What do i tell my students?

[First posted on Bluesky, February 5, 2025.  @danswartzman.bsky.social]

I try to teach my students about the future of American social justice. What am I to make of Trump's plans: cutting scores of necessary federal programs which benefit millions to keep tax cuts for the rich and powerful,

Empowering an unstable, unaccountable gazillionaire to decide who gets to work for the government, mindless of the necessary expertise and experience,

Ham-handedly reversing years of governmental efforts to undo centuries of immoral practices that favored old, white, male majorities,

Proposing to ignore the clear language of the Constitution he took an oath to protect and defend by heedlessly declaring who is and is not a citizen and by impounding money duly authorized by Congress,

By proposing land grabs (Canada, Greenland, Panama, Gaza, and who knows where else) that would be shocking to 19th and 20th Century sensibilities,

By appointing unqualified, inappropriate, fanatical sycophants to be the administrators and guardians of our and our children's futures.

The montrousness of these plans are not unparalleled in US history (Manifest Destiny, slavery, the Trail of Tears, Japanese internment, Secession, Jim Crow, red-lining, the Vietnam War, etc.). But they are nevertheless shocking.

And this is only the first couple of weeks of this administration. What do I tell my students? This isn't the way it is supposed to be. We have to react. We have to speak out. We have to fight back. We have to find and follow courageous leaders.

Me, I'm starting a list of the things we need to do, and the legal, political and morally responsible levers available to us. Any suggestions will be gratefully appreciated.

Jews believe we are part of a partnership responsible for repairing the world (tikkun olam). And we tell a story of a desperate man who complains to God, "why have You done nothing to fix this troubled world," to which God replies, "I did do something. I sent you."

We are the people sent to repair the world. This is who we have always been. It's time to get back to work.