Fridays in Trumpland: 5.2.2025
Dust Off Your Highest Hopes
Three days ago, on April 30, 2025, I was running errands in my car, on my way to pick up my kids, when an old Taylor Swift song came to me thanks to the iTunes algorithm.
The title of the song is Everything Has Changed.
There I was, tooling along and enjoying the fine Spring weather of this week, doing my best to take a moment of distraction from the political landscape, and thinking quite happily in fact about the release of Mohsen Mahdawi from ICE custody (more on that in a minute), when there, at nearly the end of that song, came a single line.
It said: dust off your highest hopes.
I rewound the song for fifteen seconds to make sure I hadn’t misheard it.
And there it was again: dust off your highest hopes.
As I pulled into the parking lot of my destination, I sat there for a minute and listened to the whole song for a third time.
What a thing to consider, as fascism continues to ravage America, in a week where there were nonetheless a not-small number of incredibly important victories:
What would it mean right now to dust off our highest hopes?
This week, Columbia protestor Mohsen Mahdawi was released from ICE custody after 16 days of detention. A Palestinian green card holder, he was kidnapped by ICE in Colchester, Vermont at his naturalization interview– a final step in his attempt to become a US citizen.
Not that it matters, but he has been accused of no crime. Indeed, Judge Crawford of the District Court for the District of Vermont noted in his ruling that Mahdawi was neither a threat to the community nor a flight risk, and ordered his immediate release from the bench.
Mohsen Mahdawi walked out of that courthouse to cheering crowds and made a statement. He said this:
If we have faith in our beliefs, unshakeable beliefs, . . . that justice is inevitable, we will not fear anyone, because our fight is a fight for democracy, is a fight for humanity.
To President Trump and his cabinet: I am not afraid of you.
When we consider our highest hopes for the future, for what could be, for what change may come and for what could be possible with leaders like Mahdawi, what could possibly be more foundational than the belief that justice is inevitable?
I happen to believe it is.
This week, we also saw something truly miraculous: a Trump appointed judge, sitting in the Southern District of Texas, Brownsville Division– yes, that Brownsville, home to the infamously evil Brownsville detention center, where families were separated under the first Trump administration, and where a local Walmart was turned into a children’s detention facility in 2018 and where those kids were routinely subjected to physical and emotional abuse– held that Trump’s invocation of the Alien Enemies Act to deport Venezuelan migrants was unlawful.
You might want to go read that whole paragraph again.
Better still, he certified a class of Venezuelans who had been targeted or might be targeted in the future by the Trump administration, and held that anyone in that class could not be deported under the AEA, including anyone arrested or detained in his district– which is where all those kidnapped to the El Salvador concentration camp were processed before being forced on to planes.
Lastly, he granted the habeas corpus petitions of the three named plaintiffs in the case, who will be released.
This was a stunning rebuke of Trump’s attempt to override the law and engage in human rights abuses.
Yes, this will be appealed. But something funny is in the offing: the Supreme Court has already ruled, 7-2, three weeks ago, that Venezuelans subject to the Alien Enemies Act must have due process before deportation. It is therefore unlikely that Judge Crawford’s decision will be overturned by the highest court.
Suddenly, everything has changed.
This week also saw massive turnout for May Day protests nationwide, including a lawyers day of protest where thousands lined up to again take the oath we all take when we are admitted to the bar, namely to uphold and defend the Constitution against all enemies foreign and domestic. Friends sent footage of their own oathtaking from Foley Square in New York City– the teeming central hub of the entire NYC judicial system.
Tesla stock continues to plummet thanks to TeslaTakedown protests. Elon Musk announced that he is leaving government. And a new day of action is planned for June 14th, Trump’s birthday.
There is momentum now. Sometimes, on the dark days, it sounds like an echo of history, and we may wonder if it’s really real.
It is. It is. It is real.
Back in early December, a friend of mine, Dr. Anya Sammler-Michael— a community activist and a Unitarian Universalist minister— gave a sermon about the horror of Trump’s victory. I posted a clip of it to my Instagram because I was so moved by her words.
At the end of it, she said this.
Let me tell you something that I believe.
I think that this is an age of patriarchy and hate, and that it is an age that is dying.
This interregnum, between one age and the next, is an age of monsters.
So love, and keep on loving.
Know that your love is tethering you and your community to this earth.
And know that love is winning.
It is winning.
It is winning.
At the time, though I wept through her sermon in real time, I wasn’t sure I totally believed her.
This week, I changed my mind.
Out of the ashes of all this, in the voices of those who rise and say I am not afraid of you, in the voices of those who say no, you will not do this, and I will not let you do this, in the voices of all those in the streets, in the voices of those who tell us love is winning, we find our highest hopes.
Keep fighting.
Dust off your highest hopes.
Justice is inevitable.
Love is winning. It is winning. It is winning.
Everything has changed.
Back in January, we launched a new initiative called The Ripple Effect Institute, designed to take high-performing progressive leaders who are here to make a BIG difference from feeling overwhelmed, uncertain, and disconnected to calm, empowered, and purpose-driven, so they can change the world.
We had 33 people in it when we started. Here's what a few of them have said.
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“My experience in the REI has been extremely positive and it has made me take a deeper look at myself and my goals. Reviewing my values and writing my Purpose Statement has been really useful as so much is flowing from that work.”
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ECM, one of your mantras on your YT channel is that we don't know what's going to happen tomorrow. That things can change for the positive, and suddenly. This post resonated deeply, a powerful testament to that very truth. The release of Mohsen Mahdawi and the judicial rebuke of Trump's policies paints a vivid picture of hope after 100 days of adversity and worse. You've eloquently captured the essence of those moments, reminding us that even in the face of overwhelming darkness, flickers of justice and humanity persist. "Dust off your highest hopes". (I heard you say that on YT yesterday and played it back several times.) That simple line, unearthed from a familiar song, becomes a rallying cry. This post is a reminder that our collective belief in justice, coupled with unwavering action, can indeed shift the tides. Thank you for sharing these stories of resilience and hope; they are a beacon in these turbulent times.
This also made me weep. Everything. Every word. Thank you ECM.