Shelter Island Reporter editorial: No time for silence

We increasingly hear people saying that they are so fed up with the current political situation, on every level of government, that they’re opting out, not having an opinion and not going to vote. Some are refusing to follow news or current events. 

We get it. There’s been an avalanche of new executive orders; mass firings and layoffs of federal workers in key departments by a clownish businessman (who at one point with the president’s blessing turned the White House grounds into a car lot to sell vehicles); armed military troops patrolling an American city when there has been no natural disaster or insurrection; a crackpot in charge of the nation’s health policies; and innocent people detained, roughed up, humiliated, imprisoned and deported. 

To paraphrase George Orwell, not taking a political stance is in fact a political act. It’s what many politicians want — keeping people away from the polls so true believers are the only ones who vote. And speaking of voting, another boulder has been pushed to roll down on the electorate, namely the power-at-any-cost gerrymandering of congressional districts initiated by the GOP and now taken up by Democrats as a survival tactic.

Then there’s the comical obsequiousness of appointed officials and the deafening silence of those elected. Our congressman did make his voice heard through his vote on the massive tax and spend bill that cuts deeply into Medicare, Medicaid and other essential health benefits. But Mr. LaLota won’t hold in-person meetings with constituents, preferring the tele-meeting format. One was an hour long. 

In our history there have been victories against powers that seemed as immovable as mountains. The Civil War ended slavery, about which our president, by the way, said recently that it’s “woke” to emphasize, in a public museum, “how bad slavery was.” We look to Mr. Orwell again on the current movement to alter the history of the United States for political purposes: “The most effective way to destroy people,” he wrote, “is to deny and obliterate their understanding of their history.”  

The moral side of the Civil War prevailed. And then, 100 years after Appomattox, full civil rights were finally granted to millions of Americans through mass protests and leaders who took action to ensure that our founding documents must be honored, remembered and put into action. 

Now, we see more and more people refusing to go to bed and pull the covers over their heads. Earlier this summer, people in our area joined nationwide protests and rallies. As we reported then, despite pouring rain, people from all over the East End and beyond showed up in protest, with over 700 participants in Riverhead alone for the “No Kings Day of Defiance” rally. They were numbered along with five million people in more than 2,100 cities and towns across the country.

Shelter Islander Kathleen Gooding, said, “No Kings is a protest against the non-democratic behaviors of our present leaders in Washington and the lack of leadership in Congress that permits them. We want to celebrate freedom and democracy — where our government represents the people and follows the guidelines established by our Constitution and by established precedents … It is time for our voices to be heard.”  

Time, indeed.