It's up to us now.

Well, friends, it's here.  Inauguration Day.  I could be dramatic and, tragically, possibly accurate and say:  "The end of America", but I won't because you know what?  Whether it is or is not is going to be up to us.  It always has been, just like the message in one of my favorite movies of all time, "The Wizard of Oz", in which Dorothy learns that is isn't up to Glenda the Good Witch of the North to save her, it is she herself who has always had the power to go home.  Bernie Sanders (who I am currently upset with but who I spent most of my life holding up as one of my few, true heroes in this world, and who I must admit I still love, despite my current upsetness with him on one thing--the man is usually spot on, and he sure was when he said the following) once, or more than once, said:  "democracy is you, and you, and you."

Surprisingly to me, I find myself fighting back tears suddenly, upon writing that last sentence.  Guys (and gals--I wish one could just say "guys" anymore without being deemed to be sexist, but if even Jeff Probst won't do it, I guess I can't either... but moving on...), we're in trouble.  Our country is in peril.  Yet what I'm realizing is that, actually, it always has been--democracy and the rule of law always are.

One thing I can say for the 45 administration and everything that has unfolded during and since:  it has been a front row seat in class, as well as an in living color experience, to learn all about the fact that our constitution, our rule of law, our separation of powers, and our democracy are at once very strong yet very fragile.  All of those things are only as strong and in force as WE, the people, those of us who happen to be here alive at the time, collectively decide they are.  It's up to us to interpret and enforce all of those.  And it is up to the 4th estate, the free press, to be courageous and integrity-laden and report on what's going on, even if it places them in the crosshairs of a vengeful, sociopathic fascist.  If we have a strong, courageous free press, and if we, the people, decide to RESIST tyranny and to uphold our constitution, we just might make it through the next four years (and then we can set about the task of really healing what is broken, such as--and thank you, President Biden, for mentioning this in your awesome farewell speech--passing a constitutional amendment to reverse the Supreme Court's America-ending ruling that a POTUS is above the law.  But right now, we just have to make it through the next four years, which is a HUGE "just".  We have to RESIST.  We have to stand up and speak up for each other, for our neighbors who may be among the scapegoats, and some of us must be aware that WE may be among the scapegoats, so honestly be ready to decide what you are going to do if faced with that reality.  When others are threatened I hope I will be like Miep Gies who, during WWII and the Holocaust, hid the Frank family and others in her hidden annex.  I have actually visited there.  I have ascended the very narrow, quintessentially Dutch stairs.  I saw the faded pictures of movie stars Anne had stuck on the wall.  And even though the Nazis found Anne, her family, and the others hidden in the annex in the end, Miep did everything she possibly could to save them, at great personal peril.  If I can be like her through the next four years, I will know I am living up to my own ideals.

Things are about to get really scary and really ugly.  All we can do is stay true to our ideals.  Gandhi said, "You must be the change you wish to see in the world."  Be respectful, reverent, loving and kind, this is what I pray to be and do every day.  45/7 has already signaled in his horrific speech last night on the eve of his inauguration that he plans to be as divisive, xenophobia-inciting, hate-mongering and terrible as ever, so we have to counteract that!  LOVE is more powerful than hate.  Say it, show it, live it.  Stand up for our constitution and rule of law and, perhaps most of all, stand up for each other.  Don't fall for the divisiveness.  I gotta quote Bernie Sanders again, but I'll just paraphrase instead of digging up an exact quote, as he says this again and again and again, and I know it by heart--literally, it's in my heart, and we all need to put it there and let it fuel our actions for the next four years and beyond:  no matter if you are black, white, or whatever skin color, and no matter whatever ethnic background you hail from and call your own, no matter if you are female, male, non-binary, straight, gay, bi, old, young, middle-aged, rich, poor, middle-class, Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist, athiest, Hindu or whatever religion or no religion:  when we stick together, when we stand together, there is nothing we can't accomplish.

We can stand up to this incoming sociopathic, vengeful, hateful, treasonous traitor of a fascist who also happens to be a Russian asset.  We can stand up to the oligarchy that he and his puppet master, Putin, are clearly--out in the open!--trying to usher in by making the richest person on earth (Musk) his shadow President (so much for "draining the swamp" and getting rid of the "elites"--I would say that the richest person on earth is as "elite" as they come).  It will be the farthest thing from easy.  But if we are courageous, if we resist, if we speak out, and if we stick and stand TOGETHER, I believe we have a chance of surviving the next four years and saving our country.  It's our turn now.  There's no Glenda the Good Witch of the North to save us.  But we have the power.

"Democracy is you, and you, and you."