by Tammye Nash
(Tammye Nash is managing editor of Dallas Voice. The following editorial appeared in the December 26, 2025, issue of the newspaper and is reprinted here with permission.)

So. I sat down here at my computer to write an end of year column about what an absolutely awful year 2025 has been in so many ways. I was just typing away, listing out all the ways that Donald Trump and his minions have attacked our LGBTQ+ community, especially transgender people.

I wrote about the abuses by ICE and the mind-boggling waste of money by Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem. I wrote about the painful — and dangerous — stupidity of Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s policies and actions. I wrote about “Secretary of War” Pete Hegseth leaking military strategy and committing war crimes by murdering individuals on Venezuelan fishing boats.

I wrote about Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s war on rainbows in crosswalks, and about Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s ever-worsening Transgender Derangement Syndrome. And I was still going ….

But then, I glanced back at the words on my computer screen and realized that I had used the term “lickspittles,” and I stopped. I erased everything I had written, and I started over. (“Lickspittles,” by the way, is a real word. I was using it appropriately, and it was certainly an accurate description of the people I was talking about. But still…. lickspittles?)

I started over because I realized that it really wouldn’t be at all helpful to use my time, my energy and valuable Dallas Voice print space to recount at length what awful, wasteful, hateful and criminal people we have holding the reins of power in our country and, at the state level at least, in Texas.

I mean, those who oppose the rise of the fascist right-wing already know and understand what they have done and are doing still. And those who insist on supporting these awful people are not going to change their minds because I go on a rant on the opinion page.

All I was really accomplishing was raising my blood pressure and giving myself a headache.

And ain’t nobody got time for that!

So, I erased everything I had written. I started over — just like I hope that we all can, in so many ways, start over in 2026.

How? Each of us have to start with ourselves. Instead of focusing on what an awful person someone else is, how about each one us look long and hard at ourselves.

What did we do right in 2025? And how can we do better in 2026? Where did we fall short in 2025? And what can we do to avoid the same mistakes in 2026?

I believe we can change the world for the better, but we have to be willing to try, even when it is scary. Even when it is dangerous.

Look at some of the heroes who have refused to bow to hate and bigotry over the past year.

There is a woman named Barbara Stone who was handcuffed and detained by ICE agents at a San Diego courthouse because she had the audacity to use her phone to video agents arresting an immigrant who was walking out of an immigration hearing.

Stone is a 71-year-old white woman, a U.S. citizen, who had gone to the courthouse as part of a group called Detention Resistance to observe and document the behavior of ICE agents. A female agent pushed Stone, and, when Stone tried to walk away from the confrontation, she was chased down the hall, cornered in a stairwell and put in handcuffs.

The ICE agent, of course, claims Stone was the one doing the pushing, which could be deemed assault on a federal office and could result in thousands of dollars in fines and even years in prison.

And it could have been much, much worse. In Chicago, a woman named Miramar Martinez, a school teacher and U.S. citizen, was shot five times by Border Patrol officers who tried to claim she rammed their vehicle with her car. (She didn’t; evidence has indicated the Border Patrol officers initiated the confrontation and fired without provocation. All the charges were dismissed “with prejudice,” which means those charges can’t be refiled.)

Barbara Stone didn’t have to go to that courthouse and put herself in harm’s way. She did it because she wanted to help make a change for good. Same with Miramar Martinez.

These are just two stories out of many about people willing to risk their own safety to try and do the right thing.

But the truth is, you don’t have to put yourself in danger to do good things. You don’t have to make some grand gesture or even take to the streets for the next No Kings protest.

You can just simply not be an asshole, even when being an asshole would so much easier and satisfying. Hold a door open for someone at the grocery store who has their arms full.

Smile at the cashier and tell them “Thank you” and “Have a good day,” even when the line has been long and slow and you are in a hurry.

That guy on the street corner, asking for change? Give him a dollar. Sure, he may just be going to spend it on beer. But maybe he needs it to buy some food for his kid. Be willing to risk that first possibility and hope for the second.

Oh yeah, don’t forget to vote in 2026, in every election. It’s your right; it’s your duty, and it may be your best bet for change.

So yeah, 2025 has been a crappy year, by many standards. We live in a world that can be very scary and dark. But don’t let the darkness win.

Instead, be the light. Each of us alone may be just a tiny flicker. But if we put those flickers together in hope and kindness and love, we can outshine the sun.

Happy new year people. Here’s to a better year ahead.

GUEST COMMENTARY
Volume 27
Issue 11