Fear grips our nation. You can feel it, hear it and if you’re paying attention you can see it. My neighbor, who is 68, recently told me, “I’m afraid to go shopping, even to the grocery store.” She was referring to the mass killings that are frequently happening in our country. “Why don’t ‘they’ do something about it?” We live in Annapolis, MD, where five of our journalists and friends (we’re a small city) were brutally gunned down by a killer in 2018.
A young man I know who has lived in the US since the age of four asked, “Do you think they’ll deport me? It’s my home!” He had tears in his eyes. “Please donate to help deployed soldiers save animals,” from an email blast. “We’re not going to make our fundraising goal,” a phone call from a local food bank. “WOW, they raised the price of oranges 25 cents each,” overheard at the supermarket. “Amid Trump Tariffs Farm Bankruptcies and Suicides Rise,” a Forbes headline. “Our Republic is Under Attack from the President”, Admiral William H. McRaven, former Commander of the United States Special Operations Command.
Our country is in crisis and it’s deteriorating, but we can’t blame everything on Trump. Since the mid-1950s the first time Congress used tax exemptions to lure corporations to do their bidding, to President Dwight D. Eisenhower’s “Beware the military industrial complex”, to the rise of libertarian ideals emboldened by the Koch Brother’s attack on our Constitution and implementation of the American Legislative Exchange Council, to Citizens United where corporations are equal to people, the frequent Congressional invasion of Social Security and Medicare funds, the lack of control of health care, endless wars, flagrant racism and so much more, the American people have been under attack not only by the President but by Congress as well. Donald Trump has co-opted the GOP and insinuated civil war if he doesn’t get his way. We should say bring it on. Only we won’t use weapons of war, we’ll use the might of 330 million Americans.
In 2016, my friend Dr. Jack Trammell, a professor at Randolph Macon University, and his colleague, Guy Terrell, authored a roadmap, a guideline on how the American people can regain control of the United States. This won’t be easy and it’s going to take a nation. It will require us to put away our biases and concentrate. For almost 250 years the American people, not the wealthy elite or corporations (who cannot really fire a gun) have fought for our Democracy, we have spilled American blood to make the world a better place. When we stand together we are a mighty force for good. In addition to Jack and Guy’s, roadmap, Congressman John Sarbanes (D-MD) has been working on legislation to accomplish some of the ideas.
Jack & Guy have provided 100 copies of their book and we will send them to interested individuals for the cost of postage. To receive a copy, go to this website.
