Eric Bonds
GUEST COMMENTARY
As Americans, it can be easy to believe that we live outside history. We frequently imagine that the conflict, upheaval, and peril of dramatic social change is something that only impacts people living overseas, or is something that only shaped the lives of Americans living in more momentous times from our nation’s past.
The results of Tuesday’s election demonstrate that we are living in dramatic times ourselves. This can be frightening. But it is also a reminder that what we do matters.
Being informed and having access to factual information matters. As a reader of the Fredericksburg Advance, you already know this. Journalism is facing two different, but related, crises in America. On one hand, the traditional business model of professional journalism has collapsed as more and more Americans think they can get their news for free via social media. On the other hand, our nation has selected a candidate who has called journalists “the enemy of the people” and who routinely threatens retaliation against news organizations that publish critical stories.
We can all do our part by financially supporting local news (if you haven’t yet done so, please become a paid subscriber to The Advance). The next four years are bound to be tumultuous. We need professional journalists who can give us factual information about how changes in government and the economy are impacting people’s lives in the Fredericksburg region.
When these years have passed, let’s be able to look back with pride that we valued science and facts, even when it wasn’t rewarded. Let us be able to say that we acted with courage to protect vulnerable members of our community, even when contrary to strong political pressures. And let’s be proud that we did our part to safeguard the climate even when it wasn’t expedient.
Human rights matter too. As a candidate, Donald Trump promised the largest immigrant deportation program in US history. This is a policy that threatens the forced removal of millions of persons living in our country, tearing families apart and devastating lives. The particular mechanisms of this proposed program have not yet been discussed in detail. But, as with Trump’s last administration, it is likely that local jurisdictions will play an important role in either implementing or resisting these actions. We can do our part to make sure that our local governments focus on public safety, not immigration enforcement. In this way, we can help protect the freedom of hardworking members of our community and keep families together.
What we do for the environment (or what we do to the environment) also matters. Whether or not we acknowledge it, climate change is advancing at a rapid pace and we must reign in carbon emissions if we hope to avoid catastrophic levels of warming. Despite this fact, we should expect the Trump Administration to weaken our already insufficient federal climate protections. But the last time Trump was in office, cities and states stepped up to show that progress can still be made even without federal leadership. Once again, we can encourage local and state officials to take meaningful steps to cut carbon pollution.
And let’s not forget, how we spend our own lives matters too. For many of us, the next four years and several months will be challenging. President-elect Donald Trump craves attention, and he will seek it out constantly. So while we need to be informed, we must also avoid being distracted from what really counts. Four more years stretching out ahead of us may seem like a long time from today’s vantagepoint, but we also know from experience that they will fly by quickly. We must remember to spend this time cherishing our family and friends, uplifting each other and doing the things that we enjoy.
When these years have passed, let’s be able to look back with pride that we valued science and facts, even when it wasn’t rewarded. Let us be able to say that we acted with courage to protect vulnerable members of our community, even when contrary to strong political pressures. And let’s be proud that we did our part to safeguard the climate even when it wasn’t expedient. Let us also be able to say that we rose to the occasion and that we valued these years despite their many difficulties because they reminded us of the significance of our lives and of our actions.
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