I am devastated. I just learned that Dolly has moved on. I know that millions are mourning and I want to say this – more than anyone I have ever known, Dolly will always be with us because she was so present, so powerful, so generous and playful that she is woven into all our lives and hearts forever. We have our memories of her, her songs, Dollywood, “9to5”, the millions of books she got into the hands of children, all the iconic images that bring her to us. And they are all blessings. Let’s be grateful for all that she has left us to ease our sadness now. I never knew anyone like her. She was simultaneously a naughty, playful southern gal from the hollows of Tennessee and a deep, soulful thinker who could see through people right down to their true selves. She was many things…lyricist, songstress, player of many instruments, writer, prankster, visionary, loyal friend, who’d never go to bed before she and her friends had laughed so hard they’d have to cross their legs.

She had a survivor’s instinct and seemed to always know just what to do, just what to say, to make things right...and then she’s stick her butt out the car window and moon Kenny Roger’s home. She was the voluptuous embodiment of empathy. That’s something of hers she’d want us all to take with us.

To her gay and trans fans, I want you to know that she loved you. You know that without me telling you. She loved all her fans and they are legion. And you know she doesn’t want y’all to mourn now. Dress up and celebrate her spirit. But first, watch the final episode of Grace and Frankie where she’s an Angel, the head honcho working class angel in Heaven.

RIP, beautiful woman. We love you. ❤️

Do you know that from 2022 to 2024 in the U.S. alone, there were 73 extreme weather events, which cost us an estimated $461.6 billion. Trump calls the climate crisis a hoax. Call it what you want, but please notice what’s happening, please connect the dots. Please understand how what’s happening weather-wise is behind the huge increase in refugees. In many parts of the world already, people cannot grow food, earn a living, escape the epidemics being spread as disease-carrying vectors (mosquitoes, ticks, rodents) move out from their usual habitats. The UN Refugee Agency estimates that more than 250 million people have already been displaced due to climate and that 100 million more will join their ranks by mid-century. We in this country have a responsibility to address their plight instead of treating them like non-humans. Afterall, the U.S. is the largest cause of climate warming.

This existential challenge along with the erosion of our democracy which is also an existential challenge are what most occupy my time and thoughts because I believe we can do something about them if we refuse to accept what’s happening. I am not depressed –scared, yes, but not depressed—because I’m taking action, doing things about it. I hope you will too.

Okay, here’s a major change of subject --

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Mignon McCarthy and I were close back in the 1980s. For a while, she ran the Campaign for Economic Democracy (CED), the statewide organization in California that my then husband, Tom Hayden, and I started. The U.S. was facing a recession at the time and fundraising was hard. California is a big state. So, I launched the Jane Fonda Workout to fund it, and Mignon was a regular in my classes. We became friends. When she left CED, Mignon and I wrote a book together, “Women Coming of Age.” We both loved to walk and shared countless hours trekking through dense forests with our dogs. We were writing about getting old and we loved how the forests benefitted from old trees. She pointed out that even dead trees had a purpose. She was smart, curious, and had a great giggle.

But then I married Ted Turner and moved to Atlanta. Mignon and I didn’t see each other for over thirty years.

Then, several months ago at a memorial service for another colleague from the ‘80s, I was told Mignon had rapidly advancing Alzheimer’s and wanted to die. I got her address and drove there immediately. Turned out, she lived in the same apartment a block from the ocean that I’d found for her forty-some years ago (Santa Monica is rent controlled thanks to the organizing we did there in the 1970s).

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On June 14^th, Flag Day, which also happened to be Trump’s eightieth birthday, the Committee for the First Amendment (CFA) hosted an event at New York’s historic Town Hall: Rise Up! Sing Out! A Concert for the First Amendment. I think everyone in that theatre would agree that it was a smashing success.

And it wasn’t just the people in the theatre. The event was livestreamed. Justin Krebs, a terrific organizer, went to Christian churches, Jewish congregations, bookstores, comedy clubs, local theaters, libraries, community organizations, the American Library Association, the No Kings coalition, and Indivisible groups, and they organized viewing parties in 1,500 locations in every state, Hawaii, even Paris, from beer halls to church halls.

That night, we estimate 30,000 people were watching at these gatherings and many millions since then on YouTube. One viewer wrote us saying, “Everyone who came had a great time and we definitely achieved ‘collective effervescence!’”

The show was produced by Rob Nanus of Rigor Ruckus and Bruce Cohn, directed by Schele Williams and scripted by Bess Kalb. We focused on the five freedoms contained in the First Amendment: Freedom of speech, press, religion, assembly and petition, which is an old-fashioned way of saying ‘protest.’

Our speakers ranged from Lily Gladstone, Julia Roberts, Joy Reid, Rev Adriene Thorne, Rabbi Rachel Timoner, Hussein Rashid and Tessa Thompson to Ms. Rachel, Robert De Niro, Ayo Edebiri, Wilson Cruz, and Pepermint.

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But I did get to know Atlanta and much of the rest of Georgia because in 1995 I founded GCAPP: The Georgia Campaign for Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention, a statewide organization to empower teenagers and address the chronic problem of children having babies. Georgia had the highest rate of adolescent pregnancies in the U.S. when I moved there. While some young mothers turn out to be wonderful parents, too often this is not the case. A fourteen or sixteen-year-old girl likely hasn’t figured out her own life and having a child to raise will make it virtually impossible to take advantage of opportunities that may come along…like a job or schooling.

Here are key things I learned in the thirty years since GCAPP now known as The Georgia Campaign for Adolescent Power and Potential was created:

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Twenty years ago, at 68-years old, I began working for L'Oréal Paris, the international skin and hair care company. The company’s CEO back then was a trans woman named Sue Nabi. She had transitioned while working her way up the corporate ladder to the very top which made me really respect the company.

Turns out, the year before, Sue had seen me promoting my latest book on a very popular national TV show. I had my dog with me, was speaking fluent French and making the audience laugh. She decided I would make a good brand ambassador.

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Last week I attended opening night of the TCM Classic Films Festival. The opening film was Barefoot in the Park, and I was invited to be interviewed on stage before the screening by Ben Mankiewicz, the host of TCM (Turner Classic Movies) and to talk about Robert Redford.

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