Pearl River President Trump engaged the country in 90-minutes of “me-time” in a rant before Congress, but that’s hardly news. While the Republican side of the House rose in applause, the rest of the room, and world, continues to recoil in horror. In the wide, wild world,
some of the reaction is more personal than the handwringing of politicians and businesses over the damage that is being wrought.

I saw a Facebook post of a friend, a labor lawyer in DC, who is housing federal employees suddenly thrown out of work. A book reviewing organizer for Social Policy missed the issue deadline, because he was dealing with so many federal workers in chaos over the loss
of livelihood.

Returning to type, “As a measles outbreak expands in West Texas, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the health and human services secretary, …cheered several unconventional treatments, including cod liver oil, but again did not urge Americans to get vaccinated.” What children
dying, me worry?

Hundreds of OSU students sit on the Oval in front of Thompson Library in protest of Senate Bill 1 and the university’s recent DEI rollbacks. When asked about her perspective on the speak-out, Brielle Shorter said “Last week when OSU sunsetted ODI, there were lots of tears, there was lots of pain, there were lots of hugs. Less than a week later, today, we are here in joy and celebration, because you cannot legislate us as human beings.”

The “old days” are more alive than ever – by which I mean my old days, when I was a kid. My life pushed forward on its own, more or less. This is called growing up. I wasn’t paying much attention until, at a certain point, a.k.a., adolescence, I started noticing the world I was a part of in ways beyond what I was taught. The world itself was changing and nobody, including my teachers, really understood it.

Existence wasn’t a bunch of bricks-and-mortar certainties. It was a vast unknown. Knowing this was alarming; it was also the meaning of freedom.

Today, as I move through the dark, stumbling uncertainty known as old age (I’m 78), I find myself looking backwards a lot, mulling over how I got here, often in amazement. For some reason it seems to matter. Can I learn from myself?

Wednesday, March 5 President Trump threatened to strip federal funding from colleges and universities that allow their students to “illegally” protest and threatened to deport, imprison, and/or expel students who are using their right to free speech. These threats are a desperate attempt to silence a movement that is working—we won’t back down.