After 100 days of President Trump’s reign, his stack of executive orders and office appointments is bearing poisonous fruit for America and the international community. I recognize the signs of a regime that is abandoning its people, losing sight of human rights and vision for the planet. This is not the USA I have known.
Resistance is laborious, like swimming upstream. My email is flooded with petitions, requests for donations, and phone numbers to call to protest the unethical “deals” made by a president who behaves like an unprincipled car-lot salesman. Comfort comes from seeing that the ranks of the disenchanted are increasing.
My counter is simple and ordinary. I carry on signing petitions, calling Congress, and marching in protest. I join protests against the reduction of the EPA staff and the dispersing of scientific information, the defunding of education, the xenophobic policies toward Muslims as well as economic and political refugees, and new attempts to destroy a health care system. A narrow-minded political party has lost its moral authority as its votes say no to progress. I take heart watching the swell of protests that mounts up, slowly aiming to drown misguided actions.
It may be a long road; my course is not heroic. I have faith that Aesop’s tortoise will win the race. This is the time to stay persistent and steady, and to work on restoring progress and respect for life and dignity.
(First published on PersimmonTree.org)