Attribution: Photo by Geoff Carter
By Geoff Carter
To say we are living in a tumultuous time is a bit of an understatement. While this may not be the very worst of times, it’s getting there.
First of all, we live in one of the least equitable societies in our history, where according to the Congressional Budget Office, “Income disparities are now so pronounced that America’s richest 1 percent of households averaged 139 times as much income as the bottom 20 percent in 2021”, and this disparity is still rapidly growing. The ultra-rich are getting richer and everyone else is getting poorer, or, in a best-case scenario, holding steady.
Prices everywhere are rising. Thanks to President Trump’s unwarranted and unprovoked “excursion” into Iran, gas prices has risen over one dollar a gallon, and since Iran has bottled up the Strait of Hormuz, necessary shipments of fertilizer have been halted—right at planting time in the U.S.
Thanks to Mr. Trump, the United States has alienated our former allies in NATO and the rest of the world. We’ve invaded Venezuela, attacked Iraq, and our president has threatened Cuba, Greenland, and Canada. He instituted what he thought were punitive tariffs that hurt no one but ourselves.
Our government is in shambles. The DOJ has been hijacked, the VA is a shell of its former self, and the Department of Education is gone, but the scariest thing is that Trump has inflated ICE into a monstrously huge organization and seems to think of it as his private army. ICE terrorized and brutalized hundreds, imprisoning thousands of people without due process. It seems our president does not feel he needs to follow the Constitution. He has used it to invade democratic strongholds like Chicago and Minneapolis and terrorize its citizens—cold-bloodedly murdering peaceful protestors Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis.
Trump’s DOJ is in full defense mode over his connection to international child sex-trafficker Jeffrey Epstein, who was once Donnie’s best friend. The outrageous outing of the Epstein victims in a recent file release was—in its best light—negligent, or maliciously cruel—in the worst (and most plausible light). Attorney General Pam Bondi’s refusal to release the Epstein files in not only a violation of the law, it is a transparent attempt to shield her boss from having to answer for alleged crimes and transgressions.
This—believe it or not—does not begin to tell the story of this man’s corruption or the wholesale fecklessness of the Republican Party. It is bad, yes, but the American people are fighting back. The states are fighting back. The courts are fighting back. Institutions of higher learning—some of them—are fighting back. Corporations—some of them—are pushing back, too. The battle between the autocratic oligarchs and the American people has been joined. It looks as if a huge battle will be waged on November 7th, 2026, Election Day, but Trump is even attacking our electoral process, the very heart of our democracy.
A few weeks ago, Trump ordered the DOJ to confiscate ballots in Georgia. More recently, he went after voting records in Arizona, and at is attempting to force states to turn over their voting rolls to the federal government—all of which is strictly illegal. He is pushing his Republican henchmen in the House and Senate to pass the SAVE Act, which would force voters to prove their citizenship with either passports or birth certificates to vote. The problem is, according to estimates, 21 million people would be disenfranchised.
According to The Brennan Center for Justice, “more than 21 million Americans lack ready access to those documents. Roughly half of Americans don’t even have a passport. Millions lack access to a paper copy of their birth certificate. The SAVE Act would disenfranchise Americans of all ages and races, but younger voters and voters of color would suffer disproportionately.” He’s trying to steal the midterm elections.
This last Saturday, March 28, 2026, No Kings, Indivisible and other organizations sponsored the national No Kings March, protesting Trump and his administration’s harebrained, cruel, illegal, deadly, and malicious policies. According to most recent estimates, over eight million citizens in 3,300 locations ranging from deep-blue urban centers like Chicago and New York City to ruby red areas like Rhinelander, Wisconsin and Little Rock, Arkansas gathered to protest the policies and actions of this would-be dictator, thief, liar, and clown.
And the American citizens will keep at it, but Trump’s sheer criminality—let alone his abuse of the truth—is exhausting. Americans would like to go about living their daily lives going to work, dropping their kids off at school, going to the doctor, grocery shopping, and running errands. Life in and of itself is difficult enough, but the nagging specter of what Trump has done and is doing to our futures weighs heavily on every one of us. We’re tired. We need to breathe.
But Trump’s attacks have been relentless. It’s been difficult to find moments of peace, but about a week ago, I planted tomato and pepper seeds for my garden. The smell of the wet potting soil and then, a few days later, the emergence of the seedlings were somehow reassuring.
Then this last weekend, I was grilling in the backyard and while I was wandering around the yard, waiting for the chicken to get done, I saw that a batch of crocuses had bloomed and that a single honeybee was already out, gathering nectar for the hive. The fragile beauty of the flowers and the graceful, determined industry of this little worker somehow heartened me. Spring, the season of renewal and rebirth was really here.
This same sense of renewal and rebirth tinged with an overriding sense of determination and purpose was evident when we attended the latest No Kings March in Milwaukee. Thousands of citizens fed up with the transgressions, lies, crimes, and cruelty of the Trump administration, gathered to protest his actions and proclaim their rights as citizens and the sanctity of the American Constitution. We gathered, we sang, we spoke, we listened, and we saw that we were not alone in our anger and our despair. We were united.
This is our American spring. Like the tender crocus shoots pushing through the last gray layers of snow, our American spirit is in the process of rebirth. It will grow, it will bloom, and it will spread. It is, in fact, already in the process of spreading. Like the perennials in our gardens, the American spirit, born in our fight for independence from a tyrannical monarch, will not be denied.
Our solidarity is our power and in it we can find not only an affirmation of our collective beliefs for democracy and equity, but a sense of relief, comfort, and hope in each other’s company. Paradoxically, it is in the crowds of fellow Americans that we find breathing room and comfort, a relief from the despair, anxiety, and fear with which Trump has attempted to intimidate the American people.
During the onslaughts of lies, lawlessness, chaos, and fear wrought by the Trump administration, Americans have found the strength to stand up, fight back, suffer, and even die for their democracy.
We have found solace, strength, and comfort in each other and have discovered that it is in the struggle itself that we can find room to breathe. The power of our solidarity is how we might battle the evils brought upon us by this despicable man sitting in the Oval Office, and when we discover the depth and breadth of our strength, we overcome the dark shadows of fear and despair.