I don’t know a lot right now. The world is on a precipice, most notably, the ongoing administrative coup in the U.S. “Administrative” makes it sound like we are being taken over by binders and checklists. Instead, we’ve had flagrant law breaking by Donald Trump, who told us he was going to be horrible not to mention being horrible in his first term, ending it with a violent coup attempt. Somehow, enough people voted for him, anyway.

One of my psychologist friends who is originally from Ukraine, immigrated to the U.S. as a child, when the then U.S.S.R. allowed some Jews to leave the country. My friend told me that to protect their safety, her parents could not tell her that they were leaving the country until the day they left. She remarked to me that living in the U.S.S.R. was different than the U.S. because there was no sense that laws, police, or other institutions offered any stability or protection.

The U.S. has always offered more safety to some people than others. However, with a strong democracy, there were mechanisms in place to evolve toward a more just and inclusive multi-cultural society. The Trump administration has been attacking our democracy at alarming speed. Federal government workers are being fired en masse, departments are being dismantled, money is being sucked out of our government, and our personal data is being mined by young tech super fans of Elon Musk. Incompetent and malevolent people are being put in charge of cabinet positions. They are the worst people for the job that you could possibly imagine. The President is putting tariffs on foreign products including China and he insists that the lack of ships in major port cities like LA and Seattle is “good” because “it will save us money.” Talk of invading Greenland and making Canada our 51st state are discussed on a daily basis. ICE agents are kidnapping people off of the streets and out of their homes claiming that they are in this country illegally. Even if they were, this would be against the law and our Constitution. All of it is illegal. Everything that I love about the U.S. and humanity, in general, are under attack.

I don’t know how this will play out. How long will it take for “We, the People”, to reclaim this democracy. Will it take months, years, or decades? What I do know is that a lot of regular U.S. citizens are rising to the ideal of “We, the People”. The resistance is stronger this time and thank goodness, has been non-violent so far. We are using a wider variety of resistance strategies, not just marches. We are calling our representatives, boycotting companies, and there are unions who have begun general work strikes. In terms of company boycotts, Tesla has been internationally boycotted and it is working! I also see our historically allied countries banding together and standing up. I am cheering them on.

I have been spending the last several years identifying my democracy priorities as well as identifying the resources I have that are best suited to them. A huge asset that I have in terms of civil resistance is my anonymity, level of education, age, race, and relative financial security. I am not a high profile person. I am smart and can learn about the best people and institutions to follow for effective leadership in resistance. Although I work, I am an empty nester and I have more time and less family responsibility than I had in the past.

Finally, I know that in all of this ongoing and impending disaster, there is something beautiful to see or experience every day.

Be well, Friends,

Elizabeth