Our democracy is threatened. We watch in horror as fake news fills the airwaves, amplifying the bizarre shouts of an aspiring dictator who will suddenly, we are calmly told by smiling TV reporters in Christmas pajamas, have tremendous power over our lives. What happened to checks and balances? Where are our brave journalists, our smart politicians, our firewalls against fascism? Suddenly it hits us, one by one: we better save ourselves, because nobody else is going to save us. We will save ourselves, but it won't be an easy fight. There is only one force potent enough to defeat Trump and his cronies: civil disobedience. People power. Our fair election system has been hijacked, our free press is asleep, our Supreme Court has been nullified, our Congress is hopelessly corrupt. The only recourse we have left is the one used so effectively by Emmeline Pankhurst, Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King: our courage and our conviction when we fight together. We the people must realize that the political climate has radically changed, and that we are all suddenly facing a gigantic choice. Either we sit back and become complicit with an evil fascist regime, or we put our lives on the line for a righteous cause. Times are about to get tough in the United States of America. Well, when times are tough the tough get tougher. It's on us, all of us, to defend our right to be free, to defend our right to be humane. It's not clear how we will take down the politicians who are now scheming to transform our country into a dictatorship that commits war crimes without concern and favors the wealthy while enslaving the rest. But we will take the Trump regime down, and we will do so with nonviolent resistance. Impeachment? Secession? Revolution? All of these choices must be considered. The only choice we cannot consider is shutting our eyes and ears as the full horror of fascism takes hold. This is a scary moment in history, but we will find that miracles await us as our fight proceeds. Here's a poem, 'Archaic Torso of Apollo' by Rainer Maria Rilke, to help light our way.
where the eyes' apples slowly ripened. Yet
his torso glows: a candelabrum set
before his gaze which is pushed back and hid,
restrained and shining. Else the curving breast
could not thus blind you, nor through the soft turn
of the loins could this smile easily have passed
into the bright groins where the genitals burned.
Else stood this stone a fragment and defaced,
with lucent body from the shoulders falling,
too short, not gleaming like a lion's fell;
nor would this star have shaken the shackles off,
bursting with light, until there is no place
that does not see you. You must change your life.