning, I noted in my journal that a creeping sense of dread that I hadn’t had since Trump One had begun to infect my sleep again.

During the first administration, I often found myself awake at 3 a.m., scared out of my wits. I was not alone in this, and I know it because middle-of-the-night Twitter was a real thing back then.

But now? My thoughts are preoccupied with Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who thankfully last night was permitted to briefly meet with Senator Chris Van Hollen in El Salvador, before being returned to a torture prison and then publicly mocked by El Salvador’s brutal dictator.

My thoughts are preoccupied with everyone sent there, because none of them were afforded due process or the ability to prove their “innocence” (which to me is obvious, because no one deserves to be rendered into such a place) before being shipped off to a 21st century concentration camp.

And between that and the threats that loomed this week, bleeding through everything, out of the mouths of Donald Trump and Marco Rubio and Tom Homan and so many others, that “deportation” of anyone, US citizen or not, convicted of crimes or not, to be similarly sent to hell on earth and perhaps to death– well, sleeping through the night is a luxury now.

No one is safe. Everyone is at risk.

And yet: progress and rebellion continues.

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This week, Judge Boasberg reached the conclusion that the conduct of the administration in defying his temporary restraining order most likely rises to the level of criminal contempt. Judge Xinis ordered a hearing on why Kilmar Abrego Garcia hasn’t been returned yet, with contempt also waiting in the wings.

This week, Chris Van Hollen did something that any Democrat could be doing, and took a stand for justice. We need more of that.

An image shared by Chris Van Hollen on social media of his meeting with Kilmar Abrego Garcia. The two men sit at a table with coffee cups and water glasses in fron of them, as Van Hollen reaches his hand out earnestly in a gesture of care to Mr. Garcia.

And tomorrow is another day of protest, as movements grow and voices rise.

We must remember that hope is a practice. We must notice, and amplify, that people are taking action in positive ways and against this administration all across this nation.

It is important to focus on the good, not just the monstrousness. It is important to amplify what is righteous and moral, not just what is horrifying.

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I want to add one important thing here, though: taking care of our kids in this moment is really important.

Every kid I know and every kid I talk to is truly terrified by what’s happening here.

Some, if you ask them, will tell you that they want to leave America because of how frightening a place it has become since January, and how frightening a place it has been for a long time– all the way back to Parkland, all the way back to Columbine, all the way back to Little Rock, all the way back to our origins, honestly.

I do my best to create peace and safety for mine and those they love. Sometimes, I fail, but mostly I succeed.

And I cannot be the peace my kids and their friends need if I am always, always terrified myself.

Compartmentalization is a skillset. Sometimes a trauma induced one, but a skillset nonetheless.

So don’t feel badly if you need to disengage for a few days to care for those in your life who need caretaking– or, for that matter, to care for yourself. Give yourself permission to love your people when they need it, and also to love yourself enough to know when you need a break.

We are not here, fighting in whatever way we can for a better future, to ruin ourselves and leave our loved ones floundering in the process.

We are here to lead the future we want to build, as if it is already here.

Carry on, friends, with care.

I’ll see you next week.

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