I Will Not Be Silent

One Life’s Stand Against Complicity and Corruption

The United States has become a cancer. A nation once respected and honored for caring and helping has become a pariah. I cannot sit idly by and witness this abhorrent behavior without speaking up. Silence is complicity—and I will not dignify this descent with mine. Collectively, we are powerful, unapologetic, and charged with both moral clarity and urgency. We must say loudly – enough is enough!

This is where I stand.

The 45th and now 47th U.S. President, along with his power-hungry cronies in the Cabinet and administration, and the majority of Republicans in Congress, are a real and present threat to me, my way of life, and to most of the people I love.

Some say we should give Trump a chance—that we should “work together” with him because he won the election and he is “everyone’s president.”

This is my response:

• I will not forget how he and others disrespected President Barack Obama for eight years, how they denied his legitimacy and vilified his every effort to govern with dignity and decency.

• I will not "work together" to privatize Medicare or dismantle Social Security and Medicaid.

• I will not "work together" to subvert the Constitution by pushing through unqualified nominees without Senate consent.

• I will not "work together" to persecute Muslims, deny asylum to refugees, or stoke fear against the vulnerable.

• I will not "work together" to lower taxes for the 1% while burdening the middle and working class.

• I will not "work together" to enrich the President and his cronies at the expense of public trust.

• I will not "work together" to erase environmental protections, auction public lands, or turn predators into trophies.

• I will not "work together" to eliminate civil rights or suppress entire communities.

• I will not "work together" to alienate long-standing allies.

• I will not "work together" to defund education, limit access to healthcare, or criminalize reproductive rights.

• I will not "work together" to loosen gun safety regulations or attack unions.

• I will not "work together" to suppress science, silence truth, or propagate lies.

• I will not "work together" to normalize hatred, violence, and fascism.

• I will not "work together" to desecrate sacred ground, legitimize white supremacy, or whitewash our past.

• I will not "work together" to dismantle public art, silence media, or dismantle the promise of education.

• I will not "work together" to cherry-pick constitutional protections or betray the oath of public service.

This is my line, and I am drawing it.

• I WILL stand for honesty, compassion, and respect for all living beings.

• I WILL speak, act, and listen.

• I WILL remind others that “winning” means nothing when it comes at the cost of humanity.

• I WILL remember that greatness without goodness is hollow.

• I WILL live in defiance of cruelty and indifference.

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Just as I now face the real and present cancer in my body, so too must we as a nation face the malignancy growing within our democracy. In my case, my prostate will be removed. The spots on my lungs—unknown and ominous—will be monitored, treated, perhaps cut out or irradiated. Cancer, left unchecked, grows. I will manage mine, just as fair-minded Americans must manage the cancer that is becoming the United States.

We must not let a cluster of malignant ideologies metastasize and kill the soul of this nation. We must diagnose, confront, and excise what threatens the body politic. Weeding out does not mean destroying the garden—it means saving it.

Fair-minded Americans must rise. The lunacy of the few must not shape the fate of the many.

I do not write these words in disappointment alone, but in sorrow and conviction. This is not about politics; it is about the moral core of who we are and who we choose to be as a nation. I will not allow my silence to serve as assent, nor my fear to mute my resolve. Like the cancer that threatens my body, the threats to our nation must be named, faced, and treated—before they consume what is still worth saving. I do not stand alone. And for as long as I have voice, breath, and will, I will stand for truth, justice, and the dignity of every soul against those who would cheapen or erase it.

I return to what grounds me—not just resistance, but reverence. I believe in the ideals of this country because I believe in the essence of its people. I have walked through cathedrals where the light broke through centuries-old stained glass, reminding me that even in dark times, beauty persists. I have knelt in silence where prayers were once whispered in secret, and I have felt the weight of history and the whisper of hope.

Like the cancer in my own body, the spiritual disease afflicting this nation cannot be ignored. I believe in healing, not always immediate, not always painless, but possible. I believe in the fierce tenderness of truth, in the power of community, in the divine spark within each of us that calls us not to be comfortable, but to be courageous.

This is sacred work. Not partisan, not petty…but holy.

I will not be silent. I will not harden my heart. I will name what is broken, defend what is sacred, and stand as both witness and worker in the long, painful, redemptive labor of love.

Hear my voice and join me in this crusade. A crusade not of violence, but of vision. Not of conquest, but of conscience. Not of hate, but of healing. Let us labor together, not in despair, but in defiant hope—as witnesses, as workers, and as keepers of the light.