— Author Unknown
Several of my friends on the right side of the spectrum have said that we should “work together” with the president and the Republican majority because they won the election and Trump is now “everyone’s president.” This is my response:
- I will not forget how badly Trump and so many of his followers treated former President Barack Obama for 8 solid years opposing any and all efforts he took to pull our nation out of the ditch in which President Obama’s predecessor (a Republican) left us.
- I will not “work together” to privatize Medicare, cut Social Security and Medicaid.
- I will not “work together” to build a wall.
- I will not “work together” to persecute Muslims.
- I will not “work together” in deporting 11 million people en masse, separating non-citizen mothers and/or fathers from their children who were born on our soil.
- I will not “work together” to shut out refugees from other countries.
- I will not “work together” to lower taxes on the 1% and increase taxes on the middle class and poor.
- I will not “work together” to help Trump use the Presidency to line his pockets and those of his family and cronies.
- I will not “work together” to weaken and demolish environmental protection.
- I will not “work together” to sell American lands, especially National Parks, to companies which then despoil those lands.
- I will not “work together” to enable the killing of whole species of animals just because they are predators, or inconvenient for a few, or because some people like killing them.
- I will not “work together” to remove civil rights from anyone.
- I will not “work together” to alienate countries that have been our allies for as long as I have been alive.
- I will not “work together” to slash funding for education.
- I will not “work together” to take basic assistance from people who are at the bottom of the socioeconomic ladder.
- I will not “work together” to get rid of common sense regulations on guns.
- I will not “work together” to eliminate the minimum wage.
- I will not “work together” to support so-called “Right To Work” laws, or undermine, weaken or destroy Unions in any way.
- I will not “work together” to suppress scientific research, be it on climate change, fracking, or any other issue where a majority of scientists agree that Trump and his supporters are wrong on the facts.
- I will not “work together” to criminalize abortion or restrict access to reproductive health care for women.
- I will not “work together” to increase the number of nations that have nuclear weapons.
- I will not “work together” to put even more “big money” into politics.
- I will not “work together” to violate the Geneva Convention.
- I will not “work together” to give the Ku Klux Klan, the Nazi Party and white supremacists a seat at the table, or to normalize their hatred
and racism. - I will not “work together” to deny health care to people who need it.
- I will not “work together” to deny medical coverage to people on the basis of a “pre-existing condition.”
- I will not “work together” to increase voter suppression.
- I will not “work together” to normalize tyranny.
- I will not “work together” to eliminate or reduce ethical oversite at any level of government.
- I will not “work together” with anyone who is, or admires, tyrants and dictators.
- I will not “work together” to give less support to government employees.
- I will not “work together” to find ways for the billionaires to cheat the system.
- I will not “work together” to implement a hiring freeze at government agencies.
- I will not “work together” to suppress reporters’ right to ask questions the administrations does not like.
- I will not “work together” to bully any country, big or small.
- I will not “work together” to craft a message diminishing women and young adults.
- I will not “work together” with anyone who wants to deposit their nuclear waste products in Yucca Mountain just up the road from Nevada’s most populous area within our state.
- I will not support anyone who thinks its OK to put a pipeline on Sacred Ground for Native Americans that would be used to to transport tar sands immersed in solvent and subject to frequent massive leaks. Said pipeline would also run under the Missouri River and atop the Ogallala aquifer, which provides drinking water for millions of people and irrigates our nation’s bread basket. It’s an accident of horrific consequence just waiting to happen.
This is my line, and I am drawing it.
- I WILL stand with those who fight for honesty, love, and respect for all living beings in any legislation proposed and in governance actions used for implementation of such legislation.