Trump designated his inauguration to be a “day of liberation.” It is worth clarifying what “freedom” actually is and means. How do we carry and use it for the community? Laura Scappaticci shares her thoughts with us from the US.
I was making lunch for our three teenagers when I started watching the inauguration. I’d been reluctant to tune in, but a text from my best friend prompted me to open a news link and watch on my phone. At that moment, Reverend Budde, a female Episcopalian minister, was asking the new president to “have mercy upon the people in our country who are scared now.” Then the national anthem was sung, and the onions I was frying started to burn, and I could not watch any longer. I could not bring myself to look at and live into what was coming towards our country.
Rudolf Steiner knew the times he lived in and responded to them out of a vision for the positive evolution of humanity. Turning away was not an option for him, so why was it for me? With this in mind, I decided to watch the President’s thirty-minute inaugural speech a few days later. When I searched for a recording of it, I found video after video of comedic interpretations, commentary on the attendees’ outfits—one hat in particular—and layer upon layer of distraction.
When I finally found a link to the full speech, I had to use nearly all of Steiner’s six basic meditative exercises to get through it.
Equanimity, positivity, and open-mindedness helped me listen and try to understand the many rounds of applause Trump received as he talked about drilling for oil, expanding our territory, and how the power of the USA will end all wars. I was able to manage my antipathy as I watched the displays of sympathy in every standing ovation. My mindfulness practice stopped me from tuning out, although it did not prevent a shudder of great concern from rippling through my body when Trump said he was “saved by God to make America great again.”
“In America, the impossible is what we do best,” said Trump to a cheering crowd. As the days go on, equanimity and positivity feel more and more impossible for many of us. I don’t have any answers, and I worry about the days to come and wonder about my children’s future.
Sure, I can reflect objectively because the impact of Trump’s executive orders has not directly and personally affected my life yet. I am not an immigrant fearing deportation. I am not transgender, feeling vulnerable and losing my right to employment in certain sectors. I don’t work for the federal government to support diversity, equity, and inclusion, although my sister does, and she may lose her job because of that by the time this is published.
A trend of nationalism is growing globally, and it seems to be echoed on the local level. Where I live in the suburbs, neighbors don’t talk much. Children stay in their yards and play. There aren’t “block parties” where we all come out into the street to share food and warm hellos. We mostly think of our own families and our own needs. Members of our broader community are making plans to move to Canada or Europe and advising us to leave, too.
Trump said that January 20, 2025, the day of the inauguration, was “Liberation Day.” I wonder what true human liberation or freedom would look like. Not an aloof bypassing of the pain people are experiencing, nor a burning heat of hatred-filled protests, nor a fleeing from the place we call home, but something different. Perhaps a deepened attunement to the presence, or lack of presence, of heart forces in every executive order, news story, and email, and a soul awareness that cuts through pageantry and punditry. This could create a new liberation from materialistic ideologies, a picture of balancing the spiritual forces at work in the world today so that a resurrection of human-to-human understanding can occur.
So we will stay, engage with the world as Steiner did, and create more community rather than isolating ourselves further despite nationalism. We will also resist fear, hatred, and our own biases, guided by these words from Steiner, who lived and acted in response to the time he lived in. “Growth and development must be our joy. We should lend our hand to destruction only if we are able to bring new life out of what we destroy. This does not mean that we should stand idly by while wickedness prevails. On the contrary, in every evil we must seek out the elements that allow us to transform it into good.”1
Image Ella Lapointe, Election 2024
Thank you, Laura. What a potent quote to end your column!
And I am beginning to love Ella Lapointe’s artwork for this series.
Ich war immer zutiefst fasziniert von der Skulptur “Menschheitsrepräsentant”. Mein Eindruck ist, dass jeder Einzelne von uns entweder im ständigen inneren Kampf ausschließlich dieser Beider ist oder diesen Kampf, diese Stufe des Menschlichen nach Art des Buddha überwunden hat.- So lange Du alos im Kampf mit Dir selbst bist, kannst Du vielleicht versuchen, dich selbst zu “apeasen”, am Ende aber wirst Du ob nun in Canada oder Europa genau so wenig in Dir selbst zu Hause sein. Ich glaube, so hat Steiner es letztlich gemeint. Licht und Liebe Dir!