#1,052: Action is the Antidote to Anxiety

October 12, 2025 / Kurt F. Stone

This past week has been worthy of Charles Dickens’ opening sentence in A Tale of Two Cities:

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of light, it was the season of darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair.”

To say that the past 168 hours have been weird to the max is an overstatement. Consider that many of us - for the first time ever - are actually in agreement with Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene on an issue. “What issue?” you ask. Precisely this: the Republicans’ “Big Bad Bill” which has started putting the cost of health care well beyond the means and hopes of millions upon millions of American taxpayers. . . and is at the heart of the current federal shutdown.

Never mind the fact that Greene - a.k.a. Capitol Hill Karen - enthusiastically voted for the bill’s passage; as of the other day, she’s up in arms. It seems she’s finally become aware that it will affect her own adult children, who will no longer be able to afford health insurance. Now, suddenly, she’s ashamed to be a MAGA-ite. Well sorry Marge; just because you have taken this most anti-MAGA stance (for which I do sincerely applaud you) doesn’t erase all the gruesome, heartless things you’ve done and said in your racist, Islamophobic, anti small-d democratic political career. Hell, even a broken clock is correct twice every 24 hours.

Then, of course, there is the breathtaking news that finally, finally, after more than 2 years, the war between Israel and Hamas just might be coming to an end; that Israeli hostages - both living and deceased - will be returning home in a swap for upwards of 2,000 Palestinian prisoners currently being held in Israeli prisons. As of this morning (Sunday Sept. 12, 2025) Israel and Hamas have signed a cease-fire agreement to free the remaining hostages in Gaza. But the future is murky: Many of the plan’s ambitious ideas for postwar Gaza have yet to be negotiated.

Yes, there are certainly hopeful signs on the horizon . . . for which POTUS and his negotiating team (Miami neighbors Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff) should be applauded. What they have accomplished has taken place largely behind closed doors and away from the cameras . . . where traditionally, the greatest strides in diplomacy have always taken place. Joining in on the diplomatic sessions with Kushner and Witkoff (both of whom made their billions in international real estate and venture capitalism) in the Egyptian resort city of Sharm el-Sheikh were the Qatari P.M., Sheik Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani, Egyptian foreign minister Badr Abdelatty, Pakastani PM Shehbaz Sharif, and Turkish intelligence chief Ibrahim Kalin.

As much room as there may be for rejoicing, one must keep a couple of things in mind. First, as recently as February of this year, POTUS spoke freely about his underlying motive for bringing “peace” to the Middle East. In a meeting with Israeli PM Netanyahu, he spoke of the ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian population in order to develop Gaza into the “Riviera of the Middle East.” He called on Egypt and Jordan, in particular, to absorb the displaced population, while the United States would “own” the seaside territory. In a Fox News interview, Trump further clarified that the relocation of the Palestinians would be permanent, with no right of return. Remember this: the man is at base a deal-maker, not a diplomat. And that fact alone throws several cups of cold water (at the least) onto the smoldering passion for peace in the Middle East.

Second, remember that whether or not he and the international community will actually succeed in bringing the war to an end, he is still the man who is currently:

Overseeing the firing of hundreds of thousands of federal workers;
Keeping members of the military from receiving their pay;
Ordering National Guard troops into Chicago, Los Angeles and Portland, Oregon either “in order to protect those cities from dangerously high crime rates” or “to protect ICE agents from being attacked by left-wing Marxists.” This may be nothing more than a pretext for implementing the Insurrection Act . . .
Sanctioning retributive prosecutions against the likes of former FBI Director James Comey and NY Attorney General Letitia James and likely California Senator Adam Schiff;
Calling for the imprisonment of mayors and governors who have publicly called him out;
Is enriching himself and his family to the tune of at least $5 billion in their latest cryptocurrency venture;
Joining hands with HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. in pushing unproven (and unsound) advice around Tylenol and various vaccines;
Issuing an executive order purporting to go after “domestic terrorism,” and authorizing punishments for even tenuous connections to speech the regime doesn’t like.
And on and on and on . . .

These are indeed anxious times. And while there is, to paraphrase Ernest Thayer’s Casey at the Bat, “Some joy in Mudville,” (i.e. MTG’s turnaround on the “Big Bad Bill” and the return of the hostages from Gaza) it must not cause anyone into thinking that, in the words of yet another poet (Robert Browning) G-d’s in his heaven, all’s right with the world. One good act, one political volte-face does not - nay, cannot - make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear . . . as our British cousins used to say. However, sometimes the opposite can be true. Here, I am thinking of the late Senator Edward Kennedy who did an awful lot of political good during his life. And yet for many, all that good has been nullified by precisely 4 words (which many can no longer identify): “Chappaquiddick” and “Mary Jo Kopechne.”

In any event, anxiety currently abounds, and there is an early-stage trickle of resentment beginning to be expressed all over the country. As one might expect, the greatest, most audible resentment comes from America’s center-left. And yet, there is beginning to be heard and felt a deepening of pique and displeasure from the center-right as well. More and more, we are hearing the words TRUMP MUST GO! THE MAN’S A MENTAL CASE! and WHAT ABOUT USING THE 25TH AMENDMENT!

Someone far wiser than I once wrote that “Activism is the antidote to anxiety.” I firmly believe this to be true; I’ve seen it happen in Berkeley, Chicago, and along the National Mall in years past. It can happen again this coming Saturday, October 18, 2025.

I’ve been pushing the national “No Kings” day of protest for quite some time. Once again, I’m urging one and all to join in, SIGN UP and attend a rally in your neck of the woods. Our presence, our signs, our voices and our activism can relieve the anxiety. Let Mr. Speaker Johnson proclaim that everyone at “No Kings” protests is a terrorist bent on showing that they hate America and are pro-Hamas. He is, as Grannie used to say, “Full of canal water.”

Peaceful public protest is as American as apple pie.

Come on out and engage in a slice of patriotism.

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