Tonight is our monthly, in-person meeting at the Cannon Valley Friends Meeting house, here in Northfield.
I neglected to post last week, but I’m trying to start off this week a little better!
So here’s a post of what I plan on saying in my allocated 5 minutes tonight.
So if you plan on being there, 6:30-8 pm tonight, 4/20, you’re likely to hear me say this in person! 🙂
Good evening everyone.
Welcome. Tonight we’ve got a few things to cover, so I want to keep it moving.
We’ve got Kaela Berg here to talk with us about her views and positions on things as she runs for Angie Craig’s seat in Congress.
We did No Kings 3 almost a month ago, now, and we’ve got May Day coming up, Friday, May 1st, 3-4 at Bridge Square, so we’ll cover some of the details on those shortly.
And we’re (finally) going to break into groups to discuss how (or if) we move forward as Northfield Indivisible.
But I’ve got 5 minutes to speak my piece here at the top, so I’ll share some thoughts with that opportunity.
We are living under a Mad King. A mad king who’s been put in place by a concerted effort by a political party whose plan has always been to take away our democracy, do away with our government and its duty to represent the people. To put in place a new feudal system. One that would place the president as the unaccountable king, and the oligarchs and corporate CEOs as the nobles and gentry class, with the rest of us merely fodder for their profits.
This concerted effort has stacked the courts, demolished our education and healthcare systems, sold off our natural resources and treasures, destroyed our environmental protections and social safety net. It has sent masked, unidentified, heavily-armed gangs of thugs into the streets of American cities and towns to harass, detain, and kill US citizens – all without accountability.
It has enabled the greatest transfer of wealth from the bottom 90% of our country to the top <1%. And in what is likely the greatest scale of corruption this country has ever seen, the president and his family have enriched themselves by over $4 BILLION dollars in bribes and sweetheart deals directly related to his election.
(and suing us, the taxpayers, for $10B because the IRS accidently released some information about his tax returns.)
He now says that we need to give his Dept. of “War” $1.5 TRILLION, plus another $200 BILLION to fund his illegal war of choice, (at a cost of nearly $2B per day), while cutting all social programs and aid, because “we can’t afford it”.
(In September 2025 alone, Pete “Kegsbreath” spent approximately $22 million for high-end food items used for military dining facilities and morale-boosting “deployment meals” including:
- Ribeye Steaks: $15.1 million
- Lobster Tails: $6.9 million
- Alaskan King Crab: $2.0 million
- Miscellaneous: $139,224 on donuts and $124,000 on ice cream machines.)
We are fighting against an enormous machine that has been working for the last 40 years (at least) to rig our system and our economy so that we can’t fight back.
The cruelty, the chaos, the corruption, the incessant lies and threats, the secret deals and corporate control of our access to information – our move towards “Idiocracy” has been planned, implemented and structured around us to prevent our ability to control our own lives.
It can feel overwhelming. And it is intentional.
We are all just trying to get by. To manage our lives and families, our work and our home in the midst of this seemingly unending storm.
Our politicians have failed us.
Our courts (especially SCOTUS) have failed us.
“Business” and Corporate America have failed us.
Academia have failed us.
We, the people are the last line of defense.
It is exhausting, and relentless, and it often feels, as one person put it: “It’s like wetting yourself in dark pants. You get a nice warm feeling, but no one really notices.”
But it does matter.
It does have an impact.
Contacting your representatives, local, state and national, matters.
Boycotts matter.
Mutual Aid matters.
Showing up matters.
Getting involved matters.
It makes a difference.
We have shown that here in MN.
And Hungary showed that to the world last weekend.
One of the key things we’re asking you all tonight is to be involved, to stay involved, to lead where you can, and support where you’re able.
So this is your opportunity tonight, to step up and give us not only your ideas for what we could do to, but for how we can do it, and with whom.
We know the king is faltering now, and it will get worse before it gets better. But now is our time to push even harder and not relent. We must keep pushing back until they are gone. Hungary has shown us how. Minnesota knows how, too!
Thank you!
Steve