Political Act of an Introvert

Donald J. Trump has been President of the United States for a little over two weeks now, and I’m still struggling with how I should respond to that news. On Election Night, when it became clear what we had elected, I lost sleep trying to figure out an appropriate response. I thought of contributing money to different causes, like the Southern Poverty Law Center, or Planned Parenthood. I thought of supporting the free press by getting a subscription to the New York Times, or the Washington Post. I haven’t done either of those things yet, but the Trump presidency is still young. I’m keeping my powder dry.

I didn’t think at all about participating in any marches or protests, but that’s the first thing that I’ve actually committed to do. I’ll be marching on April 22^nd, which is also Earth Day, as part of the March for Science.

The real thing that has caught my fancy, though, as a way to protest the presidency is to read, which is such an introverted thing to do. According to everything I’ve heard on the topic, Donald Trump is not a reader. He certainly is not thoughtful, or even respectful of education. In fact, based on his nomination of Betsy DeVos as Secretary of Education, he is almost anti-education. According to some of the things that I’ve heard, there is even some question about whether or not he is even functionally literate.

Trump’s attitude toward books is hinted at in this photograph of one of the bookshelves in the Old State Department Library of the Eisenhower Executive Office Building. To be fair, it’s not clear who stocked the shelves with fawning, ghost-written biographies of Trump, but if it wasn’t Trump himself, it was someone who felt that this was the only reading material of which the new President would approve.

So, that brings me to my form of protest. I’m going to read as a political act for the next four years. These could be works that are truthful, inspirational works of presidential or political history, since Trump seems to have no appreciation of history. It could be works on the history of the social justice movement, or challenging books about the need to have the courage of one’s convictions enough to stand up for a cause.

Or, the book in question could be a simple, thoughtful book of poetry. The new President seems to have no ability to concentrate or contemplate, and a book of deceptively simple poems that forces us to slow down and listen would be beyond his understanding and abilities.

In that spirit, the first book of political dissent I’ve read is Robert Frost’s, A Further Range. Here is one of the best poems of the book.

Neither Out Far Nor in Deep

The people along the sand

All turn and look one way.

They turn their back on the land.

They look at the sea all day.

As long as it takes to pass

A ship keeps raising its hull;

The wetter ground like glass

Reflects a standing gull.

The land may vary more;

But wherever the truth may be—

The water comes ashore,

And the people look at the sea.

They cannot look out far.

They cannot look in deep.

But when was that ever a bar

To any watch they keep?