Don't know about you, but I'm really loving the fact that U.S. citizens and CEOs (in ever increasing numbers) are standing up to Donald Trump, calling him out, defying him and fighting back. And it doesn't look like they have any plans to give up any time soon.
I see Facebook posts everyday, where phone numbers and email addresses of members of Congress are given out, with requests to contact them, voice opinions, disagree with cabinet choices, policies and the direction the country is headed. And it's happening -- a lot and often.
And I'm thrilled that Howard Schultz (Starbucks) announced, in the wake of Trump's travel ban, that they would be hiring 10,000 refugees globally; that Airbnb co-founder, Brian Chesky, offered free housing to those stranded by the immigration order; that Lyft (a domestic competitor to Uber) co-founders, John Zimmer and Logan Green not only released a statement condemning the president's actions but pledged $1,000,000 to the ACLU (American Civil Liberties Union) after they filed a petition in a Brooklyn court calling the move "unlawful" -- and got a stay from the presiding judge.
It's great that Uber CEO, Travis Kalanick, and the Walt Disney Company CEO, Bob Iger, both announced they'd pull out of Trump's economic council. To be honest, I'm not sure whether Kalanick did it because he's against the ban or in an effort to repair the Uber brand after they scrapped their surge pricing policy in an effort to cash in when taxi drivers joined the anti-ban protests at airports across the U.S.
A bad thing for them to have done, but regardless, he's still made a statement. Better late than never.
This is really is the only way there'll ever be an end to this madness.
There's also been condemnation by CEOs at Ford, Tesla, Apple, Google (plus 2,000 employees around the world walked out and staged protests), Amazon, General Electric, Netflix, Expedia, Twitter and Nike.
But I think my favourite, so far, is what MoMA (Museum of Modern Art) did: They protested Trump's actions by re-hanging art created by artists from Muslim Nations.
Love, love, love; and frankly, this is really is the only way there'll ever be an end to this madness -- whether the president is forced to tone it down or he's forced to leave office: When the citizens resist and take their country back. Which reminds me of the 1914 Protest Poem, written by Ella Wheeler Wilcox, which begins: "To sin by silence, when we should protest, makes cowards out of men."
So yes, I'm inspired. So much so that when an American Facebook friend posted a message that had been circulating last Friday night I couldn't do nothing. It was an appeal to Americans to call the Senate Committee on Homeland Security, protesting the appointment of Steve Bannon to the National Security Council -- asking them not to confirm him.
First I commented, saying (wistfully) that I felt so strongly about it, if I wasn't Canadian I'd do what she was asking -- to call the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and protest Steve Bannon's appointment to the National Security Council.
Then she put a bug in my ear when she suggested that maybe they needed to hear from concerned people everywhere.
It's important for politicians in the U.S. to hear from people everywhere that their global reputation is at stake.
Needless to say, I called. Yes I did. Left a message, my name and phone number (which they ask for). I said I'm Canadian, asked how they could even consider confirming an extreme right wing nationalist like Steve Bannon to that position; and added that, like many others around the world I, too, am appalled at what's going on in the U.S.
You will never know how good it felt to do that. And I do think it's important for politicians in the U.S. to hear from people everywhere that their global reputation is at stake.
At which point, still wound up, I turned my attention to Canada. Pissed off that our prime minister, Justin Trudeau, has walked away from his campaign pledge of electoral reform, I realized I had something to say about that, too. So I sent him a tweet suggesting that if he wants to know where broken promises can lead, he should look at the U.K. and the U.S.
He's definitely got great pecs, but it's going to take more than that to get my vote next time around.
Yes, it's official. I've joined the resistance.
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