Stop the King of Lies and Rip-offs From Being the King of US

What Can I Do? Is Not an Assumption of Hopelessness but A Driver of Reflection and Action

This morning, the sky was partly cloudy, after one of the wettest springs in history, with a grey haze from Canadian fires. Still, a cardinal and a vireo were singing. Outside my office, the rhododendron flowers had turned brown and were falling off the bush, but the roses were very alive with a deep red color.

But in our human realm, news reports set a very threatening tone to the day. This began at a news conference earlier in the week, when Senator Alex Padilla, Democrat from California, tried to ask a question of DT’s Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem. As he tried to take a step forward to be heard, identifying himself as a US Senator (the ranking member of the Judiciary Committee on Immigration), Noem’s security detail stopped him, shoved him to the ground, where he was handcuffed and forcibly taken from the room.

Later, the Senator explained he had repeatedly asked DHS for information on their increasingly extreme actions against immigrants but had not received answers. He said, “If this is how this administration… the DHS responds to a senator with a question, you can only imagine what they’re doing to farm workers, to cooks, to day laborers, throughout the LA community and throughout California and throughout the country.”

Since June 6, mostly nonviolent protests continued in LA, after having been met not only with police but soldiers, National Guard troops sent in by DT against the explicit direction of California Governor Newsom. This was an even more unrestrained repeat of DT’s militarized response in 2020  to protests against the killing of George Floyd. And, as in 2020, the possibly illegal deployment of troops only served to inflame the situation further.

And on the morning of Saturday, June 14^th, in their Minnesota home, Melissa Hortman, a Democratic state representative and her husband were assassinated, in a politically targeted killing. The assailant also shot a second Democratic lawmaker and his wife multiple times, but they both thankfully remain alive as of now.  When DT was asked by a reporter if he would call Minnesota Governor Walz, he responded with more spite than any semblance of truly caring. “Well, it’s a terrible thing. I think he’s a terrible governor,” ABC News reported Trump said. “I think he’s a grossly incompetent person. But I may, I may call him, I may call other people too.” As of Sunday, he hadn’t called the Governor.

Starting Saturday morning, a “Celebration” in Washington D.C., with a military parade in the evening, honoring the 250^th anniversary of the US Army⎼ and the birthday of the King of Lies. But across 200 cities covering most of the country, a NO KINGS demonstration at 1:00. Also later in the day, a Gay Pride event and a Juneteenth remembrance.

The events presented a dramatic contrast. The military parade celebrated not only the courage and sacrifice of soldiers, but the ego and self-centeredness of DT. In anticipation and messaging, it was frightening; but it turned out to be a sad and not well attended event.

The NO KINGS protests were attended by millions. They were both serious and fun, concerned for the rights and future for all of us⎼ compassionate yet defiant of DT’s attempts to destroy democracy, to mistreat and remove immigrants of color, and undermine any government agencies and policies that protect the well-being of the mass of citizens, like healthcare, Social Security, SNAP, and education.

The protests were peaceful yet energizing. Walking toward the park where the protest was to begin was like joining a very loud river of emotion. An embrace, if you were open to it. And later a march to the main road in the city, lining it with thousands of people for a “honk and wave” event, protestors joining with passing motorists in a loud expression of defiance. Signs shouted, “NO Kings! NOT then, NOT now.” “Trump and Company: Stop Fueling Violence.” “WE THE PEOPLE means EVERYONE.” “A Country of lies, fear, and hate does NOT make America great.” “FREEDOM of SPEECH- USE IT or LOSE IT.” “Stop the King of Lies and Rip-offs from being the KING of U. S.”

A demonstration like this is like a school. Not only can we learn specific facts, (to be researched later on); but also camaraderie. Cooperation. We create a spontaneous community within a community, building each other up to discover our courage and the care to stand up, not only for our own future but for the future and present of so many others. Fear is not only a warning of perceived danger but a motivator to turn away from something. Courage, as many have said, is not about being fearless, but about acting despite or because of our fear.

The mark of a great demonstration is not only how it energizes people for a cause, and how it encourages participants to treat each other in the demonstration, but how we treat people outside the protest group and after it’s over.

There were chants, like “This is what democracy looks like.”  And “we are the people we’ve been waiting for.” Millions joined in the protests and marches on this day.

Afterwards, I was reminded of a section of The Book of Joy: Lasting Happiness in a Changing World, a record of conversations between the Dalai Lama and Archbishop Desmond Tutu, narrated by Douglas Abrams. It was published in 2016, just before DT’s first inauguration. At one point Abrams recounts psychologist and Auschwitz survivor Edith Eva Eger remembering that those prisoners, including children, who had not learned how to save themselves or take action for their well-being, but expected others to act for them, were the first to die. I shuddered to hear that, and shudder now to think there might be a similarity with us, today. Except with us, today, we’ll all rise together, or lose our rights and humanity together. There’s no one but ourselves who will come to save us.

We’ve become so familiar with the question, What can I do? But this cannot be understood as simply expressing, certainly not as assuming, hopelessness or lack of power. It must never stop there. It must be taken in as an honest yet persistent, expanding question that drives us to discover new aspects of ourselves, new contacts with others, and new answers. That drives us to save ourselves and our world.

—

All images courtesy of author