Resistance and Resilience

“A year later, the white backlash had become an emotional electoral issue in California, Maryland and elsewhere. In several southern states men long regarded as political clowns had become governors or only narrowly missed election, their magic achieved with a witches’ brew of bigotry, prejudice, half-truths and whole lies.” Martin Luther King, Jr., writing a year after the passage of the 1965 Voting Rights Act

I’m trying to ignore as much of the Donald Trump show as possible, refrain from going ballistic every time he announces another pick for a top advisor or Cabinet post; it was a foregone conclusion in my mind that Trump would surround himself with odious people -- most, if not all, of them card-carrying members of the political Establishment. Team Trump is going to look like a rogue's gallery of wing-nuts and whack-jobs.

What is to be done? How the hell should I know, I’m just one unarmed American trying to make his way in Fat City, pay the rent on time, and get the bill collectors from Cottage Hospital off our tails; I live with the fact that my children will struggle to get a foothold in the current version of America.

People of goodwill and sane leanings must resist Trump at every turn, in ways small and large; we shouldn’t normalize Trump as the corporate media does every day -- we should speak the truth, know the facts, and take whatever non-violent action we can; we should identify what we want our country to look like, how we want it to function, at home and abroad. For me it’s not complicated: justice is the centerpiece, followed by moderation. Political extremism hasn’t served us well.

Slowing climate disruption has to be a priority because we are running short of time. If we think our wars and destabilization efforts in the Middle East and elsewhere have produced a lot of refugees, just wait, there will be many more to come when the harsher effects of climate disruption hit. We need real investment in decent paying jobs and infrastructure, reasonably priced education and health care; we need to stop talking about “entitlements” as if they are a scourge -- Americans who have worked all their lives shouldn’t have to worry about Social Security and Medicare being there when needed, Paul Ryan be damned.

I want my country to be more humane, a hundred times less bellicose, and more honest with itself. Let’s admit that the War on Terror has failed and stop using it to justify every manner of abhorrent behavior; let’s get out of Afghanistan, once and for all, we’ve done enough damage in that ruined country. Let’s stop using NATO expansion to provoke Russia. Let’s shrink our military footprint around the world, pack up and get out of Japan and Germany and Italy and Turkey. Let’s stop paying insane amounts of money for armaments. Let’s drop Obama’s dumb scheme to modernize our nuclear weapons. Let’s close Guantanamo.

In the immediate future we will need wisdom as well as courage, and my humble suggestion to my countrymen and women is that we look to our African American brothers and sisters, living and dead, for inspiration. Who understands resistance and resilience more completely than African Americans? So, let’s look to WEB Dubois, Richard Wright, Ida B. Wells, Dr. King, Malcolm X, James Baldwin, Angela Davis, Toni Morrison, Isabel Wilkerson, Michelle Alexander, Cornel West, and Ta-Nehisi Coates, to name just a few African American thinkers, artists, and activists that can help us move ahead.

This isn’t a time to sound retreat and flee; this is a time to fight -- in whatever way each of us can -- for justice. The stakes are sky high.