Real Talk, On Courage

and Investing Dangerously...

It’s been almost a month since a group of extremists showed up on the doorstep of my bookstore, threatening to shut us down, and then bullying one of our associates, whose video of the incident went viral on TikTok. I wrote about it here. Turns out this same so-called “evangelical” group has been disrupting gay affirming churches during service around town. It looks to be just one cell of a larger nationwide extremist movement to harass people of any church or faith outside of their interpretation of the Bible. They have a missionary “tank” they painted in camouflage and online sermons calling for attacks. Their leader, who uses violent rhetoric, is a self-described former warlock gangster who “used to be” possessed by demons. (I dedicated a Front Porch Radio episode, which I host, here, if you want to listen to a first-hand account.)

The past three months have been intensely busy. I’ve had no time to write here or even notice I had a voicemail from my State Rep (the utterly badass Anna Eskamani) who called to check on me after she learned what happened at our store. Since January, I’ve been adjusting to the very amicable departure of my now former business partner with loads of critical business updates while planning for my bookstore’s 50th anniversary and the announcement of an expansion we are planning in the form of Jubilee Tea Garden, which I will be crowdfunding in short order.

I also had a new roof installed (mercifully covered by insurance), an unavoidable kitchen update in my rental unit and a car that was breaking down at the same time that nearly everyone on my staff took turns calling out for pretty serious stuff they were dealing with in their personal lives. I was working overtime at the store while juggling major projects that required a lot of attention when I was supposed to be focused on the 50th anniversary events and expansion. I REALLY want to talk about both of those things, joyfully, and I will, but first, I have a few things I need to get off my chest.

Because the backdrop to all of that, as you know, is the Republican Administration in the White House attempting to destroy our democracy by actively kidnapping and deporting people illegally without due process, isolating us from our allies by threatening to invade them, handing our enemies everything they want, instituting Project 2025 with haste, quietly dismantling the FDIC, and blundering security so blatantly that it’s like a living lesson about why DEI initiatives became popular in the first place: to protect us all from incompetent, insecure, silver spoon bullies who openly disavow empathy in general. And the entire Republican Party is just letting this happen. (I semi-regularly update the headlines on my astrology-based side hustle here, if you are curious about the correlation between planets & politics.)

With every new headline, I am internally screaming at my unapologetic MAGA parents. “LOOK MOM!!! the Republicans are trying to cut funding for IB, AP & dual enrollment classes, is that what you want for your grandaughter who has been busting her butt for two years as an IB student?”

I’m keeping up to date on current events by reading substack’s like historian Heather Cox Richardson’s, making contingency plans, enhancing my security on every level, and just bought a car before tariffs could affect pricing but made sure it was big enough to escape Florida with my dogs and some belongings should a hurricane or hostile environment make it necessary to get out. You know: just in case.

And, interestingly and strangely, not feeling afraid, even after a group of forty or so extremists threatened my business directly. Why is that? Well, partly because I have felt people have my back. The TikTok video turned the entire incident into a financial blessing because of the incredible outpouring of support. Also, partly because I have intentionally surrounded myself with mature, talented, kind-hearted, and total badasses at work and in my personal life. I have a strong circle to call on and lean on and they have come in clutch.

And, importantly, I have made it a top priority in life to cultivate courage in myself and others. We don’t talk about “safe” spaces at work or home because there’s an implication of both weakness in that framing and also fantasy. Nope: we cultivate courageous spaces where creativity, compassion and solid boundaries are deeply entangled parts of being powerful, competent and capable. It is a practice of mine to identify where I feel vulnerable and take steps to minimize that exposed feeling with practical action because I am not helpless. I did not buy tasers, pepper spray and a 60-day supply of dehydrated food because I am scared, I did it because I am pragmatic and hella powerful when I am prepared.

And I did not make it through a childhood inside an abusive home surrounded by mental illness, the untimely death of my sister, two major car crashes, various sexual assaults, a home invasion where I was held at knife point, a peeping tom, two intense business start-up’s, abusive litigation that led to financial ruin & bankruptcy, some light stalking, a glorious unmedicated childbirth, several hurricanes, decades of being unmedicated for ADHD and all the medical gaslighting that went with that, a debilitating episode of leaky gut, a freaking pandemic, thirty years of periods, a screening of Weekend at Bernie’s 2, and a stint with homelessness as as single parent with a toddler on my hip to tremble in fear as a response to the same kind of narcissistic bullshit I’ve dealt with in various forms my entire life.

The impact of callous people, unfortunate luck and challenging life situations is very real. But so is my determination to rise above and claim my joy. I’m at the stage in life where I don’t clutch my pearls in shock that assholes are being assholes. That’s like being surprised chickens cluck. Instead, I recommit to my grown-up practice of fortifying my being, my home, business and community with the care and strategic support that has seen me through similar situations. I look for the helpers and refuse to let the bastards get me down in advance, because that is certainly what they are after. People in fear are much easier to control than people in possession of themselves.

That doesn’t mean I bury my head in the sand and bypass the very real harm and horror people are going through. I know the work I do makes a difference in my community, which is why extremists targeted my business. Haters gonna hate & desecrate. That’s what they do. It is up to the rest of us to take turns (according to ability and capacity) to disavow and disallow the feeding of this hate by choosing who, what, when, where and how we invest our focus, money and influence.

I've long held the observation that the stock market is a fantasy market rooted in emotions and speculation. It’s a normalized form of gambling made to seem like a safe place to invest by nothing more than collective belief, despite many historic examples of it, in fact, not being safe. One person should not have the power to tank markets like this but the grinch is stealing so much more than retirement savings, he’s coming for democracy itself. Like the Who's in Whoville, Americans joined together in mass demonstrations this past weekend sending a clear message that there is massive opposition to your schemes and Americans are not rolling over.

I encourage everyone to divest where possible from those that do others dirty and invest where you live: locally, independently and directly in targets of today’s tyrants who are deemed dangerous.

Invest “dangerously” in women, folks of color, the queer community, libraries & bookstores, independent media, the immigrant farmworkers who put food on our tables. Those folks are living dangerously just by being.