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Why Celebrating Juneteenth is More Important Than Ever
While some celebrate Independence Day on July 4th, for many in the black community, Juneteenth is our Independence Day—the day that our ancestors’ emancipation was finally proclaimed across the country, and the end of almost a century of slavery. Read about the legacy of Juneteenth and why it’s becoming more and more important every year to celebrate this momentous day in history.
The View from Tennessee
Lawmakers dressed in red play a wicked game. We at UVOTN will not let them win. If we truly have the right to bear arms, then we’ll holster our bullhorns at our hips.
Why should I join the 6/9 protest?
Know that we're in the same boat. We're struggling, too, and we struggled ourselves in deciding whether we should take the drastic step of skipping out on other obligations ourselves, much less ask it of you. Here's why we ultimately decided that things have gotten so dire that we're risking more than we ever have to attend this rally, and why we ask you to consider the same.
Who Owns The Future?
I fear the task has fallen to our generation to build something new, and if so, it will be a defining struggle. It will be hard, but all we need to do is tell the truth. In a time of deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act.
No ICE in my Backyard
I talked to my local police department about its non-cooperation policy with ICE, and you should too. Here’s how.
Organizing in a Red State
In Oklahoma, we know that no matter how hard we fight, most battles will be lost. Terrible legislation that targets and suppresses us will pass, and our voices will be ignored. … We do get wins, but they are rare and bittersweet. It has taken three years to make it illegal for school employees to beat developmentally disabled students, but that’s the reality in deep red states. We must persist in the face of constant losses, and we celebrate wins that were unreasonably difficult to achieve.
Who Controls The Past?
To control the collective memory of a people through history erases everything a people once was and replaces it with an eternal present. A simple adjustment to the “facts” of the day can justify any action, no matter how obviously stupid and cruel. Power becomes unmoored from the systems that balance against baser human instincts and then the world is one where only the corrupt can flourish.
The Case for Nonviolence
The power of nonviolent protest extends from your living room to the streets of every state. Groups like 50501, Indivisible, Veterans Against Trump, Common Cause, and others are growing in number each day and are active in every state. There are podcasts and publications, both liberal and conservative, sounding the alarm against the winds of fascism which are descending on us like a sandstorm in the desert. Poets are writing, Pedro is imploring and The Boss has spoken. Together we need to wield the most powerful weapon we have at our disposal: our voice.
Let Them Eat Tariffs
Trump’s economic plan is here, and it’s bigly ridiculous. In this satire about economic policy, we trace how a glorified subtraction problem turned into a national strategy, why trade deficits aren’t actually scary, and what happens when historical ignorance meets Marie Antoinette and logic gets the guillotine.
Self-Starter Internet Archivist: A Guide to Preserving Open Information in The Trump Age
Earlier today I printed out several news articles collected over the last five months, such as the Washington, D.C., air disaster from January 29th, 2025, and all of the FAA chaos that followed, a list of people abducted by ICE, including Rümeysa Öztürk from Tufts University, and a picture of the new pope. I then buried them in a jar somewhere in the woods.
How to Resist ICE
The deluge of ICE arrests this week has been terrifying in a way that’s hard to put into words. If there’s one lesson I’ve learned this week, however, it’s that being scared doesn’t have to stop us from taking action—we can simply do it scared. I’ve put together a list of actions we can take to resist ICE at the community, city, and state levels.
I've Been to 4 Months of Protests and Trump Shows No Signs of Stopping: Now What?
The road ahead is long but not endless. Each of us will inevitably face situations that make us angry, anxious, or afraid. We’ll question if we’re doing the right thing, or if we’re the right people to be doing it. We’ll question whether there’s anything we can do to solve a problem that just seems to get worse and worse. But by taking action in ways other than through protest, we can anchor ourselves and strengthen our resolve.
We fact-checked RFK Jr.’s claims about the supposed autism epidemic
U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s April news briefing was meant to be his chance to inform the public about the Centers for Disease Control’s new autism prevalence study. Instead, it was rife with misinformation, fear mongering, and disability-negative views. Despite receiving intense backlash from the community, he has not relented. In fact, the National Institutes of Health and Centers for Medicare & Medicaid have announced a collaborative data platform that will create what can only be described as an autism database. We are fact-checking Robert F. Kennedy Jr’s claims because one can only understand the danger posed by this autism database after talking about the extent of his misinformation campaign.
Mass 50501 community reflections on ICE detentions
Who must be taken for your life to change? For the subtle fear in the back of your mind to break though? Today, we come together to share some of our reactions to the ICE kidnappings and the dismantling of our rights.
Eternal Vigilance is the Price of Liberty
When writing about current events, historians often reference a “before time” to help provide context for a recent crisis. But there is no “before time” in U.S. history to draw upon for what we face today. What we’re living through is unprecedented, and the actions we’re taking have no blueprint written in that history.
A Republic In The Rain
I am tired, cold, soaking from the rain, and feeling older than my age. My legs and knees are in pain because a chain of 80 hour weeks stretches behind me, and I haven’t allowed sufficient time for rest and recovery.
The American Dream: Dollars over Democracy?
From the Massachusetts Bay Company to Google, corporations have helped shape America and our vision of what it means to be successful. Yet as corporations amass power and wealth, their influence grows beyond the economy, seeping into the political foundations of America itself.
Redeeming Democracy
In order to convince the apathetic to engage with what is happening before it becomes completely irreversible and sinister, we must remove the uncertainty and offer them a vision of the future to fill the void.
How Propaganda Destroys Unity in The United States
I still remember sitting in our “computer room” as an adolescent, listening to the shrieking sounds of our desktop modem connecting to AOL, feeling like I was about to have the world at my fingertips. Back then, the internet was mostly a garble of Netscape web pages filled with dancing pixelated GIFs and seedy chat rooms where everyone was greeted by “a/s/l?”
April 19, 1775 - Commemorating the Start of the American Revolution
It’s April 19, 1975—the 200th anniversary of the start of the American Revolution. The Vietnam War is still ongoing. Gerald Ford is president, and the country is trying to heal from the Watergate scandal.