My formative years were the late ’60s, so I care deeply about my country while feeling completely free to criticize it, protest its government and speak truth to power. These days I move between anger, anxiety and angst.
The bright spot in the deeply disturbing morass of corruption and chaos of the Trump era is the civic engagement of ordinary Americans.
I am particularly proud of 25 friends — a group, like others, that has met over the past two years at my home. Cumulatively, we have participated in 226 political organizing meetings and 59 marches, and contacted our congressional representatives 640 times. We’ve phone banked and walked for candidates and ballot initiatives.
Though the “news dam” is already beginning to break, when Democrats take control of the House in January, this nation is in for some really dark days. We’ll see the full scope of criminal activity and conspiracy to defraud voters engendered by Trump, his campaign, his cronies and Russia.
Republicans have been forestalling these days of reckoning. I won’t dwell on that shame. I’ll focus instead on the gift in the pile of garbage of the Trump administration: the re-awakening of citizens to their power and responsibility in this great democracy.
Judy Zone, Salt Lake City