He Is Not Who We Are

Before 2025, I would have never brought politics into Chummy. Chummy’s mission is to provide children with the opportunity to give back to their community through volunteering, and I’ve never considered this a partisan goal. 

But something changed this year when he became president (again). It’s been a constant stream of moral, ethical, and even legal defiance during his first few months in office. Chummy beneficiaries include those who are oppressed, othered, or thrust into untenable situations that require outside help. As Chummy’s founder, I want you to know that I strongly oppose the ways in which he portrays and attacks the people of this country who need us the most: immigrants, minorities, LGBTQ+ individuals, and people with uteruses (to name a few). 

Chummy’s beneficiaries are also our children. Chummy provides not only the opportunity to give back, but also the rarer opportunity for our kids to work alongside their peers towards a common goal. Somehow, some day, we are going to have to bridge the vast chasm that now separates us in these “united” states. I want us to teach our kids to listen to each other; to learn why some have values that look like apples and some have values that look like oranges. Let’s keep talking and listening, let’s keep problem solving, and let’s help them to look beyond themselves in the hopes of developing true empathy.

In the first few days after the election, I read an op-ed titled “Stop Pretending [He] is Not Who We Are.” It gave me great pause as I deeply considered his supporters, from major American corporations to the *majority* of the voters in our country. The people have spoken, I guess. And I still support democracy. But is “he” who we are? No. Not me. And not the families I have worked with at Chummy for the last few years. 

David Remnik also wrote a compelling editorial titled, It Can Happen Here. It sounds ominous. But he wasn’t actually referring to the scary part. He was talking about how we can find a way out of the dark. I want Chummy, and our kids, to be a part of that - families like yours are an integral part of the solution. Let’s keep working together on the things that bring out the good.

There is only one thing I will not concede: that it might be meaningless to strive in a good cause. 
–Czech playwright and dissident Václav Havel