I’m still trying to process everything that has happened since the Earthrise on January 20, 2025. The punches were fast, violent, and relentless. They upended the global order established at the end of World War II. European allies have been left out in the cold to face what was once our mutual Cold War adversary. North American allies are treated with contempt. Venezuela’s coveted vast oil reserves have transformed the Caribbean Sea into a danger zone. How did we get here?

Sorry Greenland. The sovereignty of nations be damned. Your rare-earth metals are essential to our technological advancement. Our Big Tech giants are in a race to colonize Mars and the vast expanse of space beyond. They need these metals to build and power their AI machines. They also need lots of energy (and water) to operate their vast AI data centers.

In a frenzy to reduce our national debt (or so he claimed), the richest man on Earth slashed the little good that we did across the world: providing food for the hungry, medicines for the sick, and shelter for the displaced. He cared not about wounding our collective human spirit as members of Mother Earth’s global family. He considered not that the pain we inflict on people beyond our borders make us less secure. Having the greatest military force matters not when survival depends upon compassion, cooperation, and collaboration. Just ask communities devastated by severe weather disasters.

In the name of government efficiency, the slasher did not spare our federal workers. Thousands were fired, forced to resign, or left in limbo. Affliction has spread across our towns and cities. Living in an alternate reality where all is good, far removed from real-life conditions of the general population, the Scrooges and Grinches think nothing of depriving families of a decent life. Worse still for the little ones.

As promised, our black and brown immigrant communities are under attack as masked, armed men grab alleged criminal illegal immigrants in public spaces and workplaces. Raids in the parking lots of Home Depot outlets, America’s largest home improvement retailer, have put my son at risk. An independent contractor, he’s a regular customer at our local outlet for materials and equipment.

My sons see no cause for concern: They’re not illegal immigrants. It’s disheartening that they refuse to consider evidence that no brown-skin immigrant is safe. I avoid high-risk areas and remain alert when out in public spaces.

As a writer with a public online website and blog, I face other challenges. How do I address the issues close to my heart with the censorship of certain words and the criminalization of certain ideologies? How can I avoid having my articles deleted or made invisible by algorithms sweeping our virtual spaces? In this New Year, I must find new ways of telling stories of our human predicament. After all, I am a storyteller.

Bearing witness to our self-inflicted wounds as a nation hurts my heart and soul. How does labeling millions of Americans as domestic terrorists make us great? How does punishing the State of California, our nation’s largest economy, help to make us great? How does criminalizing our low-wage immigrant workforce, legal or illegal, upon which our economy depends, make us great? How do we become great when we stifle the potential and talents of the marginalized across our nation?

While we blame, hate, and fight each other, the world we humans created since the industrial revolution is collapsing around us. The AI revolution underway will not save us from ourselves. We are in urgent need of new ways of thinking, being, and doing.

As Mother Earth rises to a New Year, may we rise up out of the darkness of exclusion, greed, and hate into the light of compassion, generosity, and solidarity. Above all, may we awaken to a new appreciation of our shared home that gives us life. We can no longer take her gifts for granted.