We are watching the rise of fascism in the guise of immigration and budget reform. Uncoordinated, radical cuts to our support systems and civil protections will play out badly for most of us. Except the uber wealthy — they’re doing fine.

None of us is safe from the destruction of our democracy, even us white people in the woods in Maine. Someone we know and love is at risk: a daughter who is protesting, a brother-in-law who looks Hispanic, a gay cousin who may lose his job and our own health insurance unaffordable or gone.

And let’s be clear: we are witness to President Trump’s secret police, his Gestapo, his KKK. ICE now has a bigger budget than the militaries of most countries and it’s being used to target, detain and terrorize our communities. They’ve arrested elected officials, disappeared people off the street and torn families apart.

Masked and armed, ICE is illegally detaining our families and neighbors in concentration camps abroad and now we have our own “Alligator Alcatraz,” where people are imprisoned in cages without due process. Due process is where we find out who is actually a criminal and who is not, before conviction or detention.

The unrelenting destruction, cruelty and violence is designed to keep the rest of us quiet. Don’t be quiet. This is terrorism. This is fascism.

Dorothy Raymond
Norway