In June, we kicked off the World Cup in the US, Mexico, and Canada and the No ICE in the Cup initiative ramped up as well. This has been a truly cross-pillar effort and there is still time to get involved: you can download the commissioned (free) artwork here; share sample sermon guides with your faith community; encourage a local business to sign up for the Welcome Standard (and make sure to frequent them); attend an aligned watch party or order a Watch Party in a Box (also free!) to host your own; or convene a local soccer tournament to bring your community together to be joyful and safe while celebrating the beautiful game.
As we head into the nation’s 250th birthday in July, we’re preparing for an important summer for pro-democracy organizing. A recent article in the NYT reminds us that The State of American Resistance is Stronger Than You May Think. You can read a more complete history of the founding of our democracy and discover resources on the webpage of this new book American Indigenous Democracy: A Call for Interdependence. From Juneteenth through July 4, Nonprofit Quarterly and Liberation Ventures are dedicating 16 days to stories of repair, healing, justice, and possibility. Check them out at #WeTheCivic: America 250. Don’t miss Heather Cox Richardson’s 250 to 250 Project that is gathering stories from around the country to “emphasize the agency of Americans [to] change the country. Each falls into a category that defines what it means to be an American, including community, democracy, innovation, mobility, civil rights, education, conservation, and creativity.” Race Forward also recently released their insightful conference report Building Narrative Power for Solidarity: Lessons from Just Narratives on Ecosystem and Infrastructure.
As we prepare for the midterm elections, please share widely the newly released website with volunteer opportunities for anyone to get involved at wearegroundcontrol.org. And sign up to participate in Freedom Summer’s mass mobilization and events taking place from Juneteenth to Election Day “to help keep pressure on, shift the conversation around Black voting rights, and organize to turn out communities.” You may appreciate the new Democracy Audience Map produced by Harmony Labs and the Democracy Communications Collaborative that is organized by values and motivations, not demography or ideology.
Finally, a couple of reads from our close partners: Enjoy this intimate tale from Paola Mendoza, What Soccer Taught Me About Belonging, and from Emma Addams, writing about Father’s Day in this opinion piece, Celebrating the Fathers Who Support Their Communities.
From the Horizons team, you can read Chief Organizer Maria J. Stephan’s article Two visions of the US will compete at the World Cup describing how a big tent coalition is harnessing the energy surrounding the World Cup to imagine a more free and democratic United States. You can also read a shorter version of the article in Ruth Ben-Ghiat’s Substack Lucid, The World Cup: More than a Game highlighting how international soccer has been a staging ground for both autocrats and pro-democracy movements throughout history. Chief Network Weaver Julia Roig was interviewed for the latest edition of Peace Prospects Magazine: Weaving and Strengthening Collective Action. And Julia and Democracy Fellow Jarvis Williams wrote a short piece for the Council on Foundations (COF) about their recent workshop on Block, Bridge, Build at the 2026 COF conference – Our Shared Future: Integrating Approaches to Social Change.
Here’s what else we’re reading, watching and listening to this month.
READING
Religious Liberty for All: Celebrating This Founding Freedom at America 250
Center for American Progress
“As the United States celebrates its 250th anniversary, Americans still believe that religious liberty is a cornerstone of our democracy. Against that backdrop, the Trump administration’s creation of a Religious Liberty Commission in May 2025 has raised serious concerns. The administration’s commission reflects a narrow ideological perspective that does not represent the extraordinary diversity of religions and beliefs in this country. At a moment when the nation should be renewing its commitment to the constitutional promise of liberty and equality for all, the commission risks advancing a vision of religious freedom that favors some voices while leaving out many others…This report brings together diverse voices in an expression of solidarity against a backdrop of the administration’s Religious Liberty Commission to share why religious freedom matters and to protect religious freedom for all.” You can rewatch the virtual launch of the report here.
We Need to Close the Hope Gap
by Camilla Griffiths, Trevor Smith, Christina Pao & Justin Morgan, SSIR
“In this prolonged era of political exhaustion and apathy, identifying and quantifying hopefulness can be a powerful tool for addressing hopelessness. In the face of overlapping crises, we must bring a critical lens to what breaks down and, more important, what builds hope, because it is essential for collective action…Crucially, the Hope Gap is not simply a matter of apathy. For historically marginalized groups, it reflects a rational response to their lived experience… Closing the chasm between support and hope requires a deeper understanding of why the Hope Gap exists, how it has been shaped across different groups, and how we can persuade people to believe that our solutions are possible, so that they participate in getting them passed.”
Faith, Freedom, Family, Place — An Ethnographic Study of Conservative Americans’ Relationships to Democracy
by Scott Warren, Katy Osborn, Morgan Ramsey-Elliot, Sophia Winner
“The conservatives we met believe democratic institutions have abandoned their own founding values. In their view, the American government is and has always been conditional on a moral foundation organized around Faith, Family, Freedom, and Place, and the purpose of democratic government is to protect and uphold this foundation. Now, however, the very institutions built to protect it have become disconnected from, or even threatening to, that moral foundation. Support for democratic norm deviation is therefore not experienced as a rejection of democracy by our participants; rather, it can be a logical response often driven by an impulse to restore democracy. The practical implication is that persuasion approaches from pro-democracy practitioners appealing to the sanctity of democratic norms are working in the wrong register…Engaging conservatives today will require acknowledging this genuine concern about legitimacy and values rather than treating it as anti-democratic sentiment.”
WATCHING
The Big-Tent, Broad-Front Democracy Movement
Horizons Project
The Horizons Project released a new (short) animated video this month to describe Big Tent organizing for democracy. “Around the world, everyday people have formed broad front movements to push back against authoritarianism and fight for democracy. These movements make room for people from every sector of society across generations, ideology, race, class, creed, and geography. What unites them is an agreement on every issue but one critical shared commitment that transcends politics as usual and answers a higher calling, our ability to govern ourselves and hold politicians accountable to the will of the people.” You can also find pillar-specific videos on the role of faith leaders and veterans/military family communities.
The Business Case Against Cronyism & Corruption: How Administration Practices Distort Markets
Business Response to Authoritarian Threats (BRTAT)
“Government corruption has always been a drag on business, but it’s now happening at a scale and speed unlike any we’ve seen before. These developments have caused alarm bells to go off among thought leaders across the political spectrum. BRTAT founder Richard Eidlin moderated this virtual discussion featuring leading voices in the good government space: Dan Greenberg and Tad DeHaven from the Cato Institute and Robert Maguire from Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW).”
We’ve Been Here Before Trailer
Reboot X ChaiFlicks Shorts Film Festival
“Directed by Emmy-winning filmmaker Jacob Kornbluth, We’ve Been Here Before looks at the nonconformists in punk subculture who fought back against white nationalists and neo-Nazis in the 1990s, drawing urgent connections between those earlier battles and the current rise in antisemitism, hate and white supremacy. Featuring anti-hate expert Eric Ward and activist Dion Garcia, the film offers a powerful look at what punk culture can teach us about resistance, solidarity and fighting back. The film [was released] on June 15, in honor of the International Day for Countering Hate Speech, on ChaiFlicks.com.”
LISTENING TO
Our Copa Limited Podcast Series
Valor Media Now Network
“Our Copa is a limited series covering the pivotal political moments that took place throughout history on the soccer fields of the World Cup through a pro-democracy, anti-authoritarian lens.” On Our Copa’s pilot episode, co-hosts Merritt Mathias, Musa Okwonga, and Julio Ricardo Varela explore the political exploitation of soccer for authoritarian gains, the ongoing impact of boycotts, and the modern parallels to the second ever World Cup.
First America Podcast
Pushkin Industries
“Native people have been written out of the American story, but without us you don’t know what happened. This summer the United States will celebrate the 250-year anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence…Hosted and reported by Rebecca Nagle and featuring leading Native historians, First America unveils how the founders’ treatment of Indigenous nations—and their resistance—shaped US democracy. The show does not simply add another blemish to the image of the founding fathers, it reveals the real story of why the colonists rebelled, what kind of government they created, and, crucially, how our current political moment was 250 years in the making.”
The Horizon Story Podcast with Norma Wong
The Horizon Story
“In a world of systemic collapse and uncertainty, Norma Wong inspires and reminds us to reconnect with purpose, responsibility, and community — and in the process reclaim the interdependence, agency, and indigeneity we need to thrive in the emerging world.
With a grounding in her Native Hawaiian and Hakka heritage, 40 years of Zen practice, and 30 years of experience in electoral politics, [she] brings thought-provoking teachings, conversations, and meditations on the challenges we face with humor, pragmatism, and an eye towards the long arc into the future. Norma Wong is the founder of the Collective Acceleration Community of Practice, and author of When No Thing Works (2024) and Who We Are Becoming Matters (2026). The Horizon Story offers a deeper dive into these books’ themes of shared purpose, individual responsibility, and what it takes to rise to the occasion in times like these.”
FOR FUN
Nobody Funks Alone
by Ash-Lee Woodard Henderson
“…Not the Prince of the posters. The other one. The one who understood, before almost anybody, that the deepest thing about building together is that nobody does it alone. The whole architecture of the funk is interdependence. The bass and the drums lock so tight that even though they are still two independent instruments, they make one new sound together. Everybody in the band plays for the pocket instead of for themselves. The magic isn’t just when individual musicians show off for ego’s sake. The magic really lands when the whole room hits the one heavenly vibe together. That is not a metaphor for the world I am trying to build. That is the world, in miniature, four minutes at a time, and you can’t think your way into it. You have to feel everybody else in the room, hold the pocket, know your role, and play it excellently.”
