2025 Life Logs, Day 48: We Choose to Fight
Date: Monday, February 17, 2025
Weather: Sunny, but Cold, Strong West Wind; High Temp 33, Low 17 degrees F
Location: At Home on Lakeview Avenue with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA
Protest rallies against the actions Trump, Musk, and company are taking against the federal government were held all around the country on this President’s Day. I proudly spent part of my afternoon at an Upper Cape Indivisible rally in downtown Falmouth.
A coalition of other local groups joined Indivisible in this ‘We Choose to Fight’ gathering. In Falmouth, there were people of all ages, Veteran’s to members of the Wampanoag Nation, even dogs sporting signs like, “Dogs Against Doge.”
It felt so good to be doing something, even if it was just standing together with people of like mind. The rally hosts invited those who “stand against Trump’s illegal power grab and the dangerous path to fascism … unite to defend justice, equality, and our freedoms, refusing to let our rights be stripped away.” It was a great turnout even with the weather. The sun was shining brightly, but the wind was blowing around 30 mph as we gathered. The American flags were certainly flying proudly in that wind, and it felt much colder than the 30 degree temperature due to that wind.
A reminder here from Robert Reich, “It is well to remind ourselves that today is President’s Day, not Dictator’s Day.” And after reading what Trump posted on Truth Social yesterday–“He who saves his country does not violate any law.”–I don’t think there is any longer a doubt about his intentions. That quote, attributed to Napoleon, is often used as a justification for extraordinary actions in times of national crisis. Well, the only national crisis is one that Trump’s actions are causing. And we all know what happened to Napoleon.
Yesterday, Heather Cox Richarson quoted political scientist Stathis Kalyvas: “There is now total clarity, no matter how unimaginable things might seem. And they amount to this: The U.S. government has been taken over by a clique of extremists who have embarked on a process of regime change in the world’s oldest democracy…. The arrogance on display is staggering. They think their actions will increase U.S. power, but they are in fact wrecking their own country and, in the process everyone else.” He continued: “The only hope lies in the sheer enormity of the threat: it might awake us out of our slumber before it is too late.” Today we saw many people across the United States waking up.
