The Lines We Draw: Staying Safe, Informed, and Engaged in a Time of Resistance
A Break from the Norm
This week’s edition of The Better Boundaries Brief is different.
I had planned to write about health insurance and the challenges we're facing with potential Medicaid cuts. But with the protests in Los Angeles, and the National Day of Resistance planned for June 14, it didn’t feel right to stick to business as usual.
Our boundaries are being violated every day, not just at work, but in the streets, on the ballot, and in the stories told about who we are. And while I hold firm on the things that bring me joy and allow me to rest and be the best version of myself, I also recognize that this is a moment of urgency. And it calls for something different.
The Boundaries Being Broken
Let’s name what's going on:
Physical
Police barricades and state-sanctioned violence against protestors. Escalating restrictions on bodily autonomy. Forced displacements, detentions, and the erosion of safe space. Having to choose between work and the safety of your family.
Mental
Constant gaslighting. Suppression of truth. Political rhetoric that denies lived experience. Chronic stress from seeing injustice play out again and again. Information overload. Decision paralysis. I have hard boundaries around the news - to protect my joy and my peace - but there are times, like today, that I have to let the news and our collective outrage in.
Emotional
Grief. Rage. Fatigue. Hopelessness. Hope. Love. Concern. Care. All of it held, all at once and often alone. I'm tired y'all. This is tiring.
Time
Being expected to clock in, focus, and produce in the face of trauma. Taking care of your family or loved ones and having no time for anything else. Wanting to volunteer but also feeling drained.
Resources
Having to choose between rest and resistance. Trying to decide where to wield our economic power and not always knowing which end is up. Watching funding and protections be stripped from the communities who need them most. I see this firsthand, as both a contractor who was providing services to these communities, and a community member who is seeing programs and budgets slashed.
Identity
Being told who you are isn’t real. That your experience doesn’t count. That your Blackness, queerness, disability, faith, gender, language, or lineage is too much—or not enough.
I’ve experienced this personally. A former boss once asked a colleague if they thought I was "Black enough" to call myself Black. Questioning my identity is a hard no. That situation was disheartening and infuriating, but it was also a line in the sand. Either the system was going to define me, or I was going to define myself. I chose me.
What to Do Right Now
This moment is hard. But it’s also clear: we are not powerless. Here are a few things we can do to stay grounded, stay informed, and take care of each other:
🛡️ Stay Safe
Know your rights if attending protests or actions.
Understand how to legally protect yourself and your community.
Identify local organizers and mutual aid networks.
🧠 Stay Informed
Follow verified, trusted sources, not just the loudest voices online.
Learn how mis- and disinformation work, and how they spread.
Fact-check before sharing. Especially when emotions are high.
❤️ Stay Connected
Find solace in community, whether online or in person.
Talk to someone you trust. Grieve and celebrate together.
Remind yourself: you are not alone in this. We are stronger together.
Tools & Resources for This Moment
Here are a few trusted links to guide and support you:
🧾 Know Your Rights at Protests → ACLU: Know Your Rights
What to do if you are organizing or attending a protest or are stopped by police at a protest.
👁️ Become a Legal Observer → National Lawyers Guild: Legal Observer Training
Volunteer to observe protests or learn your rights.
🔒 Immigrant Rights → Immigrant Legal Resource Center
Policy interventions, toolkits, and educational resources for immigrant communities.
📲 Spot Disinformation → MediaWise: Resources
Tools from the Poynter Institute for spotting mis- and disinformation.
⚖️ Policy Updates & Legal Defense → Democracy Forward
Legal strategies to defend democracy and advance justice.
🆘 Mutual Aid Organizing → Mutual Aid Hub
A map of locations across the U.S. of shared resources and services organized by community members.
🚫 Bystander Intervention Training → Right to Be
Learn about the 5Ds - different methods you can use to support someone who’s being harassed, emphasize that harassment is not okay, and demonstrate to people in your life that they too have the power to make our communities and workplaces safer.
No matter where you stand on the issues or what your political beliefs are, we all value autonomy, physical safety, connection, belonging, and freedom. While we have many things dividing us, I believe that we have more that unites us, and that we have to be united in defending those share interests.
“There may be times when we are powerless to prevent injustice, but there must never be a time when we fail to protest.”
Elie Wiesel