I’ve been subscribing KPFA/Pacifica listener-sponsored radio for 40 years and last night was the first time I ever heard the nightly newscaster get choked up. She was describing a list of the administration’s horrors of just one day (Feb. 28, 2025) when she found she could not speak for a moment after describing: 1) how the park service was erasing from the Stonewall National Monument any references to “transgender” or “queer;” 2) how the Kennedy Center had cancelled a performance of SF Gay Men’s Chorus; 3) how Immigration & Customs (ICE) had gone to a home in LA, and finding the parent not there, took away the oldest child.

As she continued with what she needed to say, both reporting the news and giving her pitch for listeners to support the station with donations, her voice was edged with tears–for the thousands of Federal workers losing their livelihoods without just cause, and for Trump’s latest order to drive out any transgender individuals from our armed forces, a result of MAGA’s fear and hate.

“I am Mexican American and I have family members in the LGBTQ community,” the KPFA staffer said. “The silence you just heard is what could happen to this scrappy little FM station that has been in existence for 76 years. The creators of Project 2025 want to destroy us, along with PBS and anything that stands in the way of their demolition of human rights and dignity. Please give whatever you can.”

If you want to do something to resist the daily outrages and crimes against the U.S. constitution being perpetrated at an astounding speed, I suggest  that supporting pubic media would be a good choice. Without journalistic accuracy, we have no defense against the huge volume of lies and misinformation that keep our population poorly educated and hopeless.

You don’t have to listen to the radio to hear KPFA; find it at kpfa.org, on podcasts, on YouTube.  Access programs like Democracy Now, Letters and Politics with Mitch Jeserich, economist Richard Wolff, Background Briefing with Ian Masters, Ralph Nader Radio Hour, The Grateful Dead Marathon, and music of many kinds that never finds its way onto other channels on the dial.

It is the only news source anywhere that has had since 2020, and continues to have, a weekly show on new research and developments on Covid 19, influenza and other health dangers; listeners can participate in “Corona Calls” via phone and email.

I just gave $100 extra to KPFA because I felt moved by a newscaster who showed her vulnerability and compassion. I am also a donor to our other local public stations, KQED and KRCB radio/TV.  A donation to public media is one of the best investments in the future you can make.