Trump Wants Me to Shut Up. I Won't.

And neither should you.

Photo by Anastase Maragos on Unsplash

It’s taken me a while to write this particular newsletter because, of all the horrors inflicted on the nation by the Trump Administration, this one is the most personal and painful and the one I am struggling with the most. I didn’t just want to write something off the cuff based on emotion, so I had to sit with it for a while and really contemplate what has already happened and what is soon to happen to us all.

In just three months, Trump has made it clear that he wants us to acquiesce in word and in deed about what is happening to our nation. Or else.

The news is more ominous for me than for many of you but eventually, it will be bad for everyone. Here is how it started and here is where it is inevitably going to go:

What is already happening

Almost as soon as he left the Capitol after taking the oath of office on January 20th, Donald Trump began the deportation of immigrants, regardless of whether they illegally crossed the border or whether they are asylum seekers or green card holders who play by the rules. The American public has largely approved of the job he is doing on immigration, with roughly 50% of respondents happy with his progress according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll released this week and another 60% supporting increased deportations of undocumented immigrants.

But there are warning signs.