A waggish friend of mine once described Television news this way: "Good evening Ladies and Gentlemen, here is today's news. It's worse than you thought. Good night." We might describe almost any news this way today, certainly not limited to Television, which by the way is less and less the medium through which anyone under the age of 65 gets their daily dose of dyspepsia.
I confess that I neither read the daily newspaper we continue to receive, newsprint being an excellent material for cleaning windows, nor do I watch TV, except for an hour or two in the evening and then only to stream something meaty and worthwhile. All my news comes online and even then is via apps that I have carefully curated to feature information in which I am particularly interested. Despite this, a fair amount of general news creeps in and almost invariably the headlines are designed to grab one's attention with some shocking statement.
It has gotten so bad that Reddit, a social media feed I peruse from time to time has a thread called Not The Onion. For those who may be unfamiliar, The Onion is a satirical online newspaper that features absurd headlines followed by ginned up articles so far beyond the pale that the sardonic humor is readily apparent. More often of late, the real headlines posted by the media have so shocked one's senses with their extreme and bizarre unreality that at first glance they easily could be confused as satire. Sadly they are anything but.
To be clear, this is not a post taking the media to task. There is nothing at all new about the extremes to which the media have gone to grab the attention of the public, and given how little anyone reads these days beyond memes and headlines it is no wonder they have gone to even greater lengths to vie for attention. If we are pointing fingers at anyone it is at the cast of characters presently in office and those not-in-the-shadow henchmen of theirs who no longer repress their darkest thoughts but proudly strut them on the public stage. This, I presume, is both a part of the shock and awe phase of the current administration's transformation of our country, and the license lawmakers feel in voicing their heretofore barely hidden animus and prejudice.
Reactions to the above seem to fall into one of several categories. Some of course, who have aligned themselves with the views and actions being taken are cheering it on, and will continue to do so unless or until the words and actions are leveled at them. There is nothing so awakening as a sharp stick in the eye. Others attempt to refrain from ingesting the news in the hope it will all go away. And yet many more, of which I must admit I am one, watch as all pretense of ethics, morality, empathy or decency are trampled underfoot. But watching and waiting is not a course of action that will alter the trajectory of the administration. They are counting on apathy, indecision and fear to keep us silent.
Neither should we expect a saviour to arrive, or an end to this daily barrage of unprecedented bad news. We must save ourselves if there is any hope of slowing or stopping the onslaught. Wringing our hands is not the order of the day. Nor am I suggesting insurrection but rather massive and sustained resistance. Contrary to claims of a mandate, we must remember that a tiny percentage of votes ushered in the current administration and the number of voters who refrained from exercising their opinions by voting for either candidate were more than a third of those eligible. Those who oppose the views and actions unfolding today are hardly a minority, and their ranks are growing daily as more and more Americans are disenfranchised.
Resistance means more than waiting to vote in the midterms--it seems quite conceivable that elections may themselves fall victim by the time we can take action. It means more than attending a protest, although numbers matter, as signs of solidarity and as visible evidence of our unwillingness to accept oligarchic rule. It means more than writing and calling one's representatives who appear to offer little resistance themselves, are too afraid of losing their sinecures or are in not so silent agreement with their would-be monarch.
Resistance means speaking out at any and every opportunity to discredit actions which deprive any of us of our Constitutional rights. It means denouncing the outright abuse of power and demonization of those whose only crime is seeking what freedoms we seem to have willingly ceded. Resistance is not violating the law but insisting on its application to every action taken that infringes upon it. Resistance demands giving voice whenever and wherever our precious foundations are being attacked.
Many have likened the present circumstances to those that led to one of the most successful fascist reigns in modern history. Can it happen in our country in this day? It can and will if we are silent, if we do not make clear our unwillingness to stand by --even if we ourselves are not yet affected by the diminution of our rights and citizenship. The world is watching us as it watched history unfold 85 years ago, watching and waiting to see what we will do, who we really are.
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