Now We Know

Did you think that the so-called World’s Coolest Dictator was helping the Trump Administration disappear migrants just for the money? Appears Nayib Bukele had another motive. He is sending Venezuelan migrants back to the tyrant from whom they escaped in exchange for his own jailed migrants. Did President Trump know this was the plan all along, or did Bukele pull a fast one on him?

There is so much evil in the world right now. Netanyahu’s government is destroying Gaza. Instead of taking aim at Hamas, regardless of the reasons he gives for each bombing, his soldiers target humanitarian zones, hospitals, schools, and aid workers. They’ve cut off food aid for those surviving in the rubble and the refugee camps. So what if the children are malnourished, if the sick and the elderly can’t access their medications.

Putin agrees to a ceasefire, then he spends the Easter holidays breaking the ceasefire, hitting civilian targets.

Here, there is just one outrage after another. I have to wonder if the president has no feelings for the pain and suffering of anyone other than himself, or if it makes him feel better and more powerful to inflict the pain.

Reading the news makes me sick to my stomach, but I feel like I have to stay informed. If more people were aware of the consequences of their votes, and I mean followed the actual news, would we be in the situation we find ourselves in now? I don’t want to believe that my friends and neighbors are OK with what the president is doing to people’s lives.

A bit of light in this darkness is the number of people who showed up on Sunday to protest the policies that are destroying our economy, our freedoms, and the power of this country. Some of those who couldn’t make it to the protests responded by making art.

Now that we know that the second Trump Administration is even more dangerous than the first, what else can we do? One thing is sure, we can’t just sit back and watch the destruction of people’s lives, livelihoods, and freedoms.

Ignorance isn’t bliss. We have to stay informed and do what we can, even if all we can do is be kind to people, speak up for the oppressed, and make sure that schools, food banks, health care services, and other necessities on the chopping block stay open.

We have work to do.