Time to speak up for our neighbors

To the editor:

Like many of you, we’ve watched the first two weeks of Donald Trump’s second term in shock and horror. After spending much of last year campaigning for Kamala Harris, much soul-searching has taken place with respect to the miscalculations we Democrats made in our strategy, our messaging and our failure to connect with the public at large. Paralysis has set in and stifled many of our voices. That ends now.

As we write, a trade war with Canada and Mexico has apparently begun as predicted in Project 2025. Moreover, in order to exact revenge and retribution for what he believes is unfair treatment, Trump’s actions threaten to undo every ounce of social and economic progress made since 1933. He is firing apolitical professionals and hiring loyalists and right-wing extremists. His absurd and irresponsible statements blaming DEI for an aircraft crash that killed 67 people endangers the safety and job prospects of all people in protected classes. Trump’s zero-tolerance approach to undocumented immigrants has been falsely packaged as a war on criminals and can be used to uproot law abiding citizens, separate families and disrupt our economy. His war on transgender persons engenders fear against a tiny, vulnerable percentage of our population who desperately need support. All these acts threaten to torpedo our quest for a more perfect union by further pitting us against each other.

In NYC, especially the Bronx, we enjoy broad diversity. We work hard to give everyone agency in our community. Have we struggled to manage the influx of immigrants over the last few years? Do we need to do more to address crime on the subways and mental illness? Do we still need to refine our formula to ensure all voices are represented? Do we support LGBTQIA+ neighbors while also considering how to best protect opportunities for women who play sports? To some degree, but what positive changes don’t come with difficulties and challenges?

Our country and the way we care for one another is part of a bold, imperfect experiment started almost 250 years ago. We have made terrible mistakes. We enslaved kidnapped Black people and let the poor languish in jail without equal access to justice. We dragged Asians to internment camps. Our own citizens attacked our Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021 and have elected a convicted felon to the presidency. Conversely, we have also ratified the U.S. Constitution, freed the slaves, saw women take the vote, implemented The New Deal in the 1930s and passed the Civil Rights Act of 1964. We created the strongest economy and military in the world and prevailed against the forces of darkness and fascism in two world wars. We elected a Black president and a Black and Asian woman as our Vice-President. We worked to make our nation more hospitable to women and people of color and studies indicate that operating in these spaces makes us all better. We tried very hard to make space for new migrants, many working in jobs we desperately needed filled.

People are being hurt. Let’s remember who we are and use our voices and collective strength to speak truth to power and find ways to organize to both protect the vulnerable as well as our democracy. We must look towards local government to protect the rights of our people now and the Congressional elections of 2026 to counter some of the worst aspects of what is happening. This is how America can restore its honor and be great again.

Signed by members of the Benjamin Franklin Reform Democratic Club, including Michael Heller and club president, Virginia Krompinger.