Which Side Are You On?
You cannot be neutral, and be a decent human being
,The Trump Administration, via the thugs and goons of Kristi Noem’s fascist militia, aka ICE, has this month already murdered two people in cold blood for no justifiable reason.
We know, because both killings were captured on camera. Their names were Renee Nicole Good and Alex Jeffrey Pretti. They were both Americans — 37 years old, solid citizens engaging in peaceful protests against what ICE was doing, and were murdered in cold blood.
Nobody can call them anything but Americans trying to do the right thing.
Were any other person president, no matter where they were on the ideological spectrum, those who murdered these bright young people would be in jail today, awaiting arraignment and trial. But not under the demented authoritarian asshole.
You know all this, I’m sure. Which means you also should know this is no time for “balanced journalism” and “bothsidesism.”
If you don’t see that removing Donald Trump from power and muzzling his monsters is absolutely necessary, you are not a good American, or a good person. You are instead the moral equivalent of a Nazi sympathizer. If you justify Trump now, you would have justified whatever Adolf Hitler did.
If you support newspapers that support him or political talk show hosts who don’t condemn him, you might as well read Volkischer Beobachter.
Am I being outrageous and exaggerating wildly? I wish I were. I wish some boring but solid nonentity was running the government, so I could instead focus on my historical writing and my dogs and my loved ones.
But I can’t look away, and neither can you, if you are honest and decent.
That good ol’ rabble-rouser, Thomas Paine, wrote “These are the times that try men’s souls.” Today, I would say these are the times that determine whether men (and women) have souls. If you justify in any way what Trump, Noem and ICE are doing, your soul is a black, ash-filled pit.
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Three cheers and a shout-out: Forty years ago, when I was a writer and editor for the Detroit News, Ken Eatherly was one of the drollest and best copy editors in the place, and I’m sure saved me embarrassment numerous times. For the last year or so, he’s been doing even more valuable work by selflessly editing this column in the pre-dawn hours every day. I console myself for any stress he might be feeling by noting that he is only 88 years old, and this work will be good practice for his first real job.
Seriously, thank you, Ken.
Thank you, Jack. Spot on, as usual. I watched Laurence last night and he was very clear about what needs to be done—now. Fire ‘em all and impeach the rest. Liars and grifters and toadies all.
It is exhausting. Keep up the good fight.
It is certain, in any case, that ignorance allied with power, is the most ferocious enemy justice can have. James Baldwin.
I am on the side of the Constitution, of civil and human rights. Thank you for taking a side, the right side. Other media should take a lesson. They are complicit when they do not and have become a part of the regime. Keep speaking up!!