Today is January 21, 2025, in America.
Yesterday’s shockwaves from Washington, D. C., left me with a crazy image of the incoming administration. It was literally coming in, like a huge strangely encrusted, blinking meteorite.
Four years ago we thought we had blasted it back out into space, but lo and behold, here it was, circling the Earth and dropping debris the whole time. In early November it suddenly swerved out of orbit and slowly headed down. As it got closer, some folks on the ground tied flags to their trucks and drove around town getting attention, just in case the meteorite carried dominant beings seeking favor.
At the same time, others of us were concerned about protecting our families and homes, and tried to persuade the truckers to seek shelter or at least to help us send the looming thing back out into space.
In time, it became clear that this meteorite was a cover for a crew of invading aliens ready to take over the planet on Day One of the new calendar, and so they did.
Our lives have just been stolen and sold.
Of course, I and others I know are determined not to cooperate with the newly installed powers, because our human values haven’t changed.
For those of us outside the knot of thieves, what does “not cooperating” look like? It’s not passive. It’s not despairing. It’s not complaining, or self-justifying. All these negatives!
But this is not new. During the past decade our task has been to oppose, and it still is. Just last week, opinion columnist Jennifer Rubin left the Washington Post and co-founded The Contrarian, a Substack blog.
Yesterday Rubin asked her guest, Ruth Ben-Ghiat,
What are a few key things that members of the resistance can do in their ordinary lives?
Ben-Ghiat answered,
We can do something every day for democracy. When you see local and state leaders standing up for what’s right, it’s really important to reach out and tell them you care. They need to know they’re supported.
We can also learn about and share the reality of what’s going on. Some people won’t want to listen, but we can have these conversations. It doesn’t have to be directly about politics. Briefly engage with someone, even a stranger, every day. It helps to reinforce our civil society.
These are just two of the powerful ideas that are coming together right now to help strengthen the American Resistance in defense of democracy. Please add more to the Comments below.
When we stand together, we help each other stay standing, in body and spirit.
I, also, am at a loss for words. Thank you, Deda, for your ability to make us think and to act.
Thank you for your words. I am a a loss for mine right now.