A note on policing our movement.

January 17, 2026

“Tell the protesters they have to…”

“Tell them not to…”

“Tell them if they do…”

“Tell them they can’t or otherwise…”

We have plenty of people organizing people and things and processes to help us communicate, coordinate, and move as we protect our neighbors as best we can.

We stand on the front lines to preserve and protect and defend the ideals of our democracy.

We are love in action. Sometimes that can be harsh and raw.

We do not have a hierarchy. We have many, many leaders.

We honor personal sovereignty.

We are also deeply connected.

We are diverse, interdependent, iterative. We are a murmuration.

So who are we telling with all these can’ts and shoulds and have-tos?

How do we think we’ll get the message out about the ways we personally think this multifaceted,

this fluid, this fractyl organismic something ought to move?

Let’s tell ourselves.

Plug in where it feels right for us. Join with people doing things.

They demand to know who the leaders are. They detain observers to try to find out. They want to know who is paying us. They can’t conceive of what we are. Not a clue.

We on the other hand know all about them. Their fear, their bitterness, their anger, their inability to empathize with humahs unlike them. And at the end of the day, yes, they envy us.

Our unity.

Our humor.

Our love.

The mayor, the governor, and others not on the ground demand that we conform to their idea about how all this should look. And the dire consequences if we don’t. It’s so upsetting that at times they seem more worried about policing us than about the real threat.

It’s understandable because we’re scared and we fall prey to contagion and try to police each other.

A friend named Megan reported this on Facebook:

“He [Jake Lang] was literally trapped, clearly terrified until a few counter protesters, all of whom seemed to be people of color, literally surrounded him and escorted him out of the crowd.”

One can only hope, but highly doubt, that he will lean into the cognitive dissonance that should create in him.

(I would just like to also think that their actions were as much about, if not more, protecting the counter-protesters if it continued to escalate.)”

It’s a simple thing I ask. I ask that we trust each other. Not least because it’s what works.

Have faith that we will win this battle.

Have faith in the process wherein good people band together to address a great evil.

It’s natural and important to argue and struggle among ourselves to reach new levels of

solidarity. We’re in a process. This is contradiction among the people.

As for contradictions between the people and the enemy, there are red lines where there can be

no compromise.

Have faith in our emergence.

“When thousands of starlings swoop and swirl in the evening sky, creating patterns called

murmurations, no single bird is choreographing this aerial ballet. Each bird follows simple rules

of interaction with its closest neighbours, yet out of these local interactions emerges a complex,

coordinated dance that can respond swiftly to predators and environmental changes. This same

principle of emergence – where sophisticated behaviours arise not from central control but from

the interactions themselves – appears across nature and human society.”

We can have faith in this. And faith in us.

I think it’s a demand. At least for me.

I have to have faith.

Faith is hard.

I have to believe in us.