The Longest 100 Days Ever

April 30, 2025

Plus: a Vietnam anniversary ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌

April 29, 2025

Salutations, Meteor readers,

Before we get into it today, exciting news: We’re going to the Tribeca Film Festival! This summer, you can catch the world premiere of Dear Ms.: A Revolution in Print; our very own Cindi Leive served as an executive producer. The film—from McGee Media in partnership with HBO—looks back on Ms. magazine’s 50+-year history to tell the story of how it defied the odds and brought feminism to the masses. Plan to be in New York in June? Grab a ticket!

In today’s newsletter, we provide perhaps the only positive take you’ll read about the past 100 days. Plus, Rebecca Carroll talks to Dr. Connie Wun about the 50th anniversary of the end of the war in Vietnam.

Counting the days,

Shannon Melero

WHAT’S GOING ON

The worst of times: A mere 100 days ago, Donald Trump took office, and it has been a vengeful, embarrassing, and violent presidency thus far. It has also been a test for the American people—so today, we’re heralding the ways women have spent this time fighting back against an overgrown playground bully. Hats off to…

Skye Perryman: Serving as CEO and president of Democracy Forward, which has filed over 600 legal actions dating all the way back to Trump’s first term, Perryman and her team have stood up for libraries, federal employees, and immigrants. Just last week, they blocked the administration from carrying out its threat to prosecute or cut funding to schools teaching history classes that referenced race or racism. And yes, the administration likes to ignore court orders—but Perryman and her peers are taking the extra steps to ensure court oversight.
Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-TX): The rising sophomore has taken on the task of saying what a lot of us are thinking. When discussing the case of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Maryland man mistakenly deported on suspicion of being a gang member, Crockett noted that Garcia was “a lot less criminal than the person that’s sitting in the White House.”
Sarah Inama: A sixth-grade history teacher in Idaho, Inama had decorated her classroom with a sign that read “Everyone is welcome here”; it featured drawings of raised hands, all in different skin colors. Her school district sent her a letter to remove the sign because it deemed it “controversial,” according to the Trump administration’s executive order on DEI. Initially, Inama felt pressured and removed the sign. But then, she told Today, the directive “sounded like racism,” and she decided to put it back up. Controversy ensued—but ultimately the sign stayed, and so did Inama.
Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA): She recently launched the Resistance Lab, a series of online gatherings to teach people “the best tools and tactics and frameworks to fight back” against attacks on democracy. The first one drew about 1,500 participants. She’s hoping to do another lab with a focus on “nonviolent training” for peaceful protests. “Think Selma church basements and the kind of training that they did to prepare people…Because that moment is coming,” she told The Nation. Here’s how to be alerted to the next Resistance Lab and other actions happening in your state.
Erin Reed: The administration has mounted an astonishing war on the press—using its power to file lawsuits against media companies and shutting down US-funded news outlets around the world. Which makes the fearless journalism that reporters keep producing all the more impressive. To name just one impressive outlet: Erin Reed in the Morning tracks news and legislation targeting the LGBTQ+ community. Team Trump has been working since day one to erase trans people from existence, and at every turn, every action, the Erin Reed team has been there to act as a speed bump and keep its 120,000 readers informed.

These leaders—and thousands more—are doing the work that needs doing, at one of the hardest times to do it. More of this over the next 1360 days!

AND:

A Wall Street Journal investigation found that AI “digital companions” created by Meta are engaging in sexually explicit conversations with minors. The bots, some of which use celebrities’ voices to speak to a user (you can’t see John Cena but you can hear him), were reportedly rushed through production by CEO Mark Zuckerberg, who encouraged developers to “loosen the guardrails around the bots to make them as engaging as possible,” sources told WSJ, “including by providing an exemption to [Meta’s] ban on ‘explicit’ content as long as it was in the context of romantic role-playing.” Fortunately, since the investigation broke late last week, Instagram has blocked minors from accessing the bots.
Conservatives don’t want poor students to go to college—or at least they don’t want them to be able to pay for it. Yesterday, the GOP-led Committee on Education and Workforce introduced a new budget proposal that restructures the financial aid system and changes eligibility requirements for Pell Grants. The suggested changes for Pell would require students to take on more credits per semester to maintain the grant, unfairly targeting low-income students who already divide their time between school, work, and family responsibilities.
On Sunday, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame announced its 2025 inductees. This year’s honorees include LGBTQ+ advocate Cyndi Lauper and the OG sex-positive trio Salt-N-Pepa—a nice reminder that not everyone is afraid of celebrating icons of cultural progress.

ALL THREE MEMBERS OF SALT-N-PEPA (SANDRA “SALT” DENTON, DJ SPINDERELLA, AND CHERYL “PEPA” JAMES) AT THE 2018 ESSENCE FESTIVAL. (VIA GETTY IMAGES)

Vatican watchers are preparing for the big day next Wednesday, when Conclave, the process to choose a new pope, begins. Seven cardinals are considered front-runners, including Filipino cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle, who has been called the “Asian Francis.” If elected, Tagle would be the first pope from Southeast Asia. But one expert suggests there’s a candidate we’ve all been overlooking.

Three Question About…The End of the “U.S. War in Vietnam”

Five decades after the conflict’s end, Dr. Connie Wun reflects on generational trauma and the battles we’re still fighting.

BY REBECCA CARROLL

THE VIETNAM VETERANS MEMORIAL IN WASHINGTON, D.C. (VIA GETTY IMAGES)

Tomorrow marks the 50th anniversary of the end of the Vietnam War—a conflict that remains both controversial and divisive. Here in the U.S., the first televised war brought pushback against the draft, and a feeling that America shouldn’t be intervening in a conflict between North Vietnam and South Vietnam. By the time Soviet-backed North Vietnam invaded Saigon and declared victory in 1975, the protracted war had claimed the lives of as many as 3 million Vietnamese soldiers and civilians, as well as 58,000 American soldiers.

Dr. Connie Wun, the executive director of AAPI Women Lead, was raised in Oakland by Vietnamese refugees. We sat down on the 50th anniversary of the exact day that her grandmother and mother were forced to leave Vietnam, to talk about her personal connection to the war, why remembering it matters, and the fight against war on every battleground.

In some ways, it feels counterintuitive to commemorate war, but why do you think it’s important to commemorate the Vietnam War in particular?

Here [in America] we call it the Vietnam War. In Vietnam, they call it Reunification Day [marking the liberation of southern Vietnam and its reunification with the North after “the U.S. war in Vietnam.”]. And across the globe, it’s called the Fall of Saigon. So, depending upon who you ask, there are various interpretations of what April 30th, 1975, means. Some people are commemorating and honoring the three million-plus people who were killed, and the slow, ensuing deaths that followed. Trauma from the war was among the main causes of my grandmother’s cardiovascular diseases.

And that’s the case for many Vietnamese people today. We have high rates of chronic health illnesses, diabetes, and depression, and these are all underreported. My grandmother passed away after having triple bypass surgery. Many of us are permanently displaced and are commemorating the loss of our homeland. I have family members who fought with the Viet Cong, and then people who fought with the South. We are commemorating loss, we are commemorating tragedy.

When my grandmother was forced to leave, she left with my grandfather, my mom, aunt, and uncle; my grandmother’s cousins as well as their nieces and nephews. More than 20 people left with them on the flight to the refugee camps in Guam, and then the Philippines. According to our family stories, our family was a part of Operation New Life [a military-led humanitarian effort for refugees who evacuated Vietnam before the end of the war]. Over the past few years, I’ve been collecting our family’s stories—I have inherited centuries of warfare.

How do you find a definition of solidarity for yourself and the work that you do?

The premise of solidarity for me is about surviving, resisting, and ending global and domestic wars. So that’s global and domestic wars against Black peoples, global and domestic wars against Indigenous peoples, global imperialist wars, and colonial wars. Modern civilization is premised upon global and domestic warfare. What I don’t know is if we’ve learned as a whole, and I don’t know if we’ve agreed to care about, is that war and its implications are forever.

How do we see through to a time when we don’t have wars?

We have to undo modern civilization. That’s the task at hand. The way through is to submit to the fact that we’re under warfare. Which is why my grandmother passed away some 20 years after leaving Vietnam. My job, having inherited her legacy, is to keep fighting and to demand that I get to stay alive. I will be one of the people who is going to overthrow what’s taken so many people’s lives. That has to be our commitment to each other—undoing, overthrowing, and building something else.