2025 Life Logs, Day 20: Too Much, but Heads Up
Date: Monday, January 20, 2025
Weather: Sunny and Chilly: Temp 32, Low 14 degrees F
Location: At Home on Lakeview Avenue with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA
My head is spinning from a day filled with ‘too much’—MLK Day, Inauguration Day, Executive Orders and then more Executive Orders, Commutations for 14 individuals convicted of crimes on January 6. So how did I deal with all of that? I went with a friend to the Cape Cinema in Dennis to see a movie. That’s one way of sticking your head in the sand.
But I am now back home, trying to process everything that happened today. And it was a lot. Days like today do not happen in ordinary times. Tonight, I heard an interview with Timothy Snyder, Professor of History at Yale and expert on authoritarianism. He was also pointing out that much of what happened today was not ordinary. He said we need to be vigilant, not stick our heads in the sand. His quote was, “Heads up … look for the openings.”
Cecile Richards, previously the President of Planned Parenthood, died today at only 67. But something she once said will always stick with me in times like these: “One woman calling out an injustice is powerful enough; when we raise our voices together, we can shake the status quo to its foundation.” Or as another human rights activist and the world’s leading spokesman on the Holocaust., Elie Wiesel said, “One person is a protest, more than two is a movement.” In times like these, we need to join together to stand for what is just and right for our country. Look for the openings.
