The Resistance
The truly unthinkable has happened. Last
Friday, the United States had its inauguration for the new President of the
United States was sworn into office. I will not dignify the man in question by
repeating his name here. I did not vote for him, and I do not feel he is fit to
serve as the President.
A dark cloud hung over the country that
day, literally and figuratively. Rain showers covered the Washington D.C. area. It was if the weather mirrored the mood of the country that day.
I dreaded the eventuality of that man becoming
the next President of the United States. There were measures that could have
been taken to ensure that the day would never come. However, those measures
were not done. It was an inevitability.
I was determined that I would have
nothing to do with the inauguration. I remember that I woke up, turned on my
television, and chose a TV station that would not be showing inauguration
coverage. I did not want my television to show
I was watching it when I was
determined to have no part of it. I then took to watching streaming content all
day on Netflix. It was brilliant. I avoided the entire thing.
As dark a day as Friday was, Saturday was
a day full of light and love. There was
a women’s march on Washington, D.C. that
day, which was to send a clear message to the new President, on a variety of
issues:
Sexual
assault-reproductive rights-LGBTQ rights-civil rights-disability rights-environmental
justice
Similar events were held in cities across
the United States that day. I was not able to attend any of the festivities.
However, I have several family members that took part in their local marches. They
spoke of it being a peaceful event of protest, love and unity.
Planners for the march on Washington,
D.C. estimated that 250,000 would be participating in the event that day.
However, the actual number of participants was 1 million.
One million Americans went to Washington,
D.C. to protest and march in solidarity and unity. The number of Americans
across the country participating in marches across the country was 3.5 million.
After the march had ended, I learned that
several marches had taken place in other countries across the globe. In fact,
there were sister marches on every continent, including Antarctica. Their
numbers total 4.5 million.
Upon his inauguration, the new U.S.
President declared he would be starting the job on Monday morning, January 23,
2017, as he doesn’t work weekends. However, under the terms of the Presidency,
as soon as you are sworn in to the position, you are on the clock, working as
the new President.
In the three days he’s been in office,
he’s written 10 executive orders, all of which have disastrous consequences in
health care, women’s reproductive rights, environmental protections, hiring
practices, and more. Here is a list of the executive orders the new President
has signed, so far….
Today it is reported that the new
President will begin the funding process to build a wall between Mexico and
America, as well as tighten restrictions on immigration and refugees allowed
into the United States.
For those outside of the United States,
Americans do not vote directly for President. We cast our vote, which then
assigns electors from one of the two parties to vote for President. The vote of
the people is the “popular vote.” The vote made by the electors from each state
is the “electoral vote.” The current President won the electoral vote. However
he lost the popular vote. By 3 million votes. That has never happened in the history of the United States.
While it was a slim margin, the
majority of the United States voted for the candidate in the Democratic party.
Yet she did not win the Presidency. I say this to you now to prove that not all
Americans voted for our current President. In fact, more Americans did not vote
for him than did.
For the section of America that did not
vote for the current President, who opposes his racist policies, his
demagoguery, and everything he stands for, there is a name for us-besides “the
majority of the United States”; we are called:
“The Resistance.”
Individuals, reporters,
news agencies, and more are declaring themselves members of the resistance. Of
members of the Resistance, Keith Olbermann is my favorite
For months now I have heard many
supporters of the new President make statements like: "He was just saying whatever he had to to get elected." "He does not believe that." “He will not really do
that.” “Give him a chance to govern.” “It will not be as bad as it sounds.”
Many of those same individuals are now incensed at what the new President has
done in his short term in office.
To all of the supporters who made
statements like those, it’s not even been a week yet. He believes that climate
change is a hoax concocted by the Chinese. He built his candidacy on a racist
platform. He is prejudiced against everyone that is unlike him. He called
Mexicans rapists and murderers. He wants to begin a Muslim registry and deport
every illegal immigrant currently in the United States. He advocates for
torture. He is against the LGBTQ community. He openly mocked a physically
disabled reporter that asked him a question at an event. He has bragged about
grabbing women by their genitalia. Did you not believe all of these statements?
What did you expect would happen?
In regards to his short time in the White House, sources report that the President has some peculiar habits:
"One person who frequently talks to Trump said aides have to push back privately against his worst impulses in the White House, like the news conference idea, and have to control information that may infuriate him. He gets bored and likes to watch TV, this person said, so it is important to minimize that."
It would appear that the President of the United States, the leader of the free world, has a personality and mental status similar to that of a toddler. If this truly is the case, the world is in trouble.
Many of us in the United States are
unhappy with the current President. Personally, I am horrified that we are in this situation right now. This President has never held any public office. He has never been a mayor, a senator, or a dog catcher for that matter. The President is in opposition to
anything that is white and male. He opposes anything that is different.
There are several lawsuits against the
current President. It was also rumored that foreign nations had a hand in
espionage to influence the election. An investigation of this claim is already
underway. If there is anything illegal with the results of the election, with his
business practices, with anything he has done, the President can be impeached. That is what I would like to see happen.
Many in the country, however, want a more
permanent solution to the problem. Many in the U.S. are praying for the current
President to be assassinated. I must go on record and say that I do not want
that to happen. I do not wish the current President any harm. I simply do not
want him to be my president.
If the current President were to be
impeached, the job of the Presidency would go to the Vice President of the
United States, who is Mike Pence, former governor of Indiana. Being a resident
of Indiana, I am familiar with the policies of Mr. Pence. Like the current
President, he is against the LGBTQ community, and is against women’s reproductive
rights.
However, Mr. Pence is not a racist
demagogue. He has not proposed deporting 12 million immigrants. He has not
proposed a registry of Muslim Americans. While he is not the perfect choice for
President by any means, in my opinion,
I would prefer Pence be President,
rather than the current one.
If you identify as being in the resistance, there are steps you can take right now to make a difference:
In the Women’s March this past weekend,
many Americans carried signs to express their positions on policies, as well as
their discontent. Many signs bore the image of Carrie Fisher, who played
Princess Leia in the Star Wars movies, who was head of the resistance fighters. Here are some of the
pictures of Carrie Fisher used in the marches this weekend:
If you ask me
where I stand in the current political climate in the United States, in case
there are any doubts, I will declare it right here and now. I am a member of
the resistance.
-photo by Vanessa Witter
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