This year has been a constant battle between my head and my gut. My head wants to normalize, to rationalize, and my gut is telling me there’s nothing normal or rational about this.

This year has thrown so much horror at us, and yet has also shown us what is possible with resilient, bold, and intentional community.

This year, more than ever, disobedience has often been the only thing standing between us and the collapse of our communities.

Is anyone else having trouble describing this year? The above are my attempts at a cohesive first line, something that could adequately introduce a summary of my year with Climate Disobedience Center. None of them feel sufficient. But they are all true. It’s been a while since we have sent out an email. While we may have been quiet in your inboxes, we have been relentless in our resolve to show up for communities locally and nationally who are taking bold action in the face of violent authoritarianism. Collectively, we have led over a hundred trainings, consulted with organizers across the country, and supported local actions.

This fall, Nathan Phillips, Eleanor Reid (CDC friends) and I attempted to bring food to the folks being detained at the ICE field office in Burlington, MA. Reports out of this office are horrifying. Despite not being zoned to hold people for more than a few hours, ICE has been keeping people for days, without adequate food, clothing, bedding, and basic hygiene. For us, the solution was simple: if our neighbors were denied food, we would feed them ourselves. Instead of accepting our help, ICE had us arrested and Nathan and I were charged with trespassing.

In this experience, as in many others, we are finding that obedience to our conscience means we must disobey a system that tells us to accept subjugation and violence.

I believe that many of us are finding principled disobedience possible because of the community that shows up for us as we weather the consequences. Nathan and I have appeared in court four times so far and not once have we had to show up alone. Each time we appear for a hearing, 10-15 of us gather in a circle on the sidewalk outside, share words of support and gratitude and sometimes even a poem, and walk into the institutional rooms together.

I am amazed at what people can do when they have the support of community behind them. Within all of us lies a reservoir of courage that activates when someone shows up to hold our hand, reminds us of our resilience, and walks into the fray at our side. Cultivating this support has always been the core of CDC’s work. Much of our work these days has involved training, support, and action to help communities resist the brutally cruel tactics of ICE. While this is a pivot from our work disrupting deadly energy, the fossil fuel industry and the carceral immigration system are really two heads of the same monster. And what has constantly stood out to me this year is that we make progress on both fronts using the same tools of resistance: leveraging our collective power to disrupt profits and convenience, and showing what’s possible through solidarity and relationship.

As many of you already know, CDC has always strived to operate on a gift economy. We don’t keep reserve resources; we only use what is necessary to sustain our work and pour the rest back into the communities we support. We are almost entirely supported by individual donations and a few small private grants. If you can make a monthly contribution to our work, that support will allow us to continue the work of supporting communities to take the strategic, courageous, and conscientious action that is needed right now.