Month: March 2025

I spent most of my professional career working at a university in both administrative and teaching positions. My focused work was divided between domestic students, international students, and my colleagues whose sole purpose was to educate, enable, and empower students to discover their purpose and to use their knowledge, their voice, and their sense of justice to improve the world. Knowledge absent empathy and ethics can do a lot of damage. In my 25 years in higher education, I never once met an administrator or professor who encouraged students to destroy property or to disparage innocent people. People, like me, choose careers in higher education, not because it pays well (it doesn’t), but because we love the process of acquiring new knowledge and passing it on for the greater good. We are eager to build a better world by cultivating knowledgeable and principled leaders. We teach students to think critically about society and current world events within the context of history, moral justice and human progress.

I acknowledge that dealing with highly energetic, enthusiastic, and immature brains can sometimes be challenging. Students at this age can be bold and impulsive. They make a lot of mistakes, and in higher education we choose to use those mistakes as learning opportunities. We recognize that most students are learning about society outside their childhood community bubble for the first time. They are comparing their lived experiences to that of their classmates. They question how and why their childhood was filled with abundance or poverty, of acceptance or discrimination, or of strong religious beliefs or completely secular. The disparities they encounter can be both alarming and deeply disturbing for many students. They often come to the university assuming that everyone had similar childhood experiences and when they discover the systemic unfairness built into society, they want to rectify the situation. This is root meaning of “wokeness”. It is the awakening of awareness that our society isn’t as fair or equitable or just as it should and could be and wanting to do something to improve the systems. Diversity, equity and inclusion efforts were a direct response to the need to revise the current system. Those who participated in this societal revision effort were “woke” and they were fast and furious (and impatient) in their need to see changes immediately. I always knew there was going to be a backlash.

I understood that “wokeness” posed a threat to white male power and to the deeply entrenched system that privileges whiteness over people of color, men over women, heterosexuals over LGBTQ people, and Christianity over other religions. Power does not relinquish its position without a fight. I knew this and tried to warn my eager colleagues and the students on the front lines demanding fast and drastic changes. Even at the university, I dealt with the discomfort among some more conservative administrators and faculty, particularly white men who were feeling pushed aside, attacked, and often ignored.

As woke college graduates began taking their place in society, they began promoting changes that embraced diversity, equity and inclusion throughout society. I sensed an even greater backlash coming with the absence of an effective public relations effort to smooth the changes. I was not at all surprised when the Right orchestrated an attack on critical race theory and then DEI. They had been criminalizing black men and masculinizing black women for years. They pushed false allegations that the first black president was Muslim and not a “true American”. They gravitated to stoking fears of transgender men using women’s bathrooms. Then they accused teachers of “grooming” school children to be gay or transgender. They turned their manufactured outrage to the audacity of a black actress portraying the Little Mermaid (a fictional character). They attacked the actual history of the United States as somehow anti-patriotic and inappropriate for children.

Higher education and the “woke” mindset it produced was their enemy. The Right successfully mobilized non-college educated and religious zealots who rarely leave their segregated bubbles to attack higher education as the culprit for the new visibility and prominence of brown people and LGBTQ folks. Asking people to use new pronouns was somehow an affront to their personal freedom. They successfully stoked a fear of being “replaced” among white people in red states. This was the rich white man’s effort to destroy DEI and wokeness. In response, as college students often do, they soundly rejected speakers and comedians who openly challenged their newfound “wokeness”. Comedian Bill Mahr still has not gotten over it.

So, here we are. Trump, Musk, and the Republicans are hellbent on using their power to remove DEI and wokeness from society, so that they can re-establish wealthy white “Christian” and male dominance. Enter the war between Israel and Hamas and they found the perfect inroad to unfairly attack higher education. Students have always been at the forefront of fighting against wars, human trafficking, apartheid, and genocide. What they see happening in Gaza is no different. However, the Right was quick to label students who protest the genocide happening in Gaza as “woke” and “antisemitic”. They are lying. In fact, there are many Jewish students who participated in the protests against the “Israeli government”, not the Jewish people, over the indiscriminate bombing and starvation of the innocent people in Palestine. DEI welcomes the presence and inclusion of Jewish students. Always has. Perhaps a few Jewish students who are themselves Israeli nationalists feel intimidated or challenged by their peers on the matter of Israel and Palestine. However, these students were never physically attacked. Heated disagreements on this issue are wrongly being characterized as “antisemitism” by a few loud and powerful voices on the Right. That mischaracterization has led to the firing or resignations of several university presidents.

The attack on higher education continues with this Administration still intent on ridding universities of DEI. They have taken to withholding research funding if schools do not abandon their DEI efforts, revoke degrees and expel student protesters. They are “disappearing” and detaining international students who participated “non-violently” in the protests. Marco Rubio, the Secretary of State, just invalidated the student visas of 300 international students who participated in protests, subjecting them to deportation. The silencing of student protests, the encroachment into curriculum matters, the misrepresentation of research as frivolous, and the withholding of funding threatens the fabric of higher education. A recent poll indicates that the actions of this Administration have led to 75% of university researchers considering a move to another country. Our scientists, innovators, and professors are being recruited by other countries, and some are already packing their bags. We are literally on the verge of the greatest “brain drain” in our nation’s history.

Let’s be real, the loss of educators, innovation, and scientific research will have a great and lasting negative economic impact on this nation. Our universities will no longer be the destination of choice for brilliant scholars and students from around the world. Our own students will fall further behind as the nation becomes dumber. And it’s all because a few rich white men are afraid to compete with women, people of color, and LGBTQ folks for the opportunity to succeed in this country.

Hatred is a powerful emotion. It is the fuel required to commit the most heinous acts of violence or to cheer on those acts. Hate hijacks our normal human empathy and silences the lessons of good and evil, suspending notions of right and wrong. In a nutshell, it makes us stupid. When our heart is overtaken by hate, we become gullible and irrational believers of lies and false accusations without evidence. The overflow of a heart full of hate becomes bold hate speech, spewing all manner of abhorrent things about others. Unchecked hate takes over the body, making us behave as though we lack common decency and humanity as we destroy everything in sight whether property or human. Hate is an energy unto itself. It is a driving force, an impossible emotion to control once we allow ourselves to be consumed by it. However, as a Christian, I recognize that the God of love, who calls us to love, also harbors hatred of certain human attributes.

In the biblical text of Proverbs 6:16, there are seven human character traits that God hates. “These six things the Lord hates, yes seven are an abomination to Him. A proud look, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that are swift in running to evil, a false witness who speaks lies, and one who sows discord among brethren.”

There are very few people that I genuinely hate. The few that I hate all exhibit these particular characteristics, inflicting harm and chaos upon vulnerable people. I don’t believe it is a stretch to say that Donald Trump, Elon Musk, J.D. Vance, and even Speaker Mike Johnson and a host of MAGA supporters continually demonstrate these seven attributes worthy of hate. Just to make my point, I note their promotion of white male power to the discrimination and detriment of everyone else; their constant lies about everything; their withholding of lifesaving medical care and food for the poor; their gleeful plans to make people suffer to further enrich the wealthy; the illegal firing of government workers and defunding of public health research; their disregard for laws, extortion, bullying, threats to invade countries; their embrace of evil dictators who silence, imprison and murder their own citizens without due process; the false accusations against government employees, migrants, teachers, judges, and anyone else who opposes them; and of course the drumming up of culture wars to incite animosity among neighbors and family members.

This past week, a friend asked me how I felt about people destroying Tesla vehicles. I had mixed feelings. My commitment to love and my moral compass tell me that acts of violence are wrong. However, my hatred of Elon Musk made me reluctant to feel any empathy for him because of his abhorrent actions that fuel hatred, bigotry, lawlessness, discord, and misinformation while causing death, pain, and real suffering for millions of Americans and people around the world. I admit to silently cheering his loss of billions of dollars and even the vandalism of his cars. In truth, my empathy lies with the innocent people Elon is harming. Someone mentioned the innocent people working at Tesla and I can only think that if a person lies with a dog, they should expect to get fleas.

In the end, I could only say to my friend that I understood the vandalism and that I believe these acts of vandalism should be taken as warning signs of the ultimate price Elon may pay for the hate that he has ignited in so many people. Personally, I won’t buy a Tesla, and I won’t engage in acts of vandalism nor violence against him because I have enough love in my heart to counter my hatred for him. Love keeps me level-headed. The teachings of Christ to overcome evil with good, moderates my behavior. However, I think that the hatred for these men is well-deserved since God, in His abundance of love, says humans like them our deserving of hate because of their character.

I don’t think this will end well for any of them. Not that I want or am promoting negative actions. However, I sense something bad coming for them because there are a lot of armed men who feel betrayed, threatened, hurt, and angry by these arrogant men. The hate they feel will not be contained if they lack love in their hearts and have no moral compass to moderate their actions.

The days of the United States being admired by the world as an exceptional example of democracy are over. Instead, we have become a “Mafia” state run by a mentally unstable ego-driven bully thug who demands that Congress members, industry leaders, law enforcement, news outlets, and even sovereign nations submit to him. His weapons are billionaire funding, our military power, trade tariffs, public humiliation, and now the justice department itself with threats of investigations and imprisonment. We are in this position because we looked the other way as greedy billionaires purchased our news outlets, congress members, and Supreme Court justices to fundamentally destroy our democracy and install a useful idiot with a cult-like following as king. And he is a mad king, surrounded by unqualified and highly incompetent cabinet members and advisors. The free world looks on in utter dismay as they watch us implode while China, North Korea and Russia happily siege the opportunity to advance. The changing world order is already beginning with China or Europe taking leadership and making new trade partnerships as the United States moves toward rapid moral and economic decline. We are no longer seen as reliable.

Trump is attempting to usher in a number of changes to our society that will fundamentally alter the way we treat each other. We can no longer count on the collective values of empathy, accurate news reporting, fairness in access to opportunity, and scientific innovation. We enjoyed a few good years when equality and justice were aspirations worth pursuing and when patriotism included holding our leaders accountable for upholding both morality and the rule of law. That is quickly disappearing. Factual history, expertise, and human decency are no longer widely valued. Republicans are trying to convince us that appreciating our diversity, fair treatment, and inclusion of the previously excluded is bad and that there is nothing wrong with discrimination, a lack of empathy, and limiting the rights and opportunities of some people. The days of being able to shame lawmakers for their moral failings is over. And we are about to take our inadequate efforts to provide citizens with worldclass education, healthcare, and infrastructure to a new low.

The dismantling of our government agencies that were created by our elected congressional representatives to ensure our public safety, process our taxes, build infrastructure, ensure justice and accountability, protect the natural environment, assist with our international relationships, and support scientific innovation is not only creating chaos but threatens our physical and economic well-being.

We are literally on our own. As tariffs and mass deportations drive prices up, demand for goods and services will plummet and with it, there will be massive layoffs. A recession or perhaps even another depression is likely in our future if we do not quickly change course. We know from watching other countries that corruption in government stifles innovation as new talent and new ideas, are buried by those fearful of losing their privileged positions. In a corrupt country, police and judges and journalists are bought and paid for (or silenced) by the wealthy, leaving the poor and unconnected hopeless, uncertain, and vulnerable to exploitation and injustice. Economists are forecasting that our economy is about to contract and many of the trade agreements with the rest of the world are unlikely to return if we remain an unreliable trading partner.

I suppose the plan is for families and churches to care for the sick and disabled, the injured veterans, the poor, and the elderly. Absent FEMA, small towns, cities and states will have to rebuild their community post-hurricane, tornado, wildfire, or earthquake. For most Americans, retirement will be a relic of the past without Social Security. And more prisons will become for-profit slave camps. In the poorest states, most of which are red states, only the wealthy will be able to afford healthcare, a decent education for their children, or have the ability to rebuild after a disaster.

In this new social order, women will be returned to the home to resume the role of wife and mother without voting rights again as discrimination laws are rolled back. More women and babies will die from lack of healthcare. Gays and transgender will lose their rights and be shoved back into the closet. Scientific outcomes will be funded by billionaires to suit their desired outcomes. We’ll be beholden to the wealthy and corporations to build our infrastructure as they depend on exploited prison and cheap American labor. Absent safety regulations, workers will once again lose their limbs and their lives at work without recourse or compensation.

If these are not good enough reasons to join the resistance movement happening in towns, cities, and states across the country, I don’t know what is. We either put a stop to this downward spiral now or learn to live with diminished rights and resources on our own in the coming year or so. We must fight harder in the streets, in the courts, and with our personal purchasing power. By all accounts, the resistance is having a positive effect.

It’s really hard to muster sympathy for folks who relished the thought of hurting others only to find themselves being hurt by Trump’s ruthless policies. I’ve watched their stories online where they either beg for an exemption or regret their vote. Some were hardcore MAGA and some just wanted cheaper groceries. These were people who cheered (or at least condoned) migrant families being separated, purging government of waste, fraud and abuse which was code for firing public servants, ending the war in Ukraine which meant handing Ukraine over to Putin, and imposing tariffs on our biggest trading partners at no cost to them personally.

They soon learned that there are too few “criminal” migrants to meet the big deportation numbers promised in the campaign and so law-abiding, tax-paying, God-fearing friends and family members are being carried away like criminals. They soon discover that they or their close relative who diligently works for the government providing an actual service is being fired without legitimate cause. They realize that Trump and Vance behave like 3rd grade bullies in the White House and that they have positioned our country on the side of Russia and North Korea and against our European allies on the world stage, making us an international pariah. And they realize that Trump isn’t lowering the price of groceries but raising the price of everything with his trade war while harming American made products and tourism. They realize that the medical research they were depending on to help save the lives of people they love is being cut. They now know that the food assistance and medical insurance they rely on are on the Republican chopping block. And all the while their elected Republican representative is applauding their pain or completely silent.

While it is imperative that Americans rise up to resist this Administration by filing lawsuits, protesting in the streets and at town halls, calling, emailing, and writing lawmakers to push them to obey the Constitution and to represent our interests, it may be the incompetence and in fighting within the Administration itself that disrupts this dangerous agenda. Trump and Musk are both reckless in their decision making. They act on their vilest impulses without considering the consequences beyond hurting folks they don’t like. They don’t consider the law, the promises to veterans, nor the Constitution when issuing executive orders, cancelling government funding, dismantling entire governmental agencies, and firing government workers. Several times they fired essential people only to realize they are badly needed and then they’ve begged them to return (if they can find them). When the stock market tanked and retaliatory tariffs took effect and conservative newspapers called his tariffs dumb, Trump once again put a hold on most of them. I’m certain governors also voiced their concerns about Canandian boycotts of tourism and of products made in their states.

The point is that the country should brace itself for chaos. It won’t be long before people begin to realize how much we rely on government workers. Government workers keep our planes flying safely, keep our roads and bridges passable, process our tax returns, pursue dangerous criminal rings, keep our food, water and air safe, deliver accurate weather forecasts, provide schooling for our children, protect consumers from abuse, and keep deadly diseases under control. As hurricane season approaches, it will be interesting to see how a FEMA under distress from personnel and budget cuts is able to respond.

One thing I know about the American people, and veterans in particular, is that they won’t sit quietly by and endure pain and abuse and broken promises while others laugh and enjoy themselves at their expense. The Republicans stopped holding town halls because they rightly became afraid of their constituents from all political leanings. No one wants a hollowed-out government workforce that is unable to meet the demand for services. No one wants to privatize some government services so that a few people get richer while the broader public interest is no longer served. Privatized research makes for biased and unreliable research results. Privatized schools leave poor children and children with disabilities behind. A privatized prison system incentivizes injustice towards the poor. Privatized infrastructure and media subject the public to the whims of individuals who want to push their own agenda.

The Constitution outlines the role of government to provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty for ourselves and our posterity. The House of Representatives was specifically established to represent these desires and needs by allocating our tax dollars to establish agencies and laws that serve us. Let’s just talk about the general welfare this week.

It is not the job of people seeking to make money to provide for our general welfare. In my thinking, public health, infrastructure, education, safety regulations, weather forecasting, disaster relief, forestry, and scientific research are all in the general welfare category. Yes, we use government contractors, like Elon Musk, to carry out some of these needs. In his specific case he provides satellites and space exploration. But that work product should belong to us because our tax dollars paid for them. And because he is a government contractor, who personally benefits from those contracts, he has a conflict of interest in his current position with DOGE and should be removed immediately.

DOGE, Trump and the Republican Party are operating outside the Constitution and the law in order to destroy democracy and establish a new, internationally isolated, government with Taliban-like laws, fewer civil liberties for women and minorities, and government officials working in concert with the wealthy to further enrich and empower themselves. Doing nothing as citizens allows this to happen.

I’m hopeful by the signs that our collective resistance is having an effect. We absolutely must keep up the pressure on Congressional members and the Trump Administration. The courts, the street protests, the art, speeches, songs, boycotts, podcasts, phone calls, emails, independent media, social media posts, civil disobedience, and even the stock market are having the desired constraining effect on the MAGA agenda to restructure our country. If we push hard enough, Republican congress members will either start doing their job to represent us properly or be voted out.

I’m glad the cameras were rolling in the Oval Office on Friday for the entire world to witness the two bullies in action. I’m glad Zelinsky stood up for himself and refused to bow the knee. The interaction was outrageous. It was disheartening. It was ugly. It was all those things and so much more. We knew Trump and JD Vance were liars and that bullying and cruelty is on brand for them. We know extortion and threats are weapons in their toolbox. In this case, Trump tried and failed to extort Ukraine’s rare earth minerals for a ceasefire that Trump would not guarantee. Zelinsky, with the cameras rolling showed the world how they operate. And the free democratic world, along with most Americans, stand with Zelinsky and against Trump and Putin.

The entire nation and the world got to see how the Trump administration works by bullying politicians, the media, corporations, and judges to do their bidding. Trump operates like a mob boss who demands deference and loyalty. His fragile ego needs constant feeding. He craves praise, gratitude, and adoration in both words and symbolic gestors. It’s pathetic to watch such a needy broken human being occupying any place of authority. He is a dangerous person because his ego demands that he believes his way is the only way and that his manufactured reality is reality. He has no use for facts and cannot tolerate being contradicted by the truth. We saw his nasty pathology on full display in that meeting and afterwards. There can be no question that his illegality, his cruelty, and his alliance with Putin stems from his need to be king. The wealthy and the business leaders tolerate him because he is a useful idiot.

Their goal is to profit from the privatization of government functions. They want to use our taxpayer dollars to enrich themselves by further privatization of healthcare, prisons, education, postal service, security, research, and every other function currently run by the government. They want to make almost everything for profit without the inconvenient guardrails of regulations that keep people from being cheated, exploited, and poisoned. Perhaps this is why Margorie Taylor Greene said that government jobs were not real jobs and that government workers were stealing taxpayer money without providing any service. That was an accidental exposure about what some of this is about. Republicans are out to gut the government so that private equity can step in and make every service a for-profit enterprise paid for or at least subsidized by our tax dollars. It’s the Elon Musk model of enrichment. It’s the Walmart model where they pay their employees too little to live on, making them eligible for public assistance. It’s a recipe for the expansion of poverty, pre-mature deaths, and the loss of civil liberties.

And then there are the evangelical Christians like Speaker Mike Johnson who are more like the Taliban than Jesus. They want to shove the LGBTQ community back in the closet and send women back to the kitchen, barefoot and pregnant, stuck in unhappy even dangerous marriages, while returning them to second-class citizenship. The white supremacists simply want to be in charge of everything and everyone. They feed their fears and insecurity by lying to themselves that they are the smartest and the most qualified to lead everything, despite their glaring lack of talent, expertise, experience, and qualifications. They believe “white is right” no matter what the actual reality and they are using the levers of government against DEI efforts along with the threat of violence to get back on top.

So, what do we do? We find a way to stop them. One cannot shame people like Trump, Vance, Musk and Speaker Johnson into doing what is right. They are too morally bankrupt for that. Their greed for power, money, and adoration drives them forward. We know that if Trump had lost this past election, he would have never conceded, and we would be fighting about a stolen election instead of watching Trump and Musk destroy our government and international relationships with a wrecking ball while Republicans sit by silently and watch the destruction. I suspect the true motive behind the massive destruction is to turn the government into a for-profit enterprise for private equity, to give the religious right reign over social and cultural norms, and to return white males permanently to the top of the leadership.

Normally, the media would step up as a defense against someone like Trump or Musk. However, having been threatened into submission, they keep trying under extreme duress, to normalize, minimize, and rationalize the pardoning of violent January 6 participants, the appointments of unqualified cabinet members, the illegal firing of government workers, the hollowing out of government accountability officers, the defunding of government grants, the suspension of information and regulations designed to protect us, and the open threats to sovereign nations. They are finding it difficult to justify the tariffs and mass deportations that include non-criminals who contribute to the economy. They strain to justify the attacks on transgender people, the renaming of a body of water, the rising prices, the falling stock market, the rise in unemployment and the projected falling GDP. The chaos is real and damage to actual lives is also real, but the corporate media is too afraid to report openly about its impact on the country and people. Many, like me are turning to independent and public media outlets and foreign news outlets for information.

Our next line of defense is the courts. So far, they are holding up. However, we’ve already heard Vance and Musk threaten judges. Before it goes beyond threats to actions that jeopardize our entire judicial system, we, the citizens need to stand against this Administration. We must be louder, bolder, and unrelenting in our resistence. We must financially support the efforts of civil rights organizations who are bringing lawsuits to defend our constitutional rights and the rule of law. I donate to Democracy Forward, the ACLU and the NAACP Legal Defense Fund. But we must do more.

Friday, February 28th was the economic blackout day where Americans boycotted the purchase of goods and services from corporations to show our economic power. I knew about it from social media, but my friend didn’t know anything about it. When I explained to her that I couldn’t go to the movies on Friday because of the blackout, she was disappointed because she had just finished shopping. I felt bad that I didn’t mention it to her earlier since I know she isn’t on social media. I’ll do better next time.

And finally, we must use our voices to push our lawmakers to stand up against this administration by attending town hall meetings, calling their offices, emailing them, or writing to them. We can protest in the streets or outside their offices. The few who are secretly against his agenda will only gain the courage to stand up to Trump if they fear us more. However, we must keep it our protests loud, but peaceful, so that Trump cannot label any protest an insurrection and suspend the constitution. Our goal is to protect and defend our constitution and the rule of law against all enemies, whether foreign or domestic.

In this case, the enemy is domestic and resides in our own White House. I take solace in the fact that he and the people he hires are incompetent. They are making mistakes all over the place. The world is watching and laughing at them. For example, they fired the people who look after our nuclear arsenal and then had to try to find them to rehire them. They fired people working on Ebola management, again only to try to rehire them. They fired people working on the bird flu situation. Same scenario. They are so reckless that a disaster is likely to occur, and I pray too many people don’t have to suffer because of it, but this is the price we will pay for electing this lunatic. In the end, I think we will win this fight because there are more who are against him (and them) than who are for him and the number is growing. His poll numbers are falling as people begin to suffer. Watch what happens when a natural disaster hits and there is no federal relief or when millions lose access to healthcare and food assistance so the wealthiest can get another tax break.

As a practical matter, failure is inevitable as talented men and women in the government resign in protest or commit sabotage from within. This administration will be left with the most inexperienced and least talented people to carry out its warped agenda. My guess is that the whole thing will come tumbling down, leaving Trump, Vance, Musk and Speaker Johnson lying beneath the rubble. And the nation will rejoice and then rebuild, having learned how to better safeguard our freedom and democracy. I just hope I’m still here to see it.