Do Something!
Time to Get Out In The Streets Again!
I'm sure you're all familiar with the case of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, abducted by ICE and illegally sent to a brutal torture prison in El Salvador, although he had a court order explicitly preventing his deportation to that country, and no one has presented any credible evidence that he was ever involved in a crime or a member of a gang. His case is perhaps the most blatantly egregious of the hundreds who've been illegally abducted and deported.
Now the situation has escalated to a constitutional crisis. The courts, including the U.S. Supreme Court, have ordered Abrego Garcia's return, and the administration has stonewalled, lied, stalled, and outright refused to do so. The courts have ruled that all of those deported have a right to a hearing and to due process, and the Trump regime has ignored them.
It's time for us all to do something. Even if you don't know what to do, even if you feel that what you can do is minimally useful, do something! I'm reminded of the advice for surviving extreme situations given by Robert Fisk, a journalist who spent decades reporting on war zones in the Middle East. He describes a terrible incident when his car broke down in Afghanistan and he and his companions were surrounded and attacked by an angry mob. Fisk thought his life was about to end, but he remembered the lessons he'd learned in years of surviving dangerous situations.
“For 25 years, I have covered Lebanon's wars and the Lebanese used to teach me, over and over again, how to stay alive: take a decision – any decision – but don't do nothing.”
Now we're at that moment of crisis what we need to do something to make our voices, our outrage and our presence known. There are many actions planned for this Saturday: find one near you: https://www.fiftyfifty.one/events. Join one, if you can! And if you can't find some close to you, grab a friend, a couple of lawn chairs and some signs, and sit by the side of the road. When my friends did this on April 5th, to support someone who physically could not make it to a rally, their little demonstration received an enormous amount of supportive honks and comments from passersby and even mention in the local press! Or organize your friends to make those calls and send those letters.
It's an important weekend to make our voices heard. Protests may not cause Trump to tremble in his boots, but they are a necessary precondition for change to happen. They're like the compost you spread to amend the soil so that something can grow. Without them, without the visual representation that we stand firmly against these acts of cruelty and lawlessness, there is little incentive for our elected representatives to take stronger actions. Trump may not care about demonstrations, but the Republican Representatives who are up for reelection in 2026 will care when their hold on Congress is threatened. The Supreme Court’s legitimacy is already on shaky grounds. The Justices need to know that the public stands firmly with the rule of law and expects them to do the same.
And those who are already refusing to cooperate are heartened when we fill the streets. The school administrators who refused to let ICE harass their students, the Federal Judges who are doing their best to reimpose the rule of law, the universities who need to find the backbone to follow Harvard’s lead and refuse to bend to the Trump regime’s control, all are strengthened by a big, visible movement. Senator Chris Van Hollen, who went down to El Salvador and managed to meet with Abrego Garcia, needs to know that he has public support. The other Democratic Senators and Representatives who are planning trips and delegations need to know the public is behind them. These goals are served by massive numbers of people speaking out, in the streets, on the phones, in emails and letters, and in every nonviolent way that is possible.
So do something! Don’t let it stop with Abrego Garcia—all of the more than 200 men deported to that hell hole have had their rights violated. And don’t be distracted by charges that they are dangerous or vicious or ‘the worst of the worst’. Arguably, the most vile drug-runner assassin has killed far fewer people than the 500,000 children predicted to die of AIDS because Trump, Musk and Rubio have cut off funds for PEPFAR, the enormously successful program that supports AIDS treatment in Africa. The most gung-ho gang enforcer working overtime would be hard put to chalk up 103 deaths per hour, as it’s estimated are being caused by the shut down of USAID. It seems the homegrown worst-of-the-worst might not be tattooed terrorists after all, but rather sociopaths in suits!
Ultimately, even the most repressive regimes depend on their legitimacy to function. When they lose the trust and cooperation of the people, when the people become ungovernable, they cannot stand.
So raise your voices, get loud, get out in the streets. When things look dire, when every course of action seems hopeless, just take a decision. Don’t do nothing. Do something—and you will change the dynamic. Something unexpected will happen, and we might just turn this around!
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Our belief that we can do any good waxes and wanes, and your writing was much needed in a moment of wane.
Thank you for writing and inspiring us to continue to speak out and protest any way we can. My fear is we become despondent and give up. I was heartened by a simple interaction at Walgreens today. I made a couple of posters and had them blown up. My granddaughter helped me because she is more skilled in digital art. When I went to pick them up today, the young woman behind the counter said, “I printed those out last night and agree with both of them. I thought this woman knows what’s happening.”