Readers Write (Jan. 24): Women's Marches, Trump's first days

Donald Trump's campaign was marked by divisiveness, a lack of understanding of the depth and complexity of the issues facing the country, and a clear lack of interest in the best interests of anyone except himself. His first two days in the presidency have been more of the same. Clearly, if someone shows you who they are, you should believe them the first time.

The participants in the Women's Marches across the country showed grace, solidarity, compassion and determination to create strong, safe, inclusive communities. I was proud to be standing with them. These citizens showed me who they are, and I believe them.

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Wonderful to be at the Minnesota State Capitol for the Women's March to experience the huge turnout and witness the enthusiasm for a future in which women have equal rights, respect and greater representation in our government. Recently elected state Rep. Ilhan Omar was particularly inspirational — she referenced her native Somalia and its commitment to have 30 percent of women in elected office. Here in the U.S. only 19 percent of the members of the House of Representatives are women and just 21 percent of the Senate are women. One of the reasons why women remain marginalized, and rape culture continues in the U.S., is because so few women hold elected office. Here's to more women like Omar being elected and to the U.S. having at least 30 percent of elected offices being held by women.

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Thank you to the residents, police and city of St. Paul for their part in Saturday's Women's March. The unexpectedly large turnout could have been overwhelming, as it snarled traffic and overflowed the intended route, but the city graciously welcomed us all. Acceptance — what a wonderful trait!

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We marched in support of a belief that our diversity is what makes us strong. In support of a belief that our humanity gives us power. In support of a belief that we are all equal in our humanness; brothers and sisters of all faiths, colors, backgrounds, genders and everything in between.

We marched. Now what?

Now we as activists, activate. Now we watch, but we do not wait. Now we write letters to our elected officials; now we place phone calls, and now we attend their town-hall meetings.

Now we donate, volunteer, read and stay engaged. Now we call family and friends, give them the number to their elected officials' offices and remind them that their voices must be heard, too.

Now is when we remember the power of an election — of all elections. And we remember that every city council, school board, judgeship and state election is worthy of our vote, and worthy of our time. Because when we fall asleep on our vote, things happen. Get your calendars out, mark all election days, not every four years, but every year, and every two.

Make time to take action daily. This is just the beginning.

President Trump has followed through on a campaign promise to shrink the federal government by freezing all hiring. It should be noted, though, that such an executive order does nothing to combat government overreach and cronyism, real or imagined. It does nothing to halt corruption in Washington, D.C. Instead, such action hurts federal employees at the lowest level. This latest executive order hurts the single mother looking to work as an office administrator in the Bishop Henry Whipple Building. It hurts the Army vet hoping to transfer his skills from the military to the National Park Service. It hurts the recently graduated engineering student seeking to improve our highway infrastructure with the Department of Transportation. The hiring freeze does little to shrink the size of government, but it does much to hurt U.S. workers who want to serve their nation. If President Trump is truly concerned with fighting corruption and cronyism, he should more closely examine his Cabinet of billionaires rather than pick a fight with federal employees outside the Beltway.

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President Trump and the people who voted for him need to acknowledge that U.S. manufacturing jobs have not been "stolen" by other countries. (1) Many of those jobs have been and will continue to be lost to automation. (2) U.S. companies have been moving manufacturing to lower-wage countries to maximize profits for American owners, American shareholders and American executives at the expense of U.S. workers. (3) U.S. consumers are more attracted by lower prices than paying a premium to buy "Made in the U.S.A." If Trump and his supporters are serious about bringing manufacturing jobs back to America, they should begin by looking in the mirror and stop pointlessly fanning isolationist anger toward other countries.

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In today's environment of increasingly shaded news coverage, with Fox News and the Wall Street Journal on one end of a spectrum, and MSNBC and the New York Times on the other, there is a key role the national networks can play: Go old-school and report facts. Rising to the bait and filling valuable airtime (or column inches) with coverage of combative Twitter posts or inflammatory statements is a recipe for losing this ballgame — these are diversions. Straight, hard, old-school news gathering and reporting of facts — corroborated by strong on-the-record sources — is what's needed from the media today, perhaps more than ever before.

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It is astounding that on Day One out of the gate, Sean Spicer wants to quibble about crowd size of the inauguration. On Day Two, Kellyanne Conway is talking about "alternative facts." What? It is amazing that "truth" is an abstract concept for this administration; it has been for the past year and a half.

The word "propaganda" has been bantered about, as recently as Monday in the Star Tribune. In my mind, there is an effort to have a constant state of smoke and mirrors by the Trump administration and it truly expects a majority of people to buy into it. If nothing else, it is a major distraction — kind of like sleight of hand. Only the stakes are much higher and millions have a lot to gain/lose.

Little children are taught to tell the truth and not to lie. This concept is reinforced as they grow up so at least they know the difference. Apparently, this has been lost on the newest executive branch.

We all learned in school that George Washington never told an "alternative fact."