I Hear You, I See You, I Stand With You, I Thank You

Hello Friends,Thanks so much for your outpouring of support yesterday. I have my up and down days. There are moments when I feel overwhelmed by the enormity of the task before us, but you guys always help get me through.Rest assured that I do have a plan in place in case something happens and I am no longer able to continue here on Substack. There are more platforms where I can go. New pockets of resistance are popping up all the time. I’ll be able to send you a message, and hopefully you’ll be able to find me wherever I end up.But for right now, it’s full steam ahead on Substack and I’m very happy about that. A few of you mentioned that I might be publishing too much. That’s gone through my head a few times too. At the same time, there’s just so much that needs to be said. We have a tidal wave of lies to confront, and there are only a few people out there speaking the truth.I do take great comfort in the fact that the number is always growing.A few of you mentioned that you like the articles but you aren’t so keen on the podcasts. I completely understand that. I never anticipated that I’d be spending so much time doing interviews. That being said, the interviews and podcasts are a great way to increase my reach, and they’ve allowed me to learn a lot about the day to day life of a diverse group of people.The conversations I’m having help me figure out tactics to overcome the illusions of disagreements that tend to dismantle the creation of effective coalitions. So, that’s important. But yes, it’s also critical that I keep writing articles to summarize my findings in accessible ways. It’s more efficient to read a 5 minute summary than listen to a two hour conversation.I’ve tried reducing your email load by creating different sections. Those of you who don’t like the podcasts should be able to unsubscribe from the podcast section in my newsletter. Here are the instructions:I created several different sections but lately I’ve just been publishing everything in “I’d Rather Be Writing.” I keep experimenting with ways to do things better, but I haven’t quite figured out the best practice yet.I’ve toyed with the idea of putting my lives in a new section, but I already have so many sections it seems ridiculous to create a new one. I’ll keep thinking about it. I’ve contemplated publishing them in “Rise Together” instead of here, but that would require copying and pasting the video elsewhere. That would be inconvenient and time consuming.Part of me keeps hoping that this will be the worst 2 weeks of the regime. The two executions in the last few weeks have been extremely hard to deal with. I’ve lost a lot of sleep and I find myself either screaming or crying quite often. The good news is that people are becoming roused. I definitely feel it. I did a live last weekend that had around 600 people by the end. People are fed up with this s**t. We just have to give ourselves permission to demand a better society.Today I’ll be interviewing congressional candidate Emily Berge at 9AM along with Nick Paro. That will be an excellent talk. Yesterday I interviewed Francesca Hong and that was absolutely inspiring:Imagine having authentic, kind and brilliant people like her running the state! Oh my goodness! That’s what we need! That’s what we deserve!Thanks to all the people who upgraded to paid yesterday, that brings a lot of joy to my heart as well. We are gaining momentum here. The people are listening. We’re making a difference. Also, I completely understand that many of you are on fixed incomes, or your backs are against the wall. I hear you! Your contributions in the forms of shares, likes, comments, or even just reading these articles make ALL the difference! We’re working together to make life better for everybody. All my work will remain free. Bring more people into the community. We have a lot of Republican brainwashing, grooming, and conditioning to counter. Stop your kids from listening to Joe Rogan or watching the news. Make them listen to that interview with Francesca Hong instead. That’s what a person of integrity looks like! Please keep sending your questions, your comments, and your observations. Please keep calling your representatives. Show up at school board meetings. Call up your union representative and demand protections from ICE. Call up your school and thank them for the hard work they do. Ask them to teach the true history of this country.Be loud. Be proud. Be peaceful. Create community. Spread love. Spread joy! Our weapons are reason, compassion, empathy and diversity. The white supremacy regime will fall just like all hate regimes that reject rational thinking are doomed to fall. Our job right now is to accelerate the process and minimize the suffering and loss of life as much as we are able.Whatever you’re doing, it's enough. Keep doing it. Rest when you need to. This is a marathon not a sprint. Don’t worry. Find joy. Go for a walk. When you’re ready, come back and speak your mind and live a life of courage and integrity!Thanks again for all your support! I am trying to figure out a way to not overwhelm you all with so many emails. Maybe 6 months from now this will all be over and I’ll be back to posting stories that I wrote for my daughters.Isn’t that a nice dream?Stick around friends! It’s always darkest before the dawn but the dawn is coming! Again, thank you!You all make this newsletter happen! Thanks for your sponsorship! I have payment tiers starting at as little as twenty dollars a year.Upgrade at 30% offUpgrade at 40% offUpgrade at 50% offUpgrade at 60% offI’m so happy you’re here, and I’m looking forward to sharing more thoughts with you tomorrow.Please sponsor me here too if you are able:My CoSchedule referral linkHere’s my referral link to my preferred headline analyzer tool. If you sign up through this, it’s another way to support this newsletter (thank you).I'd Rather Be Writing is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Get full access to I'd Rather Be Writing at walterrhein.substack.com/subscribe