#2: You at the End of Trumpism

No matter how difficult or dire the present moment may seem, everything eventually comes to an end.
 
In the Japanese film A Boy Called H, set in Japan during World War II, the boy’s father says: "The war will end one day, and when that day arrives, don’t find you’ve become a shameful person.”

Most people eventually come to realize that war brings no happiness after all.
 
Yet, when we look inward facing our own conscience, we all know that each one of us clearly has a choice even in times of war.

Am I for it, against it, or just going along with the crowd.
Everyone around me voices hatred against the enemy, so I’ll join in too.

Don’t be fooled--that is a choice.
 
And when all is over, that choice will stare right back at you, as if to question your moral values when it mattered the most. It will ask you who you really are.
 
Today, we face a similar moment of reckoning.
 
The Trump administration talks and practices bigotry as seen in its ugly attacks against Muslims and Mexicans. It offers leniency to white supremacy as seen in the key appointments, and shows ignorance for the scientific evidences linking human intervention to global warming. Day after day, headlines make us feel as if we've stepped backward in time by generations.
 
Because we live in such a time as this, the moral judgement of each and every one of us is being questioned.
 
Do we support or duck our heads in fear of the authority and its supporters? Stay quiet and do nothing in fear of retaliation?

Or do we rise to meet our moral obligation, to have the courage and conviction to say "No!" to what's unjust? Speak up and say what's right is right, even if it means going against those in power?
 
Each choice such as these creates a bigger voice in our communities, and ultimately builds the world we share.

We can start small. Tell the person next to you what you believe. If each of us speaks up to just one more person, that voice reaches double the people.
 
So, what will you do today?
 
When you’re in the worst of all situations, it may feel like an eternal tunnel of darkness.  However, one day not too long from now, that tunnel will end, and you'll emerge into the daylight. That is, time will pass.
 
And remember that the real question being asked at this moment is about your own moral conscience. That question is: once it's over, what kind of person will you have become?

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