Now Is the Time to Choose Your Purpose

One of the many commercials promoting the US Marine Corps says "Many are called, few are chosen."  At this time in our history of the United States the majority of us are hearing the call to act, to stop this mad descent into white nationalism, isolationism, and overt discrimination and oppression against members of the human race.  Now is the time to choose our purpose going forward and stand up for what we believe and I hope that more than a few choose to do this.  Let's stand up and be counted!  We're off to a good start after last week's Women's March on Washington reports that more than 1,000,000 people attended the march there and in extraordinarily large numbers across the country and around the world. We have a fight song, Quiet, and more and more ways to make a difference popping up.  Today I pick up my postcards to send off to my representatives, all of them, describing the issues that are important to me.  I have a long list.  This is the first of ten actions in 100 days being promoted by the march.

It's certainly not been a boring first week of the Trump administration.  We've seen our President stress the country out over how large his inaugural crowds were, continue to blame his popular election loss on illegal voting for which he has shown absolutely no evidence, remove the Joint Chiefs from the National Security Council and add-in Steve Bannon his chief strategist who is  described by Matt Taibbi on twitter as "tactically a Leninist and ideologically a racialist/white nationalist..".  Some at the CIA, like former Director Brennan, expressed anger at Trump's speech in front of the wall of stars while at least 400 agents accepted open invitations to hear him speak.  

The week was topped off with an Executive Order banning entry to Muslims from many countries in the Middle East including Iran, Iraq and no surprise Syria.  Not included on this list are the countries that quietly fund terrorism and from where the 9/11 hijackers all hailed from like Saudi Arabia, Egypt and the UAE.  Unless you were out in the woods yesterday with no access to a mobile device you know that Green Card holders, people legally residing in the United States, were detained at airports across the country, placed in handcuffs, their social media was searched and they were asked their views on Donald Trump.   The lack of due process in all of this is glaring which prompts me to see if I can find a good class on the US Constitution on iTunes U that we might all want to take.

In other news, George Orwell's book "1984" is topping the best seller list and I began to think of other books that speak to American values that we might want to read as well like Walter Van Tilburg Clark's "The Ox Bow Incident" and Harper Lee's "To Kill a Mockingbird".  Feel free to add your own ideas in the comments, which I'm sorry to say I have to moderate now.  I embrace dissenting view points but not abuse and after my last post on the Women's March on Washington a particularly mean-spirited and abusive comment was made which I deleted.  I think some found the march threatening to them personally and felt the need to strike out.  If the commenter is reading this know that if you can't engage in civil discourse, then you're cut off.  

I watched a video this morning of an interview with Jane Elliott on the Rock Newman show.  It's under an hour long and well worth taking the time to watch.  I think it solidifies what we need to do today.  We can't sit back and wait for someone else to act.  She specifically says she has a purpose.  She calls on white women to be the leaders in ending racism.  We have so many issues today that are rooted in racism, white supremacy.  Today is the day to make the choice to make the difference as Jane says and stop living in ignorance.  Choose your purpose.