A new, historic wave of mass movement in American public life begins the moment we recognize that we are already united by a moral crisis.
We invite you to us in committing to move forward together, not one step back!
Steve Schmidt said subscribe and here I am! I look forward to your discussions. The moral decay is deep. We need a cultural root canal. Thank you for stepping forward here. Substack is my anchor now.
When I read this essay, I thought of Martin Luther King and his famous words "The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice." It occurred to me that this arc does not bend, miraculously, on its own, but that the efforts of generations of decent Americans have ensured that it bends in the right direction, and that it does not break. The moral collapse of an entire political party and a third of the American electorate has brought us to the breaking point. We must take a loud, "in your face" moral stance to prevent the destruction that will surely come next if we don't and to restore what has been stolen and vandalized, and thus see to it that MLK's words ring true for the next generation.
I've been thinking about you so much lately, since I know this is a struggle you have been engaged in for many years. I'm so glad you've joined this means of talking to people. Sadly, the forces of evil have corrupted what many think of as religious beliefs and made it into something else. Your voice is so needed right now.
Thank you for having the courage to stand up and speak out in this precarious time. And thank you for enlarging the tent to include our brethren of other faiths, or no faith, who share our moral principles. Two of the most morally calibrated people I know are non-Christian: One is a Chechen Muslim and the other is an American agnostic who attends the Unitarian Universalist church.
Many, many of us are grappling with moral distress so I look forward to your offerings and suggestions to be resilient in this time of upheaval. I have beloved family members who I thought embraced the values I have lived and shared with them the past fifty years, and yet they are not engaged in any type of resistance of this hateful regime, but remain aloof and silent. A very difficult situation to navigate as an elder activist.
There are many in the same boat. I have distanced myself from good friends because my advocacy makes them uncomfortable. Until our country is back in the high values realm, I intend to carry on as is.
Yes! This is our Moral Moment as a nation! Millions of Americans are waking up to the fact that our democracy, as well as our relatively stable world economy is at risk. Now is the time to get into "good trouble".
Thank you for stepping forward as leaders and putting a name to this that all people can get behind. Who do we WANT to be? What sort of country do we want to live in? This is when we must decide, individually, in community, as a nation, and as humanity.
I have been inspired by Bishop Barber’s speeches that I have seen on YouTube. I look forward to being inspired by this Substack, thank you for joining and writing here. The country and our world needs to hear your voice!
The time for passive observation is over! We are in a war for the soul of this nation, and the question isn’t whether we’ll fight, but how and where we’ll stand. The forces of greed, bigotry, and authoritarianism are not hiding their intentions—they’re parading them in the halls of power, stacking courts, gutting rights, and rewriting history to serve their lies. They want us exhausted. They want us divided. They want us to believe resistance is futile.
But this is our moment to rise.
The great moral movements of the past—abolition, civil rights, the struggle for labor and dignity—weren’t won by polite debate. They were won by people who refused to look away, who organized, protested, sacrificed, and disrupted the machinery of oppression. Frederick Douglass didn’t beg for freedom—he seized it, then fought like hell to make sure others could too. Dr. King didn’t just hope for justice—he built a movement so relentless that it forced America to confront its hypocrisy.
Now it’s our turn.
Every autocrat, every oligarch, every enabler of this moral rot is counting on us to stay scattered, to keep arguing over scraps while they rig the game. But their weakness is this: they need our compliance to win. So we must deny it to them—in the streets, in the courts, in workplaces, at the ballot box, and in every space where injustice tries to take root.
This substack isn’t just a platform—it’s a rallying point. A place to sharpen the tools of resistance: information, strategy, and unshakable solidarity. The path won’t be easy. There will be backlash. There will be fear. But if we stand together—rooted in the unbreakable truth that love and justice must prevail—we will win.
As you list the great movements that have made a better country, a better world, never forget the Sufferage Movement.
An entire gender has been a second class citizen until barely a hundred years ago. The rights that we finally gained are being ripped away, and women’s response to this can be seen in every rally.
Women are, and will remain in the front lines of this war until we have won for keeps.
This is an issue that comes up all the time. Whether it’s people of color saying, welcome to our world of inequality as white people’s rights get taken away or women saying the same to men as men’s constitutional rights get taken away, it’s a new world cracking open in mostly terrible ways but there are occasional linings to these storm clouds..
it’s one massive civics lesson and it’s one golden opportunity for white men to walk a mile in our shoes. Your thoughtful response to my comment is so powerful, and so positive. Thank you.
Thanks to Steve Schmidt for alerting us to your presence here.….Rev. Barber, I have followed you since your imaginative, inspiring, and moral weekly protests you led at the North Carolina state legislature so many years ago (on voting rights, economic justice, equality). Ever since then, the phrase “repairers of the breach” keeps ringing in my head. More like a complete rebuilding across the abyss is needed now. Steve Schmidt clearly spells out this evil rending daily; may you both help us learn—together—how to turn it back, close it up, remove it before it is too late. Moral appeal is what gave power to the American civil rights movement, to the South Africa anti-apartheid campaigns, and to most historical imperatives for social, economic, and political change. The April 5th Hands Off protests nationwide show us that a moral majority does exist in this moment. It needs to be focused and sustained. Looking forward to your messages. Thank you for sharing on Substack.
Steve Schmidt said subscribe and here I am! I look forward to your discussions. The moral decay is deep. We need a cultural root canal. Thank you for stepping forward here. Substack is my anchor now.
cultural root canal, indeed, lol!!
😂🙏
A cultural bone marrow transplant…
Or maybe a new spine…
Definitely for the so-called leaders.
I’d recommend a colonic to clear out the toxic build up and flush it away.
Better have Roto Rooter on standby.
Thank you for your much-needed words and witness. I look forward to reading more and committing to the work alongside you.
When I read this essay, I thought of Martin Luther King and his famous words "The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice." It occurred to me that this arc does not bend, miraculously, on its own, but that the efforts of generations of decent Americans have ensured that it bends in the right direction, and that it does not break. The moral collapse of an entire political party and a third of the American electorate has brought us to the breaking point. We must take a loud, "in your face" moral stance to prevent the destruction that will surely come next if we don't and to restore what has been stolen and vandalized, and thus see to it that MLK's words ring true for the next generation.
I've been thinking about you so much lately, since I know this is a struggle you have been engaged in for many years. I'm so glad you've joined this means of talking to people. Sadly, the forces of evil have corrupted what many think of as religious beliefs and made it into something else. Your voice is so needed right now.
Thank you for having the courage to stand up and speak out in this precarious time. And thank you for enlarging the tent to include our brethren of other faiths, or no faith, who share our moral principles. Two of the most morally calibrated people I know are non-Christian: One is a Chechen Muslim and the other is an American agnostic who attends the Unitarian Universalist church.
"[T]here are no winners and losers in a struggle that destroys the house we call home." ❤️🩹
Many, many of us are grappling with moral distress so I look forward to your offerings and suggestions to be resilient in this time of upheaval. I have beloved family members who I thought embraced the values I have lived and shared with them the past fifty years, and yet they are not engaged in any type of resistance of this hateful regime, but remain aloof and silent. A very difficult situation to navigate as an elder activist.
There are many in the same boat. I have distanced myself from good friends because my advocacy makes them uncomfortable. Until our country is back in the high values realm, I intend to carry on as is.
Yes! This is our Moral Moment as a nation! Millions of Americans are waking up to the fact that our democracy, as well as our relatively stable world economy is at risk. Now is the time to get into "good trouble".
Thank you for stepping forward as leaders and putting a name to this that all people can get behind. Who do we WANT to be? What sort of country do we want to live in? This is when we must decide, individually, in community, as a nation, and as humanity.
I have been inspired by Bishop Barber’s speeches that I have seen on YouTube. I look forward to being inspired by this Substack, thank you for joining and writing here. The country and our world needs to hear your voice!
We thank you for helping us all at this time through your wisdom, energy, insights and courage.
This isn’t just an article—it’s a battle cry.
The time for passive observation is over! We are in a war for the soul of this nation, and the question isn’t whether we’ll fight, but how and where we’ll stand. The forces of greed, bigotry, and authoritarianism are not hiding their intentions—they’re parading them in the halls of power, stacking courts, gutting rights, and rewriting history to serve their lies. They want us exhausted. They want us divided. They want us to believe resistance is futile.
But this is our moment to rise.
The great moral movements of the past—abolition, civil rights, the struggle for labor and dignity—weren’t won by polite debate. They were won by people who refused to look away, who organized, protested, sacrificed, and disrupted the machinery of oppression. Frederick Douglass didn’t beg for freedom—he seized it, then fought like hell to make sure others could too. Dr. King didn’t just hope for justice—he built a movement so relentless that it forced America to confront its hypocrisy.
Now it’s our turn.
Every autocrat, every oligarch, every enabler of this moral rot is counting on us to stay scattered, to keep arguing over scraps while they rig the game. But their weakness is this: they need our compliance to win. So we must deny it to them—in the streets, in the courts, in workplaces, at the ballot box, and in every space where injustice tries to take root.
This substack isn’t just a platform—it’s a rallying point. A place to sharpen the tools of resistance: information, strategy, and unshakable solidarity. The path won’t be easy. There will be backlash. There will be fear. But if we stand together—rooted in the unbreakable truth that love and justice must prevail—we will win.
The call is clear. Which side are you on?
As you list the great movements that have made a better country, a better world, never forget the Sufferage Movement.
An entire gender has been a second class citizen until barely a hundred years ago. The rights that we finally gained are being ripped away, and women’s response to this can be seen in every rally.
Women are, and will remain in the front lines of this war until we have won for keeps.
You are right of course!! If there were more of them in Government we'd be better off!!
My bad!
Not your bad Michael, no worries as they say.
This is an issue that comes up all the time. Whether it’s people of color saying, welcome to our world of inequality as white people’s rights get taken away or women saying the same to men as men’s constitutional rights get taken away, it’s a new world cracking open in mostly terrible ways but there are occasional linings to these storm clouds..
it’s one massive civics lesson and it’s one golden opportunity for white men to walk a mile in our shoes. Your thoughtful response to my comment is so powerful, and so positive. Thank you.
Excellent writing Michael. I couldn't agree more. I am on the Moral Movement side with you! I was made for this moment!
So far I've gone to 2 protest at a senators office, one Tesla Takedown, and a Hands Off March.
They WILL NOT take our country away from us. They can not even fathom the amount of FIGHT they are in for!
I am so honored to be in your company!!
We wont let the bastards take away our country, our democracy without a struggle!!
Keep on going!!
Lets change this country for the better!
Thank you for your commitment as we find one another and move forward together.
Thanks for stepping up to help direct this movement!
Thanks to Steve Schmidt for alerting us to your presence here.….Rev. Barber, I have followed you since your imaginative, inspiring, and moral weekly protests you led at the North Carolina state legislature so many years ago (on voting rights, economic justice, equality). Ever since then, the phrase “repairers of the breach” keeps ringing in my head. More like a complete rebuilding across the abyss is needed now. Steve Schmidt clearly spells out this evil rending daily; may you both help us learn—together—how to turn it back, close it up, remove it before it is too late. Moral appeal is what gave power to the American civil rights movement, to the South Africa anti-apartheid campaigns, and to most historical imperatives for social, economic, and political change. The April 5th Hands Off protests nationwide show us that a moral majority does exist in this moment. It needs to be focused and sustained. Looking forward to your messages. Thank you for sharing on Substack.
Thank you .