Author: tonihall805@outlook.com

I’m shocked by the sudden rise in prices on just about everything. Our grocery bill is higher than ever. The cost of eating out has skyrocketed. Cable got so expensive that we cancelled it in favor of paying for our favorite streaming services. Utility bills keep rising, especially electricity. And we have solar! The electric company informed us that they now need to impose a baseline charge for electricity of $25 per month despite not depending on the grid for our electricity but in fact sending them our overage. I understand that the increases are driven by the fact that Edison was sued for fires caused by downed power lines and that data centers (to power the Cloud and AI technology) are now competing for electricity and water. In recent years, renters have been dealing with rising rents. Higher education tuitions keep rising faster than inflation forcing more students into greater debt. The drastic change that few of us saw coming though was the steep rise in the cost of health insurance and homeowner’s insurance.

I have a Medicare Part G supplemental insurance plan. Last year the premium began at $142 per month and a few months later it unexpectantly rose to $178 per month. During this open enrollment period that just began on October 15th, I’ll research other Part G plan carriers. However, after listening to some of my senior friends, I’m not at all optimistic. They are paying more than me. Of course, Medicare itself is going up again from $185 to $206, higher than is typical.

While I lament our higher healthcare insurance costs, I’m worried for younger people who only have medical insurance because of the subsidies provided by the Affordable Care Act. The fight to prevent the expiration of these subsidies is the reason behind the government shutdown. Democrats are trying desperately to save them, while Republicans are keen to finally destroy the subsidies (and by extension the ACA) without a plan to insure those who rely on it. Once again, Republican representatives will be harming the very people who elected them. I don’t think this kind of reckless behavior is sustainable in the long run as people start dying, going bankrupt, or filling the emergency rooms because they lack insurance. Even worse is the probable closure of hospitals and nursing homes in rural areas. In the Big Beautiful Bill, they took away one big source of funding and replaced it with lesser funding. That’s one way to gaslight your constituents into believing you have their best interest in mind when you don’t.

We are also being made more vulnerable to financial ruin by natural disasters as this president cuts FEMA funding and threatens to withhold disaster aid from blue counties and states. This is especially scary as homeowner’s insurance policies are either cancelled, or premiums are substantially increased. Some carriers have left California and Florida altogether. One friend can’t find an insurer. Another said her premium rose from $1500 per year to $3000. We just received a letter from our carrier explaining to us that our premiums were going to go up because of the huge fires last year and the anticipated higher construction costs. While I understand their rationale, we will have to bear the increased cost for now.

I consider us lucky because we spent our entire adult lives saving for retirement. We’ll survive. My concern is for young people and young families starting out. The last couple of job reports show weakness. Of course, Trump fired the head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics because he was angry about the negative jobs report. He’d prefer to suppress bad news or lie about it. The point is that young people will need to work harder to find jobs that pay a livable wage. And even if they do, it appears that AI may displace many workers in the near future.

I think this nation is headed for a serious financial downturn. We have a president who doesn’t understand how tariffs work, who prioritizes unnecessary tax breaks for the wealthiest citizens, and wastes our tax dollars on brutal ICE raids, military parades, bombing “suspicious” fishing boats in international waters, detaining migrants in camps, and bailing out Argentina. The president demonstrates that he doesn’t understand basic math with his nonsensical promise to lower drug prices by 500, 600 and 800 percent. And his administration has spent more money running the government this year than last year despite all the unprecedented layoffs.

Now is not the time to spend money on anything that is not absolutely necessary. It certainly isn’t the time to rack up student loans nor credit card debt. Transferring to a local state university is a smart cost-saving option for students without full-tuition scholarships at private universities. For college bound students, unless a graduating senior is the recipient of a full-scholarship, the tuition-free junior college should be the destination for the first two years followed by a local state school. Even better is sending ambitious high school students to junior college to double dip on high school and college credits for subjects like math, history, science, etc. I know students who graduated from both high school and junior college in the same week and entered university as a junior. Neither parents nor students can risk going into debt to pay for college in this economy.

I’m thinking about how to thrive in this economy. As a financially able grandparent, I’m happy to help finance the upbringing of my grandsons, giving them the necessary advantages in this world. Contributing to childcare, clothes, activities, toys, and even school supplies are ways to expand their access to opportunities and reduce the financial pressures on their parents. Last year, I began passing along notable Christmas decorations to help my adult children decorate their homes without spending much.

Another way to thrive while cutting costs is to return to multi-generational living situations especially for families whose adult children are just starting out, young families, single mothers, and families with elderly parents. My neighbors across the street live in a large-enough home owned by the grandparents (my friends). Their son and daughter-in-law and two grandsons have been living with them since the grandsons were babies. I watch the parents go off to work while one of the grandparents takes the boys to school every day. I have a good friend who is doing the same with her son’s family. She still works, but her husband is retired and takes care of their grandson while everyone goes to work. Her daughter and son-in-law just moved into a house down the street so they could share in the mealtimes and access childcare more easily. She loves it. This is an option for healthy functioning families who like each other.

In healthy relationships, sharing housing costs, housework, and living expenses while also dividing up the care responsibilities for children and the elderly benefits everyone emotionally and financially. My eldest daughter and her husband are making plans to build a family compound as our family expands and we grow older. Sharing space like this could be a good option for single mothers. They could ban together under one household and share expenses and childcare.

What’s becoming evident is that young families need help with childcare and living expenses and the elderly will eventually need support too as nursing homes become unaffordable and unavailable. I have a friend who recently placed his 98-year-old mother in a nice nursing home that costs them $9000 per month. I believe they sold her house to pay for it and he and his sister are also dipping into their retirement funds. Neither of them wanted to care for her in their own homes. The reality is that most people can’t afford to do what they are doing.

I think it’s becoming evident that the old mindset of roughed individualism is fast becoming an economic relic. The economic outlook is that few people will be able to afford to own a home and raise a family in the nuclear family lifestyle we’ve become accustomed to. The elderly without family close by may perish alone. I’m aware when I look around the table at my crochet and knit group at the senior center, that the majority the women are living alone in the large homes where they raised their children. One of our friends fell in her home and was able to call a neighbor for help. It’s clear to all of us that her dementia is getting worse. However, her four children all live in different states, and she refuses to inconvenience them with her problems. I sometimes wonder if the elderly single women would do better joining forces like the “Golden Girls” living together under one roof to care for each other and share living expenses. However, we’ve been conditioned to value our independence, perhaps to our detriment. The next generation may not have that option. And I’m not so sure that that’s necessarily a bad thing given how chronic loneliness becoming a problem.

As the cost of living continues to rise and Republicans remove social safety nets in favor of tax cuts for the wealthy and the privatization of every human necessity for individual profit-making, the time to start rethinking how we live and thrive together is now because the cost of everything continues to rise.

Will decent people who maintain empathy for others, a healthy regard for right and wrong, and an enduring respect for the Constitution and the rule of law determine quick enough that these things are worth fighting for? I hope so. I know I am willing to fight. But is it because I’m in the final chapter of my life and have so little to lose personally? No. It’s because I care about the future of my children and grandchildren. I worry about the kind of life they will have if our country continues along its current path. We are experiencing a brain drain, an economic downturn, a destruction of the planet, and the erosion of morality that values all humanity. Liberty and justice for all are being challenged. It’s not looking good.

I don’t believe most Americans approve of the brutality of masked ICE agents raiding apartments, invading businesses, hospitals, courtroom halls, and smashing car windows to detain non-white men, women and children on suspicion that they may be deportable. These ICE agents aren’t interested catching dangerous undocumented immigrants; they are interested in making their arrest quotas. It’s evident that this administration is hiring violent bigoted sociopathic men and women who disregard the rule of law to carry out this operation with cruelty and brutality. It’s heartbreaking to watch. But it’s also encouraging to see courageous citizens calling them out, challenging them, blocking them, and videotaping them. Sometimes, they too are attacked by these thugs. I hope they sue and anyone falsely retained sues for violations of their civil rights.

I also don’t believe that Americans approve of the indictments of James Comey and Leticia James purely to feed Trump’s petty desire for revenge. Neither prosecution will succeed in court, not only because the accusations are demonstratively baseless, but because Trump can only find incompetent attorneys to prosecute the cases. They’ve already suffered embarrassing days in court, and more are to come if they the cases aren’t thrown out before the trials. I’m encouraged by the fact that career prosecutors refused to participate in these cases. They aren’t willing to risk their law licenses nor their professional reputations for this unwell authoritarian.

It’s clear that Americans don’t like having our freedom of speech taken away, our right to protest challenged, nor do we like having the military policing our streets. Disney learned the hard way that Americans value freedom not cowardice. Target learned this too. But not only are these military deployments wasting our taxpayer dollars, but they aren’t even serving a legitimate purpose. I’m encouraged by the judges who repeatedly rule against the Administration. I’m also encouraged by all the social media posts of everyday Americans showing the actual beauty and peace of their “war-torn” cities. The Trump Administration is continuously being exposed for their lies and false claims. Americans hate being lied to and gaslighted every day. Many just stop listening altogether.

And finally, no one likes for the government to shut down. But if an untenable rise in healthcare premiums for millions of low-income Americans is on the line, then it has to be done. Everyone feels the unfairness that the political leaders continue to be paid during the shutdown while government workers and the military do not. The Republicans would like us to believe that the Democrats are at fault for the shut down, but I think most people realize that it’s the Republicans who have no plan to keep healthcare accessible and somewhat affordable. In fact, Republicans are dismantling all safety nets that help the poorest among us. They are willing to either imprison or allow poor people to die in favor of lining the pockets of their wealthy donors.

As this Administration (with the blessing of Republicans in Congress) destroys public health, weakens the economy, degrades education, denies climate change, and defunds disaster relief, Americans will soon find themselves more vulnerable, sickly, and impoverished than ever. Without reliable information and American ingenuity, America will soon resemble North Korea and Russia where a few people horde all the wealth, innovation is non-existent, freedoms are lost, and the majority of the citizens live in poverty and fear, occupied with barely scraping by. These are not thriving societies. It certainly isn’t the future I desire for my children and grandchildren.

My advice is to wake up your friends, neighbors, and family members to the five-alarm fire threatening to engulf them. Second, I advise folks to save their pennies for the rainy days ahead. Third, I advise folks to build community with those who are like-minded. And finally, I advise all decent Americans to support frontline freedom fighters while also resisting with all their might those who envision a society that lacks liberty and justice for all. I truly believe that liberty and justice for all are values worth fighting for.

Of course, the Rapture didn’t happen last Wednesday. Since childhood, I’ve lived through multiple predictions and have never been disappointed because Jesus made it clear that no one knows the day or the hour when He will appear. And yet, folks keep on naming a specific day. The term Rapture doesn’t even appear in the Bible and I’m not even certain it’s an event to actually anticipate in the manner so many preachers and movies represent to us. But I continue to keep the faith that one day the wrong on this earth will be turned right.

These are certainly dark times. Hate and bigotry have resurfaced in full force through the leadership Donald Trump and others like him. Every day, we face the kind of evil brutality not seen since the 1930s. A few people like it. But I’ve noticed that decent people around me are seething under the surface over the cruelty, corruption, lawlessness, and incompetence poisoning our country every day. I’m sure the generals who gathered this past week weren’t happy either. I just pray that they will be courageous enough to honor their oath to protect and defend our Constitution against the domestic enemies occupying our White House.

In the midst of all this chaos, I am determined to keep the faith. I have faith that God is not mocked and that people will reap what they sow. I have faith that those who call evil good and good evil will meet a terrible end. I have faith that those who live by the sword will die by it. I have faith that no weapon formed against those who do good will prosper. And I have faith that good will ultimately overcome evil. It may take a while and it may require a struggle, but I believe that there are more of us who stand on the side of good and of justice than there are of them who embrace hate and destruction. I have faith that the sleeping giants of decency, empathy, kindness, and justice within most people will rise from their slumber or busy lives and join forces against the violence, nastiness, and inhumanity trying to overtake us.

In a way, I’m grateful for these ugly days. The daily speeches and cruel events reveal the character of people around us. We now know that there is a segment of our society who rejoice in the suffering of others. We now know who the vile and violent people are. We now know that there are people in high places willing to lie, cheat and steal to gain power and riches. We now know who the cowards are in our universities, businesses and politics. We now know for certain that white supremacy, racism, sexism, xenophobia, and homophobia remain as forces of hate to be reckoned with. But we also know that there are plenty of decent human beings who care about the plight and suffering of others enough to take action.

What is most important is that these times force us to look in the mirror. The evil folks will not recognize themselves as evil because they are deceived and consumed by hatred and scapegoating. However, the rest of us are being forced to see ourselves as either cowardly or courageous. In my book, the silent bystander is a coward. But the street protestor, the letter writer, the prayer warrior, the cartoonist, the actors in protest skits, the singer/songwriters, the podcasters, the comedians, the defense attorneys and prosecutors, the righteous judges, the teachers, the healthcare advocates, the social media activists, the righteous clergy, the donors and workers in civil rights organizations, the people who resign in protest, and the thoughtful voters are all courageous. I have faith in the God who fuels the determination of decent people and inspires their many courageous and creative acts of defiance. I have faith that those on the side of goodness and justice will fight and win against the evil that is trying to overtake us.

When I look in the mirror, I must see a fighter for goodness and justice if I am to have peace within my soul. I have faith in the God who gives me strength and guides my steps, not that I will be safe, but that I am doing what is right. I have to know that I have fought the good fight on behalf of those I love. Because I choose to be courageous every day, I can smile at my reflection in the mirror and have confidence that the loving God of good and justice is smiling down on me too.

This country is in the midst of a pre-meditated man-made storm intended to undermine the Constitution and the rule of law, destroy the economy, isolate the country, remove safety nets, confuse scientific facts and fiction, and dismantle civil rights. Creating chaos and instability with every firing, tweet, speech, ICE arrest, tariff, corporate shake down, international threat, prosecution of political enemies, and executive order is meant to drive resistant American citizens to the edge of insanity and to political violence in the streets. By design, as soon as any sign of violence ensues, Trump has called in the National Guard and the U.S. Military to get us accustomed to the idea of force under authoritarian rule. And now he has begun to label opposing groups, like Antifa (literally means – anti-fascism), as terrorist organizations.

It’s becoming increasingly apparent that the Democrats, the Courts, and even corporate leaders are not going to save us. We are going to have to save ourselves. I think the path toward saving this country is different for white people and people of color. Given the root of the problem, white people must be the ones who take to the streets in protest and who confront white “Christian” nationalism head on. The conflict resides within their families, friends, associates, neighbors, churches, and elected officials. They need to decide what kind of country we will be since they continue to hold the bulk of the wealth and influence over corporate and political decision making. Their uproar when Jimmy Kimmel was suspended by presidential edict ultimately forced Disney to relent and put him back on the air.

I believe we are observing a country in the midst of a battle to either defend or eradicate white supremacy along with its crimes against humanity. People in the Trump administration like Steven Miller, Russell Vought, and Tom Holman are working vigorously to reestablish white male supremacy throughout the country. They are working in concert with Republicans like the House Leader, Mike Johnson and the majority on the Supreme Court. You know we are headed for dark times when the Supreme Court authorizes indiscriminate firings, racial profiling, presidential immunity for criminal acts, and presidential defunding of Congressional appropriations. Republicans who know this is fundamentally wrong are too cowardly to openly oppose them and corporate leaders are too concerned with the disruption of their operations and profits to openly challenge them. Are there enough decent and sufficiently courageous white people to fight this battle? I honestly don’t know.

What I do know is that white suprematists are emboldened and increasingly willing to act on their worse instincts. Their words are disgusting, their marches are appalling, their jobs in law enforcement and ICE make their “sanctioned” violence even more disturbing. Who would have thought that we would see two young black young men hanging from trees in 2025? Anyone who thinks this administration is on the side of all Americans, particularly people of color, feminists, religious minorities, and LGBTQ folks is delusional.

What I do know is that targeted citizens need to work fast to build an arc of safety against the storm. I have ten recommendations; 1) Be extra careful to stay out of harm’s way by avoiding confrontation with straight white people; 2) Get information from reliable sources (not this government nor corporate media because they are now required to lie, withhold information, exaggerate, and gaslight); 3) Prepare to move out of poor red states for safety, freedoms, and opportunities; 4) Have your passport ready because it may become necessary to flee the country; 5) Listen to and follow the advice of actual scientists and medical doctors; 6) Save and invest a much greater percentage of your income; 7) Support minority owned businesses instead of corporate businesses; 8) Invest time, money, and energy in the righteous causes that defend us; 9) Make education and skills training a priority, supporting our own schools or homeschooling; and 10) Closely monitor the activities of our sons and daughters to insure they aren’t in the crosshairs of a criminal justice system that will be even more determined to imprison them.

There is a Proverb that says, “A wise man sees trouble and hides himself.” It’s time to prepare an arc against the coming storm. The time has come that we must become each other’s social safety net. As the dark forces try to paint us as public enemies, we’re going to need to shine a bright spotlight on our humanity, our contributions, our excellence, our talents, and our competency at every opportunity to protect our children’s self-esteem and to win more white people to our side. And above all else, we are going to need to support our courageous white allies, each other, and exercise our right to vote for as long as possible.

I grew up with two older brothers. The younger of the two was bigger and stronger. On occasions when the younger lost “the war of wits” to our older brother, he resorted to the rules of engagement to start a physical fight. The rule was that you could never start a physical fight, but you could hit back if someone hit you first. So, my younger brother would move excessively close to the eldest so that the slightest move that ultimately resulted in a touch would be used as the provocation he needed to punch our older brother. He once tried that tactic on me but was soon reminded that boys are never allowed to hit girls under any circumstances. Later he broke that rule. I was eleven and he was twelve when I beat him in a basketball shooting contest called “Around the World”. His ego was so bruised that in his rage he physically attacked me. Yes, I was happy about my victory, but no, I was not gloating about it. So, I was shocked by his reaction. Not only did he get in big trouble, but I never played that game with him again. In fact, I kept my distance for a while because I viewed him as both irrational and explosive. In his twenties he was diagnosed with a mood disorder. My brother’s behavior taught me a valuable lesson about how some people take a scorched earth approach to protect their ego, resolve conflict, eliminate competition or exert their will.

Donald Trump behaves like my younger brother once did. In 2016, we saw how quickly he evoked public insults, baseless accusations and embarrassing nicknames to exploit the insecurities of his competitors, forcing them to drop out of the presidential race. His scorched earth approach made him appear strong to a segment of the country who wanted to burn down a system that challenged the cultural, economic, and political domination of white “Christian” people. But he was repulsive to the rest of us who valued our diversity and the country’s movement toward fairness. We abhorred his indecent tactics and five million more of us voted for Hillary Clinton, but the electoral college gave Trump the presidency.

Exposed but unchallenged, his bullying continued to ravage the will of Republican lawmakers using public ridicule and threats of being primaried if they didn’t bend to his will. That gave him three seats on the Supreme Court and a good number of federal judges. That kept him from being removed from office twice after being twice impeached for his criminal behavior. Like my brother in childhood, his power of persuasion was never based on the merits of his argument, but on the threat of brutality. And he attracted a lot of people who lack a good argument, but love the 2nd Amendment and are willing to behave just like him.

As we’ve all seen, his propensity to tell big lies and to use threats to enforce his will has only ramped up since our Republican lead Senate and our own judicial system failed to hold him accountable for not only causing a violent attack on the Capital to stop the certification of the 2020 election, but for watching it happen without acting to stop it for hours. There was no shortage of enablers (including former attorney general Merrick Garland), a corrupt Supreme Court who ignored the disqualification clause in the Constitution and then granted him presidential immunity. Then there are the complicit MAGA loyalists who endorse the bullshit, the incompetence, and the bad policies. Perhaps worse is an apathetic electorate who don’t bother to vote. Working in concert, they encouraged and empowered the dangerous monster we are now dealing with.

It is evident to me that Donald Trump, his handpicked cabinet members, MAGA loyalists, and his newly minted ICE agents are itching for a fight. They can’t logically defend the long list of their unconstitutional, lawless, shortsighted, cruel, harmful and incompetent actions. It appears that breaking things and cruelty is the point. They began this term by firing government workers without cause. They shuttered agencies that provided food and medicine to poor nations, destroying loyalty and goodwill. They cut funding for scientific and medical research. They removed environmental protections, threatened the sovereignty of Canada, Iceland, Panama, and now Venezuela. They destroyed confidence in our public health system, gave tax breaks to the wealthy, rolled back the public safety net, attacked our diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts in a multicultural nation, and started a worldwide tariff war. With the blessing of the Supreme Court, they continue to kidnap brown people off the streets. They use mere allegations to deport non-criminals to prisons abroad without due process. They use the justice department and the FBI to seek revenge against anyone who tried to hold Trump accountable for his criminal activities. They bully businesses and universities into acting against their will, threaten judges, and shake down businesses. They force networks to contribute money or to fire journalists and late-night comedians by using the FCC to withhold approval of business mergers.

Their behavior and their policies are wildly unpopular because they are unlawful, corrupt, shortsighted and often criminal. Trump is known to exaggerate claims and to fabricate lies to justify his actions. Like how he characterizes Mexican immigrants as rapists, murderers, drug dealers or insane. Like accusing Haitian immigrants of eating people’s pets. Like the time a few protestors in downtown Los Angeles set fire to three driverless vehicles and he said the entire city of Los Angeles required the National Guard and the military to reign in the violence. He regularly publicizes unsubstantiated allegations to punish his perceived enemies. He just used our military on two separate occasions to kill people in fishing boats off the coast of Venezuela, claiming without evidence that they were heading to the U.S. with illegal drugs.

All this matters because innocent lives are lost or threatened by his reckless disregard for the truth, his greed, his need for admiration, his need for revenge against anyone who tries to hold him accountable, and his determination to remove anyone who thinks differently from him. His behavior is blatantly criminal and abhorrent, and his policies are so unpopular that he must appease white “Christian” nationalists who want to usher in a Taliban-like theocracy run by white males. Theirs is a marriage of convenience that can’t last because Trump is not a Christian by their own standards (and neither are they by Jesus’ standards). The white “Christian” nationalists are using Trump to destroy the country and break the will of the American people so that they can rebuild it to their liking. Project 2025 was their playbook and because it was unpopular, Trump publicly disavowed it to get elected. Even though lying is what he does, many were still fooled into believing he wasn’t going to follow it. But he is.

Like an unhinged and shortsighted child, Trump wants the entire world to endorse his madness as brilliance and to obey in advance or face his brutality. Let’s refuse. He fakes ignorance of the sneers for smiles, the boos for cheers, and the silence for agreement. He’s aware that forced compliments aren’t actual admiration. The problem is that he is petty and that he enjoys watching haters being forced into submission. The whispers of disgust behind his back and the desire to be rid of him as soon as possible only fuel his resolve for retribution. Like other autocrats before him, his behavior destroys trust, actual loyalty, and undermines the strength of the nation. He simply creates more haters.

Our resistance to Trump must be unified and beyond his reach. Corporations are running scared of him when they should be running scared of us. Target and now Disney are learning this. We are the ones who buy corporate products and keep them in business. The brightest brains are simply leaving the country or no longer coming to our universities. Innovation and productivity come from the people. Blue states are setting up their own public health care systems. Ultimately, we are the ones who fuel this economy. It’s pretty clear that his supporters are not the smartest people, though a few are the richest. I’m convinced that collectively, we can out-think, out vote, and withhold our spending in ways that shape future decision-making.

As Trump extends his takeover of corporate media outlets, what if we simply stop watching corporate media? I already stopped getting my news from them. When he plugs and silences one media outlet, we like a stream of water forge a new path. Our resistance must be loud, clear, and ubiquitous. We can no longer sit on the sidelines. Yes, the trolling and truth telling using creative media, songs, speeches, sermons, skits, cartoons, artwork, and independent podcasts and independent news outlets must continue to grow and spread. I’m fond of sharing creative content to help reach a broader audience. It’s the least I can do.

In addition to online content, boycott participation must spread, and the peaceful street protests must continue largely without black folks because our presence alone will be provocation for state violence. Trump and the white “Christian” nationalists who support him need to see lots and lots of white people. Only then will they truly understand that they are not the majority and that their views are unpopular. Make it shameful and embarrassing to be MAGA without confronting them directly. Simply ignore them.

The lawsuits must also continue, and we must financially support the organizations and law firms behind them like Democracy Forward, the ACLU, the NAACP Legal Defense. We must use our voices, our talents, and our pocketbooks to defend our country against the white “Christian” nationalist and the childish bully who have joined hands against us. I suggest taking the funds from cancelling Disney Plus or from that Starbucks coffee and applying them to the legal defense of our civil rights and our democracy.

In these perilous times, cowardice, apathy, and silence are not an option. We must be smart and unified in our resistance as we support all the various efforts to defend what is Constitutional, what is lawful, what is decent, and what is good for our nation. We must not engage in the violent fight they are itching for. Instead, we must continue to force the bully to react by publicly disagreeing and loudly exposing his nonsense. As he retaliates by breaking more laws, contradicting the Constitution, showing his indecency, and evoking brutality, his desperate actions will inevitably turn enough people against him to overthrow him and his white “Christian” nationalist allies.

I take hope in the reminder that there are more of us on the side of decency and goodwill than there are on the side of destruction and violence. And don’t forget that we are also smarter and more creative. May our resolve get stronger by the day.

Lately I feel like I’m living in an episode of the “Twilight Zone” or the Netflix series, “Black Mirror”. The television news is filled with dreadful stories; social media has unbelievable claims and ridiculous debates with ignorant people; and my everyday conversations are spent lamenting or debunking nonsense. This is what happens when delusional thinking takes hold of enough people to elect leaders who not only prorogate the delusions but demand their prominence and acceptance and worse, make decisions based on them.

The saddest part is that these delusions feed uneducated insecure people with visions of prosperity and white grandeur while simultaneously causing real life hardships to themselves and many others. The advocators of these delusions expect reasonable people to suspend their reliance on what their eyes, pocketbooks, and scientific evidence tells them. At the same time, they are pushing the masses to reject learned values like empathy, equality, fairness, and care for others. So, where is the massive pushback? My guess is that some citizens are too scared to speak while many others are too busy to recognize the danger. And then there are the prayers who believe God or the Universe will take care of it all. I’ll just quote that scripture that says, “Faith without works is dead.” (James 2;17). It’s time to resist in earnest.

The promoters of these delusions want people to believe that white “Christian” men are in every way superior to everyone else by virtue of God’s favor upon their skin color and gender. They argue that this makes them destined to dominate. They want everyone to accept that women as young as 14 years old are designed to be submissive sex toys, mothers, and house servants who live under their protection and that only then can women be happy and fulfilled. They want all humans to reject the humanity of LGBTQ people, targeting them as deviants to be eradicated. If you listen to the rhetoric of prominent white “Christian” male spokesmen, like Charlie Kirk, you will hear these messages loud and clear.

The problem is that they are nowhere near superior. In fact, they are incompetent. At every turn, their shortsighted, misguided and uninformed decisions have led to economic chaos, wars, job losses, public health uncertainty, mistrust of the news, insurrection, kidnapping people off the streets, flawed disaster relief, wasted tax dollars, military policing on the streets, closed hospitals, rising inflation, a breakdown in international relations, defunding medical and scientific research, farming disasters, destruction of education, increases in mass shootings, and now legalized discrimination. Imagine having to walk around with papers to prove you are legally allowed to be here if you have brown, yellow, or black skin. They are re-creating 1930’s Germany before our eyes.

Their weapons are scapegoating, gaslighting, terror, confusion, and guns. Yes, they lie, they cheat, they threaten, they extort, they hide information, they rewrite history, ignore the Constitution and laws, ban books, withhold research funding, and they fire the experienced workers and the experts in government positions, replacing them with loyalists. And now their bigotry-fueled incompetence led to an outrageous ICE raid where they detained (in cuffs and chains), imprisoned, and then deported 300 South Koreans who were “legally” here to help build a battery plant and train U.S. workers. Of course, last minute pleas by Trump to keep them here failed. They just insulted another ally as well as South Korean investors, kissing thousands of good paying jobs goodbye in the process!

It is disturbing that a third of the country is backing all of their incompetence simply because they are more comfortable with white men in charge. Sadly, some are even people of color who struggle with an inferiority complex. The weak-minded feel threatened by the rising prominence of women, people of color, and religious minorities. They are convinced that homosexuality and transgender are contagious and may diminish their numbers and influence. The narrative they were fed since childhood convinced them that whiteness coupled with Christianity are virtues that entitle white people to assume leadership and to secure the best homes, the best jobs, the highest pay, and entry into the best schools. They’ve been told that this nation belongs to white people and the rest of us are merely guest workers. They were led to believe this nation is the white man’s birthright because God favored them by allowing them to steal the land from its original inhabitants. They choose to ignore the horrors of the white ancestors’ actions and the subsequent enslavement of black people, denying their humanity. I think a line in the song, “Colors of the Wind” says it best when describing white suprematists: “You think the only people who are people, are the people who look and think like you.”

Charlie Kirk, a community college dropout, embodied this kind of delusional thinking and was hellbent on spreading the delusion of white Christian male superiority and their right to dominate. He took his message to white college students across the country under the guise of “free speech” and “debate”. He promoted the 2nd Amendment as a necessary tool to defend what he called his birthright. The irony of his comment that some guns deaths are “worth it” to maintain the right to bear arms is not lost on me.

It wasn’t surprising that his rhetoric stirred up a lot of anger. It was repulsive. And it wasn’t surprising that his violent death stirred up so much vitriol against those who want to uphold a multicultural democracy that aspires to equality and justice for all. Kirk was an effective mouthpiece for the delusion. However, I was surprised by how lightening quick MAGA leaders and media outlets were to sanitize his message while pointing their fingers at those of us who do not buy into their white supremacist delusion. Their message was that the left must be held responsible for the death of one of their most beloved young leaders (not their loud propogandist). Of course, they blamed the left without evidence. But once again, their incompetence was on full display, quickly followed by their blatant hypocrisy when it was discovered that the killer was “one of their own”.

I wasn’t surprised about that. In fact, I told my husband that I would lay wager that the shooter was a Trump supporter who had reasons to hate Charlie Kirk. I can only speculate that perhaps Kirk offended Mormons as lacking an acceptable “Christian” pedigree to lead. Maybe it was something else. Perhaps we’ll soon learn his actual motive. In any case, Charlie Kirk’s murder was yet another alarm sounding. His actual agenda and hateful rhetoric have been blasted throughout social media around the world, exposing him for the hateful sexist, racist, homophobe, and xenophobe that he actually is. He pushed the delusion for fame and got rich doing it. So sad for his wife and young children.

Ultimately, what will save this nation from a full-blown takeover by this utopian delusion under white “Christian” male rule is a greater number of citizens realizing the horrific economic, social, and healthcare consequences that come from allowing bigoted white men who continually display their cruelty and incompetence to lead us. It’s time to wake up the collective sleeping giant that demands competence, truth, justice, and decency as the humane path to a more prosperous American way of life.

The polls show that Americans have lost confidence in both political parties. Admittedly, so have I. However, it is clear to me that the Democrats have not completely rejected the Constitution nor the rule of law and most importantly, they do not support Project 2025 nor the white “Christian” nationalist agenda that places white males in a permanent position of dominance based solely on their whiteness. And so, I wrote to the Democrat minority leader, Hakeem Jeffries, this past Friday and I share that letter with you, hoping you will be inspired to do the same. It is time that our lawmakers hear from us.

September 5, 2025

Dear Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries,

I’m frustrated with our Party.  Where is our fight?  I abhor the flawed and out of touch messaging and inept strategy that is causing Democrats to bleed support during this chaotic, criminal and incompetent reign of Donald Trump.  I’m voting and sending in donations to your fund and to individual candidates because we need to win.  But many citizens are disengaging at a rapid speed.  We should be winning over these citizens amid the cowardice, hypocrisy, constant lying, and blatant discrimination of the Republicans, but we are not.  Our messaging is unclear, muted, and weak when it needs to be stronger and louder and everywhere.

I believe democrats stand for the actual values and needs of the American people, but you guys behave like you lack the ability to articulate those values in a simple way and that you aren’t willing to fight for them in a meaningful way.  Perhaps you are too beholden to certain donors? I do think that hosting Town Halls was a good start, and I appreciate what Gavin Newsome and other governors are doing.  But we need to be everywhere.  You don’t even need to talk about the Republicans.  Their true colors are apparent, and most people aren’t happy with the direction they are taking us.  Democrats need much more visibility and a clearly heroic message to save the country.

These are dangerous times for women, children, LGBTQ folks, seniors, immigrants, workers, veterans, the disabled, people of color and the planet itself and you guys are losing support because you aren’t standing strong against the evil forces coming for us.  It’s time for you to put forth a clear vision for this nation’s future.  Be everywhere with a message, not just with your hand out!

Our platform should first and foremost include codifying the Constitution and its ideals through actual legislation so that no future president can run circles around it.  Trump should not have been allowed to run for office again, but there was no way to enforce the Constitution. We must close the gaps between the Constitution and the actual laws to enforce it.

Second, Democrat leaders must clearly and loudly announce a vision for this nation that includes a fair and simplified tax code, fairness in opportunity, equal protection under the law that includes a woman’s right to choose and strengthens anti-discrimination laws, reasonable gun regulations, prioritizing public health and safety by following scientific evidence, ensuring the education of our children, regulating AI to protect humans, comprehensive immigration reform, investing in infrastructure, expanding the social safety net for our seniors, disabled, children and veterans.  All this in addition to funding research and innovation that benefits the nation. 

And finally, I believe the Party will gain support by labeling yourselves the actual representatives of the people by pushing for campaign reform that eliminates dark money and limits donations from individuals, groups and corporations.  Be the Party that supports independent redistricting by the citizens, not politicians. Limit campaigns for all public offices, including the presidency to just 6 weeks before an election.  Ensure easy, safe and fair elections that eliminate the ability to cheat.  This constant campaigning, fundraising, and election conspiracies are driving the nation away from even wanting elections at all.     

It is imperative that you take the time to address the concerns of conservatives and others.  Stand up for secure elections. Dispel the myth that Democrats support killing healthy, viable fetuses in the womb up to the nineth month on a whim.  Make it clear that our Party is not anti-business, but pro-business when it adds value to American life.  Make it clear that regulations are needed for public safety. Make it clear that we are a Party that values law and order as well due process and accountability.  Defend the value of immigrants and commit to passing immigration reform that serves the nation without cruelty.

I suggest that the Party quickly gets on the same page and delivers this kind of comprehensive message everywhere and often before the mid-terms.  In the minds of too many Americans, Democrats are no different from Republicans because they are too weak to stand up for what is good and what is right for the American people and the planet.  Many believe you are owned by corporations and the wealthy so that you can’t represent us well. I hope you throw off such shackles.

I call upon you to act fast to change that perception or our nation will continue its freefall and more people will suffer under the authoritarianism and lawlessness of Trump and the white nationalist agenda of the Republicans will move forward.  

Sincerely,

Dr. Juanita A. Hall, voting citizen

As a mother and grandparent, I’ve always believed that my most important responsibility is to instill in my children (and by extension my grandchildren) a sense of personal responsibility for their lives. I learned from my mother that nothing worth having is given to us without struggle; the most worthwhile things must be earned with skills, hard work, and determination. I’m forever grateful that despite societal obstacles and numerous family shortcomings, she instilled in me a strong sense of agency and a belief that I could be successful if I was diligent and realistic about my capabilities. She pointed the way, not only with her encouraging words, but by example. She taught me great moral values.

I passed along these values to my children like faith in God, listening to their gut, generosity, getting an education, loyalty, integrity, hard work, asking questions, persistence, and standing up for themselves. Blaming others for their failures or lack of opportunities was never anything to dwell on because there will always be people trying to block our way or drag us down. Sometimes those people were other black folks. It was okay to be disheartened and even angry about it, but it was never okay to give up because of other people. Our job was to get up, dust ourselves off, and start searching for another door or the open window. It’s no wonder that my son’s first big word was, “persevere”. I’m thankful that he learned early that perseverance is such an important character trait.

Today, I am glad to say that my children are all college-educated, married, own homes, and are living what many would call the “American dream”. They live in affluent neighborhoods and continue to pursue their best lives. I’m thankful that they followed the same footsteps my mother laid out for me and that they got the same results. Of course, there were obstacles to maneuver every step of the way (there always is). There were temptations to overcome and sacrifices to make. The path was never straightforward, nor was it easy. Tough lessons were learned when bad choices were made. However, there were a few foundational keys to our progress.

The first was faith in God and the power of prayer. I continue to believe that He would never leave us nor forsake us. I lived by the belief that God would ultimately repay my enemies on my behalf so that I didn’t need to waste my time nor my precious energy on revenge. I was quick to forgive and modeled that for my children. Hate and the desire for retribution only hinders our ability to move forward. Asking for forgiveness and being quick to forgive is a foundational principle I learned and taught my children. It has kept our family and friendship relationships strong, building a loving and dependable support system.

Another foundational key was generosity and kindness. Giving to others in need out of compassion and empathy was something I saw modeled by my mother and confirmed in the Gospels. I adopted this for myself and taught it to my children. Being welcoming of the stranger and keeping company with the lonely is my practice and I’ve seen that behavior in my children. Over the years, I took in foster children, I continue with volunteer work, and I give generously to the needy. It’s great to watch my children do the same in their own ways. My mother used to quote the scripture that says, “To whom much is given, much is required”.

Yet another foundational key is doing your best work and being thorough. Cream rises to the top and I’ve taught my children that they only need to combine their best effort with the necessary time needed to complete the job and they will succeed. Of course, natural talent helps, but consistently hard work will outshine innate talent alone. When you combine natural talent with hard work, you’re going to rise. To avoid bragging, I’ll just say that this is a formula that has worked repeatedly in our experience.

And finally, the last foundational key is financial literacy. I follow the proverb that says, “Only a fool spends everything he makes”. I have been a saver since childhood and investing has multiplied my income to the point of financial independence. My greatest expenditures were in support of the education and wellbeing of myself and my family. For me that meant purchasing a home in a safe neighborhood with excellent schools and paying healthcare and for extracurricular activities. I took the financial advice of Susy Orman early on and passed on her wisdom to my children. I’m thankful that because of those lessons, I don’t have to worry about money, and I have the freedom to do and purchase what I want. I’ve cared more about investing in myself and my children and watching my savings grow than developing a taste for extravagant things. I made my own coffee and carried my own lunches until I retired. I didn’t buy designer clothes or shoes, but I was always dressed for success.

A big part of financial literacy is to be diligent about maintenance of my body and my things. I don’t need a shiny new car every few years. I start by purchasing a reliable car over a fancy car and follow the maintenance schedule. I keep my cell phone until a new one is absolutely necessary and by then it is free. I brush and floss twice a day and get my teeth cleaned every 6 months. I get all my medical check-ups. I keep my house clean and organized. I exercise my body and my brain to retain my independence as long as possible. I grow most of our produce and cook 95% of the time. As the saying goes, “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure”.

The fewer the bills, the better, because a penny saved is truly a penny invested. I’m glad to have an inheritance to pass on to my children because I contributed to my 403b (like a 401k but for non-profits) and I also invested monthly in a good index fund since my 20s. I didn’t try to time the market and that consistent investment paid off. I’ve always kept a good emergency fund and avoided credit card debt, opting instead to collect the rewards.

I share these pieces of my life because I realize there are those among us who are scapegoating immigrants and others for their lack of progress. Immigrants aren’t taking your jobs. Immigrants aren’t taking your housing. If you don’t have a job or adequate housing, look in the mirror. What choices are you making that to prevent you from getting the job training or education you need to get a decent paying job? What personal traits keep you from being consistently employed? The safety nets have been in place, and the doors of opportunity were opened, but did you walk through them? I’ve met some lazy folks and some folks with attitude problems that answer that question. So, unless you are physically or mentally unwell, you should only point a finger at yourself for your lack of progress.

It has not mattered to me personally whether the Democrats or the Republicans were in power until now. And that’s only because white nationalists have overtaken the Republican Party and they have an agenda to end the social safety net, to deport immigrants of color, and to close the doors of opportunity to women and people of color. They want to make America white again and to re-establish a racial hierarchy with white people on top. Stop listening to anyone who tells you that someone else is holding you down or stealing what is yours. Those people covet your support for their ethnic cleansing. Believe me, you will not be better off when the immigrants are gone because you are still you and they will see to it that you can’t get ahead of them.

Blaming others is a fool’s errand and doesn’t lead to anything but heartache and pain for everyone involved, both the scapegoater and the scapegoated. It’s time to take personal responsibility for ourselves and our progress. In this country, if we are physically and mentally healthy, we can make lifestyle choices that will lead to our personal prosperity. It’s time more people take personal responsibility for themselves and stop jumping on the scapegoat wagon.

I’ve spent nearly my entire life living among and working with immigrants and foreign nationals. Even though we lived in a black neighborhood, my pre-school and early elementary years through 3rd grade were spent at a primarily Latino school near my mother’s work. There were five black kids at the school: me, my two older brothers, and Tommy and Sheila. I loved being there. I loved the food, the language, the culture, the teachers, and my many friends. School was easy and fun for me. We moved and I spent 4th – 6th grade among the children of Asian immigrants, primarily Japanese and Korean. There too, I had a great time, and it was there that I developed an appreciation for academic rigor and Asian foods. I saw how differently Asian households were run and developed an appreciation for the emphasis placed on organization and learning. Once again, there were only a few black kids at the school, but it didn’t matter; I was having a great time with my new Asian friends.

I spent my first year of middle school with those Asian friends among huge numbers of Jewish students. The academic rigor remained high along with high expectations and I liked it. And then we moved again. I spent the rest of middle school with kids who looked like me, black. That was by choice. For once, I wanted to know what it was like to not be the minority in a school setting. What I learned was that black school culture was fun-loving, creative, athletic, often disorderly, but also not very academically inclined. I could sense the low expectations. Consequently, I was so far ahead academically that they placed me in honors courses with the only white students in the school and several other highly motivated black students.

I excelled among my peers, and it was at that school that I was tested and accepted into the “gifted” program along with two of my black classmates. That official designation actually helped shape my high school career at a school where I was once again one of only a few blacks, but this time among a sea of white students. I was only allowed to enroll in honors and AP courses because I was a state identified “gifted” student, a fact my mother had to point out to them. None of my black friends were in any of my classes. Still, I had a great time at the school and excelled socially, athletically, and academically. Upon graduation I was voted “Best Personality” and “Most Outgoing” along with being the valedictorian. I often say that I am an introvert, but I am not shy. I easily welcome people from a variety of cultural backgrounds because I grew up in such diverse settings. I’ve learned that “people” are “people”, some worthy of friendship and some not. But my assessment of friendship status is never dependent on skin color nor nationality. Character matters most. The proximity to immigrant communities helped me view all people as human beings deserving of dignity and respect, not threats nor enemies unless their individual character proved otherwise. This grace has never been extended to black people.

I know the U.S. has given black skin a bad reputation and I have had to overcome that reputation many times. I’m still doing it. I like to think that my presence among immigrants and people from other ethnic groups forces them to question their prejudice against black people. During my academic education, I would learn about Allport’s Intergroup Contact Theory as an effective way to reduce prejudice. And I ran with it!

My curiosity about other people and cultures only grew throughout the years. I studied abroad twice. I traveled extensively to other countries. I was determined to break down prejudices by promoting cross-cultural interactions among people, particularly students who would one day run the world. I earned a master’s degree and then a doctorate in education because I loved bringing domestic students together with students from all over the world for learning, collaborations, leadership training, and mutual understanding. I worked in International Admissions, Study Abroad, Multicultural Programs, as an adjunct professor, as Chief Diversity Officer and director of International Student Services for the final years of my career. It was purposeful and fulfilling work.

It was through my career working with U.S. immigration and foreign nationals (both documented and undocumented) that I learned first-hand how broken and contradictory our immigration system really is. For many years, the system has been rigged to provide employers with cheap, exploitable labor to keep consumer prices low. By design, our country has allowed many more than the inadequate number of legal migrants to enter the country undocumented to fill the unskilled, labor-intense jobs that employers need filled. I’ve found it ridiculous how U.S. Consulars issue visas only to students whom they believe will return to their home country after graduation, but then our government offers ways to keep them here to take advantage of their family wealth or the knowledge and expertise they gained in our universities, forging a predictable path from degree to citizenship. I’ve had rich students pay their way to citizenship while others take the post-graduation work visa path. Many of my former international students are now U.S. citizens raising their own families here in the U.S. Every now and then, I’ve felt pangs of guilt for the wealth and brain drain we’ve inflicted on developing nations by keeping them here. Some of the richest, smartest and most talented students could have contributed much to the development of their home countries if we didn’t entice them to remain here.

Of course, the U.S. would not be the economic and innovative powerhouse it has become had it not been for the wealth, brains, innovation, work ethic, and contributions of immigrants. Generally speaking, they work hard, certainly harder than U.S. workers and immigrant students are more likely to major in the STEM fields that U.S. students shy away from. They pay taxes. They commit fewer crimes than Americans. And they are profoundly motivated to get ahead. They are eager to expand our cultural appreciation of different foods, traditions, and mindsets. This country was built by and is enriched by immigrants. So, I refuse to scapegoat them as responsible for people being unemployed, homeless, or high community crime rates. It was a lie that Haitians were eating the cats and dogs. It was a lie that countries were sending rapists and murderers and releasing insane folks into our communities. It was a lie that immigrants are taking away our jobs. Anyone who buys into Trump’s scapegoating of immigrants hasn’t spent much time with them.

The agenda of this current administration is to make America whiter and to promote white male dominance in all aspects of society even if they lack the competence, compassion, and the common sense to improve things. We are literally watching the destruction of science, history, social norms, and the Constitution itself. The dumbing down of America is here.

To accomplish the white “Christian” nationalist agenda, they are reversing the brain drain, encouraging smart, innovative and hard-working immigrants of color to leave the country or be deported. They are pushing our leading-edge scientists and scholars into the arms of other nations. They have made it excessively difficult, if not impossible for foreign students and scholars from India, China, Japan, Latin and Africa countries to come here. There is basically an immigration sign at our border that reads: Whites only. It’s no surprise that nearly 70,000 white South Africans have applied to enter the U.S. as “refugees” based on Trump’s invitation to alleviate a non-existent persecution problem. However, the whites they hope to attract in large numbers from European countries aren’t coming, even as tourists. They see the absurdity of white supremacy, female oppression, LGBTQ persecution, and anti-science platforms plaguing the U.S. and want no part of it. The U.S. is becoming the laughingstock of the developed world. Anyone who doubts this is in denial.

To be clear, without the positive energy, brain power, and work ethic immigrants provide, I predict a swift and certain decline in the position of the U.S. in the world. It’s already happening. We will be viewed as no different from North Korea because of our mad leader and possession of nukes, and no different from Afghanistan because of our repressive religious laws and oppression of women and LGBTQ people. And we will be just as isolated and considered just as backward and undeserving of respect as both of those countries.

At this moment in time, in these United States, I am glad that I only have grandsons. I am concerned that they are men of color, but at least their hopes, dreams, and ambitions are not in immediate danger of being snuffed out simply because they are female. I recognize that some envision a future that also diminishes my grandson’s access to opportunities based on their skin color. And a few evil white men even dream of a future that imprisons, enslaves, or deports men and women of color. But today, young females, of all colors, are under threat.

The public rhetoric of some influential men fuels the sexism that had been held at bay by the rise of feminism. Since gaining the right to vote in 1920 to the ability to make birth control decisions and to open our own checking accounts in the 1970s, women have proven that our mental and emotional acuity as well as our personal ambitions often rival that of men. Our obvious biological differences manifested in less physical strength and our ability to give birth had become secondary considerations because it doesn’t take brute strength to become a doctor, lawyer, scientist, businesswoman, journalist, astronaut, professor, or politician. Once the doors opened to us beyond that of lower paid secretary, teacher and nurse, many of us gladly stepped through those doors.

At first, newly “liberated” women like me flooded the universities in search of an academic degree and a “Mrs.” We didn’t realize it, but we were forging new pathways for our daughters that included big dreams, independence and sometimes a struggle with fertility issues. Our careers featured sporadic employment, motherhood guilt, double duty, divided attention and often divorce. Our daughters witnessed our struggle, and they didn’t graduate from college with future husbands, but with future careers. It made perfect sense to them to delay marriage and especially motherhood. However, no one told them that the female reproductive biology didn’t get the memo about the consequences of delaying motherhood, and so the fertility industry gained a new level of prominence. I’m proud that this generation of women boldly pushes new boundaries, entering the remaining male-dominated careers. It’s no longer shocking to see a female airline pilot, although some still feel a bit of unease. I don’t.

Not surprisingly, there were always more physical and more left-brained females among us. We labeled them “Tom Boys”. But now they have the opportunity to pursue careers in sports, engineering, construction, policing, and the military. It’s true that they continue to fight for equity in pay and promotion. Unlike the women who preceded them, they were fed a steady narrative of competence and empowerment, a completely different narrative from the sexism I grew up with.

I grew up hearing sexism from the pulpit, but not my mother. There is a theology that preaches the superiority of men and their God-given authority over women. A God-fearing woman will submit to her husband. She will keep her opinions to herself if different from her husband’s. She won’t exercise her will above that of the men in her life. That teaching coupled with the noticeable lack of women working as high powered, high paying professionals and the palpable fear of becoming a spinster at age 26 was the reality I grew up with. This was a particular brand of sexism that diminished the ambitions and downplayed the intelligence of women, and I wasn’t having it. I was smart and ambitious and didn’t want to dim my light and feign inferiority for the rest of my life. At age 15, I confided in my eldest brother that if this was what was expected, I wasn’t going to get married. Not realizing he was a feminist, having also been raised by my mother, I listened when he told me that not all men needed to dominate women. And he was right. Thankfully, I didn’t marry sexist men, but feminist men who believed in equality and partnership.

But society in those days worked hard to solidify limited female roles in the minds of girls and boys through television shows like, “Father Knows Best”, “Leave it to Beaver”, “I love Lucy”, and “The Brady Bunch”. The masses were groomed to accept that women were servants to their husbands, less intelligent, and devoted mothers to their children. But Hollywood slowly broke the old mold when new television role models like Mary Tyler Moore, Julia, and Murphy Brown hit the television screen. These were educated single career women. Mary Tyler Moore was a “spinster”, Julia was a black single mother, and Murphy Brown had the audacity to get pregnant and choose to raise the baby on her own. Women were making progress.

So much progress that we almost elected a female president. Twice. We finally had a female vice president and that worked out well. Both female presidential candidates were clearly smarter, more experienced, and more articulate than Donald Trump. However, both the 2016 and the 2024 elections proved too much for some very insecure men (and women). They chose the less qualified male. However, many question whether Kamala Harris really lost. I don’t know. Some, including the current president, say that the election was rigged in favor of the white male, despite his criminality, incompetence, and many moral failings. I will say that the sexist religious right had an agenda, and they had the tech bros on their side. So maybe the 2024 election was rigged.

In the wake of their “win”, emboldened sexist men have become increasingly vocal about their desire to roll back the independence and progress of women. The new vice president, JD Vance, has made a number of remarks that fuel the fire of a re-emerging sexism that is more sinister than ever because despite recognizing the intelligence, ambitions, and actual potential of women to lead, they want to hinder us. They see young men falling behind and they fear increasing male impotence, loneliness, and lost ambition. These are real issues that must be addressed. It’s not helpful that AI will replace human labor, leaving undereducated men behind. There is a real fear that women might supplant men as the dominate gender. So, they are taking decisive actions to suppress and oppress women.

Beyond the rhetoric, they started by taking away the reproductive rights of young women because women tied to motherhood have less time to devote to a job or seeking power and influence in the public sphere. Not only are they trying their hardest to end abortion rights, but the right to contraception as well. They ended DEI programs that expanded education and career opportunities for women. They want those doors closed especially since women are now more highly educated than men. There is a movement among the religious right to lower the age of consent, to make young girls vulnerable to sexual assault and forced marriage. And worse, they are trying to end “no fault” divorce to trap women in unhappy marriages.

The reality is that the religious right is effectively trying to imprison women in homes with husbands standing guard. They are working to erase the accomplishments of women from the history books and the public sphere. They know that girls can’t aspire to become what they can’t see as a possibility. And now there is a movement to prevent women from voting. It is no surprise that they are elevating the voices of traditional wives to say that being a submissive wife and mother is the way things should be.

All these things are happening in real time. The religious right is no different than the Taliban in their thinking when it comes to the role of women on the earth. They see us as second-class citizens, underserving of anything more than a basic education and completely dependent on men for our welfare. They know we aren’t stupid, nor incapable, but they need us to pretend to be to feed their egos and advance their ambitions without competition from us. They are willing to use brute force and their political power to co-opt the ambition of our daughters and granddaughters. They will utilize coercion, persuasion, public ridicule, and legislation if necessary.

However, we can’t allow them to do this. Harming women to help men is not the answer. We should know by now that cutting off half the brain power in a society doesn’t encourage innovation and slows down problem solving, stifling human progress. We must recognize their misguided agenda and reject it while we can by voting for pro-female equity candidates.

On an individual level, I would advise young women to keep their passports updated. I would advise marriage to a true feminist. And if getting married, I’d advise against changing her last name. I’d advise young women to secure both a trade and an education before having children. I’d advise against waiting until 35 to have children. And finally, I would advise young women against setting up residence in a red state. The blue states are safer with regards to protecting the health and civil liberties of young women.

I don’t believe it’s possible to take this entire generation of young women back to the 1950s. The human spirit is far too strong to remain oppressed for extended periods of time. So, even if they briefly intimidate or brainwash young women into submission with their oppressive laws and actions, women will eventually rise up demanding liberation again.