Marty Levine
April 9, 2025
After more than 80 days of being assaulted by the Trump Administration’s rampage, I began to hum the chorus of “Wasn’t That a Time?” It was a song I first heard 70 years ago when Pete Seeger was my summer camp music leader. Then, it was a catchy tune backed by my first introduction to the banjo.
Today, its lyrics might have been written about these times and the challenges they are putting before us.
The fascists came with chains and war
To prison us in hate
And many a good man fought and died
To save the stricken faith
Wasn’t that a time, Wasn’t that a time
A time to try the soul of man
Wasn’t that a terrible time?
And now again the madmen come
And should our vic’try fail?
There is no vic’try in a land
Where free men go to jail
Almost every day since January 20th, we have seen pictures of President Trump holding a magic marker in his hand, showing off his scrawled signature on another executive order. Each is a new demand for obeisance to his will. With each new edict, he asserts that he and only he has the power to define what our rights are and how our government will function. He asserts he has the power to dictate what is permissible to say and do as individuals and within the organizational structures of business, government, and civil society. He acts as if he has been given the right to redefine our nation in his own image.
With the stroke of a pen, he has demanded that we blot out the differences that have been both the strength and the shame of our nation. He has told us that Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) is un-American and that he can make it illegal. He has redefined the very laws that were enacted to protect those whom our nation had historically discriminated against and held back. These laws took effort and sacrifice to be enacted as existing laws often prohibited fulfilling their true purpose. He has decreed that white people are the real victims and that civil rights legislation demands that we act to protect them.
If this were only what he writes and speaks, it would be problematic. But, acting as a monarch, he has put the full force of the nation’s government behind this fantasy.
And now again the madmen come
And should our vic’try fail?
There is no vic’try in a land
Where free men go to jail
In the line of fire are schools, colleges, businesses, museums, and governments at every level. At risk is government funding that is critical to each of our lives.
In this moment, our leaders are being asked to stand up and say no.
Public schools across the nation, already struggling with stretched budgets, have been threatened with a loss of Federal Funds.
As a condition for receiving federal money, the U.S. Department of Education is ordering K-12 schools to certify that they are following the Trump administration’s interpretation of federal civil rights laws by eliminating diversity, equity and inclusion practices.
A notice sent Thursday by the Education Department gives states and schools 10 days to sign and return the certification. It’s the latest escalation against DEI policies, apparently giving the Republican administration a new lever for terminating federal money.
“Federal financial assistance is a privilege, not a right,” Craig Trainor, acting assistant secretary for civil rights, said in a statement. He said many schools have flouted their legal obligations, “including by using DEI programs to discriminate against one group of Americans to favor another.”
The stakes are high. Here’s how this threat looks from the perspective of my city and state funding for k-12 education.
CPS (Chicago Public Schools) received $1.3 billion in federal funding this academic year, $400 million of which flows to schools with high percentages of low-income students. The $1.3 billion in funding is about 13% of the district’s annual budget. The Trump administration specifically threatened to withhold these dollars, commonly known as Title I, in addition to other money earmarked by Congress to support specific populations in public schools.
Illinois education officials also said late Thursday they will “never waver” in helping all students “from every community, background, socioeconomic status, gender, and race – which is consistent with federal and state laws and our values.”
Illinois received $6.4 billion from the federal government this academic year for public education, $1.2 billion of which went to schools serving large percentages of students from low-income families.
So, what are school leaders to do? Should they bow down and say “yes, sir”, knowing that these funds are critical and their loss would affect the quality of education for hundreds of thousands of children? Should they object and risk the loss of funds by hiring lawyers and going to the courts to fight against the full weight of Trump’s administration?
We see the same dynamic as this administration has withheld huge amounts of government funding from universities and colleges because the administration has decided it doesn’t like the nature of the education they are offering. The immediate rationale has been ostensibly to protect Jewish students from antisemitism on campus. But this is a very thin excuse for an action designed to take control of colleges and universities that are too “liberal” for Trump’s liking.
President Trump has targeted universities and colleges, going after their federal funding in an effort to eradicate what he considers extreme leftist ideology on college campuses. He has threatened to pull funding from schools that don’t comply—and followed through in some instances.
Again, the pressure is on leaders to decide what they should do. Should they protect funding and capitulate as did the leaders of my alma mater, Columbia University?
Columbia University has agreed to most of the demands issued last week by the government, setting the stage to begin negotiations on restoring $400 million in federal funding and becoming thelatest institution to capitulate to President Donald Trump.
In a memo issued Friday afternoon, the university said it will ban face masks “for the purpose of concealing one’s identity”; hire 36 “special officers” empowered to arrest students and remove them from campus; appoint a senior vice provost to oversee the department of Middle East, South Asian and African studies; adopt a formal definition of antisemitism; review its admission procedures to ensure those processes are “unbiased”; and commit to “greater institutional neutrality” — most of which address demands from the Trump administration.
Or should they stand behind their principles and say no, risking a battle over money?
And there’s more. You could be a partner in a law firm who has been punished by the President because he does not like your representation of people he perceives as opponents; or a women’s health clinic because you believe a woman has a right to choose; or an organization that believes in trans rights.
The challenges are the same in terrible times. Stand up and fight back? Stand down and agree with things you do not believe are right?
In his marathon speech on the floor of the Senate, Senator Cory Booker described this moment and told us what it calls for:
This is not right or left. It is right or wrong. This is not a partisan moment. It is a moral moment. Where do you stand?
And so, we all have a responsibility…to do something different, to cause, as John Lewis said, good trouble…to go out and cause some good trouble, necessary trouble, to redeem the soul of our nation…
It is that courage that we need today in the face of a man who wishes to be king in our country, which has no place for a king.
And there are ways that you can join in making good trouble:
- Get out on the streets and join in a protest like those that flooded the streets last Saturday
- Get on the phone and demand that your Senators and your Congressperson do their jobs and stand up and say no at every opportunity to the Trump and MAGA insanity.
- Show up when your Senators or Congressperson holds an open house and ask them the hard questions about what they are doing to protect our democracy and our people.
- Tell the leadership of organizations and businesses that you have relationships with that you do not want them backing down to the demands of the Trump Administration.
- Be loud with your friends and colleagues. Tell them what you are doing and ask them to join you.
- The 2026 national elections are not too far away to begin working on. Look for candidates for Senate and House who are ready to say no and ready to do the hard work of reversing our national course. Find your role in supporting them so that on the evening of November 3, 2026, we will be smiling.
April 10, 2025 Editor’s note:
A note in today’s Hyperallergic gives one story of what leaders need to do in the face of MAGA pressure:
The Japapanese American National Museum, an affiliate of the Smithsonian, is proceeding with its DEI programming despite funding being at risk.
JANM’s Chief Executive Officer and President Ann Burroughs told Hyperallergic that the museum received notice on Friday that its $190,000 NEH grant to hold workshops on the history of the Little Tokyo neighborhood had been terminated “due to a change in the administration’s funding priorities.”
When asked why the museum has chosen to stand by its DEI commitments in the face of administrative pressures, Burroughs told Hyperallergic, “There is no way to separate this difficult history, nor the culture and accomplishments of Japanese Americans, from a greater understanding of America’s cultural and ethnic diversity.”
“Our Museum stands as a place of memory, truth, and justice, where history is not only preserved but actively used to confront contemporary threats to democracy and human dignity,” Burroughs continued. “We hear every day about the powerful impact that the stories we tell have on our visitors from all walks of life.”
