The Resistance. My friend Regan first brought it to my attention in an email on December 19, a full month before the inauguration. The Resistance. It recalls the scrappy human soldiers in the futuristic clips from the Terminator movie franchise. Nicaragua’s Sandinista freedom fighters in the seventies. My college roommate Tom commandeering the microphone at an outdoor music festival and shouting “F*ck the administration!” into the night.
The Resistance. I see it with a hashtag on Facebook, my only social media. Memes, funny or serious, sometimes both; long testimonials from fired federal employees; concerned diatribes from health care workers and aid organizations; linked articles of Elon Musk with his chainsaw. I sat on my hands and waited, too shocked and disgusted to throw my hat into the ring, to throw my opinions out into the world.
Last month, that abruptly changed. My country’s president blamed Ukraine for the Russian invasion. He called Volodymyr Zelensky a dictator. He cozied up to our chief adversary in a way seemingly torn from the pages of Orwell’s 1984. He tried to extort a mafia-esque protection tax from a European ally. A paragraph in an op-ed by David Ignatius summed up my feelings succinctly:
Trump is an outrage-generating machine. He appears to take perverse pleasure in saying things that shock, and I normally ignore the daily presidential detonation. But this time was different. The tragic loss of life in Ukraine will mean nothing — and a true resolution of the conflict will be impossible — if we can’t distinguish between the attacker and the victim.
I posted this quote on Facebook and officially joined #TheResistance, one of the vocal millions pointing out the dangerous absurdities happening in Washington. It’s not enough, but it’s a start. On Wednesday night, I emailed my congressional representative and both senators (two Republicans and a Democrat):
As a constituent, I’d like to request that you stand up against President Trump’s rule by decree method of governance and insist on a return to our established (and legal) parliamentary procedures and legislative process that have been in use for 250 years.
I posted on Facebook about Coke v. Pepsi in the DEI war: PepsiCo has vowed to rollback their diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives. Coca-Cola has reaffirmed theirs. Drink Coke!
I fully expect pushback on this controversial topic. I’m unconcerned. I have a secret weapon. Last week, a friend suggested that when someone tells me they oppose DEI, I should challenge them. I should ask, specifically, what they dislike: Diversity, Equity or Inclusion? Make them say it. “I’m against diversity. I’m against inclusion.”
The Resistance is about truth. The Resistance is about education. The Resistance is about conversation. The only solution is to point out the absurd, the inconsistent and the hate.
Join The Resistance.
Equality v. Equity
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Previously Published on jefftcann.com and is republished on Medium.
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Photo credit: iStock
