Olivia of Troye - The People Still Holding the Line

The cameras never stay on the people holding steady. They pan toward the chaos–the shouting, the arrests, the blinding lights of another “breaking news” alert. The headlines fixate on demolition: the East Wing of the White House, gutted, and the rising cost of Trump’s Mar-A-Lago-style ballroom now pushing $300 million. While the powerful double down on fear and their rich, gilded ballrooms, the rest of us keep showing up. Quietly. Stubbornly. Together.

Yes, it’s heartbreaking to watch the People’s House destroyed in this way. I keep thinking back to the times I walked those hallways, and crossed into the East Wing. Now it’s gone. Completely decimated. And it’s frankly, disgusting. Donald Trump is building a grotesque Saddam-Hussein-style ballroom inside the White House. I’ve seen those palaces firsthand and it’s the first image that came to mind, right alongside Putin’s marble-plated compounds when I saw the images of the demolition. While grocery bills climb during a government shutdown and the price of eggs remains high, all of it is a symbol of just how far the reality is from Trump’s campaign promises and rhetoric.

And yet, everywhere I go lately, I see it: resilience and strength.

Not in headlines or soundbites, but in the everyday people who are still holding this country together. A furloughed federal worker volunteering at a food bank while anxiously waiting for a paycheck. Or the woman I spoke with today, who has seen her immigrant friends taken and her community shattered. She still found a way to smile and say “They can’t deport love.” And in that moment, it felt like truth itself refused to be silenced.

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