A stroller's eye view of NECESSARY protest

Dear friends and new friends, I am writing this short piece trying to describe my thoughts this morning, as we inch ever closer to the upcoming US election. I am shocked and truly TERIFIED at the prospect of Trump winning the upcoming election. It will be an unmitigated disaster and shitshow for the world, if it happens.

I was born in 1962 in Los Angeles, California. We lived there for a few years, after my father had finished his dissertation at UC Berkeley in sociology. The first teaching job he found was a job teaching at L.A. City College. In 1967, my family moved to Edmonton, Alberta, where I am at the moment, visiting on my first semi-retirement "vacation." I have wanted to come back here for a long time, to rekindle and remember the experience(s) I had here as a child.

My parents met at UC Berkeley, as graduate students in the 50's. They were both pursuing PhDs and were aspiring to become professors. In 67', the world was once again in chaos and the Vietnam war, women's issues, civil rights, and many other issues, were in full conflagration. It was a tumultuous and scary time. Incredibly brave, important, and necessary protests were happening everywhere, much like today, as people are more and more taking to the streets to protest the war in Gaza, among other issues.

After participating in many of those protests, my parents decided to leave the US and move to Canada, to escape the turmoil. My father often used to recount the protest march down Broadway in Oakland, where I was being pushed in a stroller. He would start crying when he described how one of the policeman on horseback came swooping down on them, swinging his baton.

He would choke up, as he described how one of the policeman came "this close" to bashing my head in, as they were pushing me in the stroller. He said he would have killed the man, if he had hit me. That is when they made the decision to leave California. Things were getting too crazy.

They were offered teaching positions at the University of Alberta in Edmonton. As I sit here looking out of my high rise hotel room, overlooking the university and the City of Edmonton in the background, checking my social media accounts, I am finding myself stymied, or unsure, as to what I should be doing, especially as the most scary and consequential election of our lifetime is only a few weeks away.

What, if anything, can I do personally to help the US and our planet avert the catastrophe in waiting that is Donald Trump? I can start conversations and spread the word about how either our action, or inaction, regarding this so very consequential election, will determine the outcome. I can contribute to campaigns. And I can make posts on social media to raise the alarm, as I am doing now. I rack my brain just about every day, trying to figure out what I can do to help.

My family fled the US to Canada to get themselves, and their children, out of the chaos and mayhem of California during that turbulent period in the late 1960's. Although in 1967, at 5 or 6 years old, I did not understand what was going on in the world. Now, as a ripening old guy, I do. I don't want to have to flee the US again, which I probably will do, if Trump wins.

These are my thoughts this morning.

Peace, out. Get involved. I guess like Trump might say, it is time to take back your country!