Stand up, do something

When I read history as a kid and on through as an adult – whether history books in school or historical novels or other historic reports of past times, two historical tragedies of immense dimensions figured most prominently: that of slavery in the U.S. and of the Holocaust. I could never understand why ordinary people didn’t stand up about the wrong being done.

Why didn’t people stop what was happening? It was clearly wrong!

I particularly couldn’t understand the rise of Hitler and the Holocaust. People didn’t grow up thinking it was normal. Things gradually and suddenly changed in stark ways over a few years period. There were ample opportunities to act. From legislators and business leaders who could have impeded acts to soldiers to ordinary people simply refusing to cast out Jews and others that Hitler wanted to make outcasts even before targeting them for torture and murder.

And while I eagerly read stories of people who fought back, who resisted, who offered aid and shelter, there weren’t enough of them.

We aren’t in the Holocaust, I am not comparing the current situation to World War II. But we are in a place that mirrors in far too many ways the early-to-mid-1930s when Hitler rose to power in Berlin. Hitler campaigned on draining the “parliamentarian swamp” (sound familiar?) An article published in The Atlantic last month by historian Timothy W. Ryback outlined “How Hitler Dismantled a Democracy in 53 Days.” Among many other things, there were far too many politicians who said they were concerned but then voted in favor of what Hitler had proposed. For instance, in the article, Ryback wrote: “Reinhold Maier, the leader of the German State Party, expressed concern about what would happen to judicial independence, due process, freedom of the press, and equal rights for all citizens under the law, and stated that he had ‘serious reservations’ about according Hitler dictatorial powers. But then he announced that his party, too, was voting in favor of the law, eliciting laughter from the floor. This calls to mind not only Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski, but also so many more in the current day – every Republican except 3 confirmed Pete Hegseth as Defense Secretary, despite allegations of sexual assault and financial mismanagement and being drunk on the job; many Democrats are saying they need to work together or prizing civility over acting against what rampant illegal, unconstitutional and authoritarian behavior.

Trump has illegally impounded funds, he has and continues to go after allies from Panamá to Mexico to Canada, his buddy Elon Musk who has previously been denied top-level security clearance has gained control over critical sensitive Treasury Department systems, people who push back on attempts to illegally pause payments (e.g. to USAID) or to access accounts are being forced to resign and locked out of their government accounts.

And yet, not many people seem to be reacting at the level of alarm that what is much like a coup from withinrequires. I include myself, what am I doing besides talking to people, raising awareness, writing?

Each and every one of us can do something, at the very least every American and person living in the U.S. The impact an individual can have varies, and also some of us are privileged enough to be able to take on more risk. I’m a born-in-the-U.S. citizen who is a white heterosexual Christian female with no arrest record. I have more privilege to be able to speak and act out than an immigrant who is not a citizen, a trans person or any other individual who may be targeted for the way they look or groups they belong to.

Courage is a muscle.

And we all need to exercise it now. Sorry if that’s scary (it is!). But is it scarier to speak out against autocracy now and risk losing friends or access or even a job … or is it scarier not to speak out now and wind up living in a dictatorship? Acting, speaking, doesn’t guarantee that your actions will be effective. But at least you can be proud of standing up for your principles and what you believe is right, for playing some small part in defending and supporting others who may have less power.

In November 2016, Sarah Kendzior in this piece a warning that free speech might be limited in the U.S., that dark times were coming with Trump. She wrote something we all need now:

But I need you to fight too, in the way that matters most, which is inside. Authoritarianism is not merely a matter of state control, it is something that eats away at who you are. It makes you afraid, and fear can make you cruel. It compels you to conform and to comply and accept things that you would never accept, to do things you never thought you would do.

You do it because everyone else is doing it, because the institutions you trust are doing it and telling you to do it, because you are afraid of what will happen if you do not do it, and because the voice in your head crying out that something is wrong grows fainter and fainter until it dies.

That voice is your conscience, your morals, your individuality. No one can take that from you unless you let them.

We need people to hold their ground.

As James. E. Dennehy, an FBI agent who leads the NYC Bureau office has, apparently emailing FBI employees that they will follow the law and not go along with a Trump purge.

As Canada Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Mexico President Claudia Sheinbaum and Colombia President Gustavo Petro have on tariffs and more.

As the people in Panamá have in the wake of Trump’s vocal assertions that the U.S. should take back the Panama Canal – a Panamanian friend made these hats: “El canal es de Panamá forever.”

As some judges have in halting illegal orders.

As we all can in our own way.

Historian Timothy Snyder, author of On Tyranny among other books, has some good tips in his latest article.

I’d rather take on some risk now trying to do the right thing than have my niece someday wondering why I and so many others just let a dictator take over. Why didn’t we do something?

Why don’t we do something?