News & Articles

There’s a new six-part mini-series on Netflix titled Zero Day. It’s the story of a former president who is asked by the current president to chair a special investigatory commission authorized by Congress to figure out who or what initiated a 1-minute cyber attack that impacted computer systems and regional power grids across the U.S., and which led to widespread outages, train derailments and air accidents. 

Also, everyone in the country received a text on their cellphones which simply read “This will happen again.”

With more than 3,400 deaths from the first attack, many of the members in Congress and the current president believe that this cyber attack was carried out by Russia. Yet, during the investigation by the Zero Day Commission, it becomes clearer that the attack was not from a foreign power but was a domestic threat.

And then when the former president presents the findings of the commission before a joint session of Congress, he announces that the cyber attack was orchestrated by the Speaker of the House, members of Congress, a billionaire who owns a high tech company and a hedge fund entrepreneur. 

While the former president was speaking, he shared a letter from his daughter who was in her second term in Congress, and was one of the members who orchestrated the cyber attack and then decided to turn herself in to authorities for her part in the cyber attack. She wrote, “The way to solve our problems is to look for common good. Not wins. The way forward is to confront hard truths. Not hide from them.”

In the past week, I’ve watched Zero Day three times. And each time that I watch this mini series, I keep thinking about what’s been happening in our own city and across the country since January 20th when the real new president took office. We have been under continuous attack by what appears to be a fascist and repressive government.

How will this new administration impact Duluth? Well, it’s dismantling most of the environmental and climate initiatives from the past four years. It’s destroying public health programs and the foundation of public education. And it’s denying the basic needs and services for many of our vulnerable populations, including the disabled and those on Social Security and Medicaid. 

Already, there are numerous people at such local institutions as UMD, Lutheran Social Services, CHUM, HRA and even Loaves and Fishes who are wondering and worrying about cuts in funding, staffing and even attacks from ICE and other federal agencies in the near future.

Thinking about the past president’s daughter and the letter to her father, I have to wonder what happened to Trump and so many of our political leaders in this country who have truly lost their moral compass and have no understanding or appreciation of the common good. 

They are attacking the LBGTQ community, environmentalists and climate activists, the homeless and poor, immigrants, public health providers, teachers and so many other groups in our country. 
And, at the same time, they don’t want to confront the hard truths about climate change, racism, immigration, public health or any number of important issues that we’re facing at this moment. 
In his book The Terror Of The Unforeseen, Henry A. Giroux talks about Trump’s first term as president and how ignorance was ruling the U.S. Giroux argued that Trump attacked the “collective values” of our democracy and assaulted the public institutions in our society that were essential to “critically active and engaged citizens.” 

Giroux wrote, “More than a dystopian dismissal of the truth, this is a normalization of deceit, a challenge to thinking itself and a repudiation of the educational conditions that make an informed citizenry possible. Truth is confused with opinions, and lies have become normalized at the highest level of government.”

For Duluth and every other city in the U.S. Zero Day was January 20th. As Trump professes to make America great again, his administration has attacked anyone and anything that promotes compassion, community and critical thinking. 

His people have been motivated by private greed, not the common good. And it has been driven by lies and deception, not the desire to face the hard truth.

On January 20th, the Loaves and Fishes community hosted a public gathering at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church. Entitled “Coming Together For The Common Good,” we welcomed high school students, ministers, climate activists, teachers, poets, advocates for the homeless and neighbors to celebrate our collective commitment to connect with each other, find opportunities to collaborate and keep building community. 

And to hopefully create a more resilient, sustainable and equitable city.

At this moment, there are people like myself who are standing up and speaking out about these injustices. And, at the same time, we are also exploring how to build a resistance movement to defend and protect ourselves from this domestic threat.

What can you do?