Standing Up to Hypocrisy, Showing Up for Families

In December, the American Humanist Association launched Stop Ron’s War, a holiday-season campaign focused on two clear goals: helping struggling Florida families and confronting the harmful policies of Governor Ron DeSantis.

While DeSantis rejected $250 million in federal food aid, kicked 22,000 children off health insurance, and delayed disaster relief efforts, AHA supporters sent thousands of dollars worth of holiday gifts to families in need. That totaled hundreds of wrapped packages—books, toys, essentials—delivered directly to children whose holidays had been jeopardized by political cruelty.

The campaign gave supporters a way to live out humanist values through action: not empty gestures or platitudes, but direct care rooted in dignity and solidarity. In a political landscape where leaders use religion as a weapon and false narratives to divide, this campaign served as a public rejection of both.

To amplify the message, AHA took out full-page ads in The Tallahassee Democrat, Governor DeSantis’s local paper. The ads made it plain: the people supposedly waging a “war on Christmas” were the ones feeding hungry kids, not the ones blocking aid. Humanists weren’t interested in culture war theatrics. We were focused on results.

At a time when far-right officials push policy designed to punish the vulnerable, we mobilized a national response rooted in compassion. That’s what the season required—and what humanist leadership demanded.