Why I Speak Out

June 6, 2017

Today is D-Day, the anniversary of the Allied invasion to free Europe from Nazi control. To my dismay, there seems to be little attention paid in social media to the commemoration of a day on which thousands of troops went ashore in France and too many lost their lives on the beaches of Normandy. The invasion was successful, but at terrible cost to the Allies.

It seems appropriate then, today, to tell you why I speak out on current political matters. My local son-in-law claims I’m outspoken, and I guess I have to own it. I am, because I feel passionately about what I speak out on: resistance, as it is current today. I am weary of people who say they’ve shut off the news and Facebook because of the dissension, or prudishly claim they never discuss politics because it’s fruitless. I agree it’s an uphill battle to change the mind of someone who claims I can survive Trump because they survived Obama. My instinct is to shout. “What was to survive? He did so much good. Not a saint, but a great man.”

And how can people still follow Trump blindly, when mounting evidence suggests he is seriously mentally disturbed, in addition to being a filthy womanizer, a racist, a narcissistic individual incapable of governing, a poor judge of character who surrounds himself with sycophants? The man’s approval ratings in this country are in the weeds, and don’t even begin to ask foreign countries how they feel about him. Today I read that Republicans are growing uneasy, and my response is to ask if they’ve had their heads in the sand. They have been complicit in promoting his dangerous agenda.

Do I believe Trump is trying to turn America over to Russia, with himself installed as the puppet dictator? Jury’s out on that one, might come in Thursday with Comey’s testimony. Do I believe Trump is in bed with Putin? You bet! Perhaps it’s a case of a schoolboy crush, but I think he’s bedazzled. Do I think Trump would sell America for another million dollars? Yes.

I truly believe that our country is headed toward a dictatorship that will destroy the poor, the infirm, the elderly, and the very young—witness GOP repeated efforts, at great expense, to repeal the ACA and replace it with a thinly disguised heartless and cruel policy that will kill millions of our fellow citizens—maybe me. After all, I fit easily into the senior citizen category. I also believe the current policies are destroying the environment and cancelling hard-won gains of recent years. The Trump administration is cutting environmental funding, disbanding the EPA, polluting our air and rivers, tearing up our land, even selling historic and protected sacred lands to commercial enterprise. Need I go on?

A friend, someone I genuinely like, urges us to give Trump a chance because he’s genuinely trying to help America. It makes me want to scream, but in reality, it causes me, out of conscience and concern for my grandchildren and yours, to speak out against what is happening. Less I rant forever, please memorize the following poem.

First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Socialist.

Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Trade Unionist.

Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.

Martin Niemöller