Getting Off the Wire, Part 2
Reducing the Harm
In the first essay looking at how we can transform our current predicament that I describe as “life on the wire,” I presented some basic ideas on how we prepare ourselves to address the harms being caused by the current presidential administration in the United States. It is tempting to skip the step of preparation and transformation, noting that the situation is too urgent for us not to take immediate action on all fronts. Acting without preparation will not help. When our quality of being is challenged, our actions are much more likely to create more conflict. Deep preparation is essential for both skillful action and the healing of our nation.
If you haven’t already done so, please read that essay and find a community of resistance1 in which you can begin a contemplative practice that helps you transform the energies of despair, fear, judgement, anger, and violence that afflict us internally and prevent us from acting in ways that are skillful and healing. I especially invite my readers to join us at Living Christ Sangha, an interfaith community that practices in the Plum Village tradition of Thich Nhat Hanh and the Gratefulness tradition of Brother David Steindl-Rast. This essay assumes that you have joined a spiritual community and established an active, energetic, and nourishing contemplative practice that supports you as you seek to engage the enormous challenges we face.
Naming the Harm
The starting point for the transformation of our society is to look deeply and see clearly what is happening. This process allows us to name the harms with clarity and specificity. This clarity and specificity is essential, because the actions of the administration are impulsive, chaotic, and destructive, and we can only address the harm if we can make sense of it in ways that are crisp and clear.
If an intruder breaks into your home to steal valuables, they will likely ransack the place. They won’t go through drawers and cabinets in a tidy manner. They will turn things upside down, leaving destruction and mayhem in their wake, You won’t be able to clean up this situation by moving through the mess and tossing things to and fro the same way they did. You’ll need a framework to understand what has happened, and a systematic approach and the energy required to put things back in order.
I use a three-part framework to understand who is being harmed by the Trump administration.
The harms being perpetrated upon individuals and communities.
The harms being perpetrated against institutions.
The harms being inflicted upon our systems of survival.2
This framework for looking at who is being harmed is helpful because the actions we take to reduce harm differs based on who the harm targets.
Supporting Individuals and Communities
Authoritarianism and tyranny thrive on appearing to be strong. Grand shows of “might” are standard fare, and authoritarians cultivate the illusion of power by oppressing those with limited recourse to address their oppression. This has been true throughout history, and it remains true with the Trump administrations as they target immigrants and the LGBTQ+ community, particularly focusing on transgender and non-binary people. These populations are vulnerable and misunderstood. They have limited social support. They have been the target of aggressive campaigns of misinformation and oppression by the president and his allies. They need our support.
ACTION: We can use either direct or indirect methods to support oppressed individuals and communities. Direct support is the bedrock upon which genuine advocacy must be built. To provide direct support, we form and nurture relationships with affected individuals and we practice deep listening in order to truly understand their experience and pain and to help ensure that their needs are addressed. This work provides each of us with the basis required for us to take skillful action, while also offering a sense of solidarity to those with whom we connect.
Indirect support is accomplished by donating to or volunteering for organizations that offer support and address the harm created by hateful policies and actions. Organizations like Common Cause, Lambda Legal, the ACLU, the Southern Poverty Law Center, United We Dream, and many others fight daily for the dignity and rights of oppressed people and communities. Find one or more that are addressing issues that matter to you, and donate generously of your time and money. They need our support.
Many religious groups also provide opportunities for indirect support. For example, The Episcopal Church (my denomination) has an Office of Government Relations that also hosts the grassroots Episcopal Public Policy Network. At their site you will find tools to help you engage in advocacy, sign up for action alerts, and get resources to support your spiritual practices as you work for peace and justice.
Bolstering Our Institutions
Lesson number two of twenty in Timothy Snyder’s essential On Tyranny3 is “Defend Institutions.” He says:
It is institutions that help us to preserve decency. They need our help as well. Do not speak of “our institutions” unless you make them yours by acting on their behalf. Institutions do not protect themselves. They fall one after the other unless each is defended from the beginning. So choose an institution you care about—a court, a newspaper, a law, a labor union—and take its side.
The actions taken by the Trump administration against institutions are unprecedented in American history. They are authoritarian in the extreme, they trample on the freedom of organizations to pursue bold missions of their choosing, and they inflict grievous harm upon America’s values, the health of its citizens, the strength of our economy, and our moral standing in the world.
A full categorization of institutional harm is beyond what this essay can provide, but we can look at some of the most significant assaults the administration has made. Trump has declared war on several categories of institutions in the USA, including the media, the legal system, higher education, the scientific community, and the democratic structures of our government that are enshrined in the Constitution.
The Media
Trump has habitually attacked the news media in rallies, responses to reporters’ questions, and many hundreds of tweets. He has repeatedly called the press "fake news," "the enemy of the people," "dishonest," "corrupt," "low life reporters," "bad people," "human scum" and "some of the worst human beings you’ll ever meet."4
Trump has also sued a number of media companies, claiming that they provided biased and inaccurate reporting. He has also used his power as president to threaten media companies and meddle in their business operations. For example, Trump officials have threatened to revoke licenses for media outlets of which they disapprove, including CBS and public broadcasting.
Some large media companies that Trump has sued (e.g. ABC, which ran a story about E. Jean Carroll, who won a civil suit against Trump in which he was convicted of sexual abuse) have chosen to settle rather than fight, giving him additional ammunition for his claims that they are biased. This craven approach has been taken for purely economic reasons. Even more worryingly, the proposed settlement by CBS has been seen as a quid pro quo action to gain approval of Paramount Global’s (owner of CBS) megamerger with Skydance Media, which could violate anti-bribery laws.5
ACTION: To support the media, take out paid subscriptions to important sources that you believe offer objective reporting about American politics and policies. Remain a loyal viewer/listener to objective sources of information. And most importantly, become a monthly support of both NPR and PBS, donating to your local stations if you have them, and to the national organizations if you don’t.
The Legal System
Early in his second term, Trump issued an executive order attacking “Paul, Weiss for supposed disloyalty against him and his political allies, namely, hiring Mark Pomerantz, an attorney who had assisted in the Manhattan DA’s successful prosecution of him. In retaliation, Paul, Weiss was to be barred from doing business with the federal government, and a list of federal contractors that employ the firm was to be compiled, presumably for similar restrictions. The executive order also stripped the firm’s employees of any security clearances they may have had, limited their access to federal buildings, and barred future employment in the federal government.”6
Shockingly, the firm chose to settle with Trump by offering millions of dollars in pro bono work related to causes the president supports, effectively becoming a vassal firm of the administration. While other firms (such as Skadden) have behaved similarly, others that Trump has targeted have acted laudably and refused to obey tyranny in advance. These include Perkins Coie and Covington & Burling, who were targeted for “representing Hillary Clinton and assisting former government Special Counsel Jack Smith.”7
ACTION: Unless you are involved in the selection of the law firm that represents the company for which you work, there isn’t a lot you can do to support these organizations financially. What you can do is speak out boldly against those who displayed cowardice rather than courage, and laud those who take the courageous path.
Higher Education
Trump has declared all-out war on a set of elite private and public universities, including Columbia, Harvard, and the University of Virginia. The charges against these institutions vary, but most involve diversity and feature a mixture of accusing the institution of (a) not doing enough to combat antisemitism and (b) illegally “discriminating” based on the goal of creating a diverse student body.
The issue at hand is actually not these accusations, which could be adjudicated under the rule of law. But Trump and the administration haven’t sued these institutions. They’ve unilaterally declared that their opinion is correct, after which they have illegally threatened the universities with the loss of federal research funding, the ability to enroll international students, and the loss of academic freedom via demand to place departments and programs under government oversight.
ACTION: as with the law firms, if you are not an alumnus of one of the institutions under attack, there isn’t a lot you can do unless you are willing to donate to a school that you didn’t attend. If you are willing to do that, go for it. Seeing money roll into these institutions as they are under attack could unnerve the president and his allies and bolster those in the university who must withstand his attacks. And if you are an alum of the school, donate and speak out publicly in support of administrators who stand up to Trump and against those who cave to his demands.
The Scientific Community
Actions taken by the Trump administration and the budgetary measures associated with his fiscal year 2026 “big, beautiful bill” will both gut scientific research as a whole, and completely dismantle research in areas that are essential to human flourishing and survival, including climate change. I will cover research related to the climate in the final major section, focusing here on research related to health, human services, and technology.
The administration has terminated over 1,400 NSF grants and about 900 NIH grants, which has left scientists and universities reeling. The reasons that are most often given are related to “DEI concerns” but the administration has also targeted a myriad of other research topics that are out-of-favor due to ideological reasons, including COVID-19 and related pathogens, LGBTQ+ healthcare, vaccines and vaccine hesitancy, clean energy, and the study of social media bias and AI safety.
American science is the envy of the world. Our leading universities are unrivaled in the breadth and quality of their scientific output. Graduates of these universities work for or even found American technology and healthcare companies, and these firms have long dominated their respective industries. Americans and foreign-born researchers affiliated with American institutions have won more than 50% of Nobel prizes across all disciplines since the inception of the awards. The foundation of all of this success is our scientific infrastructure, underpinned by grants made by the NSF and NIH. No president who is serious about keeping America great would treat these institutions with the contempt President Trump has shown them.
ACTION: as with the topic following this one, the primary action we can take is to cultivate deep civic engagement and make our voices heard to our members of Congress. You can also support organizations like the Union of Concerned Scientists, which provides sound, science-based information about the dangers of the scientific positions the administration is taking.
Our Democratic Institutions
The last institution I will discuss is the government itself. As any student who took civics seriously knows, a key component of our democratic system is the balance of powers. The US government consists of three co-equal branches that serve different purposes, and that were structured in such a way that each branch provides checks-and-balances on the other two. This structure is enshrined in our Constitution. John Adams wrote, “It is by balancing each of these powers against the other two, that the efforts in human nature toward tyranny can alone be checked and restrained, and any degree of freedom preserved in the constitution.”8
Trump and members of his administration advocate for an extreme break with this perspective, arguing from a theory known as the “unitary executive.” This is not a new theory, but recent (and extreme) Supreme Court decisions9 have offered a troubling level of power to the president, removing some of the balance offered by the other branches that check and restrain “the efforts in human nature toward tyranny.”
In the first six months of the second term of Trump, he has behaved in ways that fundamentally disregarded the powers of the other branches of government. Via DOGE and other actions, he has gutted entire departments of the government, unilaterally determining that the administration will not spend money that was allocated by Congress for specific purposes. The Constitution grants Congress the “power of the purse” in our system of government, so these actions are in direct defiance of the Constitution. The effects of the changes inflicted by DOGE and the administration are so profound that I will not attempt to catalog them in detail, but suffice it to say that they will result in a loss of human life, human health, and economic vitality.
ACTION: the primary action we can take as citizens is to cultivate deep civic engagement. We must make our voices heard to our members of Congress, protest the actions on the street, participate in national, state, and local elections, and support organizations that are seeking to limit the harm caused by Trump-inflicted government dysfunction.
Saving Our Systems of Survival
The last area of harm inflicted by the Trump administration is also the most dire. Our climate is in terrible shape, and the last ten years have seen an acceleration of warming and the major weather events that accompany it. Yet our society seems incapable of even grasping the magnitude of our predicament, let alone mustering the collective will to address it. This is exacerbated by major economic interests such as fossil fuel companies using their extraordinary resources to sow disinformation into the public square, causing confusion and inaction. These companies profit while the planet warms.
Scientists widely agree that limiting the global temperature change to 1.5C above pre-industrial temperatures is the best way to mitigate the most disastrous effects of climate change. Yet in 2024, for the first time, most days exceeded this threshold. This represented a surprise to climate scientists, and it appears warming has been accelerating. The following movie from the Financial Times illustrates the monthly average temperature from the 1940s to today, and illustrates how significant recent changes are.
Our oceans, which normally serve as heat sinks for the planet, have been breaking records for warmth since 2023. We are in the midst of a sixth (or seventh, depending on how you count them) mass extinction, with major loss of biodiversity across the globe. Unlike earlier mass extinctions, the cause of this one is human activity, largely tied to atmospheric warming.
In the midst of this crisis, Trump has moved to reverse almost all actions taken to address the situation. He has withdrawn from the Paris Climate Accord. He has removed subsidies to encourage the development and use of clean energy. He has rolled back huge swaths of regulations meant to mitigate climate change. He has willfully and purposefully sought to increase the use of carbon-heavy energy sources. And he has sown disinformation across his political base in a way that will make appropriate collective action extremely challenging. The situation is truly existential.
ACTIONS:
Take personal action to reduce your carbon footprint. I will be providing a monthly tip in this Substack to help people act over time. You can also find support for personal action via the United Nations’ AWorld app. Here are a few now:
Become a savvy consumer, eating and buying goods in a climate-aware way. Several companies (such as Just Salad) publish the kilograms of CO2 associated with their entrees or products.
Commit to travel less, and when you do travel, use the most carbon friendly option possible.
Obtain your energy from low or no carbon sources, even if you have to pay a bit more to do so.
Switch to hybrid or electric vehicles. If you live in a city with excellent transit (like NYC) avoid cars whenever you can.
Set your thermostats to use less energy by keeping the house a bit warmer in the summer and a bit cooler in the winter.
Find and donate to a climate focused charity. There are many, and an internet search will return interesting recommendations such as this one from Vox.
As stated earlier with challenges to science and our government, we must make our voices heard to our members of Congress. Rally for climate action and protest climate inaction on the streets. Participate in national, state, and local elections to elect climate-friendly candidates. Always choose the candidate with the best ideas and policy proposals for the planet, as everything else that you want depends on us being around to benefit from it.
Conclusion
This was a very long post. The harms we are facing are extensive and immense. The great temptation is to allow ourselves to freeze before the ongoing onslaught of challenges. My goal here was to show that we can frame and understand the situation, and then identify a few strategic actions that each of us can take. Individually, they don’t seem like much. But their beauty is in that they are manageable and thus can be taken consistently over the long term. And when a large enough group of us does this, the effects will be immense. So, I suggest starting with a small plan like the one below and growing your engagement based on other “ACTION” ideas presented above.
Lay your foundation by joining and becoming an integral part of a community of contemplative practice.
Focus by picking a cause you care about. Pick only one to get going. You may be able to add others later, but go deep to start.
Support one or more organizations addressing that cause.
Regularly engage with your elected officials about this cause.
Stay informed by finding and supporting one or more news sources that offer non-ideological, truthful, and unbiased reporting regarding your cause.
Foster hope by learning about what others who are focused on different causes are doing.
In the final essay in this series, I will explore what it means to move beyond reducing the harm by engaging in the longer-term work of healing our culture.
For communities in the Plum Village tradition, see plumline.org. For communities in the Episcopal Christian tradition, visit www.episcopalchurch.org/find-a-church.
I borrow the phrase “systems of survival” from Jane Jacobs’ book of the same name, but I use the term very differently than she does. Her usage is much more closely aligned with what I call institutions, which are human constructs that I cover in #2 of my three part framework. I use the phrase “systems of survival” to refer to the systems that are not created by humans, but are required for human flourishing.
Available at Bookshop.org, where you can also associate your account with your favorite physical bookseller and support them financially.
Leonard Downie Jr. The Trump Administration and the Media
ibid.
Two important decisions are Seila Law v. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and Trump v. United States.