PUTNEY — On Oct. 4, another haunting and disturbing photo appeared in The New York Times.
The photo showed an auditorium full of white, presumably Christian, people protesting an Alaska mask mandate. They were wearing the yellow stars that Jews who targeted for extermination were forced to wear under the oppressive regime of Adolf Hitler and those leaders who were happy to follow his hateful lead.
This latest far-right display of anti-Semitism and pure ignorance follows a spate of hateful, anti-semitic words and actions by Trump and his cult.
The Charlottesville march by predominantly young, white male racists yelling “Jews will not replace us.” The despicable Marjorie Taylor Greene (somehow still in the Congress) declaring that wildfires are caused by Jewish space lasers. The cold-blooded murders at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh. And so much more.
But for me, the transformational moment came while I watched, transfixed, the vandalism and violence on Jan. 6.
I thought maybe I was seeing wrong when I saw the T-shirts of “Camp Auschwitz,” with the writing from above the gates to the death camp “arbeit macht frei,” or “work makes you free.”
His buddy wore the equally chilling shirt with “6MNE,” as in “six million was not enough.”
And I have yet to hear one Trumper react negatively to these hateful messages.
That was when it hit me: These people want me dead.
Yes - not even my left politics and working for racial and climate justice are as repugnant to these haters as my blood.
Yes - these Trump supporters want to live in a fundamentalist, heteronormative, white Christian nation, and the rest of us are an impediment, so we need to be disposed of.
That sounds extreme and simplistic, but how else do we understand the evidence before our eyes?
And since the march to white fascism is being facilitated by the entire Republican establishment, what do we do to survive, thrive, and move ahead in the face of millions of heavily armed extremists who want nothing more than to kill Black, Brown, LGBTQ and, yes, Jewish neighbors?
I am not armed and I am not violent, but I am angry and determined to fight these far-right monsters to the end of my life. They are calling for a civil war - if we are fortunate, maybe someday they can live in their own cruel and miserable, selfish, white Christian colony.
But I am certain I want no association with people who want to kill my family and those I love and work with.
Every American who actually cares about living in a fair and humane country needs to speak up, write, and learn to broaden their allegiances to those of us who believe in love and justice instead of violence and hate.
This is a transformative time. Fascism or real progressive change - it is up to us.