On Saturday, people gathered at a town hall at the State Theatre in State College. They shared stories of worry about the Trump regime with former Congressman Conor Lamb as well as our Centre County Democratic state representatives and county commissioners and other local leaders. I walked away more convinced that we must use our strengths, focus on issues, build coalitions with people we love and move forward with dignity and justice.
The Trump-Musk regime is harming people. They had stories to share.
A working mother who receives assistance faces the loss of her medication. Without them, she may die. What happens to her kids? Trump’s hoped-for dismantlement of the Department of Education and other cuts at USDA would place her kids with fewer services and more hunger.
A veteran shared how V.A. cuts have halted much-needed care. A fellow vet just started PTSD treatment. He was looking forward to finding peace of mind. The treatment has been canceled. Suicide rates are higher among Iraq and Afghanistan vets than the general population. I lost a vet friend to suicide in 2023. It’s real.
The cuts to climate-focused programs have led to layoffs and retraction. The real and possible cancellation of hundreds of millions of research dollars is hurting Pennsylvania’s universities. Graduate students, researchers and support staff have lost positions.
Women’s health, mobility and voices are being sidelined at best and wiped out at worst by Project 2025’s white Christian nationalist ideology playbook. In rural Pennsylvania, there are hundreds of communities where it takes more than an hour for a woman to get prenatal care or to deliver a baby. It is a foregone conclusion that cuts will drive up maternal and infant mortality and force the depopulation of rural Pennsylvania. There are people in the Trump regime’s circle who have called for ending women’s right to vote. No. That’s not a joke. It’s deadly serious.
If a masked man can kidnap a legally-present foreign national for writing an opinion piece, what’s to stop them from kidnapping your kid or mine and denying them due process? Their race? What place do you have to have in society to be free from the threat of arrest? What tattoo is safe? None. It’s not about the tattoo. It’s about unquestioned control through terror.
A Ukrainian thanked us for our solidarity in the fight against Putin’s unprovoked aggression. Ukrainians, like Americans, yearn for freedom. Please join them in that fight.
These stories are the tip of the iceberg. Our community has hundreds of them. Our state has tens of thousands. The nation has millions. And it’s only the 69th day of the Trump regime. The situation will not hold.
On Jan. 21, 1965, Martin Luther King Jr. spoke to 8,000 people at Rec Hall on Penn State’s University Park campus. He talked about civil rights, America’s legacy of slavery and segregation, and the principles and practices of dignity, love and justice. Dr. King called on us to love all people—even those who do evil—while we name, resist and hate evil deeds. Sixty years later, our community faces these challenges with a new face. King’s strategy of massive non-violent resistance must re-emerge. He understood his strengths, his fellow leaders’ and the movement’s strength, and the fundamental values, principles and practices to go forward.
We all have a role to play in a movement for dignity through solidarity. What are you good at doing? Who do you like to do things with? What do you collectively care about? How can you pool your talents to fight for that thing? Do it today and tomorrow.
The non-profit Waging Nonviolence says, “The key to taking effective action in a Trump world is to avoid perpetuating the autocrat’s goals of fear, isolation, exhaustion and disorientation.” Master yourself and accept what’s real. Focus on what you are good at, what you care about most, and work on it with people you love. Envision the world you want. Work on it with others. Keep going.
Peter Buck is a current member of the State College Area School District’s Board of Directors. The opinions expressed here are his own. They do not express the views of the Board.
