Increasing Pressure on the Opposition and Your Mental Health | NH Bridge Brigade

Peaceful Protesters with a SAVE OUR DEMOCRACY banner on a highway overpass bridge.

Increasing Pressure on the opposition will result in more lashing out by the opposition.

Several bridges have seen an uptick in middle fingers and agitated expressions from the opposition. Along with this, the number of people showing up on bridges has suddenly increased, and many of them are new.

I see two things happening around Renee Good’s murder and future egregious acts of violence:

1. We will see lots of new people joining us because of more exposure from events like the multi-organizational protest in Merrimack, our outreach efforts, and, most importantly, Renee Good’s murder, which has galvanized people to want to act. These new people have been watching us for a long time and sitting on the fence. It takes something as horrific as this to move them into action—coupled with the attack on Venezuela just days before.

   
   

2. The opposition is seeing this upsurge of anger and visibility from the pro-democracy organizations throughout the state and the nation. This is threatening to them. They are counter-reacting to the increasing pressure on them. Collectively, our movements have become stronger, more organized, and more unified in our messaging. As we close in on them through the sheer numbers of angry citizens showing up in all occupiable places, we will see them lashing out more—and not just with their middle fingers.

   
   

Consequently, we must rejoin our awareness and procedures regarding threats on our bridges. What will drive much of this lashing out is when Trump pulls some crazy action that pulls us closer into the Dark Star. There will be more shocking, unanticipated events like Good’s murder that will agitate each side increasingly. Do we remember the Epstein Files now? Bombing Iran? Gaza? Even Venezuela? Dark shadows overlap dark shadows layer by layer. The ugly weight of it all. I could go on with more draconian timelines, but I think you get the point. It is going to get a lot tougher, my friends.

Combating depression, exhaustion, and burnout over the long haul. Your mental health is important.

Every time you and your crew get out on a bridge, you are making a big difference. It may feel intangible or not measurable, but you see the number of cars passing under your feet and beside you. We are one of the highest-visibility organizations going. We fill in all the time between the big national calls to action. And when we are at full capacity during national events, we play an important role in spreading our powerful messaging outside the major concentration of protest sites, such as the State House in Concord. We compound, by thousands of people, the aggregate number of protesters on any national action day in New Hampshire. This is why our work is so important.

All of you who have been with the NHBBD for a while made your bridges come together—you owned the idea and made it happen. That’s the beauty of what we do on the bridges. Each of you is part of this community, and this organization simply would not exist without your commitment since Memorial Day 2025. It seems like a long time ago, doesn’t it?

You may say to yourself that you are not doing enough. There are always ways to do more—it is a time-management thing, really. It’s commitment. It takes a boatload of stamina and courage to keep going.

But we can’t beat ourselves up for not doing enough. We must remember that we each have lives to live.

We all have jobs and families and so forth. You can only do what time allows. And from what I can tell, you all have been putting a lot of time in the trenches. This is extremely apparent from the leadership’s point of view. Sometimes I lose track of the fact that each bridge is its own community. You don’t necessarily see the overall view that the leadership team sees—and what we see is incredible resolve. We see the hard work and time you have all put into making our magic work. I especially want to give a huge shout-out to the bridge captains who have taken on the critical role of leadership week after week. Remember, this bridge concept has been built on empowerment, ownership, and leadership. Everyone has brought that vision into reality.

This can be intense and challenging work, and the stress this evil regime places on our psyches day after day can wear us down to despair. The murder of Renee Nichole Good by the Iceman has become a tipping point that makes us see this truly is a turning point toward a fascist state. The attack on Venezuela and Good’s murder have awakened many people. More are now finding the courage to act.

We probably have not seen this much stress put upon the American people since World War II, the Korean and Vietnam wars, and 9/11. Take your pick—they were all bad. We must be thankful we don’t live in Ukraine, Somalia, or the Gaza Strip. All this at the hands of one man—Donald Trump.

We need to pick each other up when we get down and overwhelmed. I have gone through several cycles myself. I know I do enough. I know you do enough.

This is going to take years to get past, even if we take the House, Senate, and the Presidency. We all need to recognize that we must have stamina for the long haul—I know, a daunting thought in itself—but there are enough of us now that no one person must carry the weight alone. We share the load. Step back, breathe, and be still for a while. Do the things that bring joy into your life. Then rejoin the fight.

We have each other as a community, not just in this fight, but as human beings with conscience and feeling. It is understandable how the gravity of these times can bring our spirits down. Don’t let it consume us. Reach out to the community when you are having a hard time. Everyone will embrace you with love and compassion.

We are becoming the community we so desperately want when the darkness turns into light. We are in this together. Take comfort in that.