Facing Reality

I haven’t written here since January 6 because, frankly, I didn’t have the words. The very next day, January 7, Renee Good was murdered in Minneapolis. Within hours the character of this brave woman had also been assassinated by the government, and the circumstances of her murder twisted into lies. The man who shot her has not, to this day, been charged, prosecuted, or even disciplined. Meanwhile, an entire city is under siege while each day, more and more courageous people take to the streets in protest and band together to protect and provide basic necessities for their fellow residents who are in danger of detainment and deportation, and unable to leave their homes.

This is happening, unbelievably, in America. My original country, where my family has lived for centuries, for which ancestors of mine have fought in every single war, to protect freedom and democracy. A masked Gestapo is going door to door, in that America, unrestrained by the executive, by the courts, by Congress — and only opposed by the people themselves who are proving to be, as we are seeing, the beating heart of the demos and the last stand against tyranny. If I lived there, I would be with them.

But I am in Canada, a dual citizen of these two countries. As a Canadian, I was proud to hear and read Prime Minister Mark Carney’s speech yesterday to the world leaders at Davos, and I want to commend it to you. In his plain-spoken, direct remarks, Carney showed true leadership: not in empty platitudes or false hopes, but in stating the bald facts for what they are.

“We are in the midst of a rupture, not a transition.”

“The old order is not coming back.”

“What would it mean… ‘to live the truth’? First it means naming reality.”

Our prime minister is talking particularly to the countries he calls “the middle powers” — those with reasonable economies, but who are not Russia, China, or the U.S. But I want to turn his words about “naming reality” back to some of my American friends: liberal Democrats who have been living for a year in a state of denial, pretending that if they keep their heads down, things are going to go back to normal — that the midterms will turn it all around, that the Supreme Court will come to its senses, that Congress will grow a backbone, and all other sorts of magical thinking.

I am sorry, but if things continue as they are, there will be no midterms, let alone an election four years from now. You and people like you - legal American citizens with white skin - will be the next targets.

As Carney laid out in his speech, other countries cannot keep on pretending, or worse yet, capitulating or appeasing: they have to chart a strong course for their own security, stability, and economic viability, which will be far stronger if they collaborate than if each adopts a fortress mentality.

The same is true on the grassroots level. Individual people can do little, but together they have the power to stop this. Resistance by the people is going to be met with force and, potentially, violence, but a government that is already showing cracks and weaknesses cannot stand forever against it.

My friend M., who is from a Caribbean island - one of the places on the new revocation list for U.S. visa applications — sent me another piece today by an author from their country. He writes:

Under Trump, American foreign policy is unapologetically transactional. Power is exercised openly, leverage is used bluntly, and decisions are framed less around diplomacy than around perceived national advantage. A pragmatic observer would therefore neither be shocked nor indignant at the visa pause. What is truly laughable, however, is the daily spectacle of ideological hand-wringing—commentary that offers outrage in place of analysis and slogans instead of strategy.

This “ideological hand-wringing” is exactly what I have found so discouraging during the past year in much of the media, in the feeble response of the Democratic Party, and in conversations with friends. Each new assault on freedom, each excess of wealth and cronyism, each flaunting of the law is met with outrage and little else. It’s very tiring to hear complaints about the “illegality” of the administration’s actions. They don’t care about the laws; they have said plainly that they will push them to the limit, that the laws don’t apply to them.

If the murder of a peaceful white woman activist, and the increased unleashing of a ruthless, cruel, and faceless militia on the visible minorities in American communities, aren’t enough to motivate the most secure and untouchable people to finally act — with their feet on the streets, by holding the feet of their Congressional representatives to the fire, and strategizing to protect the most vulnerable in their own communities — then America has truly lost its core values. But I don’t believe that it has, as we are seeing in Minneapolis.

Here in Canada, I’m proud that our prime minster is showing real leadership and laying out a plan for others to consider. I also want to say that Canadians are appalled by what we are witnessing across the border, and that we are in solidarity with our American neighbors who are standing up for freedom, decency, and democracy. We are praying for you, thinking of you, supporting your efforts where we can, and doing everything we possible to protect our own democracy and to be a voice of freedom in this turbulent, changing world.

I feel glimmers of hope in all of this darkness. This moment must be seized and made the most of, and then the moment after that. It’s up to each one of us to do our part.