So where are we now, Friends?
Six months ago, the Regime in Washington began its devastating attacks on democracy in America. Three months ago, a couple of friends here in Santa Fe decided to try to help our friends who were feeling helpless and hopeless in the face of those attacks, starting the Friends Here and Now web site and newsletter.
So where are we now?
For democracy in America, things have gotten worse. If you want to see some recent observations and comments, see our new “How are things going” page. (The articles are pretty insightful but depressing; don’t click unless you really want to read them.)
For Friends Here and Now, we’ve made a start. We’ve built a web site, put a lot of content on the web site, developed and delivered a newsletter consistently every few weeks, and built up to over 50 subscribers. Our team has expanded from the two original friends to four (okay, maybe they were “voluntold”). The team provides content, editing, and wisdom.
Our mission hasn’t wavered. As we said on our About page from day 1:
Democracy, the rule of law, and Constitutional rights for all are under attack as never before. There is an urgent need to help people stay informed and take action to protect our democracy. Friends Here and Now is an independent web site launched in April 2025 by a few friends in Santa Fe, New Mexico, to do just that. … Friends Here and Now is a place for friends to share and store information and resources for political action.
Where do you want us to go from here?
Moving ahead, we need your help to figure out how we can best use this mechanism to support that mission. Do you want more content? Different content? More nuanced analysis? More timely news? Less frequent emails? A chance to interact more with others? Something else that we haven’t even though of?
You can give us your thoughts in two ways (or do both):
- Email us at Friends Here and Now with whatever you want to say. It can be one word, one sentence, or 5 pages long. We promise we’ll read it.
- Take our short survey at https://bit.ly/friendshereandnow-survey. The survey will take you about 10 minutes at most. You can provide your name or answer anonymously (and there’s no way we can track responses). The survey also has blank space for you to write whatever you want.
Either way you respond, be selfish. Tell us what you need from us that you can’t get elsewhere (or efficiently elsewhere).
Thanks, friends.