I have heard many say that never in their lives have they experienced such fear, that the America they know might be gone for good. Here’s why I have hoped with my head high and my eyes focused ahead. /1 #MondayMotivation#50DaysLeft
When I was just 5 years old, soldiers marched up to our home in Los Angeles and ordered us out. We had done nothing wrong, our crime was looking like the people who had bombed Pearl Harbor. The laws and the Constitution failed to protect us. /2
No one dared stand up for us then. Politicians on both sides, from FDR in the White House to Earl Warren in Sacramento, took advantage of the fear and racism for their own political gain. We lost our home. Our friends lost businesses. We all lost our freedom. /3
I remember reciting the Pledge of Allegiance from a makeshift classroom inside the barbed wire fence of an internment camp. Most of us spoke English because we were born in America and were U.S. citizens. But that didn’t matter. America had forgotten its promises. /4
After we were out, many of us, including myself, dedicated our lives to ensuring that something like this would never happen again inside of America. We knew how fragile our freedoms and liberties really were. We knew we had to safeguard them. /5
Today, I have no doubt that if something similar happened to one group of people, there would be massive protests and an upswell of support. From this I understand thatwWe have learned much as a country. But it’s also very easy for us to forget, to be misled, to diminish. /6
It takes hard work to keep our Republic and our democracy strong. Every time we stand up against the forces of fascism, for the rule of law, for decency and humanity, we strike a blow against tyranny and evil. The fight is what keeps us vigilant and strong. /7
We have not faced such an existential threat to our system since I was a child. And so once again, we must stand and meet it. When we do, we will emerge stronger, and the lessons will be felt in our bones for future generations to heed and appreciate. /8
This is why I remain motivated, why I do not despair, why I know that while we have been here before, we can overcome it. We must summon enough strength and win the hearts of all good Americans. In 50 days, we can and will prevail. /9
I am 83 years old, but I am also that 5 year old, looking out at a dusty American flag and reciting those words, “With liberty and justice for all.” Only now, I know their true meaning after a lifetime of fighting for them. So fight with me. Stand up. Vote. /end
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"We’re all still grieving the electoral loss and feeling queasy about the prospect of Trump returning to the White House in January. But in response to the giddy pronouncements from the GOP and the Trump campaign, some have already begun to think about an effective political resistance to Trump and Trumpism.
Democrats need to make these plans knowing full well that Trump will be backed by a sycophantic GOP Congress and blank check-writing SCOTUS. And this time around, there won’t be any adults in the room, including White House counsel who during his first term would quietly shelve Trump’s most outrageous requests, or chiefs of staff like John Kelly who would struggle to moderate, educate and soften his most extreme positions.
No, this time around Trump will be surrounded by people even further to the right of him. They will seek to implement the most dangerous and destructive of policies, many drawn from the Project 2025 blueprint. And they will encourage Trump to issue Executive Orders that could reshape American democracy, insert our armed forces deeply into civil affairs, hurtle our economy into an abyss, and upend the lives of millions of minorities.
As we all await the outcome of what feels like a make-or-break election, I want to offer some perspective, if you’ll hand a fellow with eight-plus decades the mic for a moment.
Through these decades, when we’ve faced tough and challenging years as a nation, in such moments it can often feel as if that’s all there’s ever going to be, strife and division, neighbor against neighbor. I certainly felt that as a Japanese American, interned during World War II. I felt that again as a closeted gay man struggling to hide my identity and keep my career, and even as a proudly gay one fighting to keep my marriage.
It’s only when we zoom out that the picture becomes clearer. Progress is not only evident, it is inevitable. When I was a boy, the laws were such in many states that I couldn’t even marry someone of the white race. Racism was baked into our laws, and the social structures reinforced it. Now, eighty years later, I’m married to a white *dude*! Things change, and the long arc bends, usually for the better because we have fought so hard for it.
🧵**CALLING ALL FRIENDS, ADVOCATES, AND ACTIVISTS** A leaked e-mail from a Texas Department of Protective Safety trooper documents the remarkably cruel measures Governor Greg Abbott has instituted at the border to deter crossings. twitter.com/i/web/status/1…
These include hidden razor wire traps, the withholding of water even in extreme heat, and orders to push migrants—including children and infants—back into the Rio Grande where they might drown.
The sight of razor wire to corral innocent human beings has echoes for me personally, when similar wire surrounded the Japanese American internment camps of my youth.
I have a new publication called The Big Picture! There my team and I will connect with you directly, not just about current events and culture, but about how it all fits together within larger trends and ideas.
I’ve been around nearly 86 years… /1
In my time I’ve seen and lived through much.
I survived World War II and the internment of my family and community.
I saw Jim Crow and segregation fall during the Civil Rights Movement. /2
I marched with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Protested against the war in Vietnam
Witnessed gay liberation rise with the Stonewall Riots. /3
Today is Pearl Harbor Day in the U.S., a “day that will live in infamy” for the unprovoked attack by the Empire of Japan upon U.S. forces stationed in Hawaii. But it also marked a dark turning point for Japanese Americans, who overnight became the “enemy.” At age 4, I was /1
classified as 4c, enemy alien, even though I was born in the U.S. Within a few months, the internment of our community was ordered by FDR with broad support from the American people, who turned their backs upon us. We lost our homes, our businesses and our freedoms. /2
It has been my lifelong mission to tell the story of the Japanese American internment so that we remember and do not repeat the mistakes of the past. Now, I am bringing that story to the UK from Jan-Mar in a show called “Allegiance” based on my own experiences. /3
My feed today has all kinds of right wing posts in it from people I definitely do not follow. These are not retweets or likes by others. Just random far-right tweets. I feel sullied by the experience.
Example. I don’t follow this asshat. Two accounts I do follow are noted. But it’s not supposed to be in my feed.
Another example here. I would sooner follow a banana slug than this guy. Yet he’s on my feed.