Not Our America

Originally written 1/31/25
in response to the Atlantic Magazine, “FBI Agents Are Stunned by the Scale of the Expected Trump Purge”

I was calm. I tried to speak rationally and kept my political posts to a minimum for years because I have family on both sides of the aisle and thought we were going to be able to find common ground. Truth and decency would win in the end. Above all else, I was taught that vigorous, principled debate was the core of our democracy. So I tried. But I'm done. This is not the country I was raised to believe in. This is not the United States my father served in the Navy for decades to protect. This is not the imperfect but striving to be more perfect Union I proudly engaged with by voting and knocking on doors and calling my representatives and trying to follow the news with care. This is not that nation of checks and balances, where no one is above the law.

I personally know FBI agents. They have served selflessly, keeping their political beliefs out of their work, and working tirelessly for years and years to keep us all a bit safer. Their remits have included child sex trafficking and terrorism, gangs and white collar crimes. And today, they are watching friends and colleagues be fired for simply doing their job. They are watching as organizational knowledge is stripped away and leaves us all deeply unsafe. All out of pettiness and revenge. All out of some twisted version of loyalty to a person and not the Constitution. All because they were asked by their superiors to work on the Jan 6 investigation and other Trump related cases. All because they did their jobs, followed the facts, and reported their findings without malice or agenda. All because the demonstrable lies about stolen elections and a "peaceful day of protest" have taken root like a cancer in our body politic.

As I type, some wait in their office to see if they too will be fired. But my waiting is done. I am done. We should all be done. This is not our America. And if we hope to have that America again, it is time to march and make our voices heard, whatever the dangers.