The Scribble Emotion
If your feelings are all over the place, come sit by me. Also, a shoutout from Jim Acosta!
The Critical Communicator is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.
It's been another helluva week, and not just because the American government is still disintegrating before our eyes.
Last night’s news that Donald Trump signed an executive order to dismantle the Department of Education is just the latest gut punch to our everyday lives. And, yes, it’s still infuriating even though we’ve known it was coming for months. (This shouldn’t be surprising news if you’ve read “Project 2025.”)
All I can say isthat they’ll have to pry my daughter’s IEP from my cold, dead hands.
Anyway, the best way to describe my mindset right now is the “Scribble” emotion. In case you’re not familiar with Diane Alber’s children’s series about colorful emotions, “Scribble” feels angry, happy, sad, peaceful, confident, and love all at the same time.
I tried so hard to consolidate my thoughts in this week's post into something cohesive, but, sadly, I couldn't accomplish that goal, thanks to the “Scribble” of it all. My thoughts are all over the place right now, so here's hoping you'll understand that this post will be all over the place too.
1. Sick Kid
First and foremost, my daughter has been ill all week. She has strep throat AND a cold. So any semblance of peace and quiet has been nonexistent. Forget any ability to focus on anything other than my kid — not an ideal situation for a writer with assignments to complete.
2. Unexpected Tragedy
My husband and I received some terrible news on Tuesday: A friend's husband died at age 47 (that’s our age too). I've known Melissa for about 25 years, and while I never knew her husband, Mike, that well, we spent quite a bit of time together over the past couple of decades. We attended one another’s weddings -- and the four of us saw U2's 360° tour back in 2009.
Mike leaves behind not only Melissa but their 10-year-old daughter. My heart breaks for their family; the only solace is knowing that Melissa has a core support group of friends. I know they will get her through this tragedy.
There's a lot more to say about what happened, but right now I'm still collecting information and processing my own trauma over Mike's death. Someday I hope to share more about the swirl of emotions in my head, but it’s not the right moment to do that. Right now is about supporting Melissa's grief, and her daughter's grief. Melissa has always been there for me — and I will be there for her.
3. Ignorance of History
I will never be able to get past how certain people continue to be oblivious to the rise of American authoritarianism. The last thing I want to do with this Substack is repeat myself, but I want to reshare a post from last month, where I implored readers to re-educate (or, in some cases, educate) themselves on European history -- specifically, in the 1930s. A time when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi party systematically stripped Jewish people of their rights, culminating in the Holocaust:
Go Away, Kanye
Quick update: I’m now on Signal, so if anyone is interested in sharing their thoughts about the state of our country anonymously on the Critical Communicator, please reach out via hello@sareneleedswrites.com, or on Signal at sareneleedswrites.15.
Since the inauguration, I have come across too many people who a) still have no clue what happened in Germany and, eventually, most of Europe, between 1933-1945 and b) cannot correlate that to what is happening to minorities and other vulnerable groups in the United States in 2025. In many cases, it's because these people are blinded by their white privilege (read: their lives haven’t been affected by the Trump-Musk regime, so why should they behave any differently?). My gentle reminder to those with a platform: You’re complicit if you’re not speaking out.
If you live in/grew up in a homogenous community (like I did for much of my life), I implore you to read this post and check out the many resources I provided on Holocaust education.
I also wanted to share this post from
because I think she’s been summing up my anger and frustration over widespread ignorance better than I ever could:
4. Eva Felon
I cannot get the dictator-y image of Donald Trump at the Kennedy Center this week out of my mind. Not only was it an upsetting reminder of how he’s taken a wrecking ball to one of the United States’ most venerated centers for the arts, but it was such a ridiculous, Evita-esque pose that I had to make this in response:
The other photo is of Fran Drescher in the 1997 movie The Beautician and the Beast," where the SAG-AFTRA president basically rehashed her Nanny role. Except this time, she looked after a tyrant's children in a fictional Eastern European country.
Funny, right?
No, I don't think the photo of Trump is funny, but I know he and his fragile ego don't like it when we troll him. So I'll gladly oblige.
5. I Don’t Want Charles in Charge of Me
I feel only complete and utter betrayal from Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer. He is my senator, and, yes, I feel he caved to the Republicans by allowing a Republican spending bill to pass. (Word to the wise: If you're getting praise from Donald Trump, that's not a good sign.)
Schumer is still using an old political playbook. The fact that he can’t see Trump and the Republicans have tossed the former system out the window (thanks, non-Kamala voters) is a problem. Now it's up to us, the American people (and the Democrats, if they can get it together) to adapt. If Schumer can't do that (and frankly, I don't think he's up to it), then we need new, younger leadership.
But wait! There was a moment of joy this week!
I still believe you can find joy if you know where to look, and as I’ve said before, it’s the only way we will get through this difficult time.
So, as many of you know, I have been a vocal supporter of
’s work on Substack ever since he left CNN in January. Since he’s one of my recommended Substack accounts, and I’ve referred five subscribers, I recently earned myself a comped three-month subscription!That meant I was invited to join his first paid-subscribers-only virtual town hall on Wednesday.
And if that wasn’t enough, not only did we get some prime Duke (his adorable beagle) content — I got my first-ever subscriber shoutout!
If you think my reaction is giving schoolgirl crush, then you’d be totally right. (Sorry,
— I love you!)Thanks so much, Jim, for the shoutout — and for the sake of all Americans, please keep doing what you’re doing!
Head over to my recommendations to subscribe to
.How have you been feeling this week? Scribble? Angry? Frustrated? Sad? Happy? Drop your emotion in the comments!
As always, thank you so much for reading.
—Sarene
The Critical Communicator is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.