I'm not okay
Country star Jelly Roll has a 2024 song called "I'm Not Okay." It's being played over and over on my country station these days because, judging from comments I've read online, it's how a lot of people are feeling since the Trump authoritarian revolution began January 20th. I know too that many individuals who voted for Trump are happy with the way things are going because, as Kristi Noem, the US Secretary of Homeland Security, said when speaking about arresting illegal (and sometimes legal) Hispanic immigrants: "Dirtbags like this will continue to be removed from our streets." How lovely.
It seems to me that Republicans in general don't see the humans behind the labels, the stats -- the lives torn apart, upended, with no warning, like what happened to the federal employees. You get fired through a form email that doesn't even have your name on it or you can't get into the office building in the morning because your credentials have been expunged by Elon Musk and his toddlers-in-training. Or you're a young Hispanic mother going to the immigration office to see about your green card and your 17-month-old baby is taken from your arms by an ICE officer while you are whisked off to god-knows-where and your stunned American-citizen husband (who was not allowed into the office where this took place) is left standing in the hallway after being unceremoniously handed the baby. These are all human beings just trying to get through the day just like you and me.
But who cares? Right? And that's just the beginning of Trump's maniacal fury. Harvard? UC Berkeley? Columbia? Prestigious law firms? Judges who receive death threats and their families threatened because they said no to Trump? House and Senate members who are threatened with violence or who are afraid of being targeted by MAGA followers because they question the beyond-the-law authority of Trump?
Anyone who says NO to the great and wonderful KING OF THE USA is on his list for destruction. I don't understand how those who voted for Trump and still think he's doing a wonderful job don't see the erosion of democracy that is happening right now. But maybe they were never fans of democracy to begin with. I mean, really, what's up with all these women, Blacks, Hispanics, gays and lesbians, transgender individuals, Native and Asian Americans, and anyone else who isn't white and heterosexual? Do they really think they have a right to a good life on par with the white, heterosexual (and in Florida, Christian) life?
So, yeah, I'm not okay. Too much hatred, outright meanness, a total disregard for human lives, violence -- all because one man decided that the only real American is white and wealthy with an egotistical dead soul. And the one thing that Kristi Noem forgot, or maybe has no clue about, is that every white person in this country is an illegal immigrant. This land from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean belonged to the Native American tribes. And when, first the Spanish in 1570s Florida and then the Europeans in 1620 at Plymouth Rock, smashed onto this land, we began taking, taking, taking land from the Native Americans tribes and destroying their peoples, their cultures, their ways of life. So, yeah, Kristi Noem, we are the illegal immigrants. Maybe you should start by deporting yourself . . . .
All I can do right now is scream, hide under my bed, write a few words in a blog, and pray. But maybe all the protests across the country, all the phone calls and emails to House and Senate representatives, all the online political commentaries, all the commiserating among family and friends -- will it be enough to stop this country's slide into authoritarianism? Will the US become the next Russia? Because, right now, sad to say, I feel like I'm living in the Divided States of America, like we're on the cusp of becoming the next Nazi Germany. Guess Elon Musk was correct when he did the Nazi salute at Trump's inauguration.
So, I'm definitely NOT OKAY.
Check out Jelly Roll's "I'm Not Okay" (not political) song at:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sC1cvz1CAhw
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