On
the 21st of January, 2017, I went to the women’s march in
Montpelier, Vermont. It was fun. It felt good. I was surrounded by thousands of like-minded people, with
friends, and family. In the multitude we felt strong. That was the easy part.
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| Met up with the Hustons (minus Carly). Audrey made her sign. |
On
the drive back home, like probably everyone who was there, I had a sense of
accomplishment. I’d done something
positive. I was counted. But wait. Nothing had changed.
It was like the feeling you get after a terrible event. Through sleep or distraction you put it
from your mind, and then when you awake, or suddenly remember, there’s a
moment, an intake of breath, when you know afresh what it was, and you feel the
shock of it all over again. Trump
was still President. And he was
just getting started.
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| The population of Montpelier is about 7,700. The rally attracted some 15,000 to 20,000. Several exits of Interstate 89 had to be closed the traffic was so great. |
It’s
1984 all over again. Not the
year. The novel. Speaking of years, I am curious to know the time when America actually was great because, according to
our current President (with his slogan to “Make America Great Again”), it sure
isn’t now. Could it have been the
idyllic 1700’s when we were first becoming a nation and setting to the business
of wiping out our native inhabitants? Was it in those bucolic days during or after the
official end of slavery when black people were being lynched? Was it the early part of the 20th
century when the Irish (immigrants!) were being discriminated against? Or Jews? Was it just before the Great Depression? Was it before women were allowed to vote? He couldn't have meant the 1970's––too much upheaval, plus that annoying war that we lost in Vietnam. Maybe it was the
1950’s, a time of such busy consumerism when abortion was still illegal, and
women had to search the female want-ads for underpaid jobs. I can speak to that era, and I don’t
want to go back.
Anyway,
it doesn’t matter. It’s only a
slogan, for God's sake. Words don’t matter. Most of his words (you know who I mean)
are lies.* Or if they’re not lies,
they are statements repeated from the last person or last group that influenced him. Intellectually vacuous as well as being an emotional infant, he needs to be right, to be the best, and to be the most
wonderful in all things, always. To be Great! (This is the Age of Superlatives! He is our very own Great Leader!) Demonstrably, he cannot deal with being laughed at, hence his need to
call mockers “losers.” There are
only “winners” in his world where right is wrong and up is down. Nice! (Mocking is too easy. We might all start
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| Not a lot of snow this year so far (ice, in this case) but still beautiful. |
I usually write about other things in winter–animal tracks in the snow, local things, adventures elsewhere–but I can’t seem to ignore this elephant-in-the-room monstrosity.
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| Ice again, near sunset |
It would be easy to
avoid seeing the human damage that will result from his reign, damage that is, in fact, already
happening, but I can’t manage to look away.
Syrian refugees, for example, are being frozen in place despite
having been interviewed and fully vetted by the National
Counterterrorism Center, the FBI's Terrorist Screening Center, and the
Departments of State, Defense and Homeland Security. Their fingerprints were
taken, biographical information collected. The process can take months, even years. Whole families, father, mother, children–they are Muslims! (Now if they were Christians, they would all be good people, as historical evidence has shown. Right?)
Worse, Republicans have made a Faustian bargain with Mr. Trump,
deciding that if going along by getting along will accomplish some of their
agenda, so be it. Never mind the
human cost. Think of it: what is
the real cost of going along with the notions (and they are notions, not
well-thought out ideas or policies) of this President? It means supporting a
person who cares not a whit about the natural world, our environment, or climate change, or public
education, or poor people (especially the black poor), or a healthy populace, and is uneducated and likely uninterested in the
economies and struggles of much of the rest of the world. He doesn’t read. He's a promoter, a showman, a seller of snake oil. Best of all, he is a creature of television. What does that tell you?
I’m going to take the dog for a walk. It’s still beautiful here.
Organizations
that need our help more than ever:
The
International Rescue Committee
Planned
Parenthood
Sierra
Club, 350.ORG, or just about any conservation organization, plus our National
Park System
*Re
lies: too many to recount
here. They are named everywhere.
