See 2025

It’s the end of the year. Normally, I appreciate looking back, especially at pictures, remembering all of the moments, appreciating the opportunities to laugh, connect, enjoy the scenery and people. I can look at the pictures of visits with our children, extended family, friends, sights near and far, reliving the excitement and contentment of it all.  Unfortunately, this year has been different. Interspersed in these joyful occasions are photos of protests, people in our country pleading for mercy, Americans coming to grips with an America that’s un-American.

You can try to pretend. Pretend that 2025 wasn’t all bad–and it wasn’t, for some of us—but there are millions in the world and here at home who have a dissimilar reality. They suffer the consequences—daily—of our country’s “leaders”. Tell them all will be okay.

Tell it to the people being dragged off the streets, their children left behind, or, if unlucky enough to be present, zip-tied together in the street while their parents are dragged away. Americans and immigrants are being herded and stripped of their rights–well, except for the white immigrants. We even let one take over parts of the government and have access to all of our information, slicing through safeguards for our citizens, as well as people of other countries.

Tell it to the people who lost their jobs because it’s not important that we take care of other people or even our own citizens. We’ll spend more illegally arresting and deporting the “others”. We won’t worry, until the others are us.

Tell it to the Americans who are losing health care and/or can no longer afford it because we don’t value their health.

Tell it to the children who we refuse to feed or educate properly because we “can’t afford it.”

Tell it to our military who are being used to fight “wars” that don’t exist, at home and abroad, including illegal attacks on fishing vessels. Also, the military doesn’t need to be with their families. We can cut their numbers even more, so they can be spread even thinner.

Tell it to the institutions being renamed and simplified to a fraction of the amazing they once were–and given a multiple felon’s namesake.

Tell it to the people who can’t afford food, electricity…the basics.

See it in the banal vitriol spread by the president, vice-president, unqualified cabinet, and their likenesses, for instance, the head of the civil rights division of the DOJ calling people “hoes”. We’ve sunk to a low, unequaled in the history of intelligent discourse.

The list is long, and this is just a drop in the bucket of the absolute dissolution of American freedoms, not to mention our country’s support of other dictators around the world at the expense of our friends.

We are largely represented in our government by criminals, cowards, and grifters, watching as our country–while never perfect–falls to the hungry leeches of hate and materialism. Our own president (and I refuse to capitalize the titles of people who don’t deserve them) has grossly increased his personal wealth while people continue to praise his brand of fascism, which is, by the way, the same brand as every other wannabe dictator.

Do I have hope? Of course. I believe in the millions who have marched, protested, and refused to stand by. I believe in the organizations and individuals who have stepped in to take care of the men, women, and children, animals, climate, and so on, who have suffered since our unqualified administration has taken office. I believe in the Constitution, and while some courts have unfortunately forgotten their understanding of the law, many have not and fight on today. I also believe at some point, even the clowns who have cowered from living up to the expectations of their elected positions (meaning “for the people”) will finally take a stand and remove this administration from office because otherwise, we will lose.

Look at Nixon’s impeachment–obstruction of justice, abuse of power, and contempt of Congress. Trump managed all of those offenses in his first week, but he’s still here, still robbing America of its freedoms, money, integrity…its soul.

We cannot stand for it.