No Shoving Us Back In The Bottle

And the election results had not changed.

Night Fears

More bad nights have followed, filled with dreams in which people who know me well accuse me of terrible things I haven바카라�t done or of failing to protect people in my charge.

And there have been nights when my partner and I hold each other in the dark and whisper our worst fears. Some of these are personal and selfish: Under the new regime, will I still be able to get the meds that keep me going? Will I have to work for money until I die to keep my health care benefits? Because I turn 65 next year, will I miss the  and fall under Paul Ryan바카라�s plan to turn that program into a voucher system?

Some fears are national: How can the two of us, and the organizations we바카라�re connected with, continue to shield the vulnerable in an era when a  serves as the president바카라�s chief strategist?

Some are global: Can we hold back the rising seas that are already  island nations on a planet where Donald Trump promises to  the fight against climate change and walk away from the historic 

And then, it바카라�s back to the personal again: Just how vulnerable are we, two middle class white lesbians in our sixties, during a Trump presidency? In the 1980s and 1990s, we used to wonder why the two things our 바카라�gay leaders바카라� thought we wanted most in the world were to join the Army and get married. Now, the question isn바카라�t what we바카라�ll be able to do, but what we won바카라�t be able to do. 

Admittedly, the two of us will never again need the right to an abortion that a Trump-influenced Supreme Court will probably , essentially abrogating the Roe v. Wade decision. But I did need it in 1975, and I thank God I had it. On the other hand, such a court could easily decide to revisit its 2003 decision in , which invalidated sodomy laws. It바카라�s easy enough to forget now that, as recently as 1986, in , the court opined that no one has 바카라�a fundamental right to engage in homosexual sodomy.바카라�

But the terror that바카라�s shaken us the most is that, in the coming years, we might witness the final collapse of the rule of law in this country. I바카라�ve spent the last decade and a half writing about  and other  committed in the global 바카라�war on terror.바카라� First, the Bush administration brought us two illegal wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, along with 바카라�enhanced interrogation techniques바카라� and a permanent extralegal prison at Guantánamo Bay. The Obama administration followed with its policy of extrajudicial , and undeclared but very real wars in Libya, Syria, and Yemen. Between them, they  and  and finally broke  and  laws of all sorts.

But the past two administrations at least gave lip service to the rule of law. In Donald Trump, we have a president-elect who has said he will simply ignore the law if it gets in his way. In a primary debate last March, he insisted that the military would follow any order he gave -- whether to torture detainees or to 바카라� of suspected terrorists. When debate moderator Bret Baier pointed out that soldiers are prohibited from obeying an illegal order, Trump answered, 바카라�They won바카라�t refuse. They바카라�re not gonna refuse me. Believe me. I바카라�m a leader. I바카라�ve always been a leader. I바카라�ve never had any problem leading people. If I say do it, they바카라�re going to do it.바카라� Apparently he got some advice about saying such things in public; the following day found him walking back the comments,  that 바카라�the United States is bound by laws and treaties and I will not order our military or other officials to violate those laws.바카라� But it바카라�s pretty clear what he really thinks about the binding power of law.

There바카라�s so much to worry about with a Trump presidency. Why does contempt for the rule of law stand out for me? Part of the answer is that by making laws we human beings both recognize and secure our need to live together. In the thirteenth century, Thomas Aquinas  a law as 바카라�an ordinance of reason for the common good, made by [whoever] has care of the community, and promulgated.바카라� It바카라�s still a pretty decent definition: a reasonable rule made for the good of everyone in the community, rather than for , by those with responsibility for ensuring that good, and made public so that everyone knows what the law is and how it operates. No . No . A premature medieval democrat, Aquinas allowed for the possibility that the one who 바카라�has care of the community바카라� might, in fact, be a body of elected representatives, or even the community as a whole.

The law is not sexy. It바카라�s not . But it can, for instance, be the protective wall between a group of people designated as  and those who hate them (though that is, of course, not Trump바카라�s idea of a useful wall). That바카라�s only true, however, if the law is enforced. International law could also be the barrier, the wall, that protects the world from a country that for the past 15 years has behaved like an angry two-year-old giant, around the world,  missiles and smashing things with its outsized feet. Or it might have been, had Barack Obama not begun his presidency by  that he (and therefore the rest of us) would 바카라�look forward as opposed to looking backwards바카라� when it came to the crimes of the Bush administration.

That failure to respect the law made it clear that, in twenty-first-century America, some people are exempt from it. Obama continued,

바카라�And part of my job is to make sure that, for example, at the CIA, you바카라�ve got extraordinarily talented people who are working very hard to keep Americans safe. I don바카라�t want them to suddenly feel like they바카라�ve got to spend their all their time looking over their shoulders.바카라�

I think people who have extraordinary power should spend a good part of their time looking over their shoulders. And more to the point, we should be able to look over theirs.

It appears that the International Criminal Court has finally been looking over the CIA바카라�s shoulders. In its annual report, issued earlier this month, the chief prosecutor indicated that she will likely  into 바카라�war crimes of torture and related ill treatment, by U.S. military forces deployed to Afghanistan and in secret detention facilities operated by the Central Intelligence Agency.바카라� The report observes:

바카라�These alleged crimes were not the abuses of a few isolated individuals. Rather, they appear to have been committed as part of approved interrogation techniques in an attempt to extract 바카라�actionable intelligence바카라� from detainees.바카라�

This is the first move the ICC has made to investigate U.S. war crimes and so to hold this country to the standards of international law. We바카라�ll see how far the effort goes. The court바카라�s jurisdiction here is murky indeed, because the United States is not party to the treaty that created it.

Day Dreams

I teach ethics to college students. The Wednesday morning after the election I threw out the lesson plan for the day (a lecture on institutionalized state torture). Instead, we considered the election. We watched a few videos: the live feed of Hillary Clinton바카라�s  speech, Trump바카라�s , and CNN commentator Van Jones바카라�s unfiltered  to the election (바카라�this is a whitelash바카라�). Then I invited my students to discuss how they felt about Trump바카라�s stunning victory.

A young white woman started the conversation by saying how angry she was at the 바카라�uneducated white men바카라� who voted for Trump. I asked my students what percentage of people in the U.S. they thought had four-year college degrees. (The  is roughly a third.) 바카라�That means,바카라� I said, 바카라�that two-thirds of the people in this country don바카라�t have the chance to go to college. If they are uneducated, it is not entirely by choice.바카라� I went on to talk about the real pain of watching your income shrink, and losing the work that defined your place and your value in a society that measures everything in dollars and cents. I suggested that even as we abhor the political choice to support a candidate who openly declares his racism, misogyny, and contempt for Muslims, disabled people, and the rule of law, we can still respect that pain -- and the humanity of those who feel it.

An Asian American woman began to cry a little as she described her terror not only for herself, but for African American and Latino friends who are more vulnerable than she is.

I can understand her fear. Between the day after the election and Monday, November 14th, the Southern Poverty Law Center had already logged  of hate incidents, many of them involving 바카라�direct references to the Trump campaign and its slogans.바카라�

I바카라�ve been remembering the times I바카라�ve been yelled at, contemptuously addressed as 바카라�sir,바카라� or chased down the street by people who바카라�d discerned that I바카라�m a lesbian. Donald Trump has spent the last year telling people that their hatred is a good thing, and to feel free to express it with physical violence. It바카라�s no wonder some of us are a little scared.

In another class a few days later, an Indian American student told us two stories. The first was about an African American friend of hers at the University of California, Berkeley. She was walking away from a post-election anti-Trump demonstration on campus, when she found herself surrounded by a group of young white men. They began to taunt her. And then they did the thing that Trump boasted his fame allows him to do. They grabbed her pussy. She ran, and fortunately they바카라�d had their 바카라�fun바카라� and didn바카라�t follow her.

The second story was about my student herself. 바카라�I was on the BART [our local subway] going to visit my grandmother this weekend,바카라� she began.

바카라�I noticed a group of white men around a very young woman, about 18, wearing a hijab. They were making fun of her and calling her names. So I went and sat down next to her and told her to ignore them. When we got to her stop, she was afraid to leave, afraid they바카라�d follow her. I had another five stops to go, but I couldn바카라�t let her leave alone, so I got out, too. And so did the boys. They followed us out of the station and stood near us yelling as the young woman waited for her ride to come. They started to get closer, and her ride still hadn바카라�t made it, so I called a Lyft, and rode with her to her home.바카라�

My student바카라�s courage humbled me.

No New Normal

The full-time faculty at my university has been working for months without a contract. We바카라�ve had a change of administration, and the new regime is fighting hard against a demand for a very modest salary increase. To put the struggle into words, my colleagues have made buttons sporting a red circle and the words 바카라�new normal바카라� with a red slash through it. I바카라�ve been wearing one to show solidarity with my full-time colleagues. Since Donald Trump바카라�s election, I바카라�ve taken to wearing it off campus as well. It seems like a particularly appropriate slogan these days for those of us who don바카라�t want the new normal to mean a return to a very old normal. Having it on makes me feel a bit braver and a bit more hopeful.

We need hope now, so we can face a world in which hopelessness, despair, and the tears of my students could also become the new norm. Hope doesn바카라�t mean pretending that the danger isn바카라�t very clear and very present. If your tastes run to good left rhetoric, there바카라�s the Italian Marxist suggestion in his  that we should combine pessimism of the intellect with an optimism of the will. In an article on 바카라�The Indifferent,바카라� he wrote, 바카라�To really live means to be a citizen and to take part.바카라� 

That바카라�s a sentiment not so different from what my students read in Aristotle바카라�s Nicomachean Ethics. Human beings, says Aristotle, are political animals; we live best when we live as citizens. He also believed that our best qualities are habits we get by practicing them. 바카라�We become just,바카라� he says, 바카라�by doing just acts.바카라� So you might think of hope as a habit we build in ourselves by doing hopeful things.  Think of each of us as assembling it like a rock wall from  that don바카라�t necessarily look like they바카라�ll ever fit together. Hope is the wall we can build, stone by stone, to fence in a future Trumpian autocracy.

A few rocks in my personal wall of hope:

It바카라�s 1984. I바카라�m in Nicaragua traveling with 15 other people jammed into the back of a tiny pickup truck, bouncing through dangerous territory. It바카라�s the height of the war the Reagan administration has  funded against the left-wing Sandinista government, which was installed after the ouster of a U.S.-backed dictator, Anastasio Somoza. The road we바카라�re traveling down goes through territory controlled by the CIA-backed Contra rebels. We바카라�re heading toward a town called San Juan del Bocay. We round a bend and the land flattens out, revealing a barn standing in a field. Someone who has clearly learned to read and write since the 1979 Sandinista revolution has painted a slogan on the side of the building in careful block letters: 바카라�Nosotro vencimo Somo libre Nunca volveremo a cer esclavo.바카라�

The spelling is terrible; there바카라�s no punctuation; and since, like all Nicaraguans, the writer doesn바카라�t pronounce the letter 바카라�s바카라� at the end of a word, he or she doesn바카라�t even realize that it바카라�s there, as in 바카라�nosotros바카라� -- 바카라�we.바카라� But it doesn바카라�t matter. The meaning couldn바카라�t be clearer. 바카라�We won. We are free. We will never go back to being slaves.바카라�

When people decide that they are human beings and not beasts of burden, that is a genie no one can shove back into the bottle. Over the last 50 years, groups of people in this country have one by one fought for and claimed their full humanity: African Americans, women, LGB and now T people, those with disabilities, immigrants of whatever documentation status. Trumplandia may not yet recognize our humanity, but we do. You can바카라�t shove that back in the bottle either.

It바카라�s the Thursday after the 2016 election. I바카라�m riding my bike towards campus when I see a phalanx of San Francisco police lining Valencia Street. Then I realize that there바카라�s a mid-day, mid-week march coming down the sidewalk. As I get closer, I see that they바카라�re all middle school students, shouting and carrying signs like 바카라�Dump Trump바카라� and 바카라�Love Trumps Hate!바카라� I stop and call to them, 바카라�You바카라�re going to finish what people like me started.바카라� They cheer for themselves and their own astonishing courage. You can바카라�t shove youth back in the bottle. As the folksinger Holly Near  decades ago, 바카라�You can바카라�t murder youth, my friend, youth grows the whole world round.바카라�

It바카라�s 7:45 a.m. on the Friday after the election. I바카라�m entering the building where I teach my 8:00 class. On the door, someone has taped up a simple black and white notice:

바카라�To all those hurt by 
recent election 
results: 
Lets mourn and then 
Lets organize.바카라� 

Details follow about where people can meet 바카라�to openly discuss methods and ideas to sidestep this horrific election result.바카라� That meeting, says the notice, is to last from 바카라�1:00 p.m. -- till whenever we come up with something.바카라� It ends with this observation: 바카라�We can be the change we wish to see, we just have to embody it.바카라� There may be a comma splice in that last sentence and an apostrophe missing from 바카라�lets,바카라� but again the meaning is clear. These young people are the inheritors of everything my comrades and I have worked for so much of our lives.

The day after the election, I made a rare post on Facebook:

바카라�Bad enough we gave the world 8 years of G.W. Bush. Now this. We hadn't figured on the depth of hatred and despair in this country. Now to pick ourselves up and get back to work. No emigration for this woman.바카라�

I바카라�m an old dyke, a little ragged around the edges, and prone to the occasional night terror. But I바카라�m too old and too stubborn to cede my country to the forces of hatred and a nihilistic desire to blow the whole thing up just to see where the pieces come down. I바카라�ve fought, and organized, and loved too long to give up now. And Trump and the people who run him can't shove me -- or any of us -- back in that bottle.

Rebecca Gordon, a , teaches in the philosophy department at the University of San Francisco. She is the author of . Her previous books include Mainstreaming Torture: Ethical Approaches in the Post-9/11 United States and Letters from Nicaragua.

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