It’s coming at us like buckshot – little pellets of lead, shot from a gun held by a mad man. He’s mad and he wants revenge, so he’s shooting at everyone. I guess buckshot is best when you’re a bad shot.

All these pellets hurt, in different ways, for different reasons. We stagger from the impact. Some hurt our hearts. (“My country ‘tis of thee …” my heart is breaking for you.) Some hurt our heads. (HOW can this be happening?! Can’t someone stop him?!) Some hurt our hands. (What can I DO about this onslaught? How can I lend a hand in resistance?) Some hurt our feet. (I’m too wounded to move forward – and in what direction?)

(Stock photo — Shutterstock)

And not just every day. It feels like every moment. If you’re paying attention and reading the fine print, you’re hit with more. This buckshot keeps coming. It’s  tempting to crawl into a hole, unplug the phone and laptop, close our eyes, and try to sleep through this long winter’s night. Maybe it’s all just a nightmare we’ll wake from. But when? In four years? I doubt that. Much of the harm he does, I fear, will be irreversible.

Despite the anguish, I’ve been trying my best to stay informed. Here’s just one small example:  I’ve recently read two in-depth articles by Jane Mayer in The New Yorker magazine – a reliable source — about Pete Hegseth, a staunch Trump loyalist and Trump’s nominee for Secretary of Defense. (“Pete Hegseth’s Secret History,” December 1, 2024, and “The Pressure Campaign to Get Pete Hegseth Confirmed as Defense Secretary,” January 13, 2025.) 

I thought, confidently, no one who learns about this guy’s background – his history of drunken disorderliness, his abusiveness toward women, his financial mismanagement of the nonprofits he once ran – could possibly vote for him to head the U.S. Department of Defense, with its $850 BILLION budget and millions of both male and female troops. 

As Senator Jack Reed of Rhode Island, the top Democrat on the Armed Services Committee, said in a floor speech last Thursday, “We cannot risk installing a leader who may have a history that is exploitable by our adversaries. Nor can we risk confirming a secretary of defense who has shown that he is incapable of being responsible, accountable and law abiding 24 hours a day, seven days a week, as that job requires.”

So I followed Hegseth’s confirmation hearing closely, anxiously, on Friday night. Sadly, Senator Reed and I were proven wrong. Fifty Republicans voted for Hegseth, with VP Vance breaking the tie. Hegseth was confirmed. I felt flattened. Had these fifty senators done their homework reading? Or are they simply mindlessly marching in lockstep behind Trump?

“Trump is Already Drowning Us in Outrages,” a January 23^rd article by Susan B. Glasser, begins with the captivating question, “Exhausted yet?” and follows that with a litany of the earliest outrages:

“Exhausted yet? It’s been three full days since Donald Trump returned to the Presidency, and so far he has pulled the U.S. out of the Paris climate treaty and the World Health Organization; announced the unilateral cancellation of the Constitution’s guarantee of birthright citizenship; reversed an order lowering prescription-drug prices for seniors; threatened a trade war with Canada and Mexico starting February 1st and an actual war with Panama if it doesn’t hand over the Panama Canal; declared an emergency at the southern border and moved to order thousands of U.S. military personnel there; eliminated federal government programs to promote diversity, equity, and inclusion and demanded that employees snitch on anyone inside the bureaucracy who might be tempted to continue doing such work anyway; and pardoned the vast majority of the pro-Trump insurrectionists who stormed the Capitol on January 6, 2021, at his behest. And that was in between sword-dancing onstage to the Village People at an inaugural ball; cashing in on the Presidency by marketing the $trump cryptocoin, currently worth billions of dollars; and getting in a pissing match with an Episcopalian bishop who dared to question him to his face.” 

(To read Glasser’s entire article, which I’d urge you to do, please go to: https://www.newyorker.com/news/letter-from-trumps-washington/trump-is-already-drowning-us-in-outrages?utm/ .)

Yes, yes, if we’ve been paying attention at all, we’re exhausted, alright. I’ve spent the last couple of days in bed. But, I’ve concluded, turning away and rolling over are not solutions. I’ve had to remind myself that apathy is complicity.

(I’ve kept this framed reminder on my desk for years.)

Donald Trump, like the man he sometimes compares himself to, Al Capone, is a gangster. And he’s holding a shotgun to our heads, wherever we may live. Humankind is facing existential threats, the top three being: nuclear disaster, ecological collapse, and technological disruption. Trump’s reckless behavior, merciless policies, and misguided leadership as the leader of the free world (again!) pose unimaginable risks. We cannot afford to sleep through this.

There may come a time in the near future when such outspoken opposition will be outlawed. If Trump were to point his shotgun directly at me today and shout, “Shut up or I’ll silence you forever,” I’d respond, “Go ahead and shoot.” 

That’s one of the beauties of being an old woman: We have so little to lose at this point by speaking out. We’ve been compliant and quiet long enough.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ 

NOTE: If you’ve found inspiration from other opinion writers during these tumultuous days, please share them with us all. Two of mine come quickly to mind: Robert Reich (robertreich.substack.com) and John Pavlovitz (johnpavlovitz.substack.com).