A "For All" Future
What follows is a letter about the recent work I and others have been doing, written in hopes of connecting with people who might resonate with this work, grasp why it’s so critical right now, and want to help support it.
When I launched Letters from a Birmingham Boy, I intended it to span the gamut from stories about diversity to community, from democracy to humanity. However, in the wake of the election, and especially, seeing the outsized political power that fundamentalist groups like the Heritage Foundation were wielding and the plans they were advancing, I shifted, focusing far more acutely on what's happening to us as a society, and how this perversion of faith is dismantling democracy itself. I'm both surprised and humbled by the fruit the work is bearing.
First, it seems that my writing is gradually finding its audience. For instance, posts made since the election have garnered a total of approximately 200,000 reads. A tenth of those came from my 2025 MLK Day letter, Memorial for a Dream? (Or, Getting Our "Fight" Back), and my latest letter, What's PRIDE Got to Do With It? which encapsulates a century of LGBTQ+ history (if you haven't read it yet, I'm particularly "proud" of it), is on track to be even more widely circulated.
All that's especially surprising since the pieces themselves aren't short. Conventional wisdom holds that, in the era of TikTok videos and dancing cats, people are no longer reading. But there seems to be an appreciation for the approach I'm taking, which includes contextualizing what's happening to us today in the scope of history; making sense of how past choices led us here, and how each of us gets a say in what happens next.
For instance, I recently got a personal email from one of the girls arrested for protesting at Columbia University. I'd posted a letter titled, Really? Columbia? where I explained that no matter how it's spun, protesting against injustice and inhumanity isn't a violation of the university's values but a fulfillment of them.
The girl, one of 61 arrested, along with 19 boys, said someone forwarded the letter to her parents, who then shared it with her. She mentioned that after reading it, her parents went from being mortified over her having been arrested to telling her how proud they were. She's now more committed than ever to standing up for those who need someone to stand up for them.
Then, there's the mentoring I’m getting to do. Three months ago, I launched a "generative activism" training group that has 26 participants from across the country, and that's an outgrowth of my work with young protestors in Portland in 2020. Back then, my focus was on helping them see how they didn't exist in a vacuum; that they stood on the shoulders of giants, and that their efforts were fueled by decades of forward momentum stemming back to Rosa Parks, and so much further. I tried to help them focus on the change they wanted to see, rather than wasting energy on confrontations with everyone from the Proud Boys to the police.
In one instance, I engaged a group of frustrated teens in conversation about their burning of the American flag. They were understandably angry at a government that, at almost every turn, was siding with flag-wielding supremacy groups calling themselves "patriots". "I get that," I told them, "But the question only you can answer is whether or not you're okay with giving them the flag?"
I then showed them a few photos like the one above, taken by Matt Herron in 1965 in Jackson, Mississippi, where 5-year-old Anthony Quin refused to let go of his little flag, even as a burly police officer tried to pry it away from him. His mom had told him, "Don't you let that man take your flag." And little Anthony didn't. I wanted them to recognize how this isn’t ancient history, that Anthony, had he not died of pancreatic cancer five years prior, would have been 60. "Anthony didn't let them take his flag," I told them, "And neither should you."
The training group runs for 32 weeks and utilizes a cohort model, with each member engaging in some form of social action. In addition to the required reading (it started as a reading group for This Land Is Your Land), we strategize together and serve as a support system for one another. I, beyond mentoring and advising, have been providing modest financial support and connecting them with people who can offer practical help. Examples of our efforts:
One member has been working with me to envision apps that can engage millions of Americans in social change -- everything from avoiding companies that exploit the poor to holding judges accountable.
Three of us are preparing to launch culture change campaigns that do everything from target racialism to helping restore our nation's belief in the vote, that it's the single most powerful social tool ever invented. Which is why people like Jimmie Lee Jackson, Viola Liuzzo, James Reeb, Amelia Boynton and so many others put everything on the line for it. "Jimmie Lee Jackson Died for your Vote/Amelia Boynton Bled for Your Vote," the first campaign says, "What are you going to do with it?" with links to their story.
One member, whose sibling is trans, collects medications like estrogen, testosterone and morning-after pills, then drives them into her home state where gender-affirming care and contraceptives are increasingly difficult to come by. She's also turned I AM THEM, the social solidarity idea I came up with where we all commit to checking either both gender boxes or neither until our government gives trans people back their dignity, into a full-on social campaign, including designing an amazing T-shirt, hashtag, graphic, etc.
Two members, one, a young organizer, and the other, a retired social worker, neither of whom has ever run for public office before are both planning to do so. They're perfect examples of the kinds of people we need running. The ways we're looking to support them could help make serving a term in public office commonplace for the rest of us. Which might be the most important thing we can do for democracy. This is especially true when incumbency rates for Congress are 95%, meaning that even if politicians are doing a terrible job, they're still all but guaranteed to be reelected. That is unless we change the math.
Two members are working with a priest who is providing safe haven to those in danger of being illegally exiled from the country. Many of the people they're helping are some version of LGBTQ+, and likely to be sent back to countries where they'll be persecuted, and perhaps even killed, if not shipped off, with neither trial nor means of appeal, to prison in yet another country. They're also printing and distributing Red Cards in congregations and places where immigrants live or work.
In addition to our own projects, each of us is committed to being directly involved in some form of poverty alleviation -- from volunteering at free clinics to distributing free lunches to schoolkids during the summer. That's because as important as defending democracy is, it’s a hollow exercise if the society we pass on still only works for some of us.
Together, we're laying the groundwork for larger, pro-democracy projects, starting with a voter guide that assesses each politician's record based on one thing -- whether they've helped form us into a society that works for all of us, or perpetuated one that works for just some of us.
Similarly, an Atlanta activist is working on a program that covers the costs of getting the new forms of ID now required by the state, helping offset the economic barrier such laws pose. Georgia is a battleground state, and staunchly progressive Atlanta voters are most affected by this law. Atlanta proper has 600,000 people, and the greater Atlanta area has over 2 million, about a fifth of the entire state. If we can do a test run there in 2026, we can both scale and do it elsewhere in 2028, which might very well determine the presidency.
I and two other "activist ministers" are working on a similar training program specifically for clergy and lay leaders. This is especially needed, given the way religion is being co-opted and weaponized. We need to foster the same kind of spiritual uprising that inspired everyone from members of the Underground Railroad to the thousands of people who traveled to Selma after Bloody Sunday, in defiance of religious officials who told them to stand down.
This work matters so much to me because I believe this moment is as critical as any we Americans have ever faced. Because it's here, right now, that we finally decide the kind of America we're going to be -- a society where we can all thrive or just some of us can. A land, as Woody Guthrie put it, “made for you and me" or, as my nieces, when they were little, sang, "made for only me".
For years now, from Me and Mary and This Land Is Your Land to the letters posted here, I've been writing about how we've long been a nation in flux, shifting from a "majority rules" society to one where everyone's a minority, and how that's left us with systems and frameworks that are in conflict with the people we're becoming. A faction, however, for over a century, has done everything in its power to fight this inevitable change even as it was happening, hoping to return us to the America we used to be — one that belonged only to them.
But, they couldn't. That’s because we’ve already changed so much that existing as any form of a "For Some" society is simply not viable. Still, they’ve persisted, including asserting, after the 2024 election, that they’re finally on their way to restoring greatness to America. And the funny thing is they were right. But so not in the way they planned. Because what this protracted assault on democracy did was bring a previously divided nation together to defend it. And this new, massive majority? They don't want to "take America back". They want to take it forward.
That's why this rising tide of consciousness is so important, from the more than 5 million participants in No Kings Day, the largest mass demonstration in US history, to the record attendees expected at Pride celebrations this year - despite the many companies that dropped out as corporate sponsors, from those protecting immigrants to the 75 veterans, including 87-year-old John Spitzberg who were arrested for protesting Trump's military parade.
They not only represent a cross-section of our nation from small towns to our largest cities, so-called red and blue states, across ancestry, age, ethnicity and identity, they're unafraid, they're larger than ever, and they get that if we can't forge a future for all of us, there won't be one for any of us. It's also what I'm hoping my efforts, and the efforts of those I'm working alongside, are helping foster. Because it's not the big moves that chart our destiny; it's the small ones made by millions of us. We're the droplets of water that form the tide.
In the conclusion of This Land Is Your Land, I described how America, time and again, has needed people to be its ethical Moses, and how MLK, Martin, as much as anyone in our history, shouldered that burden:
"He would take it upon himself to help a nation find its way out of the wilderness of advantagism and toward the Promised Land, a Beloved Community where everyone thrives and we all belong – a land made for you and me. But it wasn’t about him being a miracle worker. His greatest feat was convincing so many of us that we, ordinary people, could perform miracles. And we would; blessing the loaves of humanity and, in the process, nourishing a nation."
That's what I think we're on the cusp of right now, transforming ourselves into not just a great nation but a good one. Which gets back to this letter, and to my request. Simply put, if there's anyone you know who might see the value of this work and want to support it, if you could tell them about us, I'd greatly appreciate it, as would those on the front lines.
To date, I and paid subscribers to Letters from a Birmingham Boy constitute the only outside support these people are receiving. The rest they're funding out of their own pockets via their jobs as baristas, delivery drivers and the like. But, due to a number of personal factors, the support I've provided is unfortunately running out -- exactly at the time when what's needed is more support, when their work matters more than ever. I don’t think we get to a better place without efforts like these.
Then, there's the issue of confidentiality. Given recently changed laws, many of which are today's equivalent of the 1850 Fugitive Slave Act, the people undertaking this work aren't in a position to be at all public about it. That means that traditional fundraising vehicles aren't viable. And that's before addressing the rapidly rising needs in our communities amidst both rent and cost-of-living increases and nationwide cuts to programs serving the poor.
To help with all this, I established the ”For All” Fund. Structuring it as a church benevolence fund means that donations qualify as tax-deductible, while, at the same time, protecting the confidentiality of those the fund is assisting. Or, you can become a patron subscriber, providing support at $10/month, $100/moth, or other amount. Both are members of our Team of Backers, our version of the “stockholders” who funded the Underground Railroad.
I'm also happy to do book readings, speak at churches, etc., as a way of generating support for the fund. Finally, if you're aware of anyone who might want to be part of a future action group cohort, let me know. Participation is free, and I'm hoping to continue providing both mentorship and funding to help members do the work they feel called to do.
I want to close with one of my favorite quotes, by Pastor John Pavlovitz: "I still do believe in the bigger table, but it’s more difficult than ever to keep that faith, probably because the resistance to it is so great. We have to be the resistance to that resistance." It sums up for me both where we are and what I believe, in this moment, is required of us.
Thank you for all you do to stand as the resistance to that resistance.