Welcome! Along with many of you, Mary and I are on a protesting journey.
In February, Mary and I, along with many others, decided to begin actively protesting against what we saw as an authoritarian takeover of our democracy. Along with two friends, we founded Indivisible Park County, a local chapter of Indivisible.org.
I’m no stranger to activism. For ten years, I wrote, photographed, and spoke to defend wildlife and wild lands. During that time, I published two Substacks, Love the Wild and Save the Wild. I wrote two award-winning books, one focused on Yellowstone wolves and the other on the environmental issues surrounding Yellowstone National Park. You may be familiar with some of this writing.
Then I was diagnosed with and treated for aggressive prostate cancer, and my focus shifted. During this difficult time, I journaled every morning. Those entries, along with thorough research, evolved into my next Substack publication, The Wilds of Cancer.
I’m happy to say that the conventional medical treatment was successful. Mary and I helped my medical team fight the cancer by developing what we called our DARE approach, using diet, attitude, rest, and exercise to make my body a hostile environment for cancer cells and a friendly environment for healthy cells.
While we fought the aggressive cancer in my body, an aggressive cancer attacked our democracy. Donald Trump, Elon Musk and his billionaire buddies, power-hungry politicians, and Project 2025 supporters started eating away at our federal government, constitution, and democracy, just as those aggressive cancer cells had attacked my body.
The treatment for fighting this Trump cancer requires you and me and Mary, and millions of others, to take to the streets and meeting rooms, phones and emails, and letters and postcards to keep this cancer from spreading. We must make our country a hostile environment for the Trump cancer cells and a friendly environment for those who want to protect our federal government, our constitution, and our democracy.
Mary is also deep into her protest journey. Initially, she took to the phone and email, persistently contacting the all-Republican and Trump-supporting federal legislators in our corner of Montana. Her message was clear: I’m one of your constituents and I want to talk with you. None accepted her invite. Her message became stronger: Stand up to Trump. Defend our democracy. She began to organize and ask others to join in this fight.
As Mary organized, I helped her and returned to activist writing. I created a weekly Facebook post titled "What Can We Do to Save Democracy?" I shared stories of our protesting journey and presented facts about what others are doing. This type of writing is medicinal for me; it helped me fight prostate cancer. Now I want my writing and Mary’s writing to help fight Trump cancer. The response was heartwarming and led me to create this new Substack publication.
If you’re interested in saving our democracy, I invite you to subscribe to A Protesting Journey and join us. I’m sure you’ll find much to relate to. You’ll find links that quickly take you to other sources you can learn from. You’ll find personal stories that will help you continue resisting, and may even increase your motivation to fight for this country we love. You’ll be reminded that you are not alone and that together we have great power.
Yours in resistance,
Rick
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