Usually marking 100 days of a new administration means taking stock and evaluating how it’ll set the tone for the next couple years of the president’s tenure.
But this time is different.
Donald Trump’s first 100 days of his second round in office has launched the beginning of a “new” MAGA regime with terrifying assaults on our families, our freedoms, and our future. I say “new” in quotation marks as it draws upon historical movements to roll back progress.
From attempts to claw back Congress-mandated funds for clean energy projects to the EPA boasting the “biggest deregulation action in U.S. history” with plans to roll back 31 environmental safeguards.
Translation: it’s their meager attempt to prop up the diminishing coal industry and give kickbacks to their cronies in oil and gas, removing rules meant for cleaner air, safer water and healthier families.
Of course this is just in the environmental space, not to mention the abducting of immigrants and attacks on international students, revoking of free speech rights, rolling back hard-won progress on racial equity, or playing billionaire’s games with the global economy.
I want to thank the media for covering the array of assaults on our communities. I want to honor the people power pushing back.
We will not comply in advance to growing authoritarianism in the highest offices. Civil society has correctly demanded that our judicial system check their egregious and hostile government takeover. I take inspiration from our coalition of environmental groups blocking their illegal attempts to expand destructive offshore drilling, to ACLU’s standing up for the rights of trans Americans and immigrants, to my alma mater and former employer Harvard banding together with other universities to protect academic freedom and our freedom to learn.
This is a chaotic, precarious and uncertain time. But this is our mission:
Resist and Protect.
We continue to protect the oceans against potential deep sea mining, plastic pollution, and extractive practices. We continue to protect our climate in honor of our planet and for future generations. We continue to speak up for rights and freedoms that are essential to a vibrant and healthy democracy.
In solidarity with others believing in a better tomorrow, we must keep it up – for the love of our neighbors, our families and a greener and just future.
We’ve made it through 100 days. Let’s keep it up.
