Sunday, October 28, 2018

I Remove The Silent From My Life

This is a time in my 82 year life that I regret, but your silence moves me to act, since you aren't.  Who are you?  Those in my life and sphere of contact who observe the fascism being introduced into our democracy and say and do nothing.  You watch silently, maybe with regret for the vote you cast in 2016 but are unwilling to renounce this putrid stench coming from the White House and Congress.

I don't care if you consider yourself liberal or conservative, if you are silent and do not publicly condemn the hate, sexism and racism being spewed daily from Trump supporters and enablers, you are now rejected.  I want no contact with you until you renounce this destruction of our fragile grip on democracy.

My life is now too short to share my existence with those complicit with the Trump fascist regime. I have enough old age pain already to add to my daily struggle to grasp some of the youthful energy I so enjoyed in my life.  I no longer can tolerate your silent complicity with fascism.  Calling this horrific regime fascist is no longer a fringe assessment.  Scholars, social and political scientists have now publicly expressed their conclusion that this is what we are experiencing in such numbers, irrespective of their ideology, that the conclusion is inescapable.   Many in the media are reluctant to use this term at the moment for fear of being called "fringe", but many are now going public with this assessment.

I've read enough history of fascism, some of it on our own continent and now much of it right here on Main Street to know this is not the kind of life I want to live nor the kind of life my grand and great grandchildren might have to live if you and I , now, right now, don't publicly and loudly condemn this outrage.

You can rationalize all you want that there is nothing you can do to change this situation, or by simply ignoring what is going on around you and sealing yourself in your own protective cocoon, but until you voice the outrage happening to others, I reject you.

What happens to others matters.  It matters in your life in ways you apparently do not understand.  If you choose to be oblivious to children ripped from the arms of their parents, Muslims denied the opportunity to become Americans, desperate migrants met at the border with armed military, gay and trans people denied their rights, women treated with predatory and rights- denying policies, you have renounced your own humanity.  Now, with innocents slaughtered in their house of prayer and peace and public officials assaulted with bombs, you simply cannot any longer remain silent as observers to horror visited on others.

It seems that since fascism seems not yet to directly impact your life, you are in denial of its presence. This is typical of the conservative mindset.  Until it directly impacts you or someone close to you, you deny it exists.  But I assure you, as the people of Germany and Italy ultimately discovered, silence only empowered fascism and it ultimately not only impacted, it ruined millions of lives.

No, this is not a routine disagreement between conservatives and liberals that has been going on for 242 years.   This is not normal. This is a radical  transformation and dissolution of our democratic republic with a very recognizable similarity to authoritarian fascist takeovers that you have read about in Spain, then Italy and German and more recently in Argentina and Chile.  If you are not informed about this history, shame on you.  Your ignorance is not excuse.

And I am not asking you to change your life in order to speak out in some way; write about it, speak about it, attend a vigil, go to a counter rally, vote for Democrats to intervene in this dynamic.  But continue to live your life as you see fit.  These acts or more resistance will not materially impact how you chose to live.  But in resisting in some way, even a small way, you will potentially preserve the way of life you cherish.   And you show you give a rats ass about what happens to other fellow Americans, even those you might choose not to interact with.

I hope to hear from those of you formerly in my life of your regret about silence. If not, goodbye.