Lessons from the past … and turning the wrong man into a saint … Pivotal moments that should remind us: Do not back down

 

By Mary Kay Roth

On this perfect first day of autumn, the low light of the season hanging heavy, my backyard prairie grasses are beginning to glow with the golds and russets of September. I pluck late-season tomatoes and consider what colors to paint my new garage door.

But as I go about the normal trappings of everyday life, I’m also acutely aware of an undercurrent pulling me down. My country is twisting, warping and buckling beneath me. 

I live in the United States of 2025.  And I live under an authoritarian, perhaps even an autocratic regime, with the rights I hold near and dear – admittedly rights I took for granted – slipping away.

Trump and his minions have appointed a keystone cops cabinet, declared war on DEI and chain-sawed basic democratic governance. Immigrants, refugees, people of color vanish into the night.  The health care system is shredding. Free elections feel tenuous with rabid gerrymandering. 

And over the last few weeks it has become abundantly clear that my beloved freedom of speech – the very First Amendment – is disappearing into a culture of retribution and intimidation.  

Knowing all of this, it took the shooting of right-wing activist Charlie Kirk – and the feverish aftermath bathed in nationalism and fundamentalist, evangelistic Christianity – for me to actually stare into the cold, harsh reality of the USA.

Trump has used threats, lawsuits and government pressure as he remakes the American news media landscape, unleashing his long-standing hatred focused on journalists of integrity. He has extracted multimillion dollar settlements and prompted changes to programming that he found objectionable.

Last week, ABC announced it was pulling Jimmy Kimmel’s late-night show “indefinitely” after conservatives accused him of inappropriate comments related to Kirk.  It shouldn’t have been surprising, coming in the aftermath of CBS canceling out Stephen Colbert. 

Yes, the First Amendment is widely viewed as protecting even the most disparaging remarks, and the Supreme Court said in an unanimous opinion last year that “government officials cannot attempt to coerce private parties in order to punish or suppress views that the government disfavors.”

Nonetheless it is becoming abundantly clear that Trump is exerting toxic political pressure and power over major media streams.  As a former journalist, an ongoing news junkie and a plain old citizen of this country, it makes my blood run cold.

This past week, even my young granddaughters noticed my unease.  

“What’s wrong, GranMary?” they asked. “Are you scared?”

I told them we all need to be brave right now.

That’s why I continue to protest. Gather with others who protest and speak out.  Pen postcards. Write as part of this Mayhem blog, my sacred moment of resistance.

“Are you scared, GranMary?”

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about lessons from the past, and reconsidering my naïve judgments directed at people who came before me, those who lived in shadowy countries where freedoms had disappeared – particularly everyday citizens who lived in 1930s Germany.  In fact, as I continue to read more about Germany just prior to WWII, the parallels are stunning as we watch Project 2025 (the playbook of fascism) unfold.  

“A sizeable proportion of Germany’s citizens impassively witnessed the country’s descent into dictatorship,” according to Paul Roland in Life in the Third Reich, “because they believed they were simply powerless to prevent it – as well as many more who could not see the danger until it was too late.” 

There’s definitely a distinctive and common thread among most historians who write about that time: The shocking number of people who felt powerless, who weren’t paying attention, who did nothing at all.

From The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich: A History of Nazi Germany:

“No class or group or party in Germany could escape its share of responsibility for the abandonment of the democratic Republic and the advent of Adolf Hitler. The cardinal error of the Germans who opposed Nazism was their failure to unite against it.” 

I think about protests I join in Lincoln, often along O street where you’re  close enough to lock eyes with passing drivers. Many cars honk in thumbs-up support, others yell their obvious disagreement. But the people who truly disturb me are those who read our protest signs with utterly blank expressions, as if they haven’t a clue what we’re about.

I want to stand in front of their cars and scream, good grief, now is not the time to lower your eyes and shrug.

In 1930s Germany, Nazis obliterated the press and news sources to keep people in the dark about power grabs, acts of violence and dismantling of human rights. In America, Trump and MAGA have launched a slew of lawsuits against major liberal news sources to shut them down and squelch opposition – not to mention their grip on the Federal Communications Commission.

Nazis muttered “luggenpresse” – press of lies – as rumor and hearsay became the main source of news. Trump vilifies mainstream media information as “fake news” while he makes ridiculous proclamations of immigrants who steal and eat pets – adhers to unfounded declarations about voter fraud – spreads crazy notions related to medical research and vaccinations – refers to the folks who stormed the nation’s Capitol, as well-behaved sightseers. 

Then comes Charlie Kirk, a man many are calling “a conservative activist,” a man praised and worshipped this weekend at memorial services across the country – a man I believe demonstrates how hateful, racist, sexist and overall nasty discourse gets a seductive platform.

I mourn for Kirk’s tragic loss and for his family.

But in the wake of his death, powerful people on the right, including in the White House, seem to be making lists and taking names of anyone who dares to say anything negative about this man.  Last week, Pentagon officials promised to "address" federal employees who mock or celebrate Kirk's death. The State Department says it will revoke visas over social posts that "celebrate" Kirk's death.  Now Mr. Kimmel is gone.

This morning I read that a school board member from a town in Nebraska was forced to resign because he posted – practicing free speech on his private Facebook page – that he objected to flying flags at half-mast for Charlie Kirk.  Apparently calls for other officials and professionals to resign over similar social media posts have been happening everywhere.

Again, I abhor the act of violence that took Kirk’s life. But I abhor the vile national fervor that demands I abandon democratic values and bow down to a guy who: 

• Quoted scripture about homosexuality as an “abomination” deserving death. 
• Called Martin Luther King Jr. a “myth” and said the Civil Rights Act was a “huge mistake.” 
• Spread COVID-19 misinformation likening masks and vaccine mandates to “medical apartheid.” 
• Suggested mass incarceration was a fix for the housing crisis. 
• Called transgender identity a mental disease needing “brain treatment.” 
• Urged teacher firings when they wouldn’t espouse the right party lines in their lesson plans. 
• And, sadly, said gun deaths are “unfortunately worth it” to preserve the Second Amendment.

I have the right to speak out. So did Kirk. Jimmy Kimmel did as well. 

“It's not a question of whether you agree with Mr. Kimmel or disagree with Mr. Kimmel,” says Sen. Elizabeth Warren, a Democrat from Massachusetts. “The point is … of the government not coming in and making decisions about whose speech gets heard.  Everyone should care, no matter what your political view is."

I don’t know how we find that precious moment when we will all begin to take heed – to care – to wake up and face reality. 

But as we bask in the golden glow of autumn this year, plant our flower bulbs and light our fires, I hope we pause to consider the state of our country – and refuse to succumb to the helplessness, hopelessness of past despotic regimes.

In How to Stand up to a Dictator, author and journalist Maria Ressa speaks the ugly truths about Rodrigo Duterte, authoritarian president of the Philippines and a man who has weaponized social media to cripple a free press and dismantle his nation’s democracy.

Ressa urges us to take action, calling for legislation to hold tech companies accountable, invest in investigative journalism, and create more collaboration between news organizations and those who care about democracy and facts.

Bottom line, Ressa gives us very clear marching orders:

• Don’t back down.
• Expose their methods.
• Risk your freedom.

“GranMary, are you scared?”

No, I’m not scared.  I’m terrified.

But I’ll not be sitting this one out.