They Called Me Paranoid—Until Project 2025 Proved Me Right.
Trapped in Texas: How a Broken RV, Project 2025, and Corporate Greed Almost Broke Me—Until I Fought Back. Project 2025 Is Here. If You’re Scared, Good. It's time to wake up and fight back!
Last year was one of the most challenging years of my life.
I lost loved ones, and our travels, which gave me a source of joy and connection to the world around me, came to a screeching halt. This sudden change left us stuck in Texas (a place I didn't want to be) for an extended period without a safely reliable vehicle, adding to the sense of stuckness, loss, and disorientation.
We don't have sidewalks, skate-able streets, or street lights around here (though we used to have street lights, but the city came and took them away years ago).
Welcome back to another Founding Member Post!
Twice each month I will put out an exclusive post like this one (often on a more intimate and personal topic, book sneak peeks, OR featuring some of the training materials I’m teaching) that will be brought to you by and for our Founding Members.
When I am scheduling this post, we have thirty-eight Founding Members!
I won’t put them on the spot today, but you know who you are. I can’t thank you enough for your support (especially in this moment).
For most of last year, I found myself feeling trapped, hopeless, and in mourning over those lives and the lifestyle I'd suddenly lost. Without our own vehicle and with our broken-down RV (which could be moved but was unsafe to drive), I couldn't decompress in nature or recenter myself.
For most of last year, my usual way of coping, walking in nature daily with our dogs, was inaccessible due to hazardous triple-digit heat and large packs of wild (and sometimes aggressive dogs) that roam the streets freely in our rural neighborhood.
Very rarely do you see a cop or a dog catcher around here.
Last year, I was acutely aware of the impending threat of Project 2025. It was like witnessing a train derailment (that nobody else cared about or could see) in slow motion, knowing the catastrophe could be averted if only people would acknowledge the danger and take action. . . but no action was taken.
Last year, most people weren't ready to believe me (yet) that Project 2025 could ever happen.
"It's unconstitutional!" people would say. "Impossible!" others would insist, but I could see that much of the preliminary framework needed to enact the devious plan was already in play.
Last year, when I tried to 'wake people up' to the danger that was coming, they dismissed my concerns.
People told me I was 'paranoid' and was 'getting worried for nothing.' Their reactions made me feel even more isolated and misunderstood as if I was the only one who could see the impending crisis.
Throughout last year, I grappled with a profound sense of isolation. My warnings about the looming constitutional crisis were met with disbelief, further deepening my sense of being alone in this struggle.
Last year, I wanted to be wrong about what I was sure was coming our way.
This year, now that I know I was right, I wish even more that I could have been wrong.
Never in my life have I wanted to be wrong about something more than I wanted to be wrong about Project 2025 and the agendas of those in charge. . . but here we are.
Last year, I watched manny of my clients, afraid of the incoming administration's actions, start to fear implementing DEI&A (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility) programs.
Some changed the language they used to describe their programs, some changed their approaches, and others dropped them entirely. This was particularly distressing for me, as the work I love doing (and have dedicated my life to) was suddenly viewed with suspicion, disgust, mistrust, and fear, leading to uncertainty around how David and I would survive financially (despite already living on a budget smaller than many two, or even one-person, households in this country).
DEI&A (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility) Initiatives are programs that help marginalized people access equal and fair employment (those in power often will intentionally leave the "A" off, ignoring that DEI&A includes accommodations for disabled people, like wheelchair ramps for wheelchair users, flexible schedules for those who need them, and noise-canceling headphones for Autistic People).
When people complain about DEI&A, they often do so because they have been misinformed about what DEI&A is and what it does, fundamentally misunderstanding the entire concepts of inclusion and equity, thinking DEI&A is about giving unfair advantages to people who don't deserve them - but they're wrong.
DEI&A is not about giving "unearned" perks to specific groups of people (or passing up more qualified privileged people for less qualified marginalized people).
DEI&A is about equity—leaving an uneven playing field so that marginalized people with equal qualifications (and sometimes those who are even more highly qualified than their less marginalized counterparts) can have equal access to things like public spaces, workplaces, opportunities, and jobs.
It is about equipping all people with the tools to give ourselves to the world, spaces, people, communities, and ourselves, while acknowledging that our world is set up in ways that, by design, support some people's needs more than others (making life easier for those whose needs were considered while causing those not taken into account to struggle more).
For example, as an Autistic Person, I often find our modern world (with its chaos, loudness, and fluorescent lighting) to be overwhelming.
If I spend too much time in these spaces (which ignore my needs and existence), I will become overwhelmed, agitated, and eventually (if I spend too much time in them) physically ill.
Would non-autistic people be overwhelmed (or ill) more frequently (if they lived in a world not designed for them)?
Our world has been created by (and for) non-autistic people. It has LITERALLY been designed NOT to trigger them.
The average person lives in a world optimized for their needs. They aren't getting set off by everyday things that can hinder Autistic and NeuroDivergent success).
On the other hand, the things that trigger me are everywhere, integrated into modern society:
Fluorescent lighting, strong smells, crowded-echoey spaces, surprises, last-minute plan changes (without grace when I need to process new information), and expectations that I behave, act, and communicate as non-autistics do (although our brains are very different).
Additionally, because Autistic People are in the minority, the things that trigger us, such as sensory overload, are not seen as 'socially acceptable.' In contrast, non-autistic triggers, like stress from work or relationships, are seen by society as 'reasonable.' This is what my work with organizations was aimed at changing.
I wasn't trying to advocate for "unqualified people" to be gifted roles they can't handle. I was begging people to stop making uninformed, snap judgments about people and be more specific with job roles so that people with highly specialized skills can focus their skills in areas they excel at while gaining support for their struggles (regardless of their NeuroTypes).
I wasn't just advocating for NeuroDivergent People to have more inclusive workplaces. I advocated for ALL employees to have more respect, autonomy, flexibility, fair pay, and trust - things that would have benefitted everyone (because Neuro-Inclusion is INCLUSION for EVERYONE WITH A BRAIN).
I wanted to educate the world on NeuroDiversity, Neuro-Inclusion, and how being inclusive of all brains helps not only NeuroDivergent People thrive but also benefits the organizations that adopt more inclusive policies (and broader society as a whole). However, the current administration has demonized DEI&A and, by extension, my work.
As I am my work and my work is my life, I see this attack on the work I love as an attack on me - one of many wars this administration has waged against me and those people and things I care about in recent months.
