The title of this post is taken from T.S. Eliot’s Little Gidding, the final poem of a series of four poems written over a six year period (1936-1942). The collection was eventually published as the Four Quartets. The poems are about a nation and a culture under threat, this final one written during the London air raids of WWII. Four Quartets is considered one of Eliot’s greatest works; it is an exploration of the themes of time, mortality and transcendence. These themes seem relevant now, almost a century later. Here we are now, a culture and a nation under threat.
Did you Know?:
Dr. Seuss, the well known children’s author, was also writing about a culture and nation under threat at the same time as T.S. Eliot. He satirized the America First stance of isolationism that was prevalent during the prelude to WWII as America tried to ignore the Nazi threat raging across Europe. America First is the regressive ideology promoted by the Trump/Musk regime and championed by the Braun/Beckwith administration.
It’s easy to fall for the absurdity and vacuous promise of “America First” in a global, interdependent world when you have ignored the warnings of Project 2025 or if you are an aggrieved voter that believes some ‘other’ group is the root cause of all that is wrong with the country. “Making Indiana Healthy Again” sounds great if you ignore the fact that Micah Beckwith is a proud, self-proclaimed white Christian nationalist who vehemently opposes reproductive freedom and accuses independent, competent women of being Jezebels and witches. If you are unaware that Mike Braun is an unabashed Trump loyalist, who praises Trump’s executive orders and every reckless anti-qualified appointment to his Cabinet, you might fall for the gaslighting about tax cuts, slashing Medicaid and his anti-science stance on vaccines. In the days and weeks leading up to the 2024 election, for too many voters, the threats to our fundamental way of life and liberty were “not known, because not looked for” as T.S. Eliot warned. These threats were “heard, half heard” by those who believed that Project 2025 was an existential threat to our freedoms. Not enough voters heard the warning. T.S. Eliot goes on to say: Not known, because not looked for But heard, half-heard, in the stillness Between two waves in the sea. Quick now, here, now always— a condition of complete simplicity, (Costing not less than everything) Project 2025 is alive and well in Indiana and across this nation. We are experiencing a hostile takeover of our government and way of life. The crisis is a moral crisis between right and wrong, good and evil. Trump and his Cabinet are consolidating powers to the Executive Branch and erasing the separation of the three co-equal branches of government. It is becoming unsafe to speak out against Trump policies under threat of lawsuit or criminal investigation by the Department of Justice. Universities, the media, and private citizens are being sued or investigated for speaking out against the regime. Foreign students legally studying in this country are being apprehended off the streets and detained by ICE because they voiced their support for Palestine. A federal worker at the National Labor Relations Board witnessed a major security breach that allowed someone using an IP address from Russia to access the system with a DOGE username and password. When the worker reported these issues, he found threatening notices tacked to the front doors of his home telling him to stop investigating DOGE. The list of the regime’s attacks on the rule of law and our democratic norms are endless and terrifying. While the P2025 blueprint was written for the federal government, ruby red partisan gerrymandered states like Indiana are implementing its white Christian nationalistic tenets. Remember, Gov. Braun’s first Executive Order was to rid the state governmental agencies of DEI. His recently signed tax bill will ultimately remove about $700 million from Indiana’s public schools—a sure way to make them fail and give an excuse to privatize them. If we continue to ignore the threat, we will reach a point of no return in this country. If we face down the threat, it will require that at least 3.5 % of us become part of the pro-democracy movement that is taking root across our country. We can reverse the course of this terrifying trajectory if enough of us are willing to stand up and oppose what is happening. Ultimately, we have to vote the fascists out of office, here in Indiana and at the national level. To take a stand for our country is not risk free, and for many, like Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a legal immigrant who was seized and illegally sent to a gulag prison in El Salvador, Rumeysa Öztürk, the 30-year-old doctoral student from Tufts who was apprehended on the streets and sent to a detention center across state lines, and the federal whistleblower who is being threatened, it may ‘cost not less than everything’. If you wonder what you would have done in Nazi Germany, you are doing it now. This is not the time to stand on the sidelines, there is too much at stake. It’s important to stay informed and to stay grounded in what is real. Here are a few suggestions: Continue to use 5 Calls or the U.S. Capitol switchboard at 202-224-3121 to help you make strategic calls to legislators. Attend the “Shred Project 2025” rally on Saturday, April 19, 2025 at the Indiana Statehouse. Become literate in the details of Project 2025. Red, Wine & Blue has developed this amazing tool to help you track how it is being implemented and how to share that information with your community. The American people are overwhelming opposed to this mandate for authoritarianism. Subscribe to The.Ink by Anand Giridharadas for daily doses of information, strategies for action and brilliant commentary. Subscribe to The Bulwark for straightforward, unbiased reporting. Subscribe to Jessica Craven’s Chop Wood, Carry Water for daily, up to date actions on legislation in Congress. Indivisible is the gold standard for organizing and movement building. Check with the national website to find a group near you. Red, Wine & Blue is doing amazing work. Their most recent conversation with Rep. Jasmine Crockett and Heather Cox Richardson on Project 2025 is a must watch. Over 42,000 were on the Zoom call on April 14th. Be engaged with what is happening, but don’t forget that this moment in our political story isn’t the whole story. Spring is here. Everywhere we look, life is courageously emerging from the darkness of earth’s womb. Be a joyful information warrior in this difficult time. Oppose the darkness of this moment because of what you love! Your joyful information warriors, The H4D Team
What You Can Do:
Speak Up! Use Your Voice
Educate Yourself and Learn to Talk About the Issues
Join a Group or Organization
