What's Going On?

It has been exactly three days since Trump took office. In that time, a lot of what was in Project 2025 has occurred. January 20th began with a flurry of executive orders followed by lawsuits galore.

One of the EOs was to end birthright citizenship. Birthday citizenship is covered by the 14th Amendment, and has been a law since 1868. Today, a Reagan-appointed federal judge declared the EO "blatantly unconstitutional." Praise God.

Another EO implemented a federal hiring freeze, causing many Americans who had accepted but not yet started a federal job to have that job rescinded. Many of those jobs included VA nurses and caregivers. Angered, Americans have begun to push back, and the latest news indicates that certain jobs will be exempt from the hiring freeze, including VA health workers and civilian jobs. Praise God.

The takeaway is that we MUST speak out and keep speaking out. We have power, especially in numbers. We just need to keep the pressure ON and not get lackadaisical. 

I will tell you, it's only been three days, and I am exhausted. I am absolutely exhausted by all the drama and from trying to keep up with all the sweeping damage this administration is hell-bent on doing.

And while I complain, it occurs to me that I have nothing to complain about. I have a job, a home, health, family, food, and warm shelter. I am a straight, white, middle-class, able-bodied female who is (hopefully) beyond her child-bearing years. My rights are not under attack (yet). 

But while I am fortunate, many are not. And I cannot get the many out of my mind: the undocumented families who came here to escape violence in their home country. They must be scared out of their minds, especially those with small children; the federal worker who is only months away from retirement. Will they lose their job and pension? The transgender person who just completed their transition and is equipped with their new identity. Will they be stripped of their new identity and forced to go back to living a lie? The Afghan child awaiting reunification with their family in the U.S., now forced to go back to Afghanistan and face the consequences of trying to flee the Taliban.

Presidents are supposed to HELP people. Presidents are supposed to keep people SAFE. Presidents are supposed to try to improve the quality of life for ALL Americans. This is such a nightmare.

So far, Trump is showing that he is capable of every evil thing his opponents said he would be. And I take no joy in that. I wanted to be wrong about his second term. Oh, how I wanted to be proven wrong! But, as they say, if it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it's a duck. 

I pray with every fiber of my being that Americans somehow escape the worst of what he is capable of. I'm not sure how--only God knows--but I PRAY, PLEASE GOD, protect us and give us wisdom--all of us.