A good poem can be balm for a way-weary soul. One of our favorite poets, Mary Oliver, says it this way:

The title of this post comes from another poet, David Wagoner, who grew up in Indiana but moved to the Pacific Northwest as an adult. In his poem, Lost, he explains that we must pay exquisite attention to our surroundings, not only our natural environment but our social and political environment as well. This poem is thought to be an example of what indigenous elders would advise their young who were being initiated into adulthood. Their task was to survive several days alone in the forest. When lost, stand still and pay attention to everything. Your survival depends on it.

This is what he says:

Lost

Stand still. The trees ahead and bushes beside you
Are not lost. Wherever you are is called Here,
And you must treat it as a powerful stranger,
Must ask permission to know it and be known.
The forest breathes. Listen. It answers,
I have made this place around you.
If you leave it, you may come back again, saying Here.
No two trees are the same to Raven.
No two branches are the same to Wren.
If what a tree or a bush does is lost on you,
You are surely lost. Stand still. The forest knows
Where you are. You must let it find you.
                                                                     David Wagoner

Did You Know?

Our state and our country are in the midst of a fascist takeover. The degree to which the Trump/Braun regimes will be successful depends on whether we understand the threat. Our political environment is not about the price of eggs, our economic stability, or DEI. We can’t undersell this as a constitutional crisis. Our political environment is a fascist takeover, and the villains are ‘in the house’. Here are just a few examples that make the case:

• “Habeas Corpus” is essential to a free society. It is our guarantee that the government cannot arbitrarily imprison its people. Trump wants to get rid of that guaranteed freedom because it is slowing down his abductions and illegal imprisonment of anyone he dislikes or can falsely accuse.

• Students, judges and legal foreign residents are being abducted and some imprisoned without any due process.

• Governor Braun has seized power of the Board of Trustees of Indiana University, a move that allows the takeover of academic freedom in the university. He did this in the ‘dark of night’ by writing it into the budget bill just hours before the 2025 legislative session ended. He did this without legislative consent, public testimony or due process.

• Federal agencies vital to our health and safety are being crippled by mass firings and the elimination of essential operations. None of this is legal, yet Congress stands by without exercising their right as a co-equal branch to end such recklessness. Senators Young and Banks are doing nothing to protect our freedoms. Our MAGA congressional representatives are colluding with the fascist regime and the Democratic representatives are not being clear about the danger of this moment—they are still talking about the price of eggs.

• Lt. Governor Micah Beckwith hardened his stance on the “Three-Fifths Compromise” as being a good move. His response to the pastors from Concerned Clergy who complained about his revisionist history was to publically lie about the clergy.

• Trump is throwing a huge military parade for his birthday—right out of a fascists playbook. No U.S. President has ever done this before!

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Why It Matters:

Words matter. We cannot face, let alone overcome something that we don’t name. If what the “tree or bush does is lost on us”, fascism wins.

Some say fascism is too hard to understand and is a divisive term. Politicians, pundits and activists squabble over messaging. This isn’t helpful and is a dangerous waste of time.

Our country has a history of fighting fascism, from resisting Jim Crow, insisting that women have the right to vote, ending McCarthyism, voting in the Civil Rights Act, forcing Richard Nixon to leave office. The majority understands the insidiousness of fascism and most of us don’t like it.

What You Can Do:

Here we are. This is where we find ourselves. We must see it, and name it so we can find our way out of this mess.

We must be able to talk about what is happening to those around us in words that illuminate, explain, invite. Don’t worry about the MAGA cult who are lost, it’s not our work to make them see. We don’t have the time and it is soul-sucking.

We need to connect with persuadable voters, regardless of how they voted in 2024. Many of these people are our family, friends, neighbors and colleagues. Many are frightened and hurting and the suffering will only get worse. That’s where we start the conversations.

We have to build a strong resistance to this takeover. We have to be the social proof that nothing is normal about what the fascists are doing. This is our collective ‘rite of passage’.

We must be information warriors. Here are some tools:

• Anat Shenker-Osorio is our guru! She insists that we begin our conversations using freedoms and values as our frames. (Scroll to Featured Resources and download all three.) These conversation starters are a must if we are going to build a broad coalition of resistance.

• Red, Wine & Blue have great resources for social media postings. Here is a YouTube video about how to talk to your friends and neighbors. These resources are priceless, fun and free!

• Summer 2025 is a great time to raise awareness as we move toward the 2026 elections. Start a bookclub that opens the door to compelling conversations. The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood, George Orwell’s 1984 , It Can't Happen Here by Sinclair Lewis, and Fever In the Heartland by Timothy Egan are a few suggestions. Healthy democracies depend on informed citizens.

Let’s name where we are so we can overcome it. We are all in this together.

Your information warriors,

H4D Team