Freedom Is Not What We're Told
Our tender hearts deserve to thrive in community
Friends, I offer you the following excerpt from the New York Times1 so we can all fully situate ourselves — solidly and collectively — within our current shared context.
How will Americans know when we have lost our democracy?
Authoritarianism is harder to recognize than it used to be.
Most 21st-century autocrats are elected. Rather than violently suppress opposition like Castro or Pinochet, today’s autocrats convert public institutions into political weapons, using law enforcement, tax and regulatory agencies to punish opponents and bully the media and civil society onto the sidelines.
We call this competitive authoritarianism — a system in which parties compete in elections but the systematic abuse of an incumbent’s power tilts the playing field against the opposition. It is how autocrats rule in contemporary Hungary, India, Serbia and Turkey and how Hugo Chávez ruled in Venezuela.
The descent into competitive authoritarianism doesn’t always set off alarms.
Because governments attack their rivals through nominally legal means like defamation suits, tax audits and politically targeted investigations, citizens are often slow to realize they are succumbing to authoritarian rule. More than a decade into Mr. Chávez’s rule, most Venezuelans still believed they lived in a democracy.
How, then, can we tell whether America has crossed the line into authoritarianism?
We propose a simple metric: the cost of opposing the government.
In democracies, citizens are not punished for peacefully opposing those in power. They need not worry about publishing critical opinions, supporting opposition candidates or engaging in peaceful protest because they know they will not suffer retribution from the government.
In fact, the idea of legitimate opposition — that all citizens have a right to criticize, organize opposition to and seek to remove the government through elections — is a foundational principle of democracy.
Under authoritarianism, by contrast, opposition comes with a price.
Citizens and organizations that run afoul of the government become targets of a range of punitive measures:
Politicians may be investigated and prosecuted on baseless or petty charges, media outlets may be hit with frivolous defamation suits or adverse regulatory rulings, businesses may face tax audits or be denied critical contracts or licenses, universities and other civic institutions may lose essential funding or tax-exempt status, and journalists, activists and other critics may be harassed, threatened or physically attacked by government supporters.
When citizens must think twice about criticizing or opposing the government because they could credibly face government retribution, they no longer live in a full democracy.
By that measure, America has crossed the line into competitive authoritarianism.
A Reality Check
The excerpt I shared above is the opening of a Guest Essay from three political scientists who study how democracies come to an end: Steven Levitsky, Lucan Way, and Daniel Ziblatt.
I’d suggest reading the whole piece.
I’d say it’s sobering.
When people who have been studying this stuff, in depth, for years, make a collective declaration like this in a paper of record? About the United States of America?
Just… wow.
In the U.S, we’ve been seeing the things they describe since January.
Even more, my husband is really uncomfortable with me writing stuff like this here… and my guess is that you’re a little uncomfortable with it, too. We’re all starting to become trained to avoid the significant consequences of opposition.
Do we need any more proof?
Not really…
… but still, let’s take a moment to acknowledge what’s happening within the nonprofit and philanthropic sectors.
Most of us probably already know about the stuff like Harvard having its federal money pulled and being threatened with revocation of its tax-exempt status. The media has blasted that story everywhere.
So let’s pay attention to some lesser-known stories….
College-Bound Kids, New Teachers: Nope
The email2 from Breakthrough Twin Cities arrived in my inbox late last night with this alarming Subject Line:
$342,677 Federal Grant Terminated Effective Immediately
And here was the message inside:
As [you’re] a member of our community, I wanted to let you know directly that our largest grant, which comes from a federal program, was terminated effective immediately because "the award no longer effectuates agency priorities."
This means that the money we had been promised for our summer program starting in 25 days will not be granted.
As you can imagine, this puts us in a difficult position.
60 Teaching Fellows start orientation June 9 and most rely upon AmeriCorps living stipends and education awards.
Hundreds of students are enrolled for an incredible summer of learning and personal growth.
Not only is investing in our future leaders the right thing to do, but I can tell you from experience it’s much more efficient to protect what’s working than to try to rebuild it later. That’s why we’re moving quickly to preserve what we've built and limit the damage now. Waiting will cost far more in the long run, in effort, dollars, and impact.
Can you imagine?
Can you imagine being a leader within this organization and trying to figure out what to do next? Can you imagine being one of these Teaching Fellows whose summer employment is suddenly at-risk? Can you imagine being one of these students, dreaming about getting into college and a fun summer ahead… and having that suddenly potentially taken away from you?
All because apparently helping students who have been repeatedly marginalized by our country is now considered a problem?
Families in Homeless Shelter: You Don’t Matter
The email3 from People Serving People arrived earlier this week, with this declaratively clear Subject Line:
Federal Uncertainty = Neighbors Harmed
After talking about more than a million in funds that are currently up-in-the-air, here was the additional message inside:
Are families being harmed? Yes. Without a doubt.
Has People Serving People been directly impacted by the federal executive orders? Yes.
In April, our team was forced to say goodbye to three individuals who came to the U.S. fleeing the war in Ukraine.
The President’s executive orders expired their work visas and will end their protected status to stay in the U.S. this August. They were nothing short of exceptional and essential members of our team. Each of them has added immense value to our culture, mission, and vision during their time with us.
Their personal experience fleeing a war zone and seeking safe refuge mirrors so much of what our families experience here in America. Their values are reflected in their decision to ensure our families’ well-being while trying to secure theirs.
We will miss them.
Our team is angry, sad, and scared.
Additionally, there are deeply troubling discussions on ending food and housing assistance to low-income families, such as SNAP.
These programs are all part of the safety net that helps keep families from needing to enter emergency shelter. The more these social support programs are reduced, the more strained our resources and capacity to help will be.
These potential cuts are not savings; they are passing the costs directly onto vulnerable families at great personal harm.
If these federal policy changes feel wrong or cruel, you are right.
While America's promise has always been a mirage, it has also been an ideal — one that we should continue to strive for. This cannot be done without moral courage. As our larger institutions fail us, it is imperative that we do not fail each other.
Do you feel galvanized by this call not to fail each other?
I certainly do.
I do not consent to my country being a cruel country.
I want to live in a democracy — by the people, of the people, for the people — that acknowledges that our government is philanthropy, or the means by which we the people care for ourselves and each other.
I don’t want to see our country’s image that we’ve had for generations now — as a soft place to land for people fleeing violence, despotic governments, poverty, and other threats to their lives and well-beings — up-ended to the point that we are now those things worth fleeing.
I want the Statue of Liberty to continue to be a beacon.
I want to live in a place where, sea to shining sea, life is good — for everyone, not just special people — and we all make sure that’s true for everyone here.
To clarify, by “life is good,” I just mean that people are not going hungry, or without housing, or without healthcare, or without other basic needs. This is literally basic stuff. I struggle to understand why this needs to be so hard.
Black-Led Center for Racial Healing: You Have No Value
The email from Penumbra Center for Racial Healing came into my inbox last week with this determined Subject Line:
NEA cuts can’t defund resilience
Here was the message inside:
Last week, many arts organizations were left reeling by the communiques from the National Endowment of the Arts cancelling millions of dollars of funding for projects that had been approved, but no longer meet the directives of the administration.
Penumbra was among the organizations that lost funding due to this directive, but we were fully anticipating this since shortly after inauguration, when the litany of threats to our work, our aspirations, our raison d’être, were volleyed forth from Washington.
While programs directly connected to NEA funding may need to be cancelled or postponed, it seems vital at this moment that we refuse to take up the work of this administration by preemptively moving away from work by, for, and about artists of color, queer artists, disabled artists, immigrant artists, and those artists who represent religious minorities.
It is not our responsibility to adjudicate the racism and prejudice that this administration demands.
It is our responsibility to balance the fiscal health of our institutions with our duty to represent communities as they are.
It is our responsibility to honor the communities we serve with stories that celebrate the lives and living of those around us.
Minnesota is home to incredible diversity. We have so many heartwarming, hilarious, difficult, and demanding stories to speak aloud and present on our stages. That is our responsibility and frankly duty of care to community.
A commitment to diversity, to inclusion, and to equity is not demonstrated when times are simple and funding flows easily to support or even incentivize such efforts.
The commitment is made manifest when times are tough, when our mettle is tested, when corporations abandon efforts they championed mere months before. That is when it matters that we stay the course.
That time is now.
Penumbra can be nothing but what we are, and we are privileged to do so. We have a cultural and ethical mandate to make work that honors Black life and culture, and we welcome any and all to celebrate, ponder, mourn, and heal along with us.
As we move through more difficult terrain ahead, we are finding strength in our roots, in our practice of prioritizing those on the margins for fifty years.
We find evidence of our potential in the new shoots springing forth as we live into an expanded mission that more accurately represents what Penumbra has always been: a place where people find inspiration, creative expression, hope, rigor, and healing.
If there is one message I hope you’ll take from this letter, it is that we reject taking up the work of racism projected onto our communities by an administration attempting to sow fear and division amongst us.
If they want to outlaw certain people, cultures, or art on the basis of identity, they will have to do that labor, they will have to shoulder that burden, and they will have to answer for their efforts come the time of reckoning.
We will not make the path toward inequality easier to tread, nor will we facilitate the bulldozing of our cultural sanctuaries on their behalf.
Our eyes are fixed on the horizon.
We know where we are going, because we know who we have been.
At the end of the day, plays may be cancelled, programs may be defunded, doors may even close, but art remains. No one has the power to outlaw creative resilience.
Resistance is built on imagination.
Can you imagine any other response?
Penumbra has been a Black-led theater arts organization telling the stories of Black lives and cultures for five decades.
Why would they ever change that?
That is why they were founded… and why they have continued to exist, now into the second generation of leadership.
They are committed to their mission. Of course.
But here is what they’re not saying: their financial solvency, their ability to keep operating, is obviously very much at-risk.
They will not bow to the pressure. They will not bend to forces that would have them betray their purpose.
But losing that much money, all at once, is a massive blow.
People will lose their jobs.
Leaders will likely lose nights of sleep.
Their community is being made to suffer — for no good reason.
Let’s Welcome Our Tender Hearts
There are SO many stories like these to share, just here in the Twin Cities of Minnesota. I promise you, hundreds of tragedies like these are unfolding in communities across the whole country right now.
And how do we feel about that?
I know, I know.
Turning off our feelings… or stuffing them down… and hardening our hearts to these stories is a much less painful way to take them in.
But here’s the thing:
Aren’t we then shutting off our own humanity?
Aren’t we causing ourselves to die inside, just as much as those who are hating this much clearly already have?
Authoritarianism — apart from all of the political, sociological, or other academic definitions — is, in the simplest sense, a shut-down of the humanity of all of the humans perpetuating it and victimized by it.
Authoritarianism ignores the needs of our fellow humans.
Authoritarianism fertilizes fear among us.
Authoritarianism seeks individualized power as the highest aim… and wields that power in ways that completely tramples anyone that doesn’t have it, in order to extract and consolidate even more of the same power.
Authoritarianism denies any reality of community among us.
Authoritarianism pretends people within a country aren’t responsible for each other.
Authoritarianism elevates the individual as the ultimate leader.
Authoritarianism seeks to dominate and control.
Could there possibly be anything more antithetical to philanthropy… than authoritarianism?
Philanthropy, in its simplest sense, is an activation of the humanity of everyone involved with it — both those giving and receiving.
Philanthropy prioritizes the needs of our fellow humans.
Philanthropy fertilizes love among us.
Philanthropy seeks collective power as the highest aim… and wields that power in ways that empower all of those in the community.
Philanthropy centers community among us.
Philanthropy knows that people within a country are responsible for each other.
Philanthropy elevates the collective as the ultimate leader.
Philanthropy seeks to uplift and liberate.
See what I mean?
We humans all — all — have tender hearts.
A world that can be cruel, dominating, unfeeling, power-hungry, mean, hateful, fearful, violent, and scary to us — especially when we’re the littlest humans growing up — has made many of us completely shut down and forget our tender hearts.
But we’ve got them.
They’re in there still.
And as a tender-hearted human who cares about you — yes, you! I care deeply about each and every one of you reading this! — I’d really like to see you be able to access and get in touch with that soft and tender heart of yours.
This is the way to joy…
… to liberation…
… to the purest form of life.
So.
Here we go, people.
Let’s not let this current authoritarian nightmare harden us. There are far more of us philanthropists… than there are of the authoritarians.
We’ve got the power.
Let’s use it.
💗
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/08/opinion/trump-authoritarianism-democracy.html
https://mailchi.mp/breakthroughtwincities/its-that-time-13876374?e=52c136cce0
https://mailchi.mp/peopleservingpeople.org/federal-uncertainty-letter?e=fe11015327