Mike Mrowicki has served since 2007 in the Vermont House of Representatives, where he represents Putney and Dummerston in the Windham-4 district.
PUTNEY-Seeing pictures of armed men in black masks used to bring terrorists to mind. Or bank robbers. Or rapists hiding in the bushes waiting for their next victim.
Now, in Donald Trump's regime, the armed men in masks are doing the president's bidding: snatching people off of our streets.
And who are these people being taken?
I see dairy workers. Office cleaners. A mother of a 4-year-old with cancer. A student crying out for his people facing genocide from another corrupt leader using elected office primarily to keep out of jail.
As much as ever, it's helpful to be reminded of the quote popularized by Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., that "the arc of the moral universe is long but bends towards justice."
This reminder is offered to the armed men in the black masks roving the streets now In the land of "liberty and justice for all."
And who are these people under the black masks?
Will we pull off the masks to see a regiment of Darth Vaders? Damaged, barely human, and compromised by their lust for power that they will do anything?
Or are they just "good soldiers," following orders?
* * *
At some point this fearful leader will not be in power, and the forces of good and justice that founded this nation will bring them to account.
The forces that amalgamated the essence of the Enlightenment, that inspired the words on our founding documents, will be remembered and put back into practice.
And justice will prevail.
And the arc of the moral universe will bend towards justice.
* * *
Alongside images of armed masked men doing the president's bidding, what are we to make of an administration that brings in the richest man in the world to "help," and the first thing he does is cut funding to feed the poorest in the world?
How have these actions helped, except as a way to dismiss those who would regulate and oversee his business interests?
Whose values are brought to bear harming the vulnerable by cutting food for children, dismantling suicide hotlines for veterans, or closing the offices for the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP)?
Or trashing the economy by taking from lower- and middle-income people and giving more to the rich who already have more wealth than they could spend in many lifetimes?
And who can be surprised when our airports feel less safe than ever after 400 Federal Aviation Administration workers are dismissed without cause?
* * *
It's important to note whose values these measures do represent.
Those of white Christian nationalism, whose Project 2025 plan the current president disavowed any knowledge of in the campaign - a plan that is now being put into practice by the authors who are now part of this administration, like Russell Vought, now the director of the Office of Management and Budget.
Those actions profane our founding principles and abuse the power given by voters who were hungry for lower food prices.
The people who are making this happen will be brought to justice. It would be fitting if they end up sentenced to do the work those they seek to deport are doing, since so few Americans will - to work our farms, our abattoirs, and our sweatshops, and to clean our hotels and our offices.
And those who abuse their power to enrich themselves by creating a corrupt kleptocracy will likewise be brought to justice.
Yes, the arc of the moral universe is long but bends toward justice.
The only thing that can impede that inevitable and inexorable trend towards justice is our silence.
And so, as House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries exhorts us: "Show up and stand up and speak up."
Clarissa Pinkola Estés (author of Women who Run With the Wolves) encourages us, "Do not lose heart. We were made for these times."
And Greta Thunberg tells us, "Hope is found in action."
It matters.
* * *
One thing that people in elected office can do very well is count. When we show up in rallies, in witnessing our beliefs on Interstate bridges - wherever. It helps and matters.
As Vermont's Calvin Coolidge advised, "Nothing can take the place of persistence. [...] Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. The slogan 'Press On!' has always and will always solve the problems of the human race."
As do our actions in protest, in celebration, in feeding the hungry, in cleaning our air and water, and in demanding justice.
They all bend the arc of the moral universe.
This Voices Viewpoint was submitted to The Commons.
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