Well, it has begun.

Donald Trump is now president, the leader of the United States and the face we present to the rest of the world. At the moment, he is leading a deeply divided country. And the face he is presenting – to us and to the world – is one of anger, hostility, narcissism, arrogance, and divisiveness.

That face was on full display in his inaugural address on Friday. And it was on display again on Saturday, when he spoke at CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia.

Meanwhile, protests against him – many of them massive – were taking place around the world, filling streets and parks and plazas not only in Washington, the initial focus of the Women’s March, but also in Rochester, in San Francisco, in Chicago, in Seattle, in Atlanta, in Memphis, in Paris, in Prague, in Amsterdam, in Bangkok, in Dublin, in Tel Aviv, in Nairobi, in Rome, in Athens, in Cape Town, in Stockholm, in London.

The New York Times compiled photos from some of those protests here. And you can see CITY’s photos of Rochester’s Solidarity Rally here.

(A sign in Florence, Italy: “Make America Think Again.” A little girl’s message in Barcelona, Spain: “Make America Kind Again.”)

We’re in a strange moment right now, still suspended between the old administration and the dramatically different, volatile new one, as Trump and Republican leaders settle into their new responsibilities, Trump’s supporters wind down their celebration, and the rest of us work through our fears and our anguish.

“Working through” won’t be easy, given the stupefying nature of some of what we’re witnessing. (What are we to think when a key presidential adviser defends the White House press secretary’s clearly erroneous statements by saying the press secretary “gave alternative facts”?)

This moment of suspension will pass, though. Whether we’ve been celebrating or mourning Trump’s move into the White House, our thoughts about the inauguration will get pushed back in memory as the business of our own personal lives takes over. But as that happens, those of us concerned about where the country is headed need to pledge to do three things: remain watchful, protest when protests are needed, and find ways to help the country heal.

Saturday’s marches cannot be a one-time event. Protests – many of them resulting in physical harm to the participants – have brought human-rights progress, in the United States, in South Africa, in India. And as civil rights leaders have continued to remind us, we can’t wait for another Martin Luther King Jr., another Nelson Mandela, another Mahatma Gandhi to bring about change. Each of us has to take responsibility for change. Saturday’s marches have to be the beginning, not the end.

And we have to start healing. That will be hard, and any hope that Donald Trump would lead in the healing vanished in his inaugural speech. We will all have to help pull the nation together.

Given our growing diversity and the depth of our divisions, I suspect that we will never be really whole. Some of those divisions may be insurmountable. But this country has gone through periods of raw, open division before. And we have survived.

We’ve got to be better than this. The health of the country and our standing in the world depend on it.
Two years before he became president of a fiercely divided nation, Abraham Lincoln worried about the dangers of our division. In a speech launching his campaign for a US Senate seat – a campaign he lost – he warned that “a house divided against itself can not stand.”

Lincoln’s warning is relevant today. And as Barack Obama’s election in 2008, his re-election in 2012, and his popularity now show, regardless of our divisions, we can find our better nature.

We’ll need spokespeople and leaders for our healing, to be sure, but as with the protests, we can’t wait for the next King or Mandela or Gandhi. Saturday’s protests provided proof that the will to change exists. Now the hard work has to begin.

This article appears in Jan 25-31, 2017.

Mary Anna Towler is a transplant from the Southern Appalachians and is editor, co-publisher, and co-founder of City. She is happy to have converted a shy but opinionated childhood into an adult job. She...

15 replies on “For the next four years: watch, protest, and heal”

  1. Yes Yes every one of us must heal; every terribly tarnished and traumatized snowflake, every violently oppressed victim of Donald The Terrible, every single member of the defiant protesting minions, every ardent supporter of ILLEGAL alien lawbreakers yearning to be free. Know that we must demand, nay threaten, the nation with more protests until hordes upon hordes of innocent oppressed “immigrants” successfully overwhelm the system, continue to populate the prisons, commit more crime, march angrily in the streets, amplify diversity in this horrible racist land, and most importantly, vote democrat in future elections. Pray with me that our angelic Hillary, who never knew a scandal in her entire life, can return unblemished to ascend the mountain in four years to reclaim her anointed and rightful status as queen of the People’s Republic of Utopia. March together in lockstep to the Gods of diversity, tolerance, inclusiveness, and social justice so we may be enriched with MILLIONS of more illegals and poorly vetted potential middle-eastern terrorists. Progressives unite to insure change now!!!!

  2. Our Snow-Flake-In-Chief Trump needs to heal, Cupid! He continues to rant about the rigged election that he won, while tweeting every time his feelings are hurt.

  3. Alternative Facts is Figurative not literal. Some Facts are known but many are not and people present what is their best estimate of them. That shouldn’t be too hard to understand.
    It’s like when the liberal “Fact Checkers” determined Trumps claim that Hillary “Acid washed” her server as untrue. They said she wiped it with software and did not apply acid.
    I know people hate Trump but much of the reaction to him comes across as childish.

  4. To Katherine Quinn Thomas:

    Perhaps your “rigged election” comment refers to the antics of DNC chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schulz when she lead coordinated efforts to undermine Bernie Sander’s chances of election success? Or perhaps you were referencing DNC interim chair/CNN “journalist” Donna Brazile for leaking debate questions to Hillary Clinton? Or maybe you meant democrat party operative Scott Foval when Project Veritas caught him admitting “we manipulated the election with money and action, not with laws”? Please be more specific. Which of the many many democrat party scandals which contributed to the “rigged election” were you referring to?

  5. And don’t forget what Andrew Cuomo’s brother Chris said on CNN- ” we tried our best to help Hillary win” (or something verrrry similar)

  7. Cupid, my “rigged election” comment refers to Trump’s most recent complaints that he would have won the popular vote, if there hadn’t been voter fraud. He is a very sore, whiney winner.

  8. And I am having trouble with this “National Day of Patriotic Devotion” Trump has enacted. I imagine there will be loudspeakers pumping out the National Anthem and Hail to the Chief all across this great nation. Very Kim Jung Il/Kim Jong Un.

  9. Mark here is the actual Chris Cuomo quote from 2014 without the spin applied from the left biased Politifact
    It speaks for itself.

    Cuomo: “We’ll see. We couldn’t help her any more than we have. She’s got just a free ride, so far, from the media. We’re the biggest ones promoting her campaign. So, it better happen.

  10. “We’re the biggest ones promoting her campaign.”

    And this coming from a “news” organization. Be careful of the “fact checkers”

  11. Dudes, context matters, and timing is everything. Had CC said such a thing once she was a candidate, you’d have a case. But when he said this, she was only considering becoming a candidate, and his point was that the media was pushing for her to declare.

    But go ahead and believe your AltFact if it makes you happier. Apparently the truth is fungible these days.

  12. Mark yes the media was pushing her to declare. You are confirming our point without realizing it apparently
    It is not the job of news media who portray themselves as objective to do that

  13. We need to HEAL, you say? I think it is more a matter of needing to KNEEL.
    ——————————————————————————————–

    I believe that it is not just about needing to adjust to a new government, but to a dictatorial Donald Trump, Congress and Court. We are now becoming the “United States of Trump”, whether we like it or not.

    The marches and protests should have happened before the election, not after it.

    But there is HOPE. As we get a taste of what dictatorship is like, we may become more sympathetic to countries all over the world who are also suffering from it. And as we suffer, with Trump, we may begin to figure out ways to save guard democracy for the future.

    “Keep HOPE alive.” (Jesse Jackson)
    ==========================

  14. For the past eight years, nobody could criticize the president without being called a racist. Well, now the we have another minority in office and you are encouraging dissent. There are only about 1000 billionaires in the world, but countless millions of blacks. Give this guy a break. The market is up, jobs are coming back, his approval numbers are up. People are optimistic about America again.

    What is there to fear? Freedom? Jobs? Lower taxes? A government that is actually accomplishing something? Hopefully a press that starts to tell us the truth?

  15. Thank you, City News for last week’s RESIST discussion.
    ———————————————————————
    Yes, I agree that Trump needs to be resisted. But protesting at any level may be good for our psyche’s and our consciences.

    The craziness of Donald Trump, may indeed be a “blessing in disguise” if it gets millions of people involved in politics and if it encourages us to EXPRESS our feeling and concerns on an ongoing basis.

    Human being do not always listen the first time, or the second time. It may take a zillion times for a message to penetrate our minds… THANKS MUCH

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