Use Thoreau as role model in resisting Trump

Henry David Thoreau was a strong activist who fought against slavery, racism and President James Polk. We can learn from his strategies in our resistance against President Trump today.

James Polk was a president who supported slavery and led the nation into the Mexican-American war to gain slave territory. When Thoreau saw what Polk was doing, he was enraged. He wrote books and essays, one of his most famous being “Civil Disobedience.”

Thoreau took to the streets, made statements that were heard all over the world, and even went to jail because he wouldn’t pay the taxes funding the war. It was actions like these that inspired many more activists.

In the same way that Polk heavily supported the industrial revolution, Trump is trying to defund the organizations keeping carbon out of the air.

While Trump is not quite as extreme as Polk, our situation could become as bad or worse than that in Thoreau’s day. This is why we need to learn from him. We need to resist.

Rain Jewett

Northampton

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