We Americans, we will not be forgiven for the criminal in the White House. Neither by the world nor by future generations. None of us. There will be no absolution for our failures that have brought the United States to the abyss.

From the cowardly legislators on the right to the activists on the left, we all have failed. Every day we witness the shocking equivalent of a shooting by Trump in broad daylight on 5th Avenue. We have not acted effectively the many times when this felon should have been jailed or impeached.

Will our Canadian neighbors ever forgive? Will the Ukrainians, the French, the Brits or the Germans? Will any of them ever again stand with us in our time of need? Not likely. We are delusional in thinking that “making a deal” is a worthy measure of our importance. Our loss of genuine power and influence around the globe increases every day that the traitor sits in the White House.

Maybe, depending on what we do now, there can be a glimmer of hope. Maybe the honor, the courage, the decency, and the patriotism that lies within the vast majority of Americans will finally rise to defeat the evil of Donald Trump and Elon Musk. Maybe over the next four years we will relentlessly inundate the legislative offices and the streets with voices of opposition.

Maybe, if we do so, there will no longer be any need for Americans to ask for forgiveness. Just maybe.

Dr. Peter Kenny

Charlestown