“The party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command.” (George Orwell, 1984) This was supposed to be a warning, not a playbook. I recently watched several videos of the killing of Renee Nicole Good. This was a comment written in response to one of those videos.
ICE is playing judge and jury in our streets before our eyes. It is horrifying and we wonder how this can possibly be happening in the United States. Look no further than the Supreme Court’s decision on immunity.
Donald Trump will say all that is happening is in the name of “national defense.” This has no doubt fed Trump’s response when asked if there were any limits on his global powers: “Yeah, my own morality, my own mind. It’s the only thing that can stop me. I don’t need international laws, I’m not looking to hurt people.” Not only is he ignoring international law, he is behaving as if the Constitution doesn’t exist.
As for his claim that he is not looking to hurt people, well, that flies in the face of the harm that is taking place across this country due to his policies as well as his actions internationally: people are not only being hurt, they are being targeted in the courts, they are starving, they are being bankrupted, and yes, they are being killed. We are left to trust a president who professes that the only limitation to his power is his own morality? That is terrifying.
This is a man who operates on a transactional basis: if there’s nothing in it for him, there is nothing. The “peace deals” he is so fond of referencing are not peace deals at all, they are real estate deals: they are not negotiations, they are extortions of resources, they are coercive threats. This is a man who demands loyalty and if you step out of line he will do everything he can to discredit and destroy you. There are many people in this wake of retribution. He tells us his “morality” is the only thing that will stop him? I urge you to look up writer Robert Arnold’s YouTube site addressing Trump’s pattern of judgment for further clarification. It is well worth your time.
How long will the Republican-led House and Senate continue to look the other way? Have they all become deaf and blind? The guardrails are falling and they’re falling fast. We the People are now called upon to become “moral first responders” as Tara Setmayer of The Seneca Project recently stated. It is up to us to make our voices heard: loudly, consistently, peacefully, and in every way possible.
“Change is not a spark, but heat sustained over time.” Robert Arnold.
Jane Shaney is a retired public school guidance counselor who lives in Shelburne Falls.