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- Photo, Shutterstock. Helen’s Place LLC on rolling-resistance: Remembering Woody Guthrie - question what you see and hear; don’t give in to worry or fear.
Helen’s Place LLC Update: September 03, 2025
Helen’s Place LLC announced The American Cultural Survival System (TACSS) Initiative on August 31, 2025. It’s time to get down to brass tacks: tell the truth, roll with the punches, and let the chips fall where they may.
It’s time to stop the lying and spinning of the truth. As Benjamin Franklin so wisely said, “Half a truth is often a great lie.” He recognized what propaganda, spin and alternative facts looked like and rejected it. He knew how to spot a fraud.
TACSS Initiative will likely take the next fifteen years or longer to restore the practice of telling the truth on the American landscape.
One day, among many things, the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. and the exhibits at the Smithsonian will be restored to what they were before the Trump anti-democratic regime took over the government and started altering what we see and hear to fit a distorted view of reality.
Part of TACSS, is to ensure that this kind of thing never happens again. America has already been through the Civil War, McCarthyism and now Trumpism; it’s time to learn from its mistakes.
The Initiative promotes improved labelling systems to aid in discerning the truth, so that all sources of information are identified.
This is especially important for AI generated material to be identified as AI Overview or AI Generated.
In the meantime, until the time comes when American democracy is fully restored, Americans will have to roll with the punches and do what they can to live and cope under an authoritarian regime.
We must never forget what America as a free society looks like. Helen’s Place LLC, with millions of people and groups within the U.S. and around the world, believe that a free America will survive in the end, but it will take a while.
Rolling-Resistance
There will always be something to stand up against, but the times we live in call for more action than usual. We have to deal with climate change, economic uncertainty, environmental factors, and social unrest all at once.
Volatility makes it difficult to understand what will happen next with our unstable government that is constantly throwing curve balls with sanctions, tariffs, and situational revenge.
The whimsy of the dictator and his minions is the norm. Who or what the government is lying about or going after shifts from day to day, and so survival requires every American keep their head on a swivel to best guess what to do.
This is why we have to stand up for what we are FOR more than what we are AGAINST, and resist being thrown off track. We must focus and concentrate on developing the strength to get back on our path when we are knocked off. Americans must be strong and keep going.
The Safety v. Uncertainty Trap
Everyone wants to be safe in their home and community. The question is what is the best way to eliminate threats?
One of the tactics authoritarian regimes use is to convince people that there is an emergency and they need surveillance and a military presence on the streets of America to be safe.
But if Americans think Russia and other autocracies around the world with a visual military presence are safer, think again.
The bottom line is that increases in theft and murder rates to have safer streets requires better local policing, not the National Guard.
Clearly, the National Guard would better serve the American people by staying in its traditional role to augment the active military and help in national disasters and REAL emergencies like a terrorist attack or riot, rather than join local police forces.
If anything, the National Guard could help military efforts to monitor cyber-criminal activity outside the U.S. engaged in computer hacking of individual Americans and institutions. It could also aid in security operation to patrol U.S. borders.
Regarding illegal non-immigrants – we don’t want masked ICE Agents, National Guard, or the local police doing ICE raids to round up non-criminals within the U.S. either.
Something is very wrong with that, as America has always been a nation of immigrants. Yes, border security is important, and tracking down dangerous criminals in America, but in general illegal immigration issues should be solved by Congress with immigration reform legislation.
America would be better served by figuring out immigration laws around an employment based immigration system, rather than rounding up and deporting people who are working in jobs that Americans don’t want – like in meat packing plants, or in farm fields where fruit is left to rot for lack of agricultural workers.
Organization and Leadership
We need to get behind our leaders who in addition to standing up to authoritarianism, help Americans get organized about what they want to fight for to preserve their way of life. Ezra Levin at the group “Indivisible” is pitch perfect in this role – as was Woody Guthrie – who led the nation to remember what America stands for.
A true leader knows when to react and is able to relay correct information to a large group of people that they can get behind.
The best leaders know that a civil rights movement can be unpredictable because – as Timothy Snyder has pointed out – it’s adapting and evolving to meet the moment.
At protest rallies, for example, we see many people with signs – some saying what they want and some saying what they’re against. In any case, we feel a call to action to resist inertia or fear; a call to do something, anything large or small to move the ball down the field.
Protesting epitomizes rolling-resistance which is ongoing resistance to the forces and influences against us. We resist being undone by people telling us we can’t do something when we can. We resist the notion that “only I can fix it,” because this is where authoritarians take away our power for their own personal gain.
Adapting to the Trump Era
Some people and organizations are rolling with figuring out workarounds or adaptations to what Trump is doing. Bill Gates, for example, is giving away his Gates Foundation money early. Others are identifying which foreign aid groups need help the most after USAID was dismantled.
We also see some businesses adapting to what they need to do to retain their corporate socially responsible (CSR) identity – both Apple and Nvidia appear to be trying to do that.
They have figured out that the key to success with the Trump regime, is to develop products that Trump can somehow claim is a win for him – like getting China to buy subpar chips from Nvidia.
However, it’s not easy to thread the needle, and many company leaders, law firms, colleges and Blue state governors have been unsuccessful. Some have capitulated to the Trump Administration by paying bribes called by many nicer sounding names like “financial or legal agreements.”
Call to Action
There’s real work to be done for our American culture to survive the MAGA era. In our personal lives we can identify and make lists of what we’re up against and work around it. Hopefully, we can pay attention and band together with our neighbors and friends to share information, protest together, protect each other, and save what we can.
Helen’s Place LLC hopes you will let us know what your TACSS Initiatives are to tell the truth, roll with the punches and let the chips fall where they may. It’s time to get down to brass tacks! America, our children, and the world will thank you for your efforts.
Additional Transcript:
Woody Guthrie’s lyrics to “This Land is Your Land.”
Related audio/video recordings:
Video of Pete Seeger and Bruce Springsteen at the Lincoln Memorial doing a moving tribute to Woody Guthrie and his famous, American song which includes remembering forgotten Americans:
YouTube, Springsteen Records, March 21, 2021 “This Land is Your Land – Bruce Springsteen and Pete Seeger (Lincoln Memorial, Washington D.C. 2009).”
Video explains the history of the Statue of Liberty and what it means to so many Americans, who see the statue as a symbol of America as a “nation of immigrants”:
CBS Sunday Morning, Mo Rocca, July 6, 2025, “How Lady Liberty Became a Beacon for Immigrants.”
Other related article you may be interested in:
This article and interview with Caitlin Tellurch,“Project Resource Optimization,” talks about organizations proactively working with her to alleviate suffering and save people around the world.
Tellurch, fired from her former job with U.S. Agency for International Development, now assists billionaires to put money toward USAID programs gutted by Trump/Doge. This includes funding a program for children in Mali to alleviate malnutrition:
NPR, Ari Daniel, May 13, 2025, “A matchmaking service with a twist: Connecting big givers to programs cut by USAID.”
Article discusses how Trump is claiming a national emergency to grab power:
Huffington Post, Paul Blumenthal, August 18, 2025, “Donald Trump Hopes Labeling Everything ‘National Security’ Is A ‘Get Out Of Court Free’ Card.”
Article features John Lewis, one of America’s greatest heroes. He never stopped showing resistance in the face of adversity:
Helen’s Place LLC, July 31, 2025, “Bravery: Never Give in, Never give up, Never Give Out.”
Helen’s Place LLC is an information and educational materials company celebrating English Language Arts, Cognitive Science and the love of birds. It’s the maker of printed instructional, educational, and teaching materials for children and adults in the field of English Language Arts and Cognitive Science (Elacogn).
Your comments are greatly appreciated. Send them to Helen’s Place LLC via email to info@helensplacenet.com. We’re always interested in learning more about you and the issues that are important to you.
