Since Trump took office, he, his cabinet of billionaires, and Elon Musk have created an overwhelming sense of chaos. Each day, announcements of a new attack on a new group of people or a new agency have crashed over us like relentless storm surges. It has created an atmosphere filled with fear, anger, or sometimes both.
They started by attacking the most vulnerable sections of the population. They preyed on undocumented immigrants and instilled fear through massive raids. People who were just trying to live and survive, sometimes entire families, were indiscriminately detained and deported.
Then it was the stripping of legal rights and healthcare access for transgender people, especially targeting young trans people, banning them from playing sports at their schools. This is an attack on their freedoms and is a bullying tactic against people who do not fit into their narrow view of what is normal.
Then they attacked all federal workers, many of whom are responsible for keeping essential services and programs running. They attacked workers as being inefficient and urged people to quit, work elsewhere, or else be fired. More than 200,000 workers have been fired and an equal number have quit or retired.
They also cut federal grants, targeting massive scientific and medical research efforts. Now, pursuing scientific studies that may improve the health and quality of life of millions of people is not acceptable. They have attacked the pursuit of education, laying off 1,300 Department of Education workers, with the goal of shutting down the Department altogether.
The attacks have extended to punishing any people, particularly young people, who express concern about the violence and oppression we are facing. Mahmoud Khalil, a student at Columbia University, who was active in the opposition to the genocidal war on the Palestinian people, has been arrested without any criminal charge and is being threatened with deportation, even though he is a Permanent Resident (green card holder). The administration is making an example of what happens when people speak out. Columbia University is now following demands made by the Trump administration. They expelled and suspended students and revoked diplomas of others. They let ICE raid student rooms in university housing. The institutions that claim to pursue progress and knowledge are turning on their own communities in the name of maintaining their funding. Sixty other universities are also being investigated.
These are attacks on our most basic freedoms: the freedom of speech, assembly, and even thought! Today, the attacks are focused on these small groups of people or institutions. But these attacks affect us all! By setting these precedents, they can criminalize whomever they deem a threat to those who profit off of our division.
Trump’s cabinet of billionaires makes it clear who is leading these assaults and what class they serve. They need to create divisions and instill fear in order to control the majority of us. They are picking us off like prey, chipping away at our rights, hoping to make us too afraid and divided to fight back.
These attacks are not isolated from each other! And they aren’t only targeting marginalized groups of people. We are only as safe as our most vulnerable – which means we are all vulnerable. We have a duty to protect each other. And we have no choice but to protect each other if we want a society that is worth living in.
Our lives are linked whether we see and know each other, because collectively we are the ones who really run society. Not only here in the U.S., but around the world.
Once we see that our challenges and concerns are not isolated issues, we can unify our struggles and unify our response against this billionaire class. We may be impacted in different ways, but the attacker is the same. We must fight back against the billionaires exploiting and disposing of us for their profits. When someone injures us, we must disarm our attacker and stop them from injuring anyone else! We can only do that together. Some have already begun.
Howard Zinn – activist and peoples’ historian wrote:
PEOPLE ARE PRACTICAL
They want change but feel powerless, alone,
do not want to be the blade of grass that
sticks up above the others and is cut down.
They wait for a sign from someone else
who will make the first move, or the second.
And at certain times in history
there are certain intrepid people who take the risk
that if they make that first move others will follow
quickly enough to prevent their being cut down.
And if we understand this, we
might make that first move…
