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Neighbors are being stolen by masked and unidentified ICE officers and being sent to El Salvador. Countless people have been deported without due process, which our Constitution promises to every person on American soil — person, not citizen. SNAP cuts are hurting hard-working local families. Tariffs are hurting local businesses. Civility has gone by the wayside. Medicaid cuts threaten millions. The democratic process is being attacked at multiple levels. Tanks roam Washington, DC, without justification, criminalizing the unhoused. Grocery prices rise. Billionaires bask in obscene wealth at the expense of working people like me and you.
It is disheartening to feel powerless right now. America is better than this. The soul of America is not as xenophobic, angry, uncaring, misogynistic or as racist as the behavior that the loudest and most brash people in the nation have been exhibiting without restraint for months. This country is becoming increasingly diverse and those typically in power are using any means necessary to fight that tide, as they lose grip on what they see as their natural born right to control this country. Ceding and sharing power is rarely peaceful, even if it is just.
I believe in the inherent goodness and promise of this country and of her people. I dream of an America where power and plentiful resources are shared equitably and where our constitution is upheld; it is possible. I acknowledge that we are imperfect, with bloodstains on our flag from African-Americans, women, Japanese-Americans, LGBTQIA folks, and other historically marginalized communities. We have had other tumultuous periods in history, and clearly we are in the midst of one now.
Despite the struggle, we cannot give up. You cannot give up. It is not an option. We cannot let hatred and division tear our cities or our country apart. America is for everyone– immigrant, refugee, queer, disabled, trans folks — America is yours too. To each of you who have attended a rally, written to an elected official, donated to a food bank, voted, reached out to a new neighbor, defended a marginalized person — thank you. You matter, your actions matter, and thank you for believing that this country is worth fighting for.
Keep going.
We are in the midst of almost unbearable national and communal pain as previously underground forces that seek to maintain White supremacy’s dying grip on power threaten our bonds to each other and to our nation. We must not let these bonds break, although we feel them bending. Remember, everyone is hurting–even those whose actions we neither understand nor condone while they fight to retain their solitary grip on power. Work to find compassion for them as people even as you fight against their actions.
From Maya Angelou in her poem On the Pulse of Morning:
“History, despite its wrenching pain
Cannot be unlived, but if faced
With courage, need not be lived again.
Lift up your eyes upon
This day breaking for you.
Give birth again
To the dream.”
Sam Doyle lives in Mountlake Terrace.
The views expressed here are those of the author.
Thank you Sam for being brave and writing this moving letter. So much of what you wrote is how many are feeling, including myself. After reading, I’m renewed and charged. This is our country, and Trump and his followers will not destroy what so many have fought for.