Can You #resist ?

Are you willing to #resist?  I am.  I know it is going to cost me dearly.  I'll lose friends, the respect of my peers, and maybe my job.  I have a lot to lose, but I think it's worth it.  I have to do something now.  This post is about my thought process that brought me to where I am now.

This is not some kind of revelation I had today while I was driving home from work.  I knew it was coming.  Look, I could just sit here, keep out of the line of fire, and wait for nature to take it's course, but I can't do that any longer.  I don't like what's happening today and I don't like the direction we're heading.  I want things to change.  And I want them to start changing now.  That's what this post is about and I desperately hope you'll feel the same way.  And I promise I won't hold it against you if you don't.  We're all entitled to our opinions and we should be comfortable with them.

I am not happy about the direction our country is heading.  I'm not just unhappy about it.  I'm downright scared and I'm angry about it.  Over the course of my life I've seen America change in many ways.  Change has come on many fronts and all of these changes have collectively shaped us as a society.  Some changes have been easy and some have been extremely painful for us, but in the end they were worth it.  We're changing again right now and I'm not so sure the pain is going to be worth it this time.

By now you've probably figured out that I'm talking about our new President.  I'd like to write a bunch of flowery prose here, but the short story is that I just don't trust this guy and I don't think he's going to do a good job for us.  I think he's going to hurt us and he's going to enjoy doing it.  There, I said it.  I don't think he's in this for us.  I think he's in it for himself.  To him it's all about winning and fueling his ego.  It's not about us.

And I'm worried.  Every day I see news about how he's rolled back protections for our environment, low income Americans, or immigrants who came here hoping to build a better life for themselves and their families.  These protections are not bad things.  If you think about it, you'd have a hard time convincing yourself that it's good to give big oil companies permission to pollute the environment. Or that the best way to help low income Americans is to discontinue their insurance and food subsidies that they wouldn't be able to afford otherwise.  Or that the refugees who are fleeing their homes to avoid watching their children die from a poison gas attack at the hands of their own government are all bad people and shouldn't be allowed to enter our country.  Common sense should tell us these things, but we've just stopped listening to common sense.  

At some point some of our ancestors were probably immigrants.  We wouldn't be here if some asshole had prevented them from coming to America because he/she was afraid of people who were different from them.  Just look at the inscription on the Statue of Liberty:

"Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

This isn't some kind of code.  Anyone can understand it.  There are no conditions here.  It is what it is and it is also what built the United States.

Ok, let's get back to #resist.  I don't like what our President is doing and I'm willing to pay the price for doing something about it.  If you want to know why I don't like it, then please read the other posts in my blog.  There are a lot of reasons and I'm not going to repeat all that stuff here.  That would be a lot of copying and pasting and, although it's worth the effort, I think you're smart enough to read it for yourself.

What am I willing to do to #resist?  I think we have a lot at stake here, so I'm willing to push the envelope and do whatever gets us some relief.  I feel strongly enough about this to sacrifice everything.  Things are good for me now, but they haven't always been that way.  I know what it's like to not know where your next meal is coming from or where you're going to sleep tonight.  I've been there and I didn't like it.  I'm willing to work hard to make sure someone else doesn't suffer that because of something our government did.

Hopefully you'll think about this yourself and figure out the best way for you to help.  If you're not willing to protest and go to jail as a result, that's OK.  If you can't call your Senator and tell him/her what you think because you want to spend that time with your kids, I understand.  If you think you'll lose your job over it, I understand.  If you just don't agree with me, I understand that too.  But if you just don't care enough to do anything about it because you think someone else will do it for you, then fuck you.  You deserve what you get.

Take action, whatever action you can take.  And #resist. Right now.