Yeah, no.

You have three choices. You can resist. You can remain silent. You can flee.

“…If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor…” – Desmond Tutu

“…Washing one’s hands of the conflict between the powerful and the powerless means to side with the powerful, not to be neutral…” – Paulo Freire

“…We must take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented. Sometimes we must interfere. When human lives are endangered, when human dignity is in jeopardy, national borders and sensitivities become irrelevant. Wherever men and women are persecuted because of their race, religion, or political views, that place must – at that moment – become the center of the universe…” ― Elie Wiesel

There are communities which were excoriated by the Trump (r) campaign in the vilest ways. They and we are experiencing fear and uncertainty.

“…All we really have in the end is massive resistance. That is where we are heading–acquiescence or resistance. You and I will all need to make our choices about whether we will stand up against oppression in ways that a lot of our ancestors did not…” – Eric Loomis

Eight years ago:

[….] Donald Trump is uninformed, uncurious, and a narcissist. Believe it when he and his say they will dismantle access to affordable health care and cripple Medicare and Social Security. Believe it.

The national network infotainment complex and their local affiliates will promote the normalcy of it all. Old media will normalize the white supremacist right. Because they worship at the alter of false equivalence and false balance.

Don’t count on institutions to step up for you or others. Media? Forget it. They’re afraid of losing access. Our elected officials? Forget it. They worship at the alter of compromise with those who never compromise. Without the first two our other public institutions will fall into line.

If you’re still outraged you’re still noticing our institutions normalizing all of this. Old media will tell you that all is well. If you disagree by pointing out inconvenient truths you will be labeled, at best, as a difficult malcontent and, at worst, as an unstable person.

Be prepared to fight the good fights. Be prepared to lose. A lot. Be prepared for the people who you thought and hoped represented you pulling the rug out from under opposition movements. Because, for them, comity is more important than holding the line.

For now there are more of us than there are of them. For now. There may be a future. There may not.[….]

Here we are, eight years later.

Do something.

Yesterday I stood silently for an hour and a half in front of the flagpole (with a bronze First Amendment plaque at the base) on the quad on our campus, holding my posterboard sign (with six-inch high Cyrillic letters) “Сделаем Америку великой снова” [Make America Great Again].

The irony escapes right wingnuts. Everyone else gets it.

As people walked past, 99% ignored me. One administrator walked out from the administration building and asked what the sign said. I told him. He laughed.

One international student stopped and asked. When I translated the sign he replied, “Very good.”

Another student stopped to talk. He asked me about the sign. We engaged in a long conversation. It turned out that he had just become a naturalized citizen (but wasn’t able to vote in this election).

One person holding a sign can attract attention. A few people stopped in the distance to take cell phone photos.

The demographic of our student population trends to the right. I was struck by the incuriosity of the majority who passed by.

Silence can’t be an option.

An old two-hundred-fifty-pound tall white guy wearing thick glasses can’t be that intimidating, right? Maybe until they try to engage on the righteousness of Donald Trump…