In Times Like These

Has anyone ever seen times like these: a President with no regard for truth or respect for the rule of law, a Congress of Party-men turning a blind eye to our government’s downfall for the sake of their petty goals, a media bifurcated into opposing camps with separate realities and a public too shallow to glean fact from fiction. We live in an age where hyperbole is understatement and the dangers to our society are imminent but invisible. The question that surfaces time and time again, more often as an excuse than an inquiry, is: What can I do about it?

Without a true historical precedent, the answer is elusive, yet history is where our thoughts should lie. What would I have done? That’s the question we often ask when we read about the pivotal periods of history. Would I have marched against segregation? Would I have taken up arms in the Civil War on the side of my neighbors or of my country? Would I have risked a beating to march in the streets to demand women be given the right to vote? We’ve all read the stories of the courageous souls who put their bodies on the line for what was right and their actions have given them some immortality. More importantly, they made the world a better place. We all wonder what we would have done if we lived in such tumultuous times. Perhaps we do.

It’s easy to believe that we are all caught in the mundane and commonplace if only because we are in it. But if history is any guide, we are no longer in the everyday; we are in the moment of decision. An administration under investigation (by a Special Counsel) for colluding with a foreign power to affect the outcome of our election. A President who has all but admitted obstructing that investigation. And the Party in power behind him complicit in it all with their obfuscations and dismissals, intent on using their ill-gotten position of power to enact legislation woefully unpopular among the populace. It’s time to consider how we all want to be remembered in history.

Can anyone still doubt that history will look back on this moment as a betrayal of our country by a group of privileged and mean-spirited men? 120 days into the Trump Presidency and we are rocked by scandals, with executive orders squashed by the courts, an unwinding of much of the social progress made in the last half-century, with nothing but plans for worse to come. The writing on the proposed wall couldn’t be any more clear and we all need to take a step back to take it in.

What can you do? You can decide to be on the right side of history. You can speak up, call out those who enable this travesty to continue. Voice your anger to those in power and hold them accountable at every opportunity. Use the most powerful tool ever given to a people: vote. Vote in a fair and democratic election and make sure everyone else does the same. Help those who need to register; stop those who try to deny a citizen their voice. It’s a new time but it requires an old solution. Power to the people.

Contact your Congressperson.