We Need Each Other
We are experiencing an earthquake. All of us are feeling the effects of what is happening in Washington; the political chaos adds an element of unpredictability to almost every facet of our lives including our relationships. There are, most likely, more shocks to come, and we must prepare ourselves.
The effects of President Trump’s policies and what increasingly seem like the impulsive whims of a dictator are being felt around the world. For some, this is a reason to rejoice and be glad. For me and most around me, this chaos portends violence. In fact, the violence is already here.
Trump has deported innocent people across US borders to avoid legal limits (1). He has defied federal courts, blatantly flirting with a constitutional crisis (2). He has assaulted science itself by defunding our biggest producers of the science that has transformed medical practice and saved countless lives from death and disease (3). He has removed funding from vital US aid programs that help the sick and hungry around the world (4). I could continue, but the message would be the same; Trump favors power over the welfare of people.
This violence may not play like the violences we see on TV with guns and rockets and bombs, but it is violent. And, if we allow it to continue, it may lead to the bloodier realities we see happening in other countries around the world.
Please know that I love you in spite of your political beliefs. Politics are important, but human beings are more than their politics. I do not care to argue with you or anyone about policy. Please, forgive me for my political beliefs. Forgive me for our differences, and I will forgive you the same. Our humanity supersedes our differences, and we are united, as we have always been, in our hopes and dreams for a better future for us and our children.
Beyond the political lies a more important and actionable truth. One I hope you can hear from me with the urgency only love can bring - we must do more to help one another.
It may sound conspiratorial, but I believe that Trump is a manifestation of a broken culture, one that has been completely transformed with dizzying speed by technology, specifically the internet. I think we are forgetting how to be human. I believe we are losing our connections to one another, and, as a result, we have lost access to a broader sense of community.
I believe that our basic human needs are under siege, not from any one person, or political party, or “demonic” force. We all have a tendency to neglect our basic needs, and we have developed the technology to empower that neglect. We have supercharged our computers and our entertainment and our work efficiency at the cost of human freedom and human connection. Somehow, for reasons way above my pay grade, this machinery, this supercharged avoidance, has pushed us to the brink of destruction, a dark and lonely place where we are losing sight of one another’s humanity.
This degradation of the human spirit has led us to a moment of decision. Are we going to keep living our lives as we have, in our phones and on our computers? Frenzied with work and school and responsibilities? Or, are we going to reach out to one another and build community?
Our collective avoidance of our communal needs is exposing the dark underbellies of human nature, the violence, the racism, the xenophobia that have always been there, lurking beneath the surface. Our sense of community, the key to accountability, to self-mastery, to love and joy, has so badly eroded in American society, that we are lashing out in pain and sorrow. Instead of tearing down our toxic ways of living, we are tearing down our institutions and each other.
I know that many of our institutions need urgent reform. The church, the greatest modern example of colossal institutional failure, must address its egregious sins of arrogance and violence. The government must address the least and poorest amongst us. The academy must get off its high horse and teach rather than grandstand even as they cower and capitulate. So many of our institutions have failed each of us in ways large and small, but we cannot accept defeat and despair.
We are in a moment that I see often with my clients. Christians call it, “The dark night of the soul.” Although things are bleak and there is almost certainly instability and pain to come, there is also a voice in the dark. One that is reminding us of who we are, where we come from, and what it takes to survive. In case you cannot hear it, I would like to help you listen. Thankfully, the message is simple. Love one another. Do good to those who hurt you. Help yourself. Help others.
The problems we are facing extend well beyond politics. Our political leaders cannot save us. Our political movements cannot organize us. Our academies and our churches cannot bring us together. We must save ourselves by building our communities anew.
The force that stops Trump will come from local communities pushing back against the policies that hurt the powerless. These communities have been hollowed out by the technologies that push us to think globally rather than locally. It is time for all of us to refocus ourselves on our local communities, to build coalitions, and to organize our individual ability to help the hurting.
I give this message to myself as freely as I give it to you. I am not immune. I have struggled to maintain a community of friends and family. I often feel lost and alone. But that only makes me all the more certain; there are millions waiting for someone to reach out to them, to genuinely care for them, to genuinely and freely help them. If we can learn to extend our hands to those around us, we will move through this crisis together. And we will emerge from the other side.
Please, hear me when I say - We must act together to protect American democracy. Trump is just a man, but he thinks he can do whatever he wants. He thinks that whatever he does will be good because he wants to do it. He has lost his way, and he has few people in his orbit willing to stand up to him. But as flawed as America can be, we are still the best example of the human spirit in action to further peace and prosperity for all. And we must do all we can to save ourselves.
I am an atheist, but, lately, I have been praying a simple atheist’s prayer, “Please forgive me my apathy. Forgive me my depression and anxiety. Forgive me my selfish frailty. Help me find the resolve to push for peace and to stand for the weak and helpless.” In this prayer, I find clarity of purpose.
Although we need a mass movement of people fighting against tyranny, those movements begin with each of us showing up for one another. I am committed to you and to this path. I hope that you will let me know what you need. And I hope you will consider how you might build more community, if not for yourself then for someone else who might need it. Love one another. Do good to those who hurt you. Help yourself. Help others.
1.) https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/17/opinion/ezra-klein-podcast-asha-rangappa.html
2.) https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/16/us/politics/trump-probable-cause-contempt-deportation-flights.htm
3.) https://www.wsj.com/us-news/education/trump-administration-asks-irs-to-start-process-to-revoke-harvards-tax-exempt-status-2a1c93cf?mod=hp_lead_pos8
4.) https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2025/03/28/trump-usaid-abolish-earthquake-congress/