I am 70 years old, and I want to retire. I can financially live on my Social Security income with supplements from my savings. I planned and saved for this. But now I’m fearful and not sure if Social Security will be around much longer. Is talking to others about Social Security political talk? Is fear of having my phone searched at the LA airport after I fly in from an out-of-country vacation political fear? Is my current job, prescribing birth control in a clinic, a political job? Is talking about losing thousands in my stock market IRA political? Is talking about paying more for groceries with added fees due to tariffs political talk? Yet many friends and colleagues around me don’t want to talk “politics.” Is this politics or just life?
I take this all personally. If you like Trump and support his agenda, you don’t like me. And I do take that personally. Because I love my job at the clinic helping young women stay healthy and teaching them how to take care of their bodies. You must not like me because I believe in free trade, free speech, supporting global allies, and health care as a human right.
So when I lament about how hurtful these Republican agenda items are to people I love and/or care about, it’s not political, it’s humanity and compassion. If you don’t want me to speak politics, then what is left? The weather? Oh right, NOAA and the Weather Service is scaling back and on the chopping block. The great outdoors, camping, hiking? Oh right, our parks and lands are being decimated by willful neglect and funding cuts.
Think about it again. Our life in what is left of the United States democracy is all political. It’s all or nothing. If it’s not political then it’s (just) life. If it is political then it’s my and your life. Either way we can’t escape what is happening.
I’m 70. I’m tired. I’ve been a political candidate for office, I’ve done sit-ins and freedom walks and all kinds of rallies over the last 55 years. These issues are part of who I am. You don’t want me to speak politics. Then you don’t want to hear, see, and know me.
I would rather just retire, play Mahjong, paint by numbers, take a dance class, play with my dog, travel. But I can’t. I’m afraid to leave the country now, so I can’t talk calmly about it with you as we chat about our next travel adventure. I can’t relax in my golden years because my hard-earned Social Security check is not a guarantee any longer.
I don’t really want to talk politics. I want to talk TV, movies, and the weather. But it’s all politics now. Our lives are all politics. Because we have never been here before, teetering on the brink of fascism and dictatorship. So, for now, it’s all political and if we don’t talk about and share our grief, frustration, and confusion, we will never survive. And I want us to survive and thrive. Δ
Sharon Girard writes to New Times from Nipomo. Send a response for publication by emailing it to letters@newtimesslo.com.
This article appears in Apr 3-13, 2025.
Thank You Sharon Girard for you factual commentary. I completely agree and am in the same boat seeing and feeling all of the republicans’ assault on our Democratic Republic and our Constitution.
Fascism is in the White House and dismantling our government right before our eyes. This is a Putin style dictatorship now. Trump is owned by Putin and Musk. They are a mobster criminal enterprise. Those are the facts.
We must speak up now, and loudly, to stop this fascist takeover of our government!
We must protest, take nonviolent action and we hopefully can beat the fascists. If we can get close to 4% of Americans to protest and cause a General Strike, we may be able to beat back this fascist regime, and save our democratic republic.
“In the 1924 Reichstag elections, the Nazi Party received three percent of the votes cast and was represented in the parliament by fourteen delegates. In the 1928 elections, its support declined; the party was able to send only twelve delegates to the legislature. The turnaround came in 1930, the first elections after the economic crisis began. Surprisingly, the Nazis received 18.3 percent of the vote and sent 107 delegates to the Reichstag, the German Parliament. In July 1932, with 230 mandates, they became the largest faction in the House a political force that made an impact and acceded to power legitimately. President Paul von Hindenburg gave Hitler the mandate to form a government, and Hitler became Chancellor on January 30, 1933.”
“Nazi anti-Jewish policy functioned on two primary levels: legal measures to expel the Jews from society and strip them of their rights and property while simultaneously engaging in campaigns of incitement, abuse, terror and violence of varying proportions. There was one goal: to make the Jews leave Germany.” Does this sound familiar or contemporary? (https://www.yadvashem.org/holocaust/about/…)
And so here we are, in similar conditions, a collapsed economy, a discredited liberal party (Democrats), a demagogic president, and Americans looking for someone to blame. Rather than look at capitalism and an unequal distribution of wealth, which would require a painful look at the system we created and live in, like Nazis, we look at the weakest members of our society and blame them (its easier to do). Not a fan of mass, illegal immigration, we must be understand that this purge begins with them but can easily morph into purging society of those whom the fascists in power now might consider “disloyal” or dissidents (us). From our history of herding Native Americans onto reservations to starve, interning Japanese, centuries of slavery, and defending Apartheid or engaging in trade relations with Nazi Germany by American companies, no one should be surprised by what may come next. Our institutions are weak and as those who staff them come to fear for their own jobs, these staff will be inclined to sign loyalty oaths and only serve party members.
This is fascism, folks, and we’re deep in it.
Like Germany invading Poland, the US is prepping to attack Iran. The only difference this time is that rather than be met by Poles riding horses carrying lances, America will be greeted by missiles, bombs, drones, sunken aircraft carriers, and mass American casualties. Are we ready for that? An why? Iran is half way across the world as is Ukraine and as was Vietnam. I hope everyone is ready to sacrifice their sons and daughters because when the inevitable draft happens, that’s exactly who your government will be conscripting to die.