Today, January 30 2026, there’s so much talk on social media of an economic boycott in protest of the mass deportation effort conducted by President Trump and his cronies in the Office of Homeland Security and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Good. It’s about time. I have had more than enough of this insane, horrific effort to expel migrants from the country, whether documented or not, and I wholeheartedly support the effort to denounce and undermine those who are undertaking this travesty. They are terrorizing and murdering innocent civilians in the streets, and doing everything they can to provoke violence from concerned citizens as part of their political agenda.

It’s past time that we stand up to this. You can’t just ignore the voices of the people and spout obvious lies and hope to get away with it. There is no universe in which any of this is okay. We need to find some way to get back to a country where reason, democratic values, and humane treatment of those less fortunate than us are actual and genuine lived values. I will not spend a cent today on this corrupt and exploitative system.

At this point, I don’t even know if we still live in a country that has a future. Do we live in a place where any person can hope to benefit in any way from a decent education, land a job in this economy, buy a house of their own, and raise kids in safety and security? That’s not the United States I live in today. The flag has been made to feel like a hate symbol. I feel physically afraid when I see people driving around waving the stars and stripes from their trucks, hoping to terrorize innocent Portlanders. America now is a place of division, poverty, exploitation, and fear, and it’s not the America I was raised in or learned about as a child. Something needs to change. People need to have hope, and to aspire for some kind of a future.

Do something. Get out and raise a sign, write letters, post your thoughts. Get active. Take care of yourself and your loved ones. Don’t let the fear and hatred and division make you despair.