Like everyone else, I’m overwhelmed with what’s going on around us. The last couple of days have been especially brutal with federal forces unleashed against LA and the Israeli interception of the Gaza aid ship Madleen. With catastrophes all around us and the continued existence of the nation and more at stake, it’s alarming that life goes on as usual. The stock market keeps rising, business booms, we go to work, eat and sleep, and for the most part live our day-to-day lives as if none of this is going on, even though inside we burn with fear, outrage, and disbelief.

We should be running around, frantic all the time, as if our hair is on fire, but if we do, what does that accomplish other than making ourselves and others more miserable? If, on the other hand, we make light of or pretend to ignore what’s going on, it normalizes the unacceptable. The situation is akin to visiting a friend dying of cancer. Crying, getting emotional or continually asking how he’s feeling reminds him of what he’s profoundly aware of and probably trying not to think about. If you attempt to amuse him with jokes and stories and act like he’s not ailing, he’ll think his suffering means nothing to you. It’s a damned if you do, damned if you don’t kind of situation, and in our current circumstances we are damned regardless of our actions.

What’s so frustrating is how easily the national cancer eating away at us could have been stopped at an early stage. Ten years ago when Trump was one of 17 Republican candidates (all awful in their own way) seeking the presidential nomination, his rivals knew who he was and called him out volubly. Then one by one, starting with Chris Christie (still somehow in the public eye and a regular on legacy media), they all capitulated and backed him. Two chances to impeach him were blocked by Mitch McConnell & co., and when Jan. 6 was even too much for McConnell, Trump was resurrected by Kevin McCarthy, and then restored by John Roberts and his gang. The once operable cancer has now metastasized to every part of the nation. While Trump is the tumor that alerted us to the disease, it had been festering since conception. The original sins of genocide of the indigenous peoples and slavery got us off to a bad start, and many subsequent unjust wars, unfair policies, and endemic corruption made us susceptible to infection. Still we flourished for a while and accomplished some great things, remaining hale and healthy in appearance, while we were ailing all along.

Maybe, by some miracle, we’ll survive. Some look to the courts, especially the Supreme Court to come to the rescue. But they are the very practitioners responsible for allowing the disease to go unchecked. If you have any doubt about how complicit this court and its predecessors are in our current plight, read Leah Litman’s Lawless. If nothing else, it will convince you that the problem isn’t just Trump.

Others hope our brave boys and girls in uniform will be our salvation, but based on the comportment of the people in uniform thus far deployed by our government, I’m not betting on it. Can we expect people who were trained to follow orders, stop following orders at the crucial time?

Still others pin their hopes on people coming together and routing the forces destroying our country. But Trump’s approval ratings have been rising for the past month. When he attacked law firms, many immediately bent to his demands. When he went after Columbia University, faculty and students didn’t come together in solidarity and threaten to quit and close down the institution if it went along with Trump’s outrageous demands. I’m not blaming them for failing to unite and stand up for themselves, just saying that, in the event, it’s not an easy thing to do and we can’t expect people to put their own and their family’s welfare at risk for some greater good.

But to be alive is to hope. Maybe, in the end, the courts, people in uniform, and the population as a whole will come through. Or, maybe, some other unforeseen and miraculous thing will happen. I’m hoping.

June, 2025