By ANTONIA WILLIAMS-GARY

Are you like me? Since the election I read the most recent news each morning before leaving my sheltered space; checking to see if it’s still safe. I look for pending ISIS attacks, bad hombres, and killer immigrants, spying Russians, North Korean Nukes, and President Trump with no clothes, for starters.

Heck, I’m not sure if my own microwave is safe anymore.

Paranoid? You betcha.

But there is good reason to be unsure and extra vigilant: The sky is falling!

Personally, I may have just missed the eminent health care crisis because Medicare appears to be untouched by Trumpcare. Phew! But I am holding my breath about my social security payments.

In fact, I am thinking I need to dust off my resume, prepare to come out of retirement as a hedge against the policies coming from the current administration, and the ongoing stronghold of the Republican Party.

For how long? Long.

I knew this day was coming – when the unbridled deconstruction of the safety nets would be tightened or pulled out from under those of us who have worked and have paid into the social security system; for those who never earned enough from their jobs; and for those who could never work. Those taken- for-granted safety nets that, for decades, insured and assured all American Citizens of some form of a decent life in America – when America was great.

The warnings, of the now clear and present danger, have been coming since before the campaign season, when the then citizen Trump let the world know about his points of view – so no one should be surprised now that the measures to slash and burn ‘entitlement’ programs is underway. Message to Americans: take care of yourself; pull yourself up by your own bootstraps; get yours; don’t look for any ‘handouts’. Grin and bear it – with true grit!

Results? Possible starvation, depravations, withholding essential health care, food subsidies, and public education for the masses. Those are expected, anticipated and part of the new actuarial projections. The new strategy: i.e., redefine and reduce the numbers in need by slashing the human services budget to make America Great Again!

But wait! The military is building up.

Oh, I get it!

Just get ready to send your dependents to the army; let them go to war, get housed, clothed and fed, and above all else, win to make America great again.

You – a tired, hungry or poor immigrant? Stay out! We are building from the inside and can’t afford any others. Especially any brown and black others, because we are also making America white again.

But that strategy is not new. There are well- documented historical records of how, for instance, throughout some Caribbean islands, several dictators enacted policies and practices to whiten their populations – especially in Cuba and The Dominican Republic.

And, that practice was alive and well accepted throughout parts of the American territory during its earliest days (see the Quadroons and Octoroons of Louisiana; other offspring of white masters throughout the south).

Is that where we are headed? Scary. Get out!

“But make no mistake. Poor whites don’t stand a greater chance under the new administration, just because they are white.”

But make no mistake. Poor whites don’t stand a greater chance under the new administration, just because they are white.

No, Trump’s gang of privileged, mostly aged, white men, are ruthless in their assessment of who is deemed worthy of protecting: mostly their own kind.

Ignoring the plight of those who voted them in power – the mostly white working class, some poor, and many undereducated, who hedged their bets with Trump – the message is growing clearer every day: die off fools, and hopefully you’ll go out on a heroin/fentanyl overdose.

So, I continue to watch the news carefully, looking for the sign that I might be the next target: an older, healthy, black, educated female. I very likely have a mark on my back, on my front, and on all sides of me. I appreciate the fact that I may become an enemy of the State because, number 1: I’m still here; number 2; I have bred many more just like me; and, number 3: I will not be silenced as long as I have breath.

And that’s what you all must do. We will not, must not, and cannot be bullied into a submissive posture – ever again.

Yet, we must be vigilant and not forget that we are targets. Countermeasures? Breed more just like you; keep hope alive; and never give up on your dream of thriving from the fruits of our ancestors’ labor that already built America into a great nation. It’s still your country.

Claim it.

Toniwg1@gmail.com