Your essay echoes my own sadness. It feels like we are all on hold. We are all delayed. And holding our collective breaths waiting for what may or may not happen.
Dr. Glaude, you are a good man, and you are right to be worried. If my 58 years of life, I've learned that the only thing I can control is how I respond to suffering and evil. There are giant gears turning in our civilization, and even if I chose to throw myself onto them, I don't think much would change. I choose to respond with love, kindness, and peace. That's all I can do. Your words and insights are always most welcome. Be well. God bless.
I take no pleasure in saying that I knew that destroying the country would be the purpose and end of Trump’s presidency back in 2015. I thought we’d escaped the danger when Biden was elected. Since the 2024 election, I’ve been in what I’ve called “anticipatory grief” over the destruction of our representative Constitutional democracy. And now, the anticipatory is morphing into present-day form. I do my best to remain in resistance mode, rather than acquiesce to what now appears to be Trump’s/MAGA’s/Republicans’ inevitable success in the demolition project. It is a very uncomfortable stance to uphold, but I would not have my integrity if I simply gave up and gave in.
The Madison airport was beautiful and quiet when I was there in May. You are right that things are falling apart. Maybe the Empire has to fall, before we can build a real democracy. Don’t forget we the people outnumber the billionaires.
You are not catastrophizing. You are right on target as usual. This part: "For me, the problem is not only the active efforts by anti-democratic forces in the country. It is the silence in the face of those efforts that scares the living daylights out of me—the complicity of people with those who despise them or, at best, view them as cattle chewing cud. As if, they no longer want the responsibility of freedom, or as if their hatreds are so intense they care about nothing else." Just have to reiterate that last bit: the complicity of people with those who despise them. And the possible reasons: they no longer want the responsibility of freedom or their hatreds are so intense that nothing else matters. My only question is: Do they not see that they are cooperating with people who despise them? It surely seems as if they simply don't care.
Ok, it is 3:56 in Pascagoula and I hope you made it to your destination safely. I feel unsettled every day. 78 years and I am at awe of what this man has done to disturb our lives.
You are such a beautiful writer, Dr. Glaude! A reflection of your beautiful mind and heart. I could see and feel all of this. Grateful for all that you share with all of us. So powerful. So needed. You are one of the great scholars of our times.
The current federal administration and the airline industry share an unsettling indifference to the people they are supposed to serve. In both cases, the customer—or citizen—experience is treated as an afterthought, corners are cut in the name of profit or political gain, and the consequences can be deadly. What remains most apparent is a focus not on public well-being, but on protecting power and enriching those at the top.
Having spent all of yesterday waiting to see if a ‘delayed’ flight would ever depart or be cancelled (it was ultimately cancelled), this resonates. The destruction has begun to disrupt even our superficial patterns of consumption, which are a poor substitute for contentment. May this give us collective resolve to begin to turn the tide. Always grateful for your clear-eyed human-centered insights. 🙏
I am with you all the way, and share all the feelings of desperation, but when push comes to shove, I don't know what to do other than what I already do - work on campaigns, send letters and messages to elected officials, go to protests. What does it mean living your lives as usual? Yes, I go to the grocery store and the pharmacy and help make dinner. Jane C.
From a small spark, kindled in America, a flame has arisen not to be extinguished. Without consuming, it winds its progress from nation to nation, and conquers by a silent operation. Man finds himself changed, he scarcely perceives how. He acquires a knowledge of his rights by attending justly to his interest, and discovers that the strength and powers of despotism consist wholly in the fear of resisting it, and that, in order to be free, it is sufficient that he wills it.
Ellen in NC reminds us that “we the people outnumber the billionaires.” But among those are tens of millions who actively support the “people who despise them,” and have managed to bring to fruition their decades-long goal of using the Constitution against us. It isn’t strange—unusual—that for most of us, thinking about the sum of it all might bring despair.
Thomas Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence AND made mulattos. Which part of this legacy is in greater control of our lives today? Whichever the answer, the ability to comfortably live with the moral dichotomy, is an advantage that our current “masters” have.
Jane Carpineto asks, “What does it mean living your lives as usual?” Well, these days, one might reasonably argue, it is as victims of the state. Our daily routines—what we do to survive day to day—are so all-consuming, most of us do not recognize this.
Of course, change is inevitable. However, given the powerful, entrenched forces in control of the ship of state, I think we’re headed into a darker future.
Oh, Dr. Glaude--might be I should call you Eddie, as I'm old enough to be your mother, god bless her. Then I could call you 'dear Eddie,' which more or less expresses some of my most poignant feelings. The less poignant feelings are reserved for the rat bastards behind Trump & CO--those who believe that only rich and powerful white men matter, and furthermore that the rest of us are not only expendable, but ought to be gotten rid of ASAP after they install themselves as our overlords. A couple of them have speculated that they might use our dead bodies as biofuel to power their AI shops. They themselves plan to retire from the chaos and pollution they are responsible for to aeries on private islands or in the Andes. But if I were to speak to any of the people I know IRL about all this--every word of which is true and well documented--someone would send the straightjacket guys out to haul me off. I feel your pain. Boy, do I feel it. Keep it up. If enough of us own our perceptions, maybe folks will wake up to the existential crisis we're in. One of many, I truly hate to say. What will it take until the slumbering wake TH up?
Your essay echoes my own sadness. It feels like we are all on hold. We are all delayed. And holding our collective breaths waiting for what may or may not happen.
Dr. Glaude, you are a good man, and you are right to be worried. If my 58 years of life, I've learned that the only thing I can control is how I respond to suffering and evil. There are giant gears turning in our civilization, and even if I chose to throw myself onto them, I don't think much would change. I choose to respond with love, kindness, and peace. That's all I can do. Your words and insights are always most welcome. Be well. God bless.
Sometimes love and peace require that you put your body as well as your soul on the line. I think of Jesus.
Dr. Eddie,
Thank you for saying what I have been thinking every day since Trump took office.
“ Our lives begin to end when we become SILENT about things that matter!” Dr. M.L.King, jr.
It saddens me that Americans are living their lives like it’s business as usual!
I take no pleasure in saying that I knew that destroying the country would be the purpose and end of Trump’s presidency back in 2015. I thought we’d escaped the danger when Biden was elected. Since the 2024 election, I’ve been in what I’ve called “anticipatory grief” over the destruction of our representative Constitutional democracy. And now, the anticipatory is morphing into present-day form. I do my best to remain in resistance mode, rather than acquiesce to what now appears to be Trump’s/MAGA’s/Republicans’ inevitable success in the demolition project. It is a very uncomfortable stance to uphold, but I would not have my integrity if I simply gave up and gave in.
The Madison airport was beautiful and quiet when I was there in May. You are right that things are falling apart. Maybe the Empire has to fall, before we can build a real democracy. Don’t forget we the people outnumber the billionaires.
It won't matter how many we are if we fail to stand up when we need to stand up. Come what may.
You are not catastrophizing. You are right on target as usual. This part: "For me, the problem is not only the active efforts by anti-democratic forces in the country. It is the silence in the face of those efforts that scares the living daylights out of me—the complicity of people with those who despise them or, at best, view them as cattle chewing cud. As if, they no longer want the responsibility of freedom, or as if their hatreds are so intense they care about nothing else." Just have to reiterate that last bit: the complicity of people with those who despise them. And the possible reasons: they no longer want the responsibility of freedom or their hatreds are so intense that nothing else matters. My only question is: Do they not see that they are cooperating with people who despise them? It surely seems as if they simply don't care.
Again thank you for discussing what haunts us. I must believe that we will overcome and correct the damage.
Ok, it is 3:56 in Pascagoula and I hope you made it to your destination safely. I feel unsettled every day. 78 years and I am at awe of what this man has done to disturb our lives.
I hope you get out OK.
I knew they were trying to dismantle the US when Musk held that chain saw on high! It continues
ad nauseum.
But the press corps is fighting back. Finally...some unity.
You are such a beautiful writer, Dr. Glaude! A reflection of your beautiful mind and heart. I could see and feel all of this. Grateful for all that you share with all of us. So powerful. So needed. You are one of the great scholars of our times.
The current federal administration and the airline industry share an unsettling indifference to the people they are supposed to serve. In both cases, the customer—or citizen—experience is treated as an afterthought, corners are cut in the name of profit or political gain, and the consequences can be deadly. What remains most apparent is a focus not on public well-being, but on protecting power and enriching those at the top.
Having spent all of yesterday waiting to see if a ‘delayed’ flight would ever depart or be cancelled (it was ultimately cancelled), this resonates. The destruction has begun to disrupt even our superficial patterns of consumption, which are a poor substitute for contentment. May this give us collective resolve to begin to turn the tide. Always grateful for your clear-eyed human-centered insights. 🙏
I am with you all the way, and share all the feelings of desperation, but when push comes to shove, I don't know what to do other than what I already do - work on campaigns, send letters and messages to elected officials, go to protests. What does it mean living your lives as usual? Yes, I go to the grocery store and the pharmacy and help make dinner. Jane C.
From a small spark, kindled in America, a flame has arisen not to be extinguished. Without consuming, it winds its progress from nation to nation, and conquers by a silent operation. Man finds himself changed, he scarcely perceives how. He acquires a knowledge of his rights by attending justly to his interest, and discovers that the strength and powers of despotism consist wholly in the fear of resisting it, and that, in order to be free, it is sufficient that he wills it.
Thomas Paine, Rights of Man
Ellen in NC reminds us that “we the people outnumber the billionaires.” But among those are tens of millions who actively support the “people who despise them,” and have managed to bring to fruition their decades-long goal of using the Constitution against us. It isn’t strange—unusual—that for most of us, thinking about the sum of it all might bring despair.
Thomas Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence AND made mulattos. Which part of this legacy is in greater control of our lives today? Whichever the answer, the ability to comfortably live with the moral dichotomy, is an advantage that our current “masters” have.
Jane Carpineto asks, “What does it mean living your lives as usual?” Well, these days, one might reasonably argue, it is as victims of the state. Our daily routines—what we do to survive day to day—are so all-consuming, most of us do not recognize this.
Of course, change is inevitable. However, given the powerful, entrenched forces in control of the ship of state, I think we’re headed into a darker future.
Oh, Dr. Glaude--might be I should call you Eddie, as I'm old enough to be your mother, god bless her. Then I could call you 'dear Eddie,' which more or less expresses some of my most poignant feelings. The less poignant feelings are reserved for the rat bastards behind Trump & CO--those who believe that only rich and powerful white men matter, and furthermore that the rest of us are not only expendable, but ought to be gotten rid of ASAP after they install themselves as our overlords. A couple of them have speculated that they might use our dead bodies as biofuel to power their AI shops. They themselves plan to retire from the chaos and pollution they are responsible for to aeries on private islands or in the Andes. But if I were to speak to any of the people I know IRL about all this--every word of which is true and well documented--someone would send the straightjacket guys out to haul me off. I feel your pain. Boy, do I feel it. Keep it up. If enough of us own our perceptions, maybe folks will wake up to the existential crisis we're in. One of many, I truly hate to say. What will it take until the slumbering wake TH up?