Last Sunday morning, my friend Todd sent me the following text: “The National Guard is invading our city, and I’m going to take Rhett to a bbq while Andrea makes cookies. This doesn’t feel real.”

To be honest, I would’ve preferred a text inviting me to join Todd and Rhett at the bbq, or a text telling me that some of Andrea’s cookies were headed my way, but those are posts for another day. Here’s what I wrote back to Todd:

Life feels surreal when you know history is being made — it’s always in progress, but we’re rarely conscious of it. Pretty sure a lot of moms were baking cookies and dads were taking sons to bbq’s on December 7. Point being, the mundane rarely makes it into the history books, which is a shame because the mundane stuff of life is the oxygen that fuels history’s fire. At the end of the day, historic actors — from the bottom up — are just people. We’re sleep-deprived, over-caffeinated, dehydrated, cranky, biased, misinformed, idealistic, cynical, smart, stupid, intoxicated by our certitude, un-humbled by history, loving, hateful, tolerant, intolerant, greedy, generous, selfish, and self-less.

Basically, what I was telling Todd was a longer, meandering version of what Walt Whitman wrote in Song of Myself:

Do I contradict myself?
Very well then I contradict myself,
(I am large, I contain multitudes.)

Speaking of multitudes, you’ve likely heard the protests in Los Angeles characterized as either “peaceful” or “violent.” Truth? Protests contain multitudes.

The question, however, isn’t whether the protests fit neatly into a box, but whether local law enforcement can handle the situation? Pro tip: If your news source addresses that question without comment from local law enforcement, you need a better news source. Here’s what LAPD chief Jim McDonnell said about federalized California National Guard units and U.S. Marines being deployed to Los Angeles, over the objections of local elected officials:

Federal military forces in Los Angeles — absent clear coordination — presents a significant logistical and operational challenge for those of us charged with safeguarding this city. The Los Angeles Police Department, alongside our mutual aid partners, have decades of experience managing large-scale public demonstrations, and we remain confident in our ability to do so professionally and effectively.

The President claims he ordered federal troops to Los Angeles to keep the city from burning. When the city was actually on fire in January, however, he blamed DEI, talked shit about LA, and ordered The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to release more than two billion of gallons of water from Central Valley reservoirs. Releasing the water didn’t help with the fires, but it did endanger the people in the flood zones. Releasing the water also diminished California’s capacity to grow crops, provide drinking water to millions of people, and fight fires this summer.

I mention this bit of ancient history, because to be a Californian in this moment, is to face a hard truth: The President of the United States of America doesn’t care about your safety; in fact, he’s eager to endanger you and your community for political theater. If you don’t live in California, do yourself and your country a favor and read the previous sentence again. Then ask yourself how you’ll respond when federal troops invade your hometown. Just a guess, but I’d imagine you’d say, “Send the troops home.” That’s my message anyway: Send the troops home.

The ball is in your court, America. You can contact your elected officials here.