My Faith Renewed

My faith in America's youth has been renewed. I am used to thinking of the young as self-absorbed and superficial. Maybe that is just a symptom of my ever-advancing years. However, the response of many young people to the blatant racism of the neo-fascist Trump movement has been beyond inspirational.

Trump has taken the once poorly-hidden racism of the right and exposed it for all to clearly see. No longer speaking in dog-whistles, Trump's unique blend of hate, fear, and divisiveness has brought-out the very worst in his followers. He has made Muslims and Mexicans the favorite scapegoats for his supporter's pathetic lives.

The whipped-up Trumpites are incited to act in a very ugly fashion. Everyone has seen the geezer who sucker-punched a protester being being escorted from a rally. Other brave protesters have been hit, kicked, and spit-on by the irate mobs. In Janesville, a 15-year old girl outside of a Trump rally was accosted by several adult men. One of the cowards squirted pepper-spray directly into her face.

Trump and his ugly movement have inspired a wave of openly-racist behavior. For example, a few high school kids brought shame on Elkhorn,Wisconsin by their Trump-inspired racist taunts. During a girl's soccer game, a heavily-minority Beloit team was subjected to racial slurs and repeated shouts like "Donald Trump, build that wall.". The visiting girls were clearly upset by the revolting incident. Similar racist episodes have happened at schools in Indiana and Iowa.

Racists everywhere have been emboldened by Trump's rhetoric. The former KKK Grand Wizard, David Duke has even encouraged other white-supremacists to join Trump's neo-fascist campaign. He said that to vote against Trump is "treason to your heritage."

How have progressive young people resisted this grave threat to our democracy? How have they fought back to preserve America? We first heard of a few brave souls who went into the rallies, either to disrupt the proceedings or to simply hold-up signs. These kids were roughly escorted out of the building, frequently with Trump egging-on the crowd to do violence to them.

As bigot-in-chief Trump has become the G.O.P. front-runner, crowds protesting his evil movement have grown exponentially. In cities and towns across the country, the candidate cannot give a hate-speech without being met by hundreds of sign-wielding Americans. In Phoenix, traffic was blocked en route to a Trump rally. In St. Louis, mass arrests were made. In Wisconsin, hundreds of our fellow citizens showed up in Milwaukee and Madison and Janesville to push aback against Trump's new Know-Nothing movement.

I was especially impressed by the student-led protesters that shut down last month's Trump rally in Chicago. That kind of racist crap might play in Alabama, but not Chicago. Hundreds of brave young patriots of all races and religions entered the hall, with thousands more outside. Citing safety concerns, Trump was forced to cancel his speech. Chalk one up for the righteous.

The young protesters facing-down Trump's neo-facist movement risk getting arrested, beaten, or even killed. One is reminded of the 1964 Berkeley Free Speech Movement leader Mario Savio, who so passionately argued, "There's a time when the operation of the machine becomes so odious, makes you so sick at heart, that you can't take part! You can't even passively take part! And you've got to put your bodies upon the gears and upon the wheels…upon the levers, upon all the apparatus, and you've got to make it stop! And you've got to indicate to the people who run it, to the people who own it, that unless you're free, the machine will be prevented from working at all! "

From Kansas City to Chicago ...from New York to Milwaukee... from Phoenix to Janesville, protestors are showing-up to disrupt Trump's hate & fear fests. America's young people are making it clear that they are not going to sit idly by while America succumbs to this evil neo-fascist movement. They are willing to risk physical danger to stand-up for principle. They are willing to put their bodies upon the gears to make it stop. Their bravery has given this old man renewed faith in the youth of our country.