I just found the most disturbing book I have ever witnessed. The imagery knotted my stomach as I gasped in the underlit academic library aisle. And dear reader trust me that it was clearly a witnessing to hold such a grim collection of drawings that depicted the unspeakable violence the artist secretly recorded while working inside the Soviet Union prison system that incarcerated his own father when he was a child. The drawings themselves didn’t gut-punch me, the fear that history could repeat itself on this side of the globe in the (dis)United States, sooner than later, is what did.

As I searched for next week’s reading for my English graduate class, Journey Through the Whirlwind – the memoir by Eugenia Semyonovna Ginzburg about the years she was subjected to the Soviet Union’s murderous concentration camps – I stumbled upon another book when Journey was missing from the shelf: Drawings from the Gulag by Danzig Baldaev. And it was this book that not only slapped me awake to the American worst case scenario in the nearer future, it made me realize more than ever that to bear witness to atrocities and personal narratives is to resist systems of oppression (i.e., the U.S. slavery system, authoritarian regimes…or political cults).

In the Lotus Sutra, one of Mahayana Buddhism’s most revered texts, there’s a parable that cuts straight to the heart of human struggle and the way we lose touch with our own strength and potential for positive change. In chapter eight, a gem is secretly sewn into a drunk man’s robe and yet he desperately searches for food he cannot afford and must rely on the generosity of others. This chapter tells the story about how we carry an inherent ability to overcome the most egregious hardships by transforming our pains (sometimes into art, literature, poetry, or charity) and yet often remain oblivious to this gift and rightfully so due to life’s distractions and tumult. These obstacles and traumas can be catalysts for wisdom and building empathy for others.

Similar to the parable of the jewel hidden in the robe from the Lotus Sutra, my recent ominous discovery at the library inspired me instead of stifling me. It answered the question I’ve grappled with since the recent U.S. elections: What is my role in the resistance?

And it’s this: combining personal narrative, political discourse, and my academic studies. Something that could potentially send me to whatever gulag-style system the MAGA cult/Trump administration may institute, if we recall what (Not My) President Trump said during the brain-cell-killing inaugural address.

The above is one of three acts included in the Alien and Sedition Acts. The root cause of my current political fears stem from the Sedition Act tied to the one Trump mentioned during his speech, especially since the White House banned the Associated Press from their press conferences, which is a threat to free speech and the first amendment of our constitution.

That if any person shall write, print, utter or publish, or shall cause or procure to be written, printed, uttered or published, or shall knowingly and willingly assist or aid in writing, printing, uttering or publishing any false, scandalous and malicious writing or writings against the government of the United States, or either house of the Congress of the United States, or the President of the United States, with intent to defame the said government, or either house of the said Congress, or the said President, or to bring them, or either of them, into contempt or disrepute; or to excite against them, or either or any of them, the hatred of the good people of the United States, or to stir up sedition within the United States, or to excite any unlawful combinations therein, for opposing or resisting any law of the United States, or any act of the President of the United States, done in pursuance of any such law, or of the powers in him vested by the constitution of the United States, or to resist, oppose, or defeat any such law or act, or to aid, encourage or abet any hostile designs of any foreign nation against United States, their people or government, then such person, being thereof convicted before any court of the United States having jurisdiction thereof, shall be punished by a fine not exceeding two thousand dollars, and by imprisonment not exceeding two years.”

– From the “Act for the Punishment of certain crimes against the United States” of July 14 1798, “Sedition Act”

But I have hope. In spite of the orchestrated maelstrom and the systems of Power and Control that want us to stay disconnected, dismayed, and deluded. And I hope you’ll follow this newfound creative path with me, so that we may witness and resist together.