Something we can do by Sue Robin

I realized why I haven’t been able to write about our country’s descent into hell — it would make the Orange Monster’s craziness and my trauma too real. I used to encourage clients to write about their trauma to concretize it outside of their bodies, to help them separate themselves from the trauma itself. I guess it’s time for me to do that too.

I have felt a bit like the punching clown my son had as a small child. It was weighted at the bottom and each punch would make the clown bounce down and then up again. No sooner has the ink dried on one of Trump’s Presidential proclamations then another piece of idiocy bounces out. We have all been bopped in the face time and time again.

I never saw “The Exorcist,” but I understand that there is a scene in which the evil makes the girl’s head spin round and vomit spews forth from her mouth. I am not sure if Trump is the one possessed, or if it it is me, because my head sure feels as though it is spinning and each of his signatures brings a wave of nausea. Kind of like a horrific case of vertigo that doesn’t respond to treatment.

It is not that anything that has happened should come as a surprise (Joyce Vance writes about this tonight). The Project 2025 playbook is being executed, abetted by an egomaniac who adds his own bit of insanity to the script: firing civil servants, pardoning violent insurrectionists, seeking retribution for any perceived attack on himself, and the grandiosity of comments regarding the Panama Canal, Canada, Greenland and now Gaza.

On Monday, we listened to the ACLU Town Hall and found it helpful and comforting to hear what they are doing to combat the ugliness and the grassroots orders they have for all of us foot soldiers.

The ACLU encourages those of us who are looking for our next steps, once we catch our breaths, to start by taking their Know Your Rights training. You can sign up for the Zoom class here. I just did. They happen regularly (the next one is on February 10) and are offered in Spanish as well. They also encourage folks to join ACLU People Power. Yes, phone calls to make and letters to write.

I just listened to Bob Dylan sing Knock, knock, knockin’ on heaven’s door. I am not yet knocking, but that door is not too far ahead. I hope I live long enough to see our governmental pendulum swing again towards righteousness and morality.