Imagine if Donald Trump moved to Northampton and began to settle in our fine city. Imagine that he starts to look for work. Imagine him applying for jobs locally with his resume, background, history, skills and references.
Imagine Mr. Trump applying to be the principal of one of our elementary schools. He would not even get an interview because he would be considered a bad influence on the children and a poor role model, and the school has a policy of not hiring bullies.
Imagine Mr. Trump applying for a job at the United Way office. Again, he would not even get an interview because the women there would rise up and say they consider him dangerous and they would be frightened to work alongside him, be alone with him, and would refuse to stand next to him at public events.
Next, imagine Mr. Trump applying for work at our local Chamber of Commerce — he is a businessman, after all. But again, he would not even get an interview. The diligent folks at the Chamber of Commerce would investigate Mr. Trump’s background in business and discover that he declared bankruptcy way too often to be considered a savvy business owner. Plus, even a modest examination of Mr. Trump’s past performance in the business world would reveal his record of consistently stiffing subcontractors and construction workers, people who play an important role in our local workforce. Working at our local Chamber of Commerce is another job Mr. Trump is unqualified for.
With all this in mind, imagine that Mr. Trump wanted to get to know people in his new city and so he asked to serve on the Human Rights Commission. But he would receive another rejection because the commissioners would discover, without digging deeply into his past, that he mocks people with disabilities, uses racial slurs, displays Islamophobia, discriminates against Mexicans, and shows consistent prejudicial and biased attitudes towards members of the trans community.
Now imagine that some good souls, some kind men unafraid of Mr. Trump, take pity on him and decide to take him under their wing and help him get to know our city and some of our wonderful residents. Imagine that, flanked by these patient souls, Mr. Trump is taken to Jackson Street School where he walks through the halls and visits classrooms. Imagine his reaction when he sees the diversity, harmony, and mutual respect so evident in that building.
Imagine that Mr. Trump is then taken to a local Climate Action Now meeting and listens as activists talk about the irrefutable science that demonstrates how our planet is warming and the imminent dangers that presents.
Imagine next Mr. Trump is taken by his caring entourage to “Drag Queen Story Hour” at Forbes Library. Imagine his reaction when he sees the colors, the love, the fun, the wild diversity, and the joy in the room as stories about difference are relished by young and old alike.
Imagine next Mr. Trump is introduced to our fine mayor who offers to mentor him and help him become a decent human being. Next Mr. Trump meets our District Attorney who explains to him what constitutes hate speech and hate crimes. Following those visits, Mr. Trump meets with our police chief and she explains to him what it means to Northampton to be a sanctuary city.
Later, Mr. Trump has coffee with a local physician who helped found two Nobel Peace Prize-winning organizations, and, in his soft-spoken and understated way, this physician explains in painstaking detail the growing risk of nuclear war and the catastrophic consequences of detonating even one nuclear weapon.
When May rolls around, imagine Mr. Trump and his companions getting a number of lawn chairs, perching them on the sidewalk on Main Street, and watching together as the annual Pride March goes by. Imagine Mr. Trump seeing the huge array of faith communities with gay/lesbian/trans-affirming banners and signs, floats filled with school children, Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts marching in uniform, women on motorcycles, and men in gowns. Imagine Mr. Trump waving and catching some hard candy thrown his way.
Imagine that as the spring turns to summer, Mr. Trump is taken to a panel at which Veterans for Peace are speaking. Imagine he attends a fundraising house party for the Resistance Center for Peace and Justice and the head of the center asks him for a contribution of $1 million.
Imagine that Mr. Trump’s companions take him to the Media Education Foundation and together they settle in for four straight days of binge- watching films about power and politics in American sports; race, racism and white privilege; masculinity and the courage to change; and violence, manhood and American culture.
Friends, the bad news is also the good news: Donald Trump will never move to Northampton.
But communities like Northampton all across this country are keeping a passion for peace, a love of justice, a devotion to democracy, a dedication to nonviolence, a spirit of activism, a pledge to inclusion, and a commitment to anti-racism alive and thriving in the face of unspeakable assaults on our core values and the tenets of our democracy.
As a new year begins, we can be inspired by the number of citizen activists in our own community and others coast to coast who have not become numb, even though the news is mind-numbing; have not given up on the resistance, even though the work is hard and never-ending; have not succumbed to despair, even though there are daily affronts to our sense of shared humanity and decency; and have not moved to Canada, even though numerous “move to Canada” websites keep crashing from too many hits.
As a new year begins, we can be thankful that ours is a community full of extraordinary, caring, progressive, bold, organized and open-hearted folks in this resistance for the long haul. As 2018 appears on the horizon, I am drawing strength from this community and the spectacular folks I see daily at meetings, on panels, at vigils, downtown in stores, at the food co-op, and at marches and rallies.
Thank you Northampton for being Northampton. Bless you, one and all.
The Rev. Dr. Andrea Ayvazian, of Northampton, is part of the ministerial team of the Alden Baptist Church in Springfield. She is the founder and director of the Sojourner Truth School for Social Change Leadership, which offers free movement-building classes from Greenfield to Springfield. She writes a monthly column on the intersection of faith, culture, and politics, and can be reached at opinion@gazettenet.com.