A common disconcerting thread has run through virtually every one of my farewell get-togethers and conversations with friends:

 

What has this nation come to,

that so many wonderful people are fleeing it,

or wishing they could?

What sad commentary!!!

 

I should be sad to be leaving the United States forever in just five days 

 

 

Instead, I’m deliriously happy to be this close to leaving.

 

Residing here past January 20th, 2025 has been a real nail biter.

 

I’ve never seen a nation plummet downhill faster in my lifetime.

 

I knew things were going to get bad, but had no idea they could become terrible this fast 

 

My German friends warned me that Project 2025 was Hitlerian in scope and nature and that getting out asap should become a priority, before it’s no longer possible to escape a rabidly exclusionary fascist ideology.

 

“I wish I could move, too, but I have obligations to loved ones that keep me here.”

“I wish I could afford to get out of here, too…”

“You are so fortunate to have the wherewithal and the freedom to move away…”

“I envy you.  I no longer can even recognize the country I grew up in and used to love.”

“I’m right behind you.  Maybe not to Costa Rica, but somewhere other than here, that’s for sure!”

 

These comments have come from United States citizens,  99% of them female or people of color,  1% of them white males, but not racist/sexist/white supremacist types. (The white men I know and have befriended are feminists and human rights allies.)

 

I know there are more of us than there are of them, but until all of us get off the benches, stand up and start raising holy hell, the tyrants will continue to run roughshod over us. They’re scared, desperate, and in positions of enormous power. They know that if we stand together and vote together in massive numbers, they will be defeated. That’s why they’re trying to separate us from each other by class, race, gender, etc. Unity can destroy their well-laid plans to subjugate us further.

 

Unite! Resist! 

Keep fighting!