This weekend, I was honored to be at Founders Day at First AME Church of Los Angeles, a space grounded in history, faith, and the long tradition of community leadership. It was powerful to be in a room that has held generations of organizing, courage, and care—and to reflect on how those traditions continue to shape our democracy today.
I received so many thoughtful, and honest questions. It was a reminder that democracy is something people are actively trying to protect and pass forward in spaces like this.
I wasn’t able to get to all the questions, so here are some that were passed on to me in little note cards:
As activists and organizers, we often use nonviolence to confront the realities of the public. But when there is no rule of law, what alternative strategies exist to mobilize deeper, sustained resistance?
Violent resistance almost never defeats entrenched authoritarian power because the opponent has more tools, more resources, and greater capacity for force. Nonviolence works because it mobilizes the many, and as Martin Luther King Jr. warned in Letter from Birmingham Jail, the greatest obstacle is often not extremists but moderates who urge accommodation when government itself is the problem. Effective resistance requires naming harm clearly, holding even our allies accountable, and taking action even in the face of discomfort or harm. However, we should not conflate non-violence with passivity. We can be creative in our disruption and loud in our engagement. ...
