I got to tell someone about my Oma today. She was part of the Dutch resistance in World War II. She was humble and cautious. She watched the news religiously at 8 pm. She lived and died in Amsterdam. I remember her spoon-feeding me hagel-slag that fell from my toast as a toddler. She would not waste a single sprinkle. The Dutch resistance smuggled ration cards and hid people in attics, including my Opa, who was not Jewish but escaped Nazi-enforced labor by stepping off a train as it was departing.
At the same time that European Jews were forced into concentration camps, they were forcibly recruiting able-bodied young men for labor camps. This created mass unemployment in the Netherlands and propelled mass destabilization of the economy. My Opa must have been nineteen.
I carry some of my Oma’s characteristics. She spent her years after the war as a secretary, telling me that if it was the right era, she would have been a social worker. I’m not a social worker. I’m also not very cautious, but I never had to be. But when I think about the period of chaos and instability we are entering as a globe, I feel the deepest resonance in identifying with her resilience and strength. I get to say that she was part of the Dutch Resistance.
I don’t much like having to identify as someone who has to be strong. But it’s where we’ve arrived in our society where the working class is taxed astronomically more on their labor than the rich are taxed on their growing capital with compounded interest that injustice must be met with fortified and unified strength. Idiocy and greed cannot be met with anything less than unwavering integrity. I admit, I believe that democracy in the United States has failed. The civil war never really ended, as Steve Phillips wrote in 2022 in The Nation,
“The ongoing war was—and is being—waged on multiple fronts. One is via voter suppression, in the form of new, discriminatory laws. Another is white domestic terrorism, with the creation of the Ku Klux Klan by ex-Confederate soldiers. And a third is the fight over the minds of the country’s children.”
It’s the latter that scares me. I’m an atheist, thanks to my Socialist Liberal parents (best gift ever), but there has been this movement of young Christians taking TikTok and Instagram Reels by storm claiming that this country has been founded by the radicalized freedom-seeking Puritans. (They always seem to leave out the part where the mass slaughtering of Indigenous Americans and the trail of tears.) Fun fact: Instagram automatically disables political content unless you manually switch it back on, and to add, it switches itself back whenever you re-download or update your phone. Instagram’s model is now designed to sell, sell, sell. The minds of young people are malleable, and we’re scrolling. I’m no better. I’ve spent more time on Instagram than I’d like, in disbelief at the trail of comments that read trolling rage-bait like “Climate Change is a total hoax created by the left-wing agenda designed to brainwash you.” I’d like to be better.
The last few months have been a roller coaster, but the kind that just goes spirals downwards. The political atmosphere in the United States is scary, and especially terrifying if you identify with any of the targeted marginalized communities that are facing tough realities and unjust action. Technically, under the Birthright Citizenship executive order, my citizenship in the USA is questionable. I look to my Oma, who faithfully watches the news every evening. I acknowledge that it is in my DNA to collect information, to observe, and to act in service of what I know is right. I pull from her wisdom.
In the meantime, I’m calling on my toolbelt of self-care and regulation. I’m choosing to be as self-reliant as I can, and boycotting a handful of companies for ending their DEI programs, donating to Project 2025, and being in the pockets of fossil fuel executives. Tesla is at the top of that list, but it’s not like I’ve ever been able to afford one.
With that, I don’t want to leave you feeling distaste or anger. It is a time for solidarity and action. Whatever movement we can muster is enough. It takes a little bit from all of us.
I’ll end this thought by stating that I’m still getting the hang of a good rhythm of publishing my Substack Newsletter, but I have big intentions of making postings more frequent. Now’s the time.
What I’m reading:
How to Be the Love You Seek, by Dr. Nicole LePera
Socialism: Utopian and Scientific by Friedrich Engels