The Final Guilly’s Guide

A Word for a Resurrected Reconstruction Era

This will be my final Guilly’s Guide covering the first 100 days of this administration. This may also be one of the last articles I write directly about the Trump Administration, his antics, or the politics of the next 4 years. There are many things to cover in this administration. I could sort of endlessly have a story that lights up your nervous system. Gain new followers.  I mean every day the cruelty, the brokenness, the pain, that's the point. The chaos, the fear, the total exhaustion, and a tapped-out sense of somatic safety is a feature, not a bug. 

The reasons why I won't be writing about this administration’s first 100 days anymore are pretty clear to me after spending a few of those days thinking about it. The first reason is I think the most powerful, but I have laid out why I am changing my strategy in life, at this time, in this country. Then it became just sort of a general last word on the subject of this republic directly before we go back to esoteric, magic/kal, and mystical wanderings that are the bulk of this newsletter: 

1. This isn’t normal. 

Pretending I can cover the 100 days of this particular administration with any sort of insight other than that is arrogant. I end up uncovering deep wells of more fear, and reasons to be afraid. Also talking about this administration like they are somehow in line with every other presidency, that they will follow the same pace, norms, patterns, and framework laid out for them by 250 years of experience is wishful thinking at this point. This president, this administration, and the resulting calamities we will all experience for decades after this are the product of traitors to the shared American dream of an ever-expanding republic with liberty and justice for all. We are all just waiting to see how far that betrayal will go. You don’t need me anymore to see it coming.  

2. There are very few roads back, and the ones forward will be crimson. 

This administration is using political and cultural Blitzkrieg, or Lightning Warfare politics, on the American psyche. Every order, every firing, the antics of billionaires waving chainsaws at CPAC and the front lawn of the White House becoming a Tesla lot, the misgendering of a U.S House Representative, the erasure of “DEI,” even drug old convicted murderer Derek Chauvin out of his grave of class traitor obscurity. They are pulling out all the stops. Why? Because they know the changes they are making to the administrative corp of the government are in a lot of cases irrevocably damaging even with just a 4 year pause in the services, functions, and institutions. In the Art of War, Sun Tzu called this “entangling ground.” It is an open place on the battlefield that tempts you to fill it but puts you at a disadvantage. They want people of good conscience, and radical politics out there now. When they can arrest you. Detain you. Follow your networks. Build a RICO case. Why are they so desperate to get Black, Brown, queer, or trans radicals out in the open? Because they know soon the average American will realize the truth. Sun Tzu also warns in the Art of War to always leave a defeated enemy an escape route, because nothing makes an army fight 2-4X its strength and size than their backs to a wall. They want to remove those of us who may stir up the people at the critical point that Americans realize there is no going back to the way things were. That the only paths forward are crimson with the blood of patriots, or a large societal outcry and sabotage campaign. This administration hopes they can just beat the opposition into compliance before that. As a Black trans person, I no longer have much faith in Americans believing in their constitution, or the Federalist papers, of finally settling the arguments, soaring hopes, and dreams cooked up by a treasonous motley crew of leaders, mostly born in the back barroom of a 2 street Philly tavern, but proclaimed at Carpenters Hall. I doubt the ability of Americans to recognize the danger, even now, we face. That’s incredibly heartbreaking if you had any idea how much I used to believe in us. 

3. You have the assignment. 

We all know our homework by now. Also, you no longer need to show your work on social media, maybe just in the community occasionally so we learn to trust you. You know the assignment. It is time to build interlocking and concentric circles of mutual aid, safety, care, and defense. If you haven’t walked around and got to know every single neighbor on your block, first, I hope you don’t claim Christian, second, now would be the time. Where you are is where you have been assigned, unless it is unsafe. I say this, particularly for my Trans siblings. If you can create a community that is self-sustained, outside the major cities, and safe, do it. Yes. That would mean you have several layers of privilege I don't have. I have lived in intentional communities most of my adult life, or in societies that were within our society that encouraged an anti-capitalist lifestyle. I am still unprepared, with no land or a community to work with. If you have the predilection, the capital, but no time, there are plenty of burnout anarchist hippies like me around. Go talk to your local Gen X’er who isn’t a creep. I bet you they have detailed designs for when the world goes to shit. This is called skill and labor trade. This is also a good time to practice for a period where skills will be more valuable than currency. My point is if you care about Trans and Queer people, and Gender Queer people like me, start to build the communities, either in the city or outside of it with your wealth, your gifts, and yes, your blessings. Or don’t say shit when we no longer exist. Build the underground now, before it has to be underground.

4. Learn to defend yourself. 

I have never been nor will be anti-firearm. Gun control in America only became a debate when Black people started expressing their 2nd amendment rights in the spirit of self-defense. Do I believe there can be, and are in some states common sense laws in place, yes. That's not what we are talking about. The fact I even had to do all that preamble just to talk to you about a common tool that everyone should at the bare minimum know how it functions shows us how behind the 8-ball we are. If you are a peacemaker and you have no idea how to safely unload, and discharge a bullet from “at ready” without firing a round, or as they say “mortar” the round, I hope no kid comes to you with a weapon they want to turn in. If you saw a 9mm on the ground in the middle of a large casualty event would you even know how to unload it? How to pick it up? I’ll say it again, defending yourself doesn't mean hurting others. Take a pistol course. Learn to fire, and consider owning the dreaded demon AR-15. Buy a shotgun. Get the good Taser and remember that it works against one assailant in an encounter, maybe 2. If they are over 225 pounds they work once. Buy a bulletproof vest for marching. They have backpacks for kids. If this sounds scary that's because you haven’t had someone show you how unscary it is. Bryna makes a popular airgun that fires teargas rounds, with kinetic rounds. All nonlethal. Still need to learn to use it. Get the silly survival kit, the 30 days of dry food. Talk to your neighbors you trust. Is this all in preparation for a “tyrannical government?” No. This is all for an America where wildfires, floods, and Uvalde TX, are all possibilities on a regular week. By Uvalde TX: I mean a situation where the police stand by in completely legal deployments and watch violence happen and don't intervene until it’s safe for them, even if that means dozens of children die. Thanks to the FOP, the GOP, and their friends, police not only have qualified immunity in practice, but they are under no legal obligation to risk their life for yours if they deem it unsafe. A cop can stand there and watch you be cut to ribbons and continue to watch until backup comes. It’s also their discretion, just so you know. They will protect property. That’s their job. My point is, that basic self-defense, the ability to at least handle all the classes of weapons I mentioned, with an add-on for an old-school hunting rifle, a .22 or something, is community care. Whether you choose to legally carry, make sure to follow all local, state, and federal laws, or not to ever carry a weapon, some basic understanding of firearms, Stop The Bleed training to learn to care for GSWs, and some basic medic training. None of this will hurt you. If not for you, then do it for those in your family, community, and circle you know will be unable to defend themselves in a resurrected reconstruction era. 

5. Be deliberate. Say it with your whole chest. Do it with your whole heart. 

Whatever happens, good, bad, indifferent, be deliberate. Don’t thrash about on social media shut the fuck up for a while. Don’t show up to any protest, action, or meeting of “like-minded” folks at the drop of a hat. Ask them: what's your security and safety plan? Fellow siblings of the endless and golden roads of the U.S., do not move about without telling a safe person where, when, and how you are getting somewhere. Check in with us, Instagram doesn't count with AI dummy. Go on your trips, but fucking plan. Overplan. Be deliberate in the small things. Grocery store, doctor, etc. In a resurrected reconstruction era political framing, the administration is counting on us to allow them via protest or outrage to commit sanctioned violence against us, or if all else fails, wait for our fellow citizens to commit anti-trans, anti-black, anti-femme, and anti-queer violence. Make us great again like when the Klan did the quiet parts in the public square, and “average citizens” kept a culture of violence, hatred, and lynching that lasted hundreds of years. Trump sees the 100 years between 1865 and 1965 as the most prosperous, by his admission, for America. He sees the social policies of that era, the cultural norms, and extra-judicial in particular as part and parcel to that success. He said as much as early as his 2016 rallies: 

“You see, in the good old days, law enforcement acted a lot quicker than this,” Mr. Trump said, as security officers made their way toward the protester. “A lot quicker. In the good old days, they’d rip him out of that seat so fast.”

Whatever you say, or do politically, don't expect to be treated with any due process, and expect there to be state violence, instigated under very little pretext. If you say it, better say it with your whole fucking chest. If you do it, you better do it with your whole heart. I knew I was tanking my career as a minister in the ELCA during the 2020 uprisings. I knew only people in Portland would ever understand why we kept fighting for two years. Because we saw the future. Unmarked civilian vehicles with masked and armed squads in black no insignia military uniforms snatching people. Driving us around for hours and asking us how our families are doing by name. Bringing up anything they could find on you. Then dropping you off at your car still plastic cuffed so you know they watched you from the beginning. Police stood back as they were going to allow a “battle of the bastards” style fight to break out, and as hundreds lined up with mace, machetes, shields, and bats to fight white supremacists, it was only the quick thinking of Black organizers stepping in and cooling this off that stopped a massacre that day. After seeing all that, and then losing comrades at the Normandale white supremacist mass shooting, I love y’all but I could have cared less if you bought another book from me, or invited me to your nice church to speak, or what my fellow progressive thought leader peers who have done fucking nothing over the last ten years thought about me, or I know they continue to say behind my back. Just like I know after my “abolitionist” ex-wife went on a “trash lenny” campaign that continues to this day online and even went as far as to visit seminary peers. For years I just assumed punching down was beneath me. It’s all a lot of lies, libel, and bullshit, but it’s from a very hurt person who is an untrustworthy narrator of her own story and has lost mercy. I pity her because I know what happens at the end of a major uprising, and divorce and career being affected is the least of these. Because us hating each other is always the state goal in my opinion. It is easier to control 330 million people that way. I knew what chips I was playing with, and I tell you all this so you know even my embarrassing truths because these are some of the chips you may put on the table for political action in these next few years. Family. Career. Reputation. Friendships. Community. Class. I have been broke ever since I did the things I suggested in my first book Dear Church, proving to me that the only ones who profit are those who don't truly participate. Also that my work was real because it fucking enraged all my white progressive “fans” and allies. 

6. The future is full of gifts, you are one of them. So am I. 

The future needs us y’all. The future needs you, Beloved. Are you so invested in this current state, this republic that you would spill your or your family’s blood for it? Or are you invested in what it could be, what may come, in the bright future of a truly democratic and just society? Because if the latter is true, you are in love with a ghost. An Apparition. That America is refusing to be born. When we are ready for the labor that bloody, messy birth will take we will need you. And me. This brings me to my final point, my health took a serious decline. Since I was a kid I have been experiencing auras, and “spacing out.” I am told these are called petite absence seizures. I have since the 2020 uprisings, with the recent quite scary tendency of “focal absence seizures” which are increasing in frequency and duration to several minutes long and take much out of me physically and mentally. While we are testing the causes, and really with neurological stuff it’s a stretch to expect medicine to have anything other than a collection of symptoms they call a thing and an old school: that sucks, fam. But stress can be a major factor, and mainlining this orange hobgoblin’s every move aint helping. You are the gift, and I need you to take care of yourself better than I did. 

In light of all this, I will be more focused on my research, my new tarot, and the stuff I love. Health scares can be very focusing for an artist, there is so much more I want to do! Be safe. Remember who has our back, we have each other's backs.

Written in love and liberation

Rev. lenny duncan (they/ them fatale)  

P.S. Want to support me personally in this time of need as I try to figure out this health stuff? Zelle me @lennyaduncan@gmail.com or cash app me at $lennyaduncan or PayPal me at lennyduncan@hotmail.com. It would be very helpful being a person who is creative without a steady gig right now, and with very new limits it’s been a little rough. A lot even. So if so moved thanks! ( A reader asked me to add this)