We were marching down Cooper Street approaching 4th street. Rutgers Camden was off to the right. The crowd started chanting, “Hi ho, hi ho…Donald Trump has got to go” and yet I heard, “Reagan, Reagan he’s no good…send him back to Hollywood” echoing back to me through the years. I realized as was standing just a few feet away from the place where I was first motivated to get involved in protests against the establishment.

Back then it was Reagan and the death squads he was supporting in Central America and now it is Trump. Once again I am witnessing a president abusing his powers to arrest, detain, and deport the good people who have made this country their own. Many of these people are here because of the abuses that we committed against their parents and grandparents back when I was still in college. I was hit with a wave a disappointment and discouragement as I realized forty years had passed and that nothing had changed.

Then, I looked around and realized the Camden I was looking it today was so different than the Camden I experienced back in the 1980s. I saw beautiful old buildings being refurbished. I saw clean, relatively well kept streets. I saw progress all around me and I remembered that Camden crime rates have been plummeting for the last few years. It showed me that progress can happen, is happening, and will continue to happen if we are willing to support it with our votes, our money, and our time.

Don’t lose hope. The people, united, will never be defeated. We just can’t allow the bastards to grind us down or divide us.