Diversifying our acts of resistance: One Million Rising

Good morning Engaged Durhamites for Democracy!

Today is the day of our next national mass mobilization with the theme being Good Trouble! Please join the millions across the country in over 1300 events as we honor Senator John Lewis who fought hard for our voting rights! We are hosting in Durham 6:30-7:30pm. Please remember to bring non-perishable goods (e.g., food, cleaning supplies, paper towels) for those affected by Chantal if you are coming to Durham. Please spread this on your social media no matter where you are attending!

https://mobilize.us/s/vahKmr

Check out Anna’s awesome post for the Durham rally!

After tonight, we cannot wait to fill the bridges again on Sunday for our Triangle Unified Bridge Brigade on Sunday July 20 9:30am-11. We are working with 4 other states as part of Operation Overpass:

30 Overpasses in 4 States on 8 Interstates and Expressways

States: GA, VA, NC, NJ.

Interstates and Expressways: I-20, I-40, I-85, I-440, I-147, I-520, I-540, ACX.

Overpasses:

14 in Durham and Raleigh, NC

9 in Fayetteville, NC

3 in North Georgia

3 in Augusta GA

1 in VA

1 in NJ

Here is the mobilize link:

https://mobilize.us/s/i9uXUc

And here is the website to view all 14 bridges.

https://durhamresistancehub.com/btfsite

And the SignUp Genius to pick your bridge. Some bridges have enough protectors. Others need more, including: 40 @ Aviation Parkway (need 5 more to hold sign), 540 @ Olive Chapel Road (need at least 2 to sign up), 40 @ Old Reedy Creek (need 6 more to hold sign), 540 @ Fox Road (need at least 8 more to hold the signs), 64 @ Cary Parkway (need 14 more to hold signs), and 40 @ Jones Sausage (need 7 more to hold sign). Please sign up and please encourage your friends to sign up.

https://www.signupgenius.com/go/4090C4DABAF2DA46-57528598-triangle

Here is Gabriel’s report from the Tuesday corner demonstration at East Club and Roxboro:

“Dealing with winds and looming storm clouds, we were a small but mighty group of four. One of our demonstrators single handedly handed out 30 flyers! Thanks to the Latina who was kind enough to give us some mini muffins. :)”

Awesome job Gabriel. In my mind, numbers do not matter as much as consistency. Thanks for being out there, you mighty 4!

Another great bridge brigade over I-40 yesterday. Here is Cathy’s report. I love that the cellist comes!!

“Good demonstration today Lots of honks. 10 protectors came despite the heat. We all stayed cool enough. We got off the bridge in time to just get a bit of cool rain as we walked back.”

Great news! Well, the Epstein files are not going away, much to the chagrin of TACO. Now he is lashing out at his supporters who want the files released. He called them, “PAST supporters” who had “bought into this ‘bullshit,’ hook, line, and sinker.” Has he heard the phrase, don’t bite the hand… Keep it up TACO. We all would love more to add their profiles to Leave MAGA!

And TACO is using the same, “Hey look at this shiny object over here” tactic in waving a letter and asking his loyalists if he should fire the Chair of the Federal Reserve, Jerome Powell. He is such a showman. Don’t be distracted MAGA!

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/16/us/politics/trump-powell-firing-letter.html

And no wonder TACO loved former Mayor Eric Adams. Remember that TACO bullied a lawyer to sign an affidavit dropping charges against Adams after many resigned rather than signed. Well, Adams is being sued for using the same playbook of weaponizing the police force to do his dirty work. More reason we need Mamdani to be the next mayor of NYC.

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/16/nyregion/nypd-lawsuit-rico-donlon-eric-adams.html

More great news. Some in Texas have filed a class action suit (remember, this is how federal judges have more power thanks to the restrictive US Supreme Court ruling) to stop people getting detained when they come for their immigration appointments.

https://raicestexas.org/updates/immigrationcourtarrests

More great news! Michael Jordan is opening up his 4^th health clinic to serve those who are uninsured or underinsured. Whether you are a Tarheel or a Blue Devil, you gotta love the big heart of this basketball legend. This will be even more important as the cuts from the big bad bill come.

https://www.newsweek.com/sports/nba/michael-jordan-opens-another-free-health-clinic-native-north-carolina-2050274

Sad news. The Senate voted to pass the rescission bill that will cut funds from public broadcasting and foreign aid. The only Republican Senators who opposed it were Collins and Murkowski. Such a disgrace! What happened to Tillis and McConnell? I will call today to “spank” Tillis and Budd and show them I disapprove of their yes vote. The House is likely to pass this quickly.

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/17/us/politics/senate-vote-trump-bill-pbs-npr-foreign-aid.html

Today, I want to talk about what is next in our resistance game. Time is not on our side, and we must act quickly, sadly.

Last night, I along with many in our group attended the first of three Indivisible calls to articulate how they plan to train 1 million people to get organized and act. We all know our democracy is at risk. We must act now.

100,000 signed up for the calls! Amazing!

A lot of the content was familiar to prior calls I have attended, with a focus on attacking the pillars that hold up a fragile dictatorship. Remember, they need our society to work for them to have power.

What was new though was discussing the need to diversify our actions and having a plan of action.

ED4D is busy y’all! So many activism warriors in ED4D host a LOT of demonstrations. We rock at that!!! These demonstrations are important as they are visible and help people be brave. They are great at helping folks join us as evidenced by the new people who are coming each week.

We also are supporting boycotts against Amazon, Walmart, Target, and McDonald’s. Some of these boycotts are having a great impact, especially on Target. Our boycotting committee is meeting on July 27^thto talk about which companies we can add. We are doing a combo of boycott/demonstration against Avelo, Whole Foods, and of course did Tesla. The Tesla takedown movement might have had the greatest impact on a company than has been seen in a long time. Thank you for those activism warriors who came 14 weeks in a row outside of the Tesla dealership. We made a difference!! Also, the pressure on Avelo is starting to work as well as they are canceling routes, and ED4D is again working with a broader national movement, being the might small cog we are!

Many in our group are working with Siembra to teach workplaces to be 4^th amendment workplaces. Many have handed out red cards to help our neighbors know their rights.

We are trying to support unions in Durham at the Corning Life Sciences and Wells Fargo given they dropped their climate goals (I will start this work soon and hope folks will join me). I will also look for opportunities to support other efforts, perhaps again at Amazon who tried to unionize this spring.

We also call our elected officials. Tillis got more calls than any other elected official. Those calls helped him vote no on the big bad bill. We all need to call him today as I am gravely disappointed he voted to cut funding for important programs and give more power to the dictator who illegally impounded funds initially. Ugh!!

There is more we can do as these activities we are doing might not appeal to everyone. They stressed the importance of diversifying our movement. Many are not happy with what is happening for different reasons (see above about the Epstein files). They may not want to protest but might want to take different types of actions, such as against ICE, for instance. Here is the slide about acts of resistance.

Here is the slide about noncooperation.

Indivisible’s goal is to train 1M people to help us reach the 3.5% acting consistently.

I signed the pledge to hold a meeting to discuss strategies before the next call on July 30^th. I will hold the meeting on Tuesday July 22^nd from 7:30-8:30pm. I prefer meeting in person but will wait to see who can come and can hold it virtually if need be.

Once I get the mobilize link, I hope you will consider joining the community gathering to brainstorm our next steps and importantly will come prepared to help lead some of these efforts.

And even better than joining the ED4D group I will host, please consider hosting your own meeting. We need many stepping up right now!

https://www.nokings.org/rise

Thanks activism warriors for finding more water in the well and more gas in the tank to keep acting. We are in this together to support and motivate each other.

I hope to see many of you in Downtown Durham tonight at 6:30. I hope the Good Trouble rallies in Raleigh, Chapel Hill, Morrisville, and beyond are amazing today!! I also hope the bridge brigade over I-40 at ATT with Lila hosting this morning (2^nd week doing it) also is fantastic! No Boycott at Whole Foods today.

We need to keep acting and diversifying what we are doing to fight this regime.

Have a wonderful Thursday. We need to get in more Good Trouble today and going forward!

Warmly,

Kathryn