I’m calling it what it is.
I couldn’t make myself send this email - for months. Everything happening in our communities, our society, and our country all feels like too much right now.
It took me weeks to muster the strength to get up and put together an email that goes out to an audience I care deeply about - a community I have been working for years to craft. I kept seeing the Mailchimp billing statement post in my inbox and on my bank statement. Oh well, another month gone by without word. …And then another.
I wanted to give the disclaimer that I am not affiliated with any political organization - but that simply isn’t true. I am a citizen of the United States, and I have rights, and I have a platform and a voice. If I do nothing, I am complicit. I am therefore making a political statement, because everything happening right now is political and will have ramifications for many generations to come. So, if you care, you will read my email and attend some of my events.
Nothing is wrong with me or my family right now - its just that I have had too much anxiety crafted by the Fascist regime to perform and to stand up and support my community in the meaningful way that I promised that I would. To put it simply - I’ve been burned out. It is important to know, this is a carefully crafted tool of our oppressors.
They want us to feel anxiety.
They want us to feel fear.
They want us to feel anger.
They want us to stall, to freeze, to hide, to stop, to feel like we can’t do anything.
This is their plan. This is how fascism works.
It’s how it worked in World War I and II. It’s how it has worked time and time again, as seen in many dictatorships and authoritarian regimes. Oppression has many elements. (See: Iris Marion Young’s Five Faces of Oppression)
I am here to tell you - I know you feel it too. And that’s okay - it’s perfectly normal.
But after this week’s continued unjustified events at the hands of a Federally state sanctioned, untrained paramilitary police gestapo (murder - I said it), I am asking you - I plea with you - to please do something. We must stop them.
I don’t have all the answers, but I know these few things to be true.
Please demand to your Congress Representatives that they take immediate action. The more people they hear form, the better.
Use this map to find out who represents you in your local district. CALL them, don’t just write them. Show up to their local office. Demand they take action to remove the Cabinet Members (they can all be impeached) and The President. Demand they defund DHS and ICE NOW.
Oregon is also represented by Senators Jeff Merkley and Ron Wyden.
Download, Print, Share, and Carry Red Cards with you wherever you go. These cards come in almost every language spoken in the US and are shared for free by the Immigrants Legal Resource Center (ILRC). Present these to and Border & Customs Agencies or ICE Agents when they try to interrogate or detain you. Do NOT speak to them.
Carry whistles, air horns, bright flags, and other non incendiary / non weapon devices to signal that ICE is approaching or you are witnessing an interaction with ICE. This signals your community/neighbors/colleagues/passerbyers to get inside safely, lock their doors, and protect themselves with Fourth Amendment rights and laws.
Record record record. If you capture a brutality or a violation of someone or your constitutional rights, send it to the media, and post it on all social media channels. Get the truth out there - and fast!
Demand that your representatives file a lawsuit against the White House to release the (full) Epstein Files! https://www.house.gov/representatives
Vote with your wallet. ICE agents can’t function without the privately funded sector. These companies directly collaborate to fund campaigns that put people in power who are sanctioning violence and terror, or complicit with these corruptions, lies, and hainous acts and crimes. Here are the top companies to avoid spending your money with right now:
Amazon & Whole Foods
Target
Home Depot
Lowes
All major hotel chains
AT&T
Aramark
X, Tesla, Starlink, SpaceX
Omni Air
Clock Systems
Dell
UPS
FedEx
Motorola
LexusNexus
Comcast
Palantir
7. Connect with organizations taking action. Here is a starter list. Please feel free to respond and expand upon it.
To follow and learn: https://indivisible.org/
To read and learn historical context: https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/
If you have faith in your life, the Unitarian Universalist Church has a Justice and Inclusion avenue, and a current and updated “Action” platform: https://www.uua.org/action
To support: https://www.ojrc.info/immigrant-rights-project and https://www.ilrc.org/
Next, it’s okay to feel afraid. Untrained masked agents are literally disappearing, murdering, and capturing people without
probable cause cause, warrants, or purpose - other than to terrorize and ethnic cleanse.
There is safety in numbers. If you have to go out alone, please have a plan. Please tell people where you are going. Please have your ID on you.
Otherwise, don’t be out alone, if you can help it. Don’t draw attention to yourself. White and white-passing friends, please check in on and take care of your non-white friends and go to functions with them.
His name was Alex Pretti.
Her name was Renee Nicole Good.
His name was Lunas Campos.
His name was Keith Porter.
...and many more terrorized, displaced, abducted, disappeared, raped, and assaulted by ICE.
I won’t say you can’t arm yourself. I won’t say, don’t go to a protest. I won’t say it’s not safe out there. I don’t want to create any more fear or mass hysteria than is already happening. I will say; arm yourselves with knowledge. Come to events that support LOCAL hand crafted small businesses, keep dollars in your local economy and community. Keep supporting causes that are meaningful to you, if you can. Support your political representatives that speak with a voice that represents your own, if you can.
“You don’t have to do everything - you just have to do something.” —Dusti Arab (speaker, PDX Women’s Convergence, 2026).
If I loose some followers because of this messaging - so be it. We don’t walk the same path or talk the same talk.
Thank you.
With love,
Emily Steadman
Owner,
Rae Loft
she/her
