Drick Boyd's Blog
Revolution Rising
Revolution Rising Included in the November 2025 issue of The Atlantic magazine is an essay written by New York Times opinion columnist David Brooks. A similar essay in the NYT appeared shortly before the November Atlantic was published. The essay is entitled “The...
To Be An Enemy
Timothy Snyder points out, “Dissidents of the twentieth century, whether they were resisting fascism or communism, were called extremists.” Today, Trump calls them terrorists, radicals, and enemies.
Getting Ready for the Invasion
A month has passed since I last posted about how we are to respond to the aggressive actions being taken by the Federal government against people and organizations that disagree with and challenge the America he is trying to create. In that blog, I focused on Timothy...
The Charlie Kirk Effect
Let me begin by saying that even though I disagree with Charlie Kirk’s stance on several issues, I find no joy or satisfaction in his death by assassination. I also recognize that for many people working in the Trump administration, including the president himself,...
Be Calm When the Unthinkable Happens
Note: This is the third in a series of messages based on the book On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century by Timothy Snyder The Quaking of America Resmaa Menakem is best known for his 2017 book, My Grandmother’s Hands. The subtitle of the book...
On Tyranny Lesson #10 – Believe in Truth
People of faith, integrity, principle, and a commitment to the truth must not give into The Big Lie coming out of Washington.
Do Not Obey In Advance
Insights from Historian Timothy Snyder In 2017, during the first term of President Donald Trump, historian Timothy Snyder published a little book entitled On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century. Snyder’s specialty area is the history of Nazi Germany,...
What Now? Looking Into the Fog
Right now, all we see is a dense fog, but behind that fog is a future. We can’t give up.
Gay Pride and My Process of Transformation
The love of God includes acceptance of all people, as they are, with no boundaries to love. Given the ongoing struggle so many queer folks experience, I choose not to look away, but to join in their struggle
White Supremacy and White Fragility
These are difficult times that cause us sadness and fear. But we can’t stay there. Working with others, we need to find a way to channel our anger and our hopes for a just society and not allow the current administration to continue in their evil ways.
Paulo Freire in the Trumpian Chaos
On Friday, April 25, my friend and colleague James Kirylo and I made a presentation at the American Education Research Association (AERA) annual conference in Denver, Colorado. Our goal was to draw a parallel between the circumstances that led to Paulo Freire being...
What is God Doing?
Saved by God for a Purpose? On March 4 President Trump delivered his annual “State of Union” speech to Congress in which he highlighted all the things he had already done since taking office on January 20: the DOGE cuts, instituting tariffs, his interest in gaining...
Dispersing the Fog
Rufus Jones, a Quaker mystic and philosopher, tells the story of being on a boat trip in the midst a thick fog. He writes: The range of visibility was extremely short. The ship crept along cautiously, feeling its way and sounding the foghorn at frequent intervals. The...
What Would Tony Do?
Last Saturday, January 25, I had the honor of attending the Celebration of Life for Dr. Tony Campolo. Tony died two months earlier on November 19, 2024, and the family had its own private funeral. This event, officiated by Tony’s son Bart Campolo, was for the...
Meeting Physical Force with Soul Force
During the last year, I have been working on a book entitled Mystic Activists in which I explore and discuss how our spiritual practices such as prayer, contemplation, worship, and the like are absolutely essential to our work for social justice, specifically racial...