Hold Trump Accountable

Organized by Indivisible East San Jose, over 500 of us gathered in front of City Hall in downtown San Jose on a busy Thursday evening to proclaim that no one, not you, not me, and certainly not president Trump, is above the law.

We were part of over 1,000 emergency protests across cities and towns in all fifty states of America, a day after Trump replaced the spineless and robotic attorney general Jeff Sessions with a lackey and a certified hack and fraud named Matthew Whitaker to oversee the Department of Justice and the ongoing investigation of Special Counsel Robert Mueller.

"Nobody is above the law" was the unifying theme, protection of the Mueller investigation the focus.

Trump made his preemptive move just two days after Democrats regained majority in the House in the midterm elections. In his crude and demagogic way, he threatened democrats with "war" if they dared to investigate him for his complicity in the Russian meddling in the 2016 election and for his nefarious financial dealings. By appointing a crony, whose appointment as acting AG was unanimously declared unconstitutional by legal experts, Trump thought he could bend the law to his will and make the Mueller investigation disappear.

Before politicians could respond, people responded. From sea to shining sea, in sunshine, rain and snow, Americans of all ages and from all walks of life came together to tell Trump that his days of holding truth and law captive to his ego was over. There was going to be accountability. The Mueller investigation will continue and when its findings are revealed, the chips will fall where they must.

On August 9, 1974, at 8:35 am PST, Richard Nixon resigned as president of the United States to avoid imminent impeachment over the Watergate scandal. Thirty minutes later, Republican Gerald Ford was sworn in as president. “My fellow Americans,” he said, “our long national nightmare is over." He added, “Our Constitution works. Our great Republic is a government of laws and not of men. Here the people rule.”

Forty-four years later, we find our ourselves also confronting a terrifying truth: Our two-year-long national nightmare is still with us. But with people speaking boldly to power, and with Democrats claiming the House, we are filled with hope that our current nightmare will soon be over. And people power will again prove for generations to come that ours is, and will remain, a government of laws and not of men.

Unintended Consequences of Hate

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SAN JOSE, Calif. -- The pickup truck was following her. Dr. Sarah felt nervous but tried to convince herself it was just her imagination. He couldn’t possible know she was a Muslim, particularly since she was not wearing the optional hijab, the traditional Islamic head-cover to indicate modesty.

She pulled into the parking lot and got out of her car. The pickup slowed. As she crossed the street to get to her office, the driver, a middle-aged white man, rolled down the window and screamed at her: “Go back home!”

The heat of the man’s hate felt as if it were burning a hole in the back of her head. She ran to the safety of her hospital.

Dr. Sarah was born in Chicago to Muslim parents. After receiving a doctorate in psychology, she began working at a hospital in Silicon Valley in the pain management department as a psychologist, a job in which she has flourished for over a decade. When she reported the incident to her concerned supervisor, she advised her not to drive alone for a few weeks.

A week earlier, an engineer of Asian background, an American citizen, was confronted in the parking lot of a grocery store in San Jose by a driver who screamed: “Go back to where you came from.”

For many residents, the sprouting of bigotry in what is the heart of Silicon Valley, with a diversity of culture, religion and ethnicity rare in the world, is shocking.

“Before, I used to call my friends and relatives in India to ask if they were okay,” said Assemblyman Ash Kalra during a rally organized in response to the growing climate of fear following the election. “Now they call me to inquire if I am safe in Trump’s America!”

Trump has indeed loosened the shackles of bigotry among his supporters, emboldening them to threaten those who don’t look like them, and to hurl insults like, “Go back to where you came from!”

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) has reported harassment and threats targeting Muslim women and children in Minnesota, North Carolina, New York and California in just the past two weeks alone. 

According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, there were 867 hate incidents in the ten days after Trump’s win in November. The advocacy group South Asians Leading Together (SAALT) put out a report in January that documented 207 hate incidents targeting South Asians, Muslims and Middle Easterners in 2016. The report noted the climate resembled the months following the 9/11 attacks, and attributed the spike in hate to campaign rhetoric during the 2016 race.

Here in San Jose, police documented four cases of crimes targeting Muslims in 2016. There were no cases prior in the years going back to 2011. Experts say the numbers are misleading, and that because victims are often reluctant to come forward, due to cultural or linguistic barriers, or because they are scared, the figures could be higher. 

One of those cases involved the Evergreen Islamic Center, where a letter was received just prior to the Thanksgiving holiday that read, in part: “There’s a new sheriff in town – President Donald Trump. He is going to cleanse America and make it shine again. And he’s going to start with you Muslims.” The letter went on to make reference to Nazi Germany, saying Trump would “do to you Muslims what Hitler did to the Jews.”

Still, despite the rising tide of Islamophobia, something remarkable began to happen among members of the local Muslim community in the days and weeks following Trump’s win. Having learned in the aftermath of 9/11 that a culture of shame and silence only promoted the politics of fear, area Muslims instead started forging bonds with community residents at a grass-roots level.

Several members of Evergreen (myself included) joined Indivisible East San Jose, one of nearly 6,000 Indivisible Groups that sprang up across the nation as a response and resistance to Trump’s presidency.

Meeting once every month, members knock on doors in San Jose’s depressed areas, informing undocumented workers, for example, of their rights if ICE shows up and the availability of free legal help. A few families in dire straits have been escorted to sanctuaries in synagogues and churches. 

On a recent Sunday afternoon, Evergreen teamed up with local Christians and Jews as members of Abrahamic Alliance at a church to prepare meals for the homeless and serve them across town at City Team San Jose, an organization that helps people struggling with poverty, homelessness and addiction. For many of us, this was our first experience with a soup kitchen. We were shocked to find that in one of the most prosperous areas in the world, there were people for whom a decent meal and a bed to sleep on were luxuries often beyond reach. We realized that more than mosques, we needed to build more soup kitchens and shelters for abused women, including Muslim women.

As remarkable is the growing outreach and solidarity extended to area Muslims from other immigrant communities. There have been several marches staged to commemorate the Japanese internment and to draw connections between that dark period in U.S. history and its echo against Muslims in Trump’s time. Meetings were held with Internment survivors who spoke of the importance of resistance.

Then there are the acts of individual kindness.

“Just think about it,” said Peggy, who drove an hour from the city of Santa Cruz with several friends in a show of solidarity with Evergreen following the recent threats. “Would we have even met if it were not for Trump? No! This is the silver lining in the dark cloud that hangs over our nation now.”

For local Muslims, the bridges now being formed in the era of Trump are a case of serendipity, the unintended but cathartic consequences of hate.

Lack of Tax Returns Puts Trump on Trial

“Where are you from?” I asked the couple who had greeted me with big smiles.

“From Sierra Nevada,” the wife replied.

When my eyes widened, the man said, “No, not the one in Spain. The one in California!”

We laughed.

Around us, in front of the City Hall in San Jose, people were gathering for the April 15 Tax March, part of the nationwide rally to demand that president Trump disclose his tax returns for transparency and accountability.

Vida and husband Bill, along with daughter Lauren, son-in-law Steve and 1-year-old granddaughter Lilian, had driven 170 miles from Arnold, a picturesque town in the high Sierra, to join the march.

“We have a moral obligation.” said Vida, “Trump must know he is accountable to the people of the United States.” She and Bill had come prepared with posters they were waving for passersby to see: “Trump can’t fool all the people any time” and “No Tax Reform until we see your Tax Returns for twenty years.”

By noon, our numbers had swelled to about 700. Cars whizzing by honked to indicate their approval as we filled the spring sky with resonant chanting:

“Hey hey, Ho, ho. Donald Trump has got to go!”
“No more secrets, no more lies. Show your taxes, show your ties!”

I looked around. The posters told the story as well as any storyteller could. Three generations of Turner family of San Jose held up posters that read “Wanted: Trump’s Taxes” and “Nevertheless, She persisted.” The Turners are the driving force behind “Indivisible East San Jose,” one of the 5983 Indivisible groups nationwide that had spontaneously been formed after Trump became the president.

Other signs included “Use Trump’s Taxes to pay for his wall! Do not use my taxes!” 

“7 trips to Mar-a-Lago but cuts to kids’ programs, EPA, Libraries. Shame!” 

“What are you afraid of? Treason?” 

“Real Men Show Their Taxes!” 

“Did You Lose Your Taxes Like You Lost the Popular Vote?” and so on.

One particularly creative San Josean put Trump’s tax fiasco in perspective by identifying the seven presidents before him who had released their tax returns with a check box next to their names but a big red X next to Trump’s. Lida, a naturalized American citizen from San Leandro, designed her own: “Manchurian Idiot.”

Shelly, a 66-year-old activist, spoke of her philosophy: “Peaceful resistance is the answer. Each one of us must care for the other. Trump doesn’t care. I have to do my part to show I don’t support his ideas.”

At the downtown Cesar Chavez Plaza that was our destination, the megaphone belonged to anyone with anything to share with the marchers. No politicians or celebrities or big names, just ordinary Americans expressing their concern about the direction the country was heading under Trump. “We have lost the thought war,” said a woman. “We did not vote, thinking it would be a cakewalk for Hillary. We have got to get the vote out, retake the Congress, the Senate and, of course, the White House.” Another speaker asked the rally to be vigilant about Republican gerrymandering. But mostly it was about the unacceptability of Trump holding himself above the law, about issuing executive orders that violated the fundamental values of America, and about lack of transparency in not disclosing his tax returns. “Before the election, Trump kept talking about Obama’s missing birth certificate,” said a young African-American. “What we want to know is why his tax returns are missing!”

The rally was not just about tax returns, it was about building a community and imbuing it with hope and purpose. The passion in the march was palpable. “I see people’s power in action,” said John standing next to me, clearly energized. “I will be a part of every march in San Jose, climate march, science march, any march that unites us so we can get Trump off White House as soon as possible. The future of our country is at stake!”

I stopped by the campus of San Jose State University (SJSU) that’s within walking distance of City Hall. I had taught at this university many years before but nostalgia was not the reason for my visit. I wanted to re-read the plaque honoring two of SJSU’s most famous student-athletes, Tommie Smith and John Carlos.

To refresh the reader’s memory, 200-meter sprinters Smith and Carlos represented the U.S. in the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City, Mexico. Smith won the gold medal and Carlos the bronze. At the podium during the award ceremony, Smith and Carlos bowed their heads and raised black-gloved fists during the playing of the Star-Spangled Banner to express their disillusionment with a nation that tolerated, and even encouraged, racism against African-Americans. Millions of Americans were outraged. They were vilified, suspended and received death threats but Smith and Carlos never relented, never apologized. "We were just human beings who saw a need to bring attention to the inequality in our country," Smith said years later.

37 years on, in October of 2005, Smith and Carlos were honored by their alma mater with statues capturing their iconic, unforgettable image at the Olympics podium. The plaque states that they were honored because they stood for “justice, dignity, equality and peace.”

I felt a shiver down my spine as I read those words. Here we were, almost half-a-century later, and our country is awash with what seems to be even more virulent forms of injustice, indignity, inequality and hostility than what Smith and Carlos saw and felt in 1968.

How could we have regressed so much? I wondered. What made it possible for someone like Donald Trump to become the president of the United States?

Karl Marx said, “History repeats itself, first as tragedy, second as farce.” Only a Donald Trump could have pulled off the unique feat of combining both tragedy and farce in his first 100 days in office.

Yet the Tax March I attended has given us hope that we can bring about the change we seek. As Candy Basso, a member of the Indivisible Blue Sisters said at the Chavez Plaza, “I never protested in my life until now. I was in the blue bubble. I want to thank Donald Trump for one thing. He has awakened us. The silent majority is silent no more.”