Open Your Heart And Own It

Judith Roberts is Chief judge at Fort Berthold District Court: MHA Nation. In her blog post this week, she reported that a co-worker, also a judge, traveled by train from Montana to North Dakota for work, and the train stopped in Havre, MT, where armed ICE agents, dressed in full military-style tactical gear boarded the train.

According to her post, “They walked the full length of the train and questioned every single passenger about their citizenship status.” The train’s conductor, a 40-year veteran on the route, said this was a first.

Alarmed, Chief judge Roberts, felt a duty to warn and raise awareness: “This is not hypothetical. This is not a scene from a dystopian film. This happened this week to my colleague, on US soil, to US citizens, legal residents, and foreign tourists here on holiday without a warrant, without probable cause.”

“This is not about politics,” she added, “it’s about the erosion of rights we’ve taken for granted, and the slow normalization of military-style policing tactics in everyday spaces. Even if technically permissible, these actions reflect a disturbing shift in the balance between civil liberties and governmental authority.”

Last week, I promised I’d share some thoughts on actions we should all be taking to prevent a full-throttle overthrow of our democracy. Chief judge Roberts gives us one immediate powerful example. By sharing her colleague’s experience and her own perspective, she opens her heart to all of us, owning what she feels. Instead of dismissing her shock or censoring her views, she cares enough to give us a heads up. For that I am grateful.

When something doesn’t align with the values we hold dear, we must speak out as she did—even if it’s risky or uncomfortable to do so. To me, this is the most basic way to protect the democracy we cherish and love.

Beyond this, I don’t think I could offer any advice that would top these prescient insights culled from Timothy Snyder’s book, On Tyranny, which are presented below by actor John Lithgow in this powerful short video.
https://open.substack.com/pub/snyder/p/twenty-lessons-read-by-john-lithg...