Category: Soul Food

Inspiration, humor, and entertainment as we journey back to a healthy political place

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It’s a Small World After All

Thanks to international readers in January from Bahrain, Canada, Colombia, China, Germany, India, Indonesia, Iraq, Japan,  New Zealand, Peru, Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, Turkey, UAE, UK, and Vietnam. 

We love you all, but we especially love Canada.

My message to you: yes, I know very well that we’re acting crazy over here. I know very well that Humpty Dumpty has fallen, and all the king’s horses and all the king’s men can’t put Humpty together again. I know that we Americans don’t really know where we’re going, and we don’t know how to get there. But I believe in the core of my being that we will ultimately survive, flourish once again, and once again act like good neighbors. 

In the United States, WordPress is telling me that my readers come from Ashburn VA, Atlanta GA (no surprise there), Boston and Cambridge (maybe MA, but could be lots of others), Council Bluffs IO, Kansas City (don’t know which one), Jonesboro AR, Los Angeles CA, New York NY, North Bergen NJ, Quay (don’t know which one), Seattle WA, Tucker GA, and Tuscaloosa AL.

And now, my American brethren and sistern, please rise with me in body or in spirit and join in singing

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“I do not yet know what UUCA will be asked to risk”: A Pastoral Message from the Senior Sabbatical Minister of the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Atlanta

Dear Members of the UU Congregation of Atlanta,

Yesterday, in broad daylight, Alex Pretti was executed.

Let’s be clear. What killed this poor man was not law enforcement. It was lawlessness.

The problem is not whether or how Alex Pretti complied with the law.

The problem is that federal agents, sent to sow chaos, are out of compliance with our Constitution.

Are out of compliance with the scope of their role. And are out of compliance with principles of public safety.

So, the question I’m asking is why don’t these agents comply with the law?

Any narrative that suggests that Alex Pretti was anything other than innocent is pure fabrication. The Administration is lying. But you can trust your friends. You can believe your own eyes.

What happened is horrifying. And, of course, it’s not new. This country has a long memory of Jim Crow terror, night patrols, and violence carried out with the blessing—or the silence—of those in power.

Still, many of good conscience this weekend are rightly feeling heartbroken, furious, helpless, and confused.

If you are scared, that makes sense.

If you are angry, you have a right to be.

If you are not sure what to do next, you are not alone.

I’m deeply grateful for, and inspired by, UUCA Associate Minister Rev. EN Hill, who stood in the cold in Minneapolis this past week, alongside hundreds of clergy, representing the body of holy love in the streets. Church people know simple, ancient good things–like that showing up matters. Especially when so much is at risk and the stakes are so high.

We are now in a moment when political violence is being normalized. When cruelty is defended as order. When fear is being weaponized in American streets. Today, it is Minneapolis. Tomorrow, it could be Atlanta. That is sobering to say out loud. It is also necessary.

I do not know what the future holds. I do not know how all of this will unfold. I do not yet know what UUCA will be asked to risk, or where solidarity will require us to stand. I do not know what our most vulnerable neighbors will need, or how they will call on us for protection and partnership.

But here is what I do know.

UUCA is not a bystander congregation.

UUCA is not a silent congregation.

And UUCA is held and fueled by a Love that our Universalist ancestors claimed never quit and left nobody out!

UUCA, you are powerful beyond measure—because of your history, your relationships, your commitments, and your hard-won wisdom. You have not been caught off-guard. You have been watching. You’ve been strengthening networks and joining Signal groups. You’ve been weaving strategic ties across difference. You have been preparing.

And you are not alone. You have neighbors. Partners. Shoulder-to-shoulder companions.

With strong UUCA Board leadership, with long-time movement veterans among you, with the boundlessly deep resource of music and joy, with Rev. EN’s steady courage, and with Rev. Taryn returning next week, this congregation is well-resourced—not only spiritually, but strategically.

We are a people of tenacious hope. Of stubborn, resilient love. We won’t back down. Nor will we be hardened or embittered or cornered. We will sing. We will rest. We will rise.

Let me say this, my sibling Unitarian Universalists: this engagement, ahead of us, is going to cost something. It may cost comfort. It may cost convenience. It may cost reputation. It may cost time and money and the illusion that someone else will handle it.

And still, we are called.

Some of you will offer care and compassion.

Some will show up on front lines.

Some will make sure things at home are steady and strong so others can do what they need to do on the streets.

All of it matters.

In the coming days, there will be opportunities to gather, to pray, to listen, and to discern concrete next steps together. Watch for those invitations. Bring your whole self. Feel it all.

Thank you for the discernment you are already doing about the part you will play.

Thank you for the preparation you are undertaking for UUCA to be a force for the Beloved Community—not in abstraction or in theory, but in neighborhoods, households, and in real lives.

Gratefully, mournfully, and with resolve,

Rev. Jake Morrill
Senior Sabbatical Minister
UU Congregation of Atlanta

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We’re the Cops of the World, Boys

Quick, get out of the way
You’d better watch what you say, boys
Better watch what you say

… We’ve rammed in your harbor and tied to your port
And our pistols are hungry and our tempers are short
So bring your daughters around to the port
‘Cause we’re the Cops of the World, boys

… We’re the Cops of the World
We pick and choose as please, boys
Pick and choose as please
You’d best get down on your knees, boys

… Best get down on your knees
We’re hairy and horny and ready to shack
We don’t care if you’re yellow or black
Just take off your clothes and lie down on your back

… ‘Cause we’re the Cops of the World, boys
We’re the Cops of the World
Our boots are needing a shine, boys
Boots are needing a shine

… But our Coca-cola is fine, boys
Coca-cola is fine
We’ve got to protect all our citizens fair
So we’ll send a battalion for everyone there

… And maybe we’ll leave in a couple of years
‘Cause we’re the Cops of the World, boys
We’re the Cops of the World
Dump the reds in a pile, boys

… Dump the reds in a pile 
You’d better wipe of that smile, boys
Better wipe off that smile
We’ll spit through the streets of the cities we wreck

… We’ll find you a leader that you can’t elect
Those treaties we sighned were a pain in the neck
‘Cause we’re the Cops of the World, boys
We’re the Cops of the World

… Clean the johns with a rag, boys
Clean the johns with a rag
If you like you can use your flag, boys
If you like you can use your flag

… We’ve got too much money we’re looking for toys
And guns will be guns and boys will be boys
But we’ll gladly pay for all we destroy
‘Cause we’re the Cops of the World, boys

… We’re the Cops of the World
Please stay off of the grass, boys
Please stay off of the grass
Here’s a kick in the ass, boys

… Here’s a kick in the ass
We’ll smash down your doors, we don’t bother to knock
We’ve done it before, so why all the shock?
We’re the biggest and toughest kids on the block

… ‘Cause we’re the Cops of the World, boys
We’re the Cops of the World
When we butchered your son, boys
When we butchered your son

… Have a stick of our gum, boys
Have a stick of our buble-gum
We own half the world, oh say can you see
The name for our profits is democracy

… So, like it or not, you will have to be free
‘Cause we’re the Cops of the World, boys
We’re the Cops of the World

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Facing the New Year. Facing MAGA. David Brooks is Good. Michelle Goldberg is Better.

Michelle Goldberg (N.Y. Times), Trump Is Getting Weaker, and the Resistance Is Getting Stronger:

It has been a gruesome year for those who see Donald Trump’s kakistocracy clearly. He returned to office newly emboldened, surrounded by obsequious tech barons, seemingly in command of not just the country but also the zeitgeist. Since then, it’s been a parade of nightmares — armed men in balaclavas on the streets, migrants sent to a torture prison in El Salvador, corruption on a scale undreamed of by even the gaudiest third-world dictators and the shocking capitulation by many leaders in business, law, media and academia. Trying to wrap one’s mind around the scale of civic destruction wrought in just 11 months stretches the limits of the imagination, like conceptualizing light-years or black holes.

And yet, as 2025 limps toward its end, there are reasons to be hopeful.

That’s because of millions of people throughout the country who have refused to surrender to this administration’s bullying. When Trump began his second term, conventional wisdom held that the resistance was moribund. If that was ever true, it’s certainly not anymore. This year has seen some of the largest street protests in American history. Amanda Litman, a founder of Run for Something, a group that trains young progressives to seek local office, told me that since the 2024 election, it has seen more sign-ups than in all of Trump’s first four years. Just this month, the Republican-dominated legislature in Indiana, urged on by voters, rebelled against MAGA efforts to intimidate them and refused to redraw their congressional maps to eliminate Democratic-leaning districts.

While Trump “has been able to do extraordinary damage that will have generational effects, he has not successfully consolidated power,” said Leah Greenberg, a founder of the resistance group Indivisible. “That has been staved off, and it has been staved off not, frankly, due to the efforts of pretty much anyone in elite institutions or political leadership but due to the efforts of regular people declining to go along with fascism.”

In retrospect, it’s possible to see several pivot points. One of the first was a Wisconsin Supreme Court race in April. Elon Musk, then still running rampant at the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, declared the contest critical and poured more than $20 million into the race. Voters turned out in droves, and the Musk-backed conservative candidate lost by more than 10 points. Humiliated, Musk began to withdraw from electoral politics, at one point breaking with Trump. The tight bond between the world’s richest man and the most powerful one was eroded.

In June, Trump’s military parade, meant as a display of dominance, was a flop, and simultaneous No Kings protests all over the country were huge and energetic. A few months later, Charlie Kirk was assassinated, a tragedy that the administration sought to exploit to silence its opponents. When the late-night comedian Jimmy Kimmel made a distasteful comment on ABC that seemed to blame the right for Kirk’s killing, Disney, the network’s parent company, gave in to pressure to take Kimmel off the air. It was a perilous moment for free speech; suddenly America was becoming the kind of country in which regime critics are forced off television. But then came a wave of cancellations of Disney+ and the Disney-owned Hulu service, as well as a celebrity boycott, and Disney gave Kimmel his show back.

Trump has thoroughly corrupted the Justice Department, but its selective prosecutions of his foes have been thwarted by judges and, more strikingly, by grand juries. Two grand juries refused to indict Letitia James, New York’s attorney general, whom the administration has accused of mortgage fraud, with no credible evidence. After Sean Dunn, a Justice Department paralegal, tossed a sandwich at a Customs and Border Protection officer during a protest in Washington, the administration sent a team of agents in riot gear to arrest him. But grand jurors refused to indict him on a felony charge. Dunn was eventually charged with a misdemeanor, only to be acquitted by a jury. Jeanine Pirro, the former Fox News personality whom Trump made U.S. attorney in Washington, tried three times to secure a federal indictment for assault against a protester who struggled while being pushed against a wall by an immigration agent. Three times, grand juries refused.

Granted, all these grand juries were in liberal jurisdictions, but their rejections of prosecutors’ claims are still striking, since indictments are usually notoriously easy to secure. “I think you’re seeing reinvigorated grand jury processes,” said Ian Bassin, a founder of the legal and advocacy group Protect Democracy. “Nobody actually knows what’s going on in those grand juries, but the outcome of them seems to suggest that people are actually holding the government’s feet to the fire and being unwilling to simply be a rubber stamp.”

Trump ends the year weak and unpopular, his coalition dispirited and riven by infighting. Democrats dominated in the November elections. During Joe Biden’s administration, far-right victories in school board races were an early indication of the cultural backlash that would carry Trump to office. Now, however, Democrats are flipping school board seats nationwide.

Much of the credit for the reinvigoration of the resistance belongs to Trump himself. Had he focused his deportation campaign on criminals or refrained from injuring the economy with haphazard tariffs while mocking concerns about affordability, he would probably have remained a more formidable figure. He’s still a supremely dangerous one, especially as he comes to feel increasingly cornered and aggrieved. After all, by the time you read this, we could well be at war with Venezuela, though no one in the administration has bothered to articulate a plausible rationale for the escalating conflict.

But it’s become, over the past year, easier to imagine the moment when his mystique finally evaporates, when few want to defend him anymore or admit that they ever did. “I think it’s going to be a rocky period, but I no longer think that Trump is going to pull an Orban and fundamentally consolidate authoritarian control of this country the way that it looked like he was going to do in March or April,” said Bassin, referring to Prime Minister Viktor Orban of Hungary. If Bassin is right, it will be because a critical mass of Americans refused to be either cowed or complicit.