We must all step up and be the best that we can be. A small act of kindness can change another person’s life more than you can know.

It is easy to look at what is going on in the world and say to oneself that it isn’t your business - it has nothing to do with you. It is often easier to keep your head down, turn away, and hide from what is going on around you. It is quite often the safest path. But is that all we are? Are we nothing better than the mythical Ostrich, burying our heads in the sand and hoping the bad men will not see us? Does playing ‘possum really work?

As the saying goes, “All it takes for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing.”

I know that many people will do nothing more than sit safely in their homes and watch what Trump and his administration are doing, decrying in private how bad things are - and be glad that it isn’t them, it isn’t their neighborhood where it is happening. But that road leads to tyranny. That path leads to oppression of us all.

We have seen Trump and his cronies abuse and ignore our Constitution, flaunt the law and the courts, and we have seen Congress sit on their collective hands and do nothing to stop it. How far does this go? He has violated Due Process, and now he is violating Posse Comitatus. Federalizing the California National Guard for use in enforcing law, or even “keeping order” violates the act - and using active duty Marines goes even further! This is a direct violation of the Act, and it is precisely why Trump keeps using the word insurrection. What will it take for people to wake up? Another Kent State?

Like Neil Young asked, “Should have been done long ago. What if you knew her and found her dead on the ground? How can you run when you know?”

As Stephen Stills wrote, “Find the cost of freedom buried in the ground.” Is this what it will take to stop Trump? How many must die before people wake up?

We have spent some 250 years bragging about how our Constitution makes our country what it is. How it makes us different from other countries, better than them - but all that means absolutely nothing if we allow some Orange Dictator Wannabe to throw it all away and violate our rights.

Remember, ALL IT TAKES IS FOR GOOD PEOPLE TO DO NOTHING.

Write your Congressman, write your Senator, write a letter to the editor of your newspaper, join a protest, advocate for civil rights, be a safe space for those around you, do something and stand up to be counted. And for God’s sake, vote in the midterm elections and your local elections. Remember, all politics are local politics. Reform and change starts with each of us!

After all, just how long do you think it will be before they come for us, and there will be no one to stop them?