This blog is ostensibly about pop culture and my love affair with it. But I cannot keep quiet about what I am seeing on the news. This new administration is deeply disturbing, and it is deviating sharply from American traditions. Many people are urging calm and patience, but the things that are happening are so alarming (executive order banning Syrian refugees, nationals from 7 mostly Muslim countries; Bannon elevated to cabinet-level authority through his inclusion in national security briefings) that I don’t believe that we should have patience. But what is one to do? Especially those of us who are living relatively enjoyable bourgeois lives? Are we going to wait and see what’s going to happen? And then one day go outside to a completely different world that is the stuff of dystopian novels?

Well, the world is already different, isn’t it? Can’t you feel it? I can.

But what to do? This weekend, I did what I could. I went alone to the rally outside the White House.

 

While there, I also chanted.

 

 

Then, I proceeded to the Capitol.

A couple of other things I did: deleted my Uber account and the app from my phone and donated to the ACLU. The ACLU has apparently received over $20 million to help fight the executive order, defend the folks detained at airports, and fight Trump. Good.

Democracy is an everyday task. Election day is a culmination of many days, and it feels magical. But it is not the only way that we exercise our rights. And it does not mean that just because the candidate we wanted to win did not win, we can’t demand that our representatives do as we tell them. They represent us and must represent what we want, not their flights of fancy.