Refusing Paralysis
A note on doing something...
Dear friends,
The last couple months have been hard. Really hard. And really depressing.
ICE is kidnapping people off the streets in broad daylight in Charlotte, Chicago, LA, and places in between. Three weeks ago a 24-year-old from Honduras was killed by a truck on an interstate here in Norfolk as he was chased down by ICE. And three weeks before that, the U.S. Supreme Court—on the so-called shadow docket—voted 6-3 to explicitly allow racial profiling in immigration enforcement, overturning decades of precedent.
With an irony thick enough to cut with a knife, the exact same 6-3 majority voted less than two years ago that race cannot be considered in college admissions because it would just be too unfair to white people. But for immigration enforcement? Justice Kavanaugh called it “common sense” to use race, ethnicity, and English language ability to justify targeting someone in a raid.
In the weeks since, perfectly predictably, hundreds of U.S. Citizens have been arrested and detained—oftentimes violently—by armed and masked ICE thugs.
And it doesn’t stop there.
Food assistance is being weaponized by an oligarchic ruling class hell-bent on protecting its own lavish tax breaks at the expense of working and middle class households. Meanwhile, Elon Musk secured himself a $1 trillion, ten-year pay package. I actually want people to sit with that for a second. $1 trillion over 10 years. That’s more than $11 million per hour, 24 hours per day, 365 days per year, for a decade, approved the same weekend that the Trump administration sued to block states from paying out November SNAP benefits—which average under $200 per month per eligible family.
You can’t make this up.
And I haven’t even mentioned Epstein, the impending war of aggression in Venezuela, the Neo-Nazi take-over of the Republican party, the truly shocking scale of the crypto-corruption of the Trump Administration, or the fact that as the Earth keeps getting warmer, the administration is canceling permits for renewable energy projects that are already under construction while expanding fossil fuel leases in the Arctic, and just skipped out on the UN’s annual climate summit.
It’s all too easy to become paralyzed.
But then, early this morning, I got a text message from a friend in Charlotte—the latest epicenter of ICE’s brutality. He told me ICE was dispatching from staging areas around the city and that he and members of his church were out on community patrols, trying to protect their neighbors from being disappeared into unmarked vehicles by masked agents.
That message filled me with rage, but also with hope. This is a “break-glass” moment if I’ve ever seen one. We have to do something.
And there is so much to do. Call your local/state/national representatives, regularly. Write letters to the editor. Join rapid response teams. Donate to local organizations, repeatedly.
Know that there are organizers out there working heroically, and ask them how you can lend your time, skills, and resources to the groundwork that they’ve laid out, in many cases for many, many years.
If what you can do is post on social media, then post on social media. If what you can do is give money, then give money. If what you can do is show up to an event, then show up. If what you can do is organize an event, then organize it. If what you can do is go to a protest, go to a protest. If you can help organize the protest, even better! If what you can do is educate yourself, then there it is - educate yourself!
If you can do a little, do a little. If you can do a lot, do a lot. There is a role for each one of us. There has to be. Because if not, I’m not sure how we get out of this.
Working strategically matters. So does mobilization. We have to refuse paralysis. We have to do something.
I’m genuinely curious what you are doing. How are you staying sane, and staving off inaction? I would sincerely love to hear from folks, to know what people are doing.
In that spirit, here are a few things I’m working on, and a few places I could use your help:
First and foremost, let’s support immigrant communities in Charlotte:
Venmo: @SupportFamiliesCLT
This Venmo account is personally verified by a friend and pastor deeply involved in local response efforts in Charlotte.
Or, donate to Our Bridge For Kids, one of Charlotte’s most trusted immigrant and refugee organizations: https://joinourbridge.org/get-involved/donate/
Local Environmental Justice Struggles
Last week I worked with my dear friends Yugonda Sample-Jones and Pastor Lathaniel Kirts to receive a dozen environmental attorneys and law students from UVA Law and the SELC in Newport News’ East End Community for a half-day of EJ activities, focusing on the impacts of coal dust and air pollution on vulnerable communities.
Over the coming weeks, I’ll be writing more about several ongoing local EJ battles, including:
The fight against a proposed gas-fired power plant outside Richmond
The fight against a polluting shipyard seeking to expand into a Black residential neighborhood in Norfolk
And more community-rooted EJ organizing across Virginia
Save the date: April 13, 2026 — a full-day Environmental Justice Symposium in partnership with #CoalDustKills, Newport News East End Civil Association, Empower All, and the 2026 Hampton Roads Social Justice Conference.
Hampton Roads Social Justice Conference
Registration is OPEN
2026 theme: The Future Is Now. The Fight Is Here.
You can submit a session or workshop, and register to attend by visiting the conference website:
Our 2026 keynote speakers embody the spirit of this moment:
Dr. Scott Warren
Humanitarian aid provider along the U.S.–Mexico border; co-founder of No More Deaths/No Más Muertes; arrested and charged with multiple felonies for providing water and medical aid to migrants; acquitted by a jury in 2019.
Jennifer Carroll Foy
Public servant, VMI graduate, former public defender, legislator, and now State Senator. Led the effort to make Virginia the 38th state to ratify the ERA; champion for reproductive rights, workers’ rights, and environmental cleanup.
Events this week at CNU
CNU MAPATHON
3:00 pm * Wednesday, November 19 * Luter Hall 109
Collaborative, open-source mapping for disaster response. Pizza + Prizes. No experience required.
KEYNOTE LECTURE: Dr. Juan Declet-Barreto
3:00 pm * Thursday, November 20 * Trible Library Theater
“Addressing the Climate Crisis: Science at the Intersection of Extreme Weather and Equitable Policies.” Dr. Declet-Barreto is the Bilingual Senior Social Scientist for Climate Vulnerability at the Union of Concerned Scientists. Free and open to the public.
Stay well, and stay safe.
In solidarity,
Johnny
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