Extensive polling shows the vast majority of Americans do not agree with the way our new presidential administration is running things, and if you’re one of them, it’s easy to feel like you have no agency whatsoever over what’s happening. But as a book shop in Maryland has recently shown, sometimes there’s huge power in the smallest of gestures, and it’s a testament to how important it sometimes is to think small when trying to tackle something big.
People’s Book is a small family-run bookshop in Takoma Park, Maryland, and it recently decided to take a stand to try to live up to the “for the people, by the people” undertones in its name, starting with the issue of immigration amid the Trump Administration’s escalating raids on immigrant communities.
So when Republican Senator David McCormick recently released a book about leadership and mentorship, “Who Believed In You,” the bookstore’s owners found themselves in a bit of a dilemma, given that McCormick’s politics drastically diverge from their own. So they decided to turn their disagreement into an opportunity.
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McCormick, who represents Pennsylvania in the Senate, has been an outspoken supporter of the ongoing unconstitutional attacks against immigrant communities. He has repeatedly voted in favor of more funding for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, the government bureau responsible for executing the Trump Administration’s arrest and deportation quotas.
This includes voting in favor of Trump’s so-called “Big Beautiful Bill,” which gave around $170 billion toward further immigration and border security enforcement, much of it earmarked for ICE, making it the highest-funded law enforcement agency in the entire federal government. Bigger than the FBI, bigger than the law enforcement arm of the National Security Administration, despite immigrants committing fewer crimes than U.S.-born citizens.
So when People’s Book was contacted by lobbyists on McCormick’s behalf to ask them to place an order of 500 copies of his book, they were faced with a dilemma. As co-owner Matt Bormet put it in the store’s press release, “While we don’t want to be in business with someone who is partially responsible for the current crisis, we also don’t support banning books.”
So they came up with a sort of compromise. “We filled the request,” Bormet went on to say. “But in order to live our values, we’re taking his money and giving it to folks who can do some good with it.”
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As the beneficiary of their deal with McCormick’s book, People’s Book chose CASA, a nonprofit that helps provide legal counseling and services to immigrants in need of representation, as well as other social services nationwide.
“This is a small way of pushing back on [the] agenda,” Bormet said, and doing so in a way that honors and upholds the free speech that so many Republican politicians and voters seem eager to curtail these days, especially where books are concerned.
And it has made a real difference. So far, People’s Book has been able to donate some $7,000 to CASA to fund its services. In a statement, the organization’s policy manager, Ninfa Amador, cast the store’s owners’ actions as nothing short of heroic. “The vision of a more just world lives on with brave acts like those by Megan and Matt Bormet and People’s Book,” Amador said in a statement.
It’s a testament to how small acts can make a huge difference. All it takes is a willingness to stick to the values you hold dear.
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John Sundholm is a writer, editor, and video personality with 20 years of experience in media and entertainment. He covers culture, mental health, and human interest topics.
