In 1969, the U.S. landed on the moon. Our nation was transfixed on televisions and retail windows. We came together for a monumental moment. Progress. Our motivation was an arms race with Russia, yet we ultimately gained a greater understanding of science and our universe.

Flash forward to 2024: Progress is now equated to woke, or for 49 percent of us, understanding and forward evolution. This president-elect and his crony-newscasters incessantly remind the 51 percent that the remaining crowd is an “enemy from within.”

This leader-elect is obstructing anything-environmental, and impeding medical science, vaccinations included. He and his loyalists are reversing women’s and minority rights.

He threatens companies and colleges to drop oaths to diversity, equality and inclusion. Liberal arts are to be eliminated. After all, intellectuals teach critical thinking skills, a threat to control.

This person has 49 percent of us as the enemy to get out of his felony convictions, while desperately needing to be fawned over by the 51 percent. Yet, to clear eyes, this guy is only one step ahead of his creditors, and with recent success, one step ahead of the law.

We hear no rallying of America and the world to achieve new scientific heights. To the moon and back. (Unless you count secured government contracts for conspiracy-theorist Elon Musk.) America only finds new depths of regression.

The president-elect and his cronies are in a power feeding frenzy. Revelry is momentarily a dance by half our nation, but only momentarily, until reality sets in.

Kelli Lundgren

Ka’anapali