Our darkest days are behind us. I mean that both literally and figuratively. As I sat at my kitchen table early Thursday morning, I noticed light in the sky just before 6 AM. The snow-capped mountains were lit and the sky silhouetted by the rising sun.
Just a day before, we had awoken to rain, high winds, flooded roads and destruction. The city looked like a disaster area. Our Pink Door House tour Wednesday night showed the aftermath as a gazebo was shredded and the pool had palm frond debris even after a thorough cleaning.
And it reminded me of what we’ve been through in this first year of the Trump presidency 2.0
Each day, our social media feeds and TV news cycles are filled with the administration’s blunders and latest threats to our democracy: Coal-fired power plants are coming back online as solar, and wind power become a target. More ICE detention centers are greenlit on the heels of massive protests. $10 billion to his “Board of Peace” after US-AID was gutted. A massive White House ballroom approved and an historic building demolished.
But then the courts get involved and the tides begin to turn. For those stories, you have to get out of your social media feeds and into real journalism from the likes of the New York Times, Politico, the late-night talk shows and MSNBC. That’s where there are rays of hope that this steamroller of an administration is being thwarted.
I do see evidence of calm-after-the-storm. It’s not that things are suddenly getting better. The midterm elections are bearing down and there will be that day of reckoning. Our acts of defiance are shining light on the darkness that has shrouded us. Our fellow Americans paying attention and dissatisfaction with what we are seeing on our streets is making a difference in the court of public opinion.
Our next “No Kings March” is five weeks away. By then, our days will be longer, more sunlight will be shown on year one’s atrocities and hopefully more bad policy decisions will have been overturned. Brighter days are ahead.
