Pearl Harbor day
7 December 2025
It has now been 84 years since the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, Oahu, Hawaii.
Historian Heather Cox Richardson has a wonderful essay about the attack.
Ultimately, the struggle between fascism and democracy was the question of equality. Were all men really created equal as the Declaration of Independence said, or were some born to lead the rest, whom they held subservient to their will?
. . .
President Donald J. Trump and his cronies have abandoned the principles of democracy and openly embraced the hierarchical society the U.S. fought against in World War II. They have fired women, Black Americans, people of color, and LGBTQ+ Americans from positions in the government and the military and erased them from official histories. They have seized, incarcerated and deported immigrants— or rendered them to third countries to be tortured— and have sent federal agents and federal troops into Democratic-led cities to terrorize the people living there.
They have traded the rule of law for the rule of Trump, weaponizing the Department of Justice against those they perceive as enemies, pardoning loyalists convicted of crimes, and now, executing those they declare are members of drug cartels without evidence, charges, or trials. They have openly rejected the world based on shared values of equality and democracy for which Americans fought in World War II. In its place, they are building a world dominated by a small group of elites close to Trump, who are raking in vast amounts of money from their machinations.
Will we permit the destruction of American democracy on our watch?
Each one of us should try to do more. We need to think about what changes we can make in our lives to support democracy and reject Trump, the Republican Party and the super wealthy who are keeping them in power. I understand that you are busy, don’t want to change your ways and don’t want to get involved. But if you want to stop Trump and his enablers, you must find a way to do at least a little more than you are doing now. Surely you can do that!
My political blog focuses on what you can or should do to make the world a better place and yourself a better person. I have another blog on Cancer and Medicine.
I read all your comments (except hate speech) and try to respond briefly, although I can’t keep up a long conversation.
The index to my political essays since 5 November 2024 is here.
What you can do today:
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