Help is out there

Almost everyone I know has had a horrible week and is looking for both allies and positive moments that will re-energize them. So rather than list all the terrible things from this week—from the truly heinous to the ridiculous (Gulf of America, anyone?), I want to be positive and point, first, to some allies, and then to the incredible embodiment of hope that is the Right Rev. Mariann Budde, the Episcopal bishop of Washington.

I’ve never understood the ethics of being a billionaire, but one thing I’ve always believed is that if you are one, you don’t have to submit to anyone. So I was really surprised when all the tech bros bent the knee for Trump. Yeah, he could affect government contracts, but loss of contracts won’t affect billionaires’ lifestyles, etc. They have the option that someone whose livelihood is threatened by not being ‘loyal’ doesn’t have—that is, they can tell absolutely anyone to fuck off.

I was talking to my friends and family about this because I still don’t understand it. I saw last week in Paul Krugman’s post “The Pathetic Billionaires’ Club” that I’m not the only person wondering about this:

Why is this self-owning by billionaires so extraordinary? Well, ask yourself: What’s the point of being rich?

Past a certain level of wealth, it can’t really be about material things. I very much doubt that billionaires have a significantly higher quality of life than mere multimillionaires.

To the extent that there’s a valid reason for accumulating a very large fortune, I’d say that it involves freedom, the ability to live your life more or less however you want. Indeed, one definition of true wealth is having “fuck you money” — enough money to walk away from unpleasant situations or distasteful individuals without suffering a big decline in your living standards. And some very wealthy men — most obviously Mark Cuban, but I’d at least tentatively include Bill Gates and Warren Buffett — do seem to exhibit the kind of independence wealth gives you if you choose to exercise it.

My favorite political cartoonist, Ann Telnaes, wasn’t allowed to criticize that billionaire self-owning in the Washington Post. And then one of my favorite columnists, Jennifer Rubin, left. So I left, too, canceled my subscription. Rubin, along with Norm Eisen started The Contrarian on Substack, so I got a paid subscription. (They have a lot of free posts, FYI.) And Ann Telnaes also has a Substack that I subscribed to. (I still subscribe to two newspapers, both of which have done some crappy stuff, too. Ugh.)

The Contrarian has many writers and guest writers. Here’s a good example of what it offers from the article “How to Drink from a Firehose” by David Litt. Litt discusses how not to despair and to work for the good. One of his suggestions is not to weigh in on Trump (don’t ask people who disagree with you to discuss his character), but rather to use specific examples of what is going on.

For right now, if a total stranger asked me to sum up this week, I’d say something like this:

“There’s a guy named Daniel Rodriguez. On January 5th, 2020, he texted his friends ‘There will be blood.’ On January 6th, when he stormed the Capitol, he grabbed a police officer and shocked him repeatedly in the neck with a stun gun. A jury of peers sentenced him to twelve years in prison for his violent crime. And less than 24 hours after taking office, Trump let Daniel Rodriguez back out on the street.”

If you're looking for actionable advice, subscribe to Hopium Chronicles By Simon Rosenberg. He always has the info on pending legislation (when to make calls to your representatives), campaigns around the country you can donate to, etc. He was too hopeful in his repeated assessment that he would rather be in the Harris camp than the Trump camp during the election campaign. (Yes, Trump was doing awful stuff and was becoming a convicted felon, but history—only eight years before—told us that America doesn’t care that a candidate is a sexual predator, grossly unethical, a failed businessman, etc. Competence and ethics are no longer the yardsticks.) Still, Rosenberg has good advice on where to focus your attention, week to week.

Good people rising

Okay, let’s focus our attention on the good people. Everyone I know is lit up by Bishop Budde right now. She’s the anti-dingus in lyz’s “Dingus of the Week” post.

The bishop presided over a prayer service held in the Washington Cathedral on January 21, which was attended by the president, the vice president, and their families.

During the sermon, Budde pleaded with the president to show mercy to the vulnerable — LGBTQ people, immigrants, and so many others who have been the target of the craven rhetoric and policies of the new president.

Her words were gentle as she stated, "Millions have put their trust in you. And as you told the nation yesterday, you have felt the providential hand of a loving God. In the name of our God, I ask you to have mercy upon the people in our country who are scared now. There are gay, lesbian and transgender children in Democratic, Republican, and Independent families, some who fear for their lives.”

Sean Hannity described the sermon as a "disgraceful prayer full of fear mongering and division."

Lawrence Jones, Fox & Friends co-host, called Budde a “radical leftist.”

Matt Walsh declared that "hell exists for people like Mariann" and called her "exhibit A for why women should not be pastors, priests, or bishops.”

And Rep. Mike Collins, a Republican from Georgia, said that Budde should be added to the deportation list.

And like, listen, I grew up Baptist. So I am going to tell you that in a Christian religious context, if you are the one trying to nail the soft-spoken religious leader to a cross, you are the bad guy.

Rebecca Solnit has cheered Budde in social media posts. My friends on social media are posting about her, too. Some are writing her thank you letters. I wrote her a thank you letter, on a card designed by my watercolor-artist friend Laura DeKloe.

Yeah, the bad guys are trying to take her down, but it’s not working. The reason I included the photo of my tea mug with the words “This nasty woman gets shit done” is because Trump called Budde “nasty.” (She has a ‘nasty tone.’) But then, that’s his favorite word for women who oppose him, isn’t it?

Some of the usual MAGA suspects just posted in socials like they are followers of the antiChrist. (See excerpt from Lyz Lenz, above.) Saying empathy is a sin? Are you fucking kidding me?

In his Book Club newsletter, Ron Charles discusses Budde’s most recent book, How We Learn to Be Brave.

And so, Budde cradles our doubts and reassures us that cowardice is natural but never final in the long arc of salvation. “The message throughout Scripture is that whenever God, or life itself, issues the summons, it’s normal to feel both unworthy and unprepared, but it doesn’t matter,” she writes. “We are to step into the gap between our current capacity and what’s needed anyway.

“This country needs leaders now, and citizens who can face things as they are, work to change what can be changed, and not give up hope for the future.” Amen.

I was delighted when, a few days ago, I saw that Budde had written this book. A high school friend posted that it was already sold out everywhere. True. And yay! I bought it as an audiobook. I could have gotten the ebook, but I have an unfortunate failing: my ebooks are out of sight, out of mind. I buy them, but I usually don’t read them.

Showing my gratitude

I’m grateful for the support I have received in bringing my novel Keep Sweet to life. It launches on June 21st—the first day of summer! Yes, good people are everywhere in life! Three of them wrote ‘blurbs’ (quick, positive comments for the back cover) and one made very helpful editorial suggestions. While blurbs must be brief, a person needs to read the book in order to write one. So it’s a solid ask of another author to do so.

I wanted to make something in return. I had a narrow piece of high-quality denim given to me by a friend as well as cotton fabric scraps from my own and my friends' projects. Scraps far too small for most projects. I