For Times That Try Our Souls: Resistance

Daily Editorials
Mon, 30 Mar 2026 21:00:00 -0700
Opinion

"Fight for our rights, fight for your rights," is probably the most overused phrase in American politics. In this desperate moment when American democracy — and world peace — is in peril in one man's cruel chokehold, it's time to retire that jersey.

"Resist for our rights" is the right way to approach the national plight.

Nonviolent resistance is the only way out, as old as the Friends faith, which was born some 400 years ago in England. Also known as Quakers, they practice and spread the art with remarkable results over time. They were the backbone of the abolitionist and women's rights movements.
Updated: Tue Mar 31, 2026

"Fight for our rights, fight for your rights," is probably the most overused phrase in American politics. In this desperate moment when American democracy — and world peace — is in peril in one man's cruel chokehold, it's time to retire that jersey.

"Resist for our rights" is the right way to approach the national plight.

Nonviolent resistance is the only way out, as old as the Friends faith, which was born some 400 years ago in England. Also known as Quakers, they practice and spread the art with remarkable results over time. They were the backbone of the abolitionist and women's rights movements.

In fact, peaceful resistance with moral suasion works best to create lasting social change. That is just a fact, proven to be much more effective than cycles of violence and terrorism.

The Quakers are pacifists and refused to serve in the British king's army. That's why the king got rid of the dissenters, shipping brilliant William Penn and his boatload of Friends to a place called Pennsylvania. He settled the wilderness and made peaceful treaties with the Native Lenape Indians.

We've seen it in action, working for the people of Minneapolis, who showed how it's done. Civilians organized, stood up and came out for each other, chasing brutal masked federal agents out of their city. Most people cheered for their bravery and grieved that two fine people paid for with their lives. Each was just 37.

America, this is as urgent as a call to arms in civil war — but a call to nonviolent arms. We must all think deeper and act with more purpose, with history as our best light, to overcome the everyday evils and injustices of Donald J. Trump's presidency.

Citizens feel helpless on their own, watching the news in outrage and disbelief. I can see despair here in the beautiful capital, which Trump is dismantling sacred building by sacred building, even cutting down cherry trees in spring.

In the spirit of the American Revolution, only broad community bonds and spirit across state boundaries will save us.

The planned "No Kings" March 28 one-day street protest is OK for one day to build a fleeting sense of cohesion. But such actions are not halting the Trump juggernaut over our federal government, fundamental freedoms and universities. Besides, it's possible he fancies himself as the first American "king."

Trump is also the first American president not to care at all about public opinion, which should alarm us about his "third term" jokes and current scheme to seize the 2026 midterm election with the so-called SAVE (voter ID) Act on the Senate floor. He doesn't even pretend to care what the other side thinks, in stark contrast to Abraham Lincoln reaching out to the defeated Confederacy: "With malice toward none, with charity for all."

Tragically, after Lincoln's assassination the next month, his successor, Andrew Johnson, was a lot like Trump and sowed seeds of division and white nationalism.

A leading Philadelphia Quaker author, George Lakey, has trained volunteers in resistance and taught a peace studies course at Swarthmore College (my alma mater). They developed the Global Nonviolent Action Database. His optimism is catching, even after his being handcuffed and arrested many a time. He makes you think not all is lost.

Lakey's most useful present-to-past chapter is Trump's one-man Iran war compared to the Vietnam War, with no assent from allies or Congress.

"The willingness of Congress to accept President Lyndon Johnson's escalation (when) declaring war was, after all, its responsibility under the Constitution. ... It was up to the citizens, once again, to generate a mass movement that would force the government to do the right thing."

A mass movement. We the people.

The Senate has failed us completely in approving Trump's smarmy and outlandish Cabinet, cast for looks. The John Roberts Supreme Court is a bitter draught. The federal judiciary is our last line of defense, the only branch of government that seems to know its job.

But, my fellow Americans, it's not enough. I remember peaceful anti-war protests and civil rights marches from my family's dinner table talk when I was very young. Deep in our muscle memory, we can overcome.