By David Mark Greaves
It is widely acknowledged, and has been for some time, that our president is a sociopath.
We looked to the midterms as being a chance at salvation, aware that the Trump regime, like the Iranian regime, will use all its levers to retain power, and law be damned.
But while the war of the midterms will intensify into November, the war with Iran is now and this president is acting as though he intends to put our soldiers’ lives at risk because of his delusions and complete absence of empathy.
Already 13 soldiers have been killed and hundreds more wounded. And a wound can be a piece of shrapnel and a dressing, or a lifetime with a concussive brain injury. And these may only be the beginning, because there are reports of airborne paratrooper units and marines, deploying to the area.
On the one hand, no, they can’t possibly be really thinking of putting “boots on the ground,” on Iranian territory. If so, then the thirteen men and women already lost, could be joined by 130 or 1,300 more, and the Republicans in the Senate, not having voted to stop this man, will be complicit in their deaths.
There is no one in his orbit who will tell him “No”, that’s why they’re called “Yes” people. However, he will hear “No” and hear it loudly this weekend at the “No Kings” rallies across the nation. They refuse to be complicit in the deaths of soldiers or institutions.
The rallies will be an expression of the deep frustration and even fear of what is happening to the country and the quickening pace of an AI future that we don’t feel ready for.
This is a dangerous time in the nation. There are scenes of tear gas in the air, protestors being shot, and armored masked men acting with no restraint regarding individual rights or dignity. Americans should know that this is not the first time that scenes of noise and tumult against authoritarianism have played out.
In October, 1997 we published Police Control of the Slave in South Carolina written in 1914 by Howell M. Henry, and we can see that what is happening now is not new. Henry wrote, “The precautions against insurrections, however, were rigid, one section prohibiting beating drums, blowing horns or the like which might on occasion be used to arouse slaves to insurrectionary activity.”
And Renee Good and Alex Pretti, killed by ICE agents, are part of a long tradition that includes the abolitionists, that was so strong that Howell writes, “Some fear apparently had come to be had of unprincipled and irresponsible whites who for any reason might aid in insurrectionary movements.
The act of 1805 made it treason punishable with death for “any person” in any way to aid in an insurrection.”
These challenges to the idea of America come and go, but they don’t leave on their own accord. Only constant vigilance keeps the worst among us at bay. This is our time to fight.