When it comes to the most important things in life and as we face the most urgent challenges of our time, we cannot go it alone. Community and collaboration are key to our personal and social well-being.

To create lasting and sustainable positive change in our society will require systemic transformation that will take committed efforts in the medium-term and the long-term in relation to education and in relation to legislative work for changes in policy and law for a more just, peaceful, participatory, and sustainable society.

In order to have the opportunity to bring about the medium- term and long-term systemic transformation that is so desperately needed; In the short term, we will have to relentlessly address the immediate existential threat we are facing concerning the survival of our democratic republic, and this requires the collaboration of millions of persons. 

On June 14, 2025, over 11 million people collaborated together to address the immediate existential threat that our democratic republic is facing. The over 11 million people who collaborated together do not agree about everything. They come from different backgrounds, they have different orientations to religion, and they have diverse political perspectives, but they trusted each other enough to collaborate, and their collaboration led to one of the largest mass protests in the history of the United States. 

Over 11 million people were able to collaborate in the midst of their differences because they realize that true freedom is a common project that requires solidarity to make sure that all persons have the same opportunity to be free. They realize that true freedom is about being free to do good; being free to express values and virtue, and being free to establish justice for all persons, especially the most vulnerable among us. 

Over 11 million people were able to collaborate together because we recognize that we cannot stand up to a dictator alone. We cannot stand up to American fascism alone. We need each other, and if we continue to build a movement for true freedom and justice for all, we will defeat American fascism – together. 

The nonviolent collaboration against American fascism must be sustained over time if we are to have any chance to save our democratic republic. The collaborative work will surely have its ups and downs and perhaps even many significant disappointments. American fascism did not develop overnight, and it will take time and deep sacrifice to overcome it. 

If we are to fully overcome American fascism, we must collaborate together to transform the conditions and systems that have allowed it to develop and gain strength and power over so many in our society. One of the key factors that kept the United States from falling into fascism or communism in the 20th Century was the development of systems and associations (unions, anti-trust laws, labor laws, social security, a progressive tax system, state funded education, civil rights laws, etc.) that limited wealth inequality and thus mitigated against the extreme economic injustice that fuels revolution and populism. But since at least 1981, we have been dismantling the very systems and associations that have kept us relatively free. And now, under the mantra of making America great again, we are accelerating the wealth inequality that has led to the reality of American fascism that we are now experiencing.

If we do not address the extreme wealth inequality in our society and the systems that perpetuate it, we will continue to see the rise of various forms of political extremism that feed off the fear of a desperate populace. If we cannot create the conditions for economic justice, we very likely will never experience political peace. 

As the Nobel Peace Laureate Marie Ressa reminds us, in the short term, we need to collaborate, collaborate, collaborate to be able stand up to a dictator, but in the medium-term and the long-term we must do the hard and sustained work of education and creating legislation to transform the underlying unjust conditions within our society that keep driving us to extremes and driving us apart from each other. 

Eventually, we may find our way to a more just, participatory, and sustainable community in the future, but that will never happen unless we keep collaborating in the fiercely urgent moment we are currently facing. May we all have the courage and commitment we need to continue to collaborate. 

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