Acting Upon Awareness

On Tuesday night, Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts was silenced by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell for reading a letter by Coretta Scott King that was critical of Senator Jeff Sessions of Alabama. She was silenced because she, �impugned the motives and the conduct� of Sessions, who was nominated for Attorney General by President Trump.

            This past week, President Trump has repeatedly insulted the federal judge who overturned his controversial travel ban from seven majority-Muslim countries. Trump tweeted, �Just cannot believe a judge would put our country in such peril.�

            This trend by Trump and his constituents to silence and unabashedly insult the elements that make up the institution of our republic is worrying. It�s hard to tell if President Trump is knowingly attacking the system of checks and balances or if he is just accustomed to lashing out at his opponents in this manner. No matter what he is intentionally doing, it is not presidential.

            The president should respect and fight to protect the system of checks and balances and freedom of speech. A senator should be able to make an argument on the floor of the Senate against a man that has a bad reputation for protecting civil rights in his state. But that is not happening. It may be a bit of an overreaction to label these incidents as an attack on democracy, but it�s good to be aware and resist the normalization of our situation as a nation.

            So where do we go from here?

            I think it�s important to be aware. What I mean by that is acting upon awareness. Not by mindlessly believing what you read from one news outlet or another, but by surrounding yourself with credible and different viewpoints. Being aware of the difference between fact and fiction is a skill that we need in order to resist successfully. The most important thing we can do in this situation that we are in is being able to think for ourselves and not rely on any institution to determine our views and positions. So be aware and be prepared to resist if our democracy is at risk.