By Lillian Forman | 

For five Saturdays, starting October 19th in NY and LA and October 26-November 16 everywhere, I invite everyone to go out on the streets and demand that the Trump/Pence regime leave the White House.

There are many reasons why Americans of different perspectives must hold a nonviolent, massive, and sustained protest. Perhaps the most obvious of these reasons is that nothing else will convince the Democrats that it is imperative to rid the government of a cruel, narcissistic force — that is, fascism. Unfortunately, ousting Trump by impeachment won’t remove the influence of Pence and other powerful fascists that seem firmly fixed in our government. The Democrats must be convinced by people power that our freedoms and just laws will disappear if they don’t remove the corrupt, vicious influences that are even now tainting our ideas of justice and truth.

This last statement brings me to one of the most important reasons why we all have to go out on the streets and even take the risk of engaging in nonviolent direct action. It’s not only the structure of our government that is being undermined; it is our own capacity for compassion, honesty, and courage.

I went to the museum of the holocaust last summer. There I saw a film of young and middle aged German women grabbing the possessions of Jews murdered in the gas chambers. With shrill laughter, they descended on a pile of clothes and household articles like a flock of ravens and carrion crows. As a nation, we should fear becoming those people.

There is evidence that we are becoming callous. Remember when Trump established the Muslim Ban? Immigrant Muslims, even comfortably off, well-educated Muslims, weren’t allowed to get off the planes that brought them to the United States. Many Americans spontaneously rushed to the airports and stood up for the newcomers. But now those same people are all but forgotten.

This regime will do whatever we let them get away with. The Democrats haven’t stopped them from crimes against humanity or assaults on our constitutional rights. They seem interested only in protecting the parts of our political system in which they have a stake. Therefore, we, the ordinary citizens of the United States, must stop him and his supporters. If we don’t, we will be guilty of complicity. Moreover we will lose our humanity. We may easily become as bestial as those German women in the film snatching the belongings of murder victims. There is no great redeeming entity that will descend from the clouds and save us from evil. There is only our courage and determination.

In the real world, redemption must be struggled for. The Puerto Ricans showed us that nonviolent, sustained protests on the streets can get results. The people of Hong Kong are in the process of showing us that resistance to totalitarianism can kindle great courage, creativity, and endurance, that it can save us from becoming fascists ourselves.

Join me. Puerto Rico and Hong Kong show us how:

TrumpPence #OutNOW!

In the Name of Humanity, We Refuse to Accept a Fascist America.