NOTICINGS: My Neighbors. Your Neighbors. Our Neighbors.
The tenderness of connection
It is so normal to borrow a cup of sugar from a neighbor. It is an ordinary and graceful exchange that makes us happy. Giving and receiving. Everyone knows this. We’ve always borrowed a cup of this or the use of that all the way back down through our ancestors. Got a bucket I can borrow? We’ve known this kind of exchange between neighbors forever.
And now we see our neighbors going hungry. Tariffs anyone? Who remodels the house while the kids go hungry? Who spends college savings on Home Depot’s polyurethane appliqué and claims it is 24-karat gold? A trail of broken promises that preceded taking the oath of office leads directly to the Oval.
Every time I read about that soon-to-be-constructed ballroom and the gold geegaws, I think about the pride in American history that people felt when Jacqueline Kennedy took on the herculean task of restoring historical significance in the White House. FDR referred to the White House as “the property of the nation.” This is the place where Dolley Madison saved the extraordinary painting of George Washington, an eight-foot-tall portrait bolted to the wall, from The Burning of Washington—one of the most noteworthy episodes of the War of 1812. She made certain that it was pulled out and put on a cart that took it to safety.
How dare this president take the People’s money to support his right-wing prez-pal in Argentina and at the same time destroy Head Start? How is this doing your best to preserve, protect, and defend Americans? That was the oath taken to assume the Presidency.
As a shutdown looms, as ICE disappears grandmothers, grandfathers, fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters, and cousins, as farmers go broke because their usual customers—other countries—got a better deal elsewhere because of U.S. tariffs, I am hopping mad at the way your taxes and mine, our money, are being spent. American farmers now watch helplessly as their plants already in the ground have no customers as expected.
Maybe we can do even more. Because, you know what? We can walk and chew gum at the same time.
We can raise a ruckus about our hard-earned dollars not going to neighbors down on their luck because of those tariffs, job losses, and bailing out the president of Argentina. How do our neighbors live when, for example, trusted federal civil servants, count them, 300,000, are out of a job? Yesterday, 100,000 more say they will resign because of months of “fear and intimidation” that left them feeling like they had no choice but to depart. And the cost of eggs? And coffee? You know what they are.
It’s time to raise more of a ruckus.
What do you want to make a ruckus about?
My friend Mimi, who understands the power of dramatic action, says, Surprise the hell out of them! Reverse the narrative. Take “the hostile-to-happiness force by surprise,” she writes. “The comic hero/heroine is the archetype of unalienable happiness.”
I am entranced by two ideas. First, the paperclip. It holds things together. In other words, unity. During World War II, Norwegian citizens used the paperclip as a show of resistance to fascism. They called it a binder. Neighbors bound together against tyranny.
The second idea that I like a lot is the indomitable E. Jean Carroll’s proposal, which unifies the Norwegians’ actions with our actions today. She now wears a pink paperclip. Have you seen anyone wearing a paperclip today?
Today I bought a box of big colored clips. I’ll pass them out to anyone who wants to wear one.
Wearing a paperclip? Post a photo!
I’m turning my drawing into a sign about the paperclip and shutting tyranny down in America to carry at the October 18 protest.
We can SHUTDOWN wanna-be kings and their wanna-be king-makers.
Showing up at protests is one action.
Another action is the idea of public policy analyst and former law enforcement officer, Christopher Armitage, who writes,
It’s one phone call to your governor.
Raise a ruckus about our disappeared neighbors! Shutdown ICE.
Let’s use the beauty we can see each day to anchor us during our ruckus-making times. Stay close to beauty.
Being upset recognizes our despair at the wanton destruction of our neighbors’ lives.
Life is beautiful and sacred.
Make the homefront comfy again. No matter the chaos, uncertainty, and fear created by those intent on destroying democracy, aka our lives. We will do good and make a ruckus anyway. While we walk the dog, do the laundry, cook dinner, and turn baking cookies into a show that someone might watch.
Neighbors, let’s just do it. Let’s protect our neighbors in need. As W. Kamau Bell said, “Now that we’ve saved Jimmy Kimmel, let’s save the rest of us.”
Shutdown tyranny in America.
Here’s a cookie made from your cup of sugar!
We are making America flourish again.
This post is public and free. Share the ruckus!
Notes:
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/sep/28/us-mass-resignation-federal-workers
Democratic Governors Can Arrest ICE Agents. What are they waiting for?
Jacqueline Kennedy’s White House Tour
https://www.whitehousehistory.org/rescue-of-the-papers-of-state-during-the-burning-of-washington
A $20 billion taxpayer-funded rescue package for Argentina is a gift for a hedge fund manager with personal and professional ties to the Treasury Secretary: