| By Lillian Foreman
![](https://refusefascism.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/rf-times-square.jpg)
The other day, I looked out my window, longing to be outside. The sky was blue and the pear trees of Cornelia Street were blooming like crazy. Four young people strolled by. One of them leaped up to touch the blossoms. Two of the four were holding hands. None of them were the six feet apart required by the present health regulations. They were probably counting on having healthy immune systems to keep them safe from COVID-19. Apparently none of them believed the reports that some people their age and younger have died from the virus, or cared about the possibility that they could be asymptomatic and spreading the disease to their loved ones.
Yet I envied these young people, not just for their high spirits but also for their sense of freedom to come and go as they please as though everything were normal. If it weren’t for the pandemic, I would be out with my fellow volunteers from Refuse Fascism protesting and demanding Trump/Pence Out Now. But the times are not normal and most people should not be out on the streets in close contact with others.
Trump’s crimes against humanity are, like COVID-19, breathtaking. Having to stay in one’s home and not protest this murderous regime is agonizing. My envy of the happy-go-lucky kids I see out my window is flimsy compared to my envy of the nine people from Refuse Fascism who exposed themselves to a certain amount of risk for the sake of humanity and went to Times Square here in Manhattan to bring 5 demands:
• Provide aid and protection for humanity globally, not just for Americans, based on international co-operation, not competition.
• Provide ventilators and hospital beds for those needing intensive care; and mass testing to provide information needed to slow the spread of the virus.
• Provide Personal Protective Equipment for all health workers.
• Ensure health and safety from the virus of all those in jail, prison, or ICE detention camps; immediate release of everyone not convicted of a violent crime, and of asylum seekers and families.
• Most importantly, the immediate removal of Trump & Pence.
Of course, they did take precautions. To avoid the subways, they walked to Times Square from Brooklyn. They stood six feet away from each other, wore masks and gloves, and held up signs to express their demands. I am elderly and was not in a position to join them, but I was with them in spirit and grateful for their action. If neighborhood after neighborhood found ways to rise up together – banging pots and pans, holding signs, hanging banners outside their window – in the name of humanity, the whole world would see it and people would know that they can make a difference.
To stop the spread of COVID-19, people should take the shelter-in-place orders seriously and stay inside if they can. To stop the fascist regime that is making all of this worse, people should resist in every way possible. Join Refuse Fascism in spreading the statement of conscience, raising the 5 demands, and acting now to drive out this regime.