Retrospect, lament, and a longing for lasting change.

By J. Basil Dannebohm

Shortly after the inauguration, mortified by Trump’s return to power, former pastor John Pavlovitz said, “For likely the third time, you had a chance to reject his vitriol, to condemn his criminality, to prevent his lawlessness, to denounce his bigotry — and you flat-out refused. More than that, you celebrated it.”

Since then, many of us have lost count of how many times Trump supporters have remained silent or outright celebrated the heinousness of his regime.

Recently Dr. Jacqueline Antonovich, a historian and professor at Muhlenberg College in Allentown, Pennsylvania, observed, "Like many other historians, I cringe when I hear people saying, 'This is not who we are.' Because historically, it is who we are. Again, and again. I think it's better to say, "This is not who I want us to be." And then ask yourself what you can do to change that."

She's correct. 249 years of history indicate this is indeed who we are.

From the Salem Witch Trials to the Trail of Tears, this is who we are.

From the Stonewall Riots to Matthew Shepard, this is who we are.

From slavery to segregation, this is who we are.

From Columbine to Pulse, this is who we are.

From the internment of Asian Americans to Alligator Alcatraz, this is who we are.

From the beating of Rodney King to the murder of George Floyd, this is who we are.

From the Zoot Suit Riots to the ICE raids, this is who we are.

From McCarthyism to MAGA, this is who we are.

"We hold these truths to be self-evident …" looks good on paper, but in practice the American experiment has largely failed.

Until my female neighbors are truly “free and equal,” none of us are “free and equal;” we are privileged.

Until my LGBTQ+ neighbors are truly “free and equal,” none of us are “free and equal;” we are privileged.

Until my Indigenous (Native American) neighbors are truly “free and equal,” none of us are “free and equal;” we are privileged.

Until my brown, black, and olive-skinned neighbors are truly “free and equal,” none of us are “free and equal;” we are privileged.

Until my Muslim, Sikh, and Jewish neighbors are truly "free and equal," none of us are “free and equal;” we are privileged.

At this very moment in America, brown-skinned people are being kidnapped off the streets and taken to a concentration camp in Florida to be terrorized by alligators, pythons, and cowardly bigots wearing masks. The Democratic nominee for Mayor of New York City, a legal citizen, is being threatened with arrest and deportation because of his religious beliefs and skin color. Women, whose reproductive choices and healthcare should be their private business, are controlled, shamed, and restricted thanks to a bunch of pharisaical activists who are nothing more than pro-BIRTH hypocrites.

The time to change who we are is long overdue. Yet the only changes on the horizon add insult to injury.

Largely reversing much of FDR’s “New Deal,” Trump’s so-called “Big Beautiful Bill” inflicts harm on the1 in 5 children who rely on SNAP for daily meals and the 35.5% of children who rely on Medicaid for health insurance. Furthermore, it sells off federal land to the highest bidder, forces rural hospitals to close, fully implements Project 2025 – and that’s just the beginning. The Republican-controlled Congress passed a deplorable piece of legislation that punishes “the least of these,” while providing $1.1 trillion in tax breaks to the top 1% of wealthy Americans.

As hurricane season commences and millions of Americans find themselves potentially in harm’s way, $300 million in FEMA funds have been reallocated for Donald Trump to play golf. The Department of Homeland Security, which is already $1 billion over budget, diverted FEMA disaster relief funds to build the “Alligator Alcatraz” concentration camp at record speed. The GOP’s new Homeland Security funding bill includes a draconian, dehumanizing invasion of privacy requiring “all non-detained migrants” to wear GPS tracking devices as an “alternative to detention." The bill likewise includes an additional $4.4 billion for ICE custody operations and seeks to eliminate FEMA entirely.

On January 20th, 1993, President Bill Clinton said, “There is nothing wrong with America that cannot be cured by what is right with America.”

More than three decades later, we have a long way to go. Donald Trump, his Congressional cronies, and the MAGA cult have set that progress back by decades. If this isn’t who we are, let's change it, once and for all.