OUR PROJECT AND ITS AIMS

Millions of lives have been up-ended by the actions of the Trump regime. In every area of the country – coastal, heartland, urban, rural, red, blue, purple – Americans have been fired, demoted, defunded, deported, disappeared, de-legalized, or simply hammered in the pocketbook. “We Are Your Neighbors” is an effort to gather and share their stories – as many as possible, as widely as possible.

This country is dangerously divided, economically, culturally, and politically. That fact is both an obstacle to our project, and a key argument in its favor. Storytelling can help bridge the gulfs. The great majority of Americans, we are convinced, possess an instinctive sense of fairness and common decency that would bring them into the opposition ranks if they fully understood the character and intentions of the Trump regime. Stories, more than abstract, rational argument, have the power to create that understanding. We are building a gallery of portraits of individual, relatable people – immigrants and collateral victims of ICE terror, civil servants, veterans, farmers, and others. Through their stories, promoted in mainstream and social media and in public story-telling events, we aim to help a growing number of Americans grasp the lawlessness, corruption, and gleeful cruelty of these leaders, and to help stir a national longing for genuine democracy and a more just and equitable society.

In the service of that overall goal, our project seeks to:

  • Dramatize the worth and humanity of immigrants and government workers – two of the administration’s prime target groups, chosen in the belief that most Americans don’t much care what happens to them;
  • Shine a light on the many other categories of Americans wounded by Trump’s policies;
  • Supply issue-focused advocacy groups with evidence to support their policy pushback;
  • Help shaken people find one another, break out of their isolation, fear and distress, and forge strategies of resilience and resistance;
  • Serve as a valuable record of the human damage.

We don’t expect to convince the MAGA faithful. The audience we have in mind includes the tens of millions of Americans who voted for Trump in 2024 without sharing his ugliest impulses or buying into his cruelest plans, as well as the tens of millions who didn’t bother to vote, in many cases because they had come to view the two major parties, and the whole political process, with disdain. Many such people are already feeling unsettled, and, depending on the course of the economy and other forces, could be open to hearing a deeper case against Trump and his policies. How they respond to that case, however, will depend in no small part on how it is presented to them.

The sociologist Arlie Russell Hoschchild, writing in the New York Times last summer, quoted a Kentucky man’s warning that “people around here will get more pissed at the snarky left than they are at the hurtful right” if Trump’s opponents try to sound clever and speak from on high – if their message comes across as “We told you so” or “You Trump supporters brought this on yourselves.” With that concern in mind, we mean to tell our stories in a matter-of-fact way, without undue political pleading or framing. “These people are your neighbors. Here’s how they’ve been treated.” That’s our simple message.

We’re not imagining magical results from this effort. But neither are we working alone. We view our project as a valuable, consciousness-raising complement to the more policy-focused efforts of a broad, decentralized, resolutely nonviolent resistance movement working in multiple ways to limit the destructive power of the Trump regime and bring it to a decisive end as soon as possible.

If the United States is fortunate enough to recover from its flirtation with autocracy and fascism, our chances of setting ourselves firmly on the path of expanded democracy and respect for human rights will depend in no small part on our ability to remember and examine this period fully and clearly. That, too, is an important part of our mission.

PROJECT TEAM

James Lardner (Project Director) is a longtime contributor to The New Yorker as well as The American Prospect and The New York Review of Books, among other publications. His books include “Up to Our Eyeballs: How Shady Lenders and Failed Economic Policies Are Drowning Americans in Debt” (co-author and editor) and “NYPD: A City and Its Police” (co-author).

Tom Weis (Reporter) is a climate and social justice activist as well as a longtime contributor to HuffPost and Common Dreams, among other online publications. He is president of the mission-driven consulting firm, Climate Crisis Solutions, and the author of “WORLDFIRE: A Climate Journey from the Depths of Despair to a Haven of Hope.”

Lauren Jadotte (Reporter) is a communications strategist and designer who has spent her career amplifying stories that deal with financial justice, culture, and community. She has led storytelling and digital campaigns for national nonprofits and brings a background in journalism and visual communication to her reporting.

Emma Winn (Website Manager) is a communications professional, a 2025 graduate of Shepherd University, and an active member of the veterans’ community in Martinsburg, West Virginia.

BOARD OF ADVISORS

Douglas Lasdon is Executive Director of New York City’s Urban Justice Center, which he founded forty years ago in a burned-out building in East Harlem. Through its many anchor projects, UJC serves tens of thousands of people contending with homelessness, discrimination, and partner violence, among other deep problems.

Miles Rapoport is a longtime organizer, policy advocate, and elected official as well as the Executive Director of 100% Democracy, which seeks to reimagine voting as both a fundamental right and a civic responsibility, with every eligible citizen required to participate.

Nancy Rosenblum is a political scientist and political philosopher, Professor of Ethics in Politics and Government at Harvard University, and the author, most recently, of Ungoverning: The Attack on the Administrative State and the Politics of Chaos.

Mike Tidwell is the founder and director of the Chesapeake Climate Action Network, a grassroots nonprofit organization dedicated to raising awareness about the impacts and solutions associated with global warming in Maryland, Virginia, Washington D.C., West Virginia, and nationwide.

LEGAL COUNSEL

Peter Jaszi is Emeritus Professor of Law at the Washington College of Law, American University, Washington, D.C., and a world-renowned expert on intellectual-property law.

FISCAL SPONSOR

We Are Your Neighbors is a project of the Oil and Gas Action Network (OGAN), an IRS-recognized 501c3 nonprofit.