What Would Have to Happen?

Red Lines and History

Carolyn asked me last week: What would have to happen here for you go to France immediately? Anticipating my stubborn practicality, she qualified her question: disregard the puppy’s vaccination schedule (we can’t bring Lady Bird to France until she gets her rabies vaccine and we’ve been delaying that until she gets the more pressing vaccines, like distemper and parvo).

Could Lady Bird be ANY cuter? She often naps with her head behind a pillow.

Certainly, it’s easy to imagine big changes that would make me want to pick up and scoot - public executions, say, or rounding up of citizens who say unpopular things, but the spirit of the question was really about incremental change, what’s the “last straw” step that would make me think I had to leave? I’ve been thinking about it all week. As I type this post, I'm not sure I have a good answer. Is “I’ll know it when I see it" acceptable? Readers, what’s your red line? What’s the incremental step that you would find politically intolerable or too threatening to overlook?

Thinking about Carolyn’s question put me in mind of a book (and a bit of serendipity I experienced last year.) While in Montpellier, I happened upon a New York Times review of Replay: Memoir of an Uprooted Family, by Jordan Mechner. I am passively acquainted with Jordan, and didn’t realize that he also lives in Montpellier! Jordan and I met a few times through overlapping circles of friends in NYC in the early 2000’s and after learning that we shared a city (again!), I reached out to reconnect.

This is an excellent graphic novel, it’s available in French and English. If you live in Montpellier, it’s fun to identify specific places in the city that are captured in the drawings.

Mechner’s graphic novel tells the story of his father, Francis Mechner, fleeing the Nazis during World War II. It also tells the story of his grandfather, who was conscripted into the army of Austria-Hungary during WWI and what became of him when Austria-Hungary ceased to exist (having been absorbed by Romania).

The stories of his father and grandfather are intertwined with recollections of Mechener’s own development from adolescent to adult in America. It’s an entertaining and moving reflection on the concepts of home, security, memory, family and how those ideas are transformed by war, politics, and statehood.

Back to Carolyn’s question: the truth is that so many things have happened that I would have previously considered red lines:

• The executive branch is openly selling access and influence

• The President has set up meme-coins that allow anyone, including foreign states, to funnel money to him directly and buy influence.

• The President is openly using his position of power to enrich himself and businesses/governments/institutions he favors. He is also using his power to punish businesses/governments/institutions he dislikes.

• The executive branch is defying judgements and orders from the judicial branch.

• Congress has abandoned the responsiblity of being a co-equal branch of government; it has refused to act as a check on the power of the executive branch.

• Citizens, legal residents, and illegal immigrants are being denied due process - a basic human right and the birthright of every American citizen.

• The president and his justice department are attacking the free press through frivolous lawsuits and administrative threats (such as threats to revoke licenses).

• The president and his appointees are dismantling government agencies that provide protections for consumers, information, health, food-safety.

• The president is antagonizing our allies, destroying our economy, and openly courting dictators and bad actors around the world.

• The president has dismantled agencies that fight corruption and mismanagement in government.

• A significant portion of the body politic seems to take actual pleasure in cruelty and the suffering of others.

Just one headline from today’s paper.

I’m having trouble answering Carolyn’s question because I’m already there - I’m ready to go. I’m not giving up on the US—I don’t have any plans to renounce my citizenship, and I continue to support politicians, causes, and policies that I believe steer America towards being the best version of itself. But it doesn’t feel like home (in my architect’s sense of that word). Home by definition should feel safe, stable, and welcoming. I wouldn’t use those words to describe America right now; those words make me think of France.

I asked earlier in this post and I’m asking again now: what’s your red line? Is it a red line about your personal safety or about no longer recognizing the country you were born in? Please comment!

Jusqu’à la prochaine fois,

Carolyn & Roberto

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