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December 17, 2020

Passing on the Torch

By Marta Steele

Thoughts on Inauguration Day and what will follow

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Lady Liberty
Lady Liberty
(Image by MOJO MOOMEY)
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President Trump has told aides that he plans to refuse to leave the White House on January 20.

From a rosy point of view, at least he's acknowledging a boundary of sorts as well as the inauguration. And he's clever. What a side show that act of defiance will provide, even more than a counter-rally held elsewhere in DC on that day, though undoubtedly his diehard supporters will be out in large numbers at such events. If the weather is as cold in DC as it usually is on inauguration day, no one will want to stay outside. Perhaps that's why Mr. Trump opted for the sit-in gesture instead of the outdoor rally. Will he care how cold his minions may become? Don't bet on it. So many have died of covid.

Rage, rage against the dying of the torch (fax in Latin, which didn't give us the word fascism), Trump might have said were he of a more poetic bent, while we rejoice at the end of torture that is sure to follow even in a centrist administration. Torture for not being part of the privileged one percent. Even Giuliani noted how the privileged receive one sort of treatment, which works, to cure covid while the masses are dying in thousands each day.

So much will topple once Trump is gone, but so much more to do, so many possibilities--the amount of work necessary is staggering. The devil in me so wants to put up my feet to watch a good Hitchcock thriller and say the witch is dead, period, but if we don't realize that the threat of fascism is alive and well and angry, spewing flames, democracy is still a goner.

Keep on marching and slaving. Democracy implies and entails working 24/7, like another sort of flame in the fireplace without which we'll all freeze to death, the flame of freedom, Lady Liberty's very different sort of torch.



Authors Website: http://www.wordsunltd.com

Authors Bio:

Marta Steele is an author/editor/blogger who has been writing for Opednews.com since 2006. She is also author of the 2012 book "Grassroots, Geeks, Pros, and Pols: The Election Integrity Movement's Nonstop Battle to Win Back the People's Vote, 2000-2008" (Columbus, Free Press) and a member of the Election Integrity movement since 2001. Her original website, WordsUnLtd.com, first entered the blogosphere in 2003. She recently became a senior editor for Opednews.com. She has in the past taught college and worked as a full-time as well as freelance reporter. She has been a peace and election integrity activist since 1999. Her undergraduate and graduate educational background are in Spanish, classical philology, and historical and comparative linguistics. Her biography is most recently listed in "Who's Who in America" 2019 and in 2018 she received a Lifetime Achievement Award from Who's Who.


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