On the Eve of the Trump Takeover: Look for the Helpers.

We’re here—steady, ready, willing. (With links to the helpers.)

It’s Sunday already and tomorrow is Martin Luther King Day, a federal holiday celebrated on the third Monday in January. This year the holiday, also recognized as a ‘National Day of Service’, happens to fall on January 20, the same date as Donald Trump’s official swearing-in as Assumed Eternal Potentate of These Discombobulated States Of The Rich and Powerful.

That particular juxtaposition of of these two Big Days seems incongruous, if not pretty awful, but I see it as a shining opportunity to take sides. I’m on the side of those who would rather walk on broken glass and then eat every last bit of it than acknowledge the lunatic-soon-to-be-in residence’s legitimacy as any kind of leader, and I’m grateful for such a fine distraction as the mighty and everlasting good citizen, Dr. Martin Luther King.

It’s our version of a slap in the face to all those who foolishly follow the Orange One, that vicious, ignorant man, that known criminal, that grifter, that cheat, that liar who doesn’t deserve to be in the same sentence as MLK.

The challenge tomorrow will be in how we address the two. How many of us will deliberately ignore the ceremonies giving the madman all the power in the world and will instead celebrate the life of a man who worked to give power and dignity to all Americans, no matter the color of their skin, their places of origin, or their ability to feed themselves and their families?

King was the ‘helper’ at a time when we thought we would never see one in the segregated South, where the cruelty toward Black people had only in recent years been exposed for the rest of the country to see. (It was the 1960s and those of us who thought we knew about dark politics were slowly finding out about the horrors citizens of those states had to face simply because their skin was obviously darker than those who held all the power. A hundred years after emancipation, there were still forces in the American South who wished for slave states where people could be economic chattel, reduced to nothing more than work horses, without rights, without the privilege of humanity.

In my family, the realization came about thanks to Life Magazine’s unflinching photos of lynchings and attack dogs and fire hoses and lunchroom sit-ins. It was a world that, until then, we knew nothing about.

And I mean nothing.

Those photos changed me forever. I didn’t live anywhere near there and I didn’t know any of those victims, but I have never sobbed over a magazine’s contents, either before or since, the way I sobbed over those photos coming in hard and fast, week after week after week.

Millions of us found out the same way. Without those photos and the other reports by caring, committed journalists, the Civil Rights movement might never have moved toward change. But there it was, clear evidence of the white man’s cruelty to innocent human beings, and the movement couldn’t let it go.

They made a difference. They suffered, they sacrificed, they died. Their leaders went on to do greater good, leaders like John Lewis reminding us often of who they were before, of who they were after, and what it took to get there.

We can do that again.

We must do that now.

There are helpers out there, ready to take on the Trump regime, ready to ignore their threats of cruelty, their obvious shows of power, their promises of revenge if anyone dares go against them.

We can’t let fear guide us. The opposition thrives on fear. We have to be ready to join the helpers. We have to be the helpers.

It’s going to take some effort. It’s going to take sacrifices. We’re long past thinking all it will take are votes.

We’re in for a battle now, so let’s call it what it is. A battle.

Let’s call them what they are. The enemy. Until they prove otherwise.

So let’s find the helpers. And while we’re looking, can I ask you to set your judgements aside for the duration? If they’re doing what they’re supposed to do right now, forget about who they were or what they did in the past.

Were they Republicans once? All the better if they’re now on our side. They know how Republicans operate. That’s to our advantage.

Did they do a deed that made you angry? Get over it if they’re now doing deeds that would otherwise make you proud.

Did they use words in the past that now threaten to live in infamy? Are they sorry? That’s good enough.

It’s the future that counts.

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Here is an ongoing, frequently updated list of ‘helpers’ on our side—journalists, political writers, attorneys, organizations, movements—all working to end fascism and preserve democracy. Please share widely and let me know who I’ve missed.

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