Julie Womack

During the presidential election, Trump pledged to crack down on immigration, but he claimed he was only talking about criminals. But over the last several months, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has been increasingly targeting people who are legally following the U.S. immigration process. Some of them are just kids. So we have to ask: why is ICE targeting people who aren’t criminals, and why are they targeting children?

Most of us can agree that America has a racist past. We enslaved other human beings, and even after the Civil War, injustices like lynching and Jim Crow laws persisted. But despite a troubling resurgence of white supremacy groups — a nearly 50% increase since 2022 — many Americans believe that racism is all in the past. “This is America,” we might think, “Everyone has an equal opportunity, right?” Or, talking about race or “seeing color” may feel like what is actually racist. So, why do we still need to talk about racism?

If you’re like many Americans, one of the first things you do every morning is check the weather. And we definitely pay attention when there’s extreme weather – like hurricanes, blizzards, and tornadoes – on the horizon, putting our lives and property in jeopardy. Whether you get it from your phone, the morning news, or a Google search, that information all comes from the same place: the Weather Service, a part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). So why is the Trump administration getting rid of it?

Right now, many of us are feeling a ton of stress and anxiety. Add that to the rise in loneliness in our country, and it creates a toxic soup that isn’t just bad for our mood, it’s bad for our physical health too. The good news is, community connection can help with both of these problems! In these chaotic and stressful times, community is more important than ever. It isn’t just good for our hearts and minds, it’s good for democracy.