A Very Personal Story By Meidas Founder…

By Ben Meiselas

My wife was at dinner with her family at a restaurant in the predominantly Mexican neighborhood she grew up in last night. The Latino neighborhood is currently being terrorized by ICE, who conduct raids at the factories, the Home Depot, the shops, and where the vendors once were. Her neighborhood is the main one you often see on the news in Los Angeles for the ICE raids.

My wife called me after her dinner, and I could hear in her voice that she was not doing well. She told me how the once vibrant and crowded shopping center was dead. The once crowded shops and restaurants were now largely empty, as people were scared to go out.

While she was in the restaurant, they had the TV on to the local news station. Several times while she was there, the local news ran the commercial featuring Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem telling people to self-deport “or else,” and encouraging community members to rat each other out to ICE. My wife described how her side of our family all went silent and felt visceral pain as those government regime ads played.

My wife is a first-generation American. Her family is from Guadalajara. They are all naturalized citizens, and she is the youngest—she was the only member born in the United States. We have a fairly large family with many nieces and nephews. Some were at dinner last night.

After the ad played, our niece told a story about how many of her friends who are 12 years old are now the only members of their family to even leave the house to pick up groceries. Everyone else stays home and hides. They don’t go to church or to the gym anymore. The community is completely paralyzed. Even people like my mother-in-law, who are citizens but do not speak English well, are afraid to leave their homes since ICE has also been known to harass citizens who are Hispanic.

I was not at the dinner last night since I was working at the network making videos and hosting a live podcast with Congressman Maxwell Frost. I was sad I wasn’t at the restaurant to be there with my wife and our family when they were going through that. I felt a little guilty I was not there.

Our 9-month-old daughter was at the dinner, with her great big smile and big eyes and mouth-wide-open gesture that she now makes, where it seems she’s in awe of everything. I am grateful she is too little to know the cruelty taking place in our country—but sad she will one day find out.

I think about my daughter, Ximena, and the world she will be handed.

While I wish I was at the dinner last night, I also know the significance and importance the MeidasTouch Network plays in this period of time, as the main network for the resistance and the most-watched digital news network in America. It’s a struggle I personally deal with sometimes—finding the balance between family and the growth of the network that is fighting for the future of Ximena and millions of other families out there.

Let me share what I told my wife last night since it’s something I say on this Substack frequently.

I told her, as I’ve told you, I remain hopeful we will get through this dark period because the spirit of America and our people have not been destroyed.

Trump’s approval rating is the lowest ever, the disastrous budget bill is the most reviled legislation in history, and millions of Americans protested before and are ready to protest again. The resistance grows stronger each day. We know we have each other, and we recognize the evil of the regime.

When I am often asked about the secret to the success of the MeidasTouch Network, I share how this is much more than a “network.” This is a community and a movement, and that is what’s propelled us to beat all cable news in views—even though we have zero investors and we’ve grown thanks to subscribers on this Substack.

I feel it’s okay to open up and share with you about my family or my back problems or personal life or whatever—because we are just humans trying to make sense of this crazy world and leave it a better place for future generations. We’ve been in the trenches together now for a long time. We are battle-tested, and we see a path forward to make this country and world better. It won’t be easy, but we will get through this together. I promise you.

And if you can, please consider becoming a subscriber to this Substack today. You can also gift subscriptions to people you know if you are already subscribed. Ultimately, it’s your subscriptions and you sharing this network with others that have helped us grow and continue to expand.

We’ve got a lot of work to do, and your subscriptions go a long way in helping the independent reporting at the MeidasTouch Network.

We thank you, as always. You inspire us always. Thanks for listening to my personal story. Subscribe if you can.