Happy New Year 2025

Joyce Vance Jan 1

Happy New Year’s Day.

2025 got off to a sorrowful start with news of an early morning incident in New Orleans where a man intentionally drove into the crowd on Bourbon Street, killing ten and injuring dozens more. The FBI is the lead agency and as of 10:00 am local time, they are treating this as a terrorism investigation.

It’s sad news on a day when we should all be celebrating. I’ll try to track key developments in this thread on Bluesky, although, like many of you, we have plans to be with friends and family today. But, be careful before you jump to conclusions. There is always fog of war following an incident like this and lots of rumors circulating as I’m writing, including that the vehicle the now deceased suspect was driving was a white pick up truck with Texas plates and that there was a black flag, possibly an ISIS flag, in the back of the truck. Avoid reaching conclusions until law enforcement has time to assess the situation and we have accurate information.

I’m also following this story from southern Virginia and will write more later this week. But a sad theme is emerging with the start of the year: the risk of terrorism in an already unsettled moment in American history.

I started Civil Discourse on June 7, 2022, in the middle of interesting times, to say the least. 2024 was a tough year on top of it all. But we can’t be quitters; we can’t give up. My hope is that reading Civil Discourse has brought a little more sanity and a sense that you are not alone, that you are part of a community of like-minded people who believe in democracy, to your world these past years.

I’m looking forward to being here with you every step of the way next year. I have plans for The Democracy Archive, where my goal is to help us keep focus on the most important events as Trump’s 2.0 administration unfolds. We need to understand what’s happening without getting overwhelmed. I also have some other exciting news I hope to be able to share with you soon. It’s going to be a hard year, but we’re going to work hard to get it right.

We’re going to keep the Republic and reject autocracy, kleptocracy, and kakistocracy, which seem to be Trump and Musk’s vision for our future, based on how they’re conducting themselves during the transition.

The question I hear from people the most frequently is, “What can I do?” We all want to be able to make a difference, and I try to offer specifics. I’ll continue to offer ideas about how to get involved as I address specific problems, but the most important thing we can do is educate ourselves. Arm yourselves with the facts. Read good analysis, but also, think for yourself. Most importantly, be prepared to use your knowledge to bring along those who have been subjected to misinformation or fallen down a disinformation rabbit hole. Those conversations work! And they’re going to be critical in the coming years.

My sweet friend Molly Jong-Fast posted this last night. It’s hard to avoid this concern.

But one thing I learned from the election? We have a community of people who care. We can’t give up or ignore what’s happening around us. It can be better as long as we stay involved.

We’re in this together,

Joyce