The summer solstice arrived this morning in the Northern hemisphere. By the light of the longest day, we can see clearly who our enemy is, what his tribe is and what they will take if we let them. Six months from now, when the longest night gives way and cold winter sets in, it will be too late to stop them.
They passed the point of no return this week, signing, in invisible ink that flowed from the broken souls of stolen children, a brazen pact that proclaims, "No cruelty is beyond our reach. No words on parchment can restrain us. Lies are truth; truth a lie; compassion a broken vessel. The fountain of justice runs dry. America is us. Vengeance is ours."
So we must act now, while the light is strong. We must stop him, and them, and drive the miserable corrupt lot from power at every level of government, from the school board to the presidency. Starting or continuing now, with whatever just, honorable methods we devise, we must work together in coalition with others who see the light. Our side need not, cannot, agree on everything. But we can agree that this threat, unblocked, will match the worst threats the world has ever known, at a time the world is in no shape to recover from it.
We have seen it coming, laughed at its brute stupidity, assumed wrongly that few sane people, for long, could be fooled by a mad, vengeful narcissist and his warped svengalis. But each month they pushed the limits, conspiring with oligarchs, glorifying tyrants, afflicting our allies while comforting our enemies, enriching themselves in office while systematically destroying all they were pledged to protect, thriving on fear and resentment, fetishizing guns, sacrificing school children and immigrant children to their cold mania.
The racism was hard for some of us to believe -- until it was plain as the misshapen hair on the head of a narcissist. Tribalism hardening into a cult devoured friends and family members before many of us realized they were gone.
There is, in mankind, a strong urge to define our tribe as distinct from all that is "Other." And to use that definition to dehumanize the Other, to justify conquest, pillage, murder and torture of the Other. This happens in virtually every civilization.
To Trump and his minions today, the Other they fear is usually black, brown, poor and vulnerable. But racism does not limit their scope. Before we know it, the rest of us -- all who stand in their way -- will be the Other too. They will do to us what they have done so openly to others. With mirthless laughter.
That is a piss poor reason to begin to fight now. "First they came for the Jews...." But it is a reason. And most of us have been fighting all along, in what ways we could. Most of us outside the Trump cult do not stand idly by while our neighbors are attacked, or while refugees, legal or illegal, are abused by those who act in our name. Most of us have a sense of humanity.
So we must redouble our efforts. Hit the streets in massive numbers at every opportunity. Win the mid-term elections in November, despite Putin's best efforts, redistricting, voter-rights abuses, wagging of the dog, and what will certainly be outright attempts to steal it.
This will take some sacrifice, some reorganizing of priorities. That's a small price to pay. A much smaller price than our ancestors paid to establish this democracy, to defend it from the slave owners, to fight off Hitler and the Axis powers. Whatever the price, this challenge is as great as those.
The days are getting shorter. There's no time to lose. Let's get together.