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Melanie Lanctot is a master naturalist living in Readfield.
We who are terrified by the devastation already wreaked by the Trump administration must burst out of the doldrums and act. Certainly, there are plenty of reasons for concern.
So far, the Trump administration has:
Raided the Treasury Department and accessed personal data. This includes Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid files.
Fired FBI agents and released the Jan. 6 insurrectionists. This leaves us vulnerable to terrorists, foreign and domestic.
Used corrupted media to spread lies and facilitate Donald Trump’s consolidation of power. When words mean nothing, societies collapse.
Fired Federal Aeronautics Administration (FAA) personnel without naming replacements shortly after two deadly plane crashes in the U.S.
Rounded up hundreds of U.S. citizens caught in the raids by ICE focused on brown-skinned immigrants. The administration is also trying to end the citizenship of children of immigrant parents, a birthright granted by the Constitution.
Frozen USAID funds. This will lead to countless deaths in the most vulnerable countries, and diminish our standing in the world, leaving a void eagerly eyed by China and Russia.
Taken a wrecking ball to climate policy, right when it’s most urgent to speed up the transition to clean energy. The chaos this creates is already hurting business. We will be in for even more devastating storms.
Nominated an antivaxxer, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., to lead the Department of Health and Human Services. With bird flu waiting in the wings to mutate and cause another human epidemic, he’s a deadly choice.
All this so Donald Trump can apparently consolidate power and make billionaires into trillionaires. But don’t panic or leave for Canada (U.S. Americans may not be warmly welcomed there).
Federal judges have blocked, at least temporarily, some of the administration’s unconstitutional actions, and there are dedicated organizations like the ACLU, Public Citizen and Common Cause looking out for our rights. ( Justsecurity.org lists dozens of suits against the Trump/Musk administration.) But courts are slow and proven unreliable, and Trump is acting fast.
To really stop the steal of our democracy, we must speak truth to power. Demand that Congress take back from Elon Musk their constitutional right to choose what federal programs are funded. Demand that our congressional delegation block the remains of Trump’s dangerously incompetent nominees for cabinet posts. Tell them to block the administration’s destructive policies by whatever legal means they have.
Don’t leave out Sen. Susan Collins. To her credit, in 2017 she was one of three Republican senators who saved the Affordable Care Act. But through intimidation Trump has tightened the grip on some Republicans legislators. Collins is up for election in 2026 and needs to hear our voices.
Quieting free speech by intimidation is one of Donald Trump’s primary ways of consolidating power. Even here in Maine, the fear of bad actors looking to spread hate, misinformation, and turmoil caused a temporary cancellation of an anti-Trump protest outside the State House in Augusta on Feb. 5. A couple hundred of us rallied anyway, without incident.
More and more media outlets are controlled by billionaires like Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and Rupert Murdoch. We must support the free press.
We are the ones who will have to stop the real steal because we could be paying for the tax cuts for those billionaires who feel they deserve more wealth. We will pay by losing the vital services of the governmental agencies that the Trump administration appears hell bent on destroying. They’re our voices he would silence. We must fight back.
