Leap Update: Light After Dark

We cannot in good conscience jump into this newsletter without acknowledging what we’re feeling in the aftermath of Charlottesville: Can this really be happening in America?! Can history really be marching, in jackboots and loafers, in reverse?

As an Italian-American whose father and uncles were looked down upon as immigrant trash and a Jewish American whose family tree was chain-sawed by the Holocaust, we’re not naïve about the dark side of human nature. Of course we know nativist fear and loathing are as much a part of America’s story as baseball and apple pie. And yet we’re still shocked that Nazis and Klansmen are goose-stepping out of the shadows with their tiki torches and semi-automatic weapons in 2017. We’re appalled that a relatively small body has managed to eclipse the light from our “shining city on a hill,” in Ronald Reagan’s famous phrase.

Most of all, we’re crushed by the lack of moral leadership from the White House. Forget tone-deaf tweets and deniable dog whistles. Words that give aid and comfort to white supremacists are now being broadcast, loud and clear, from the most prominent pulpit in the world.

What comes next?