Standing room only at Amy Siskind’s packed visit to the Mamaroneck Public Library when over 100 visitors arrived to learn more about The List.
By Renee Coscia
“Experts in authoritarianism advise to keep a list of things suddenly changing around you, so you remember.”
The first time I heard this quote from Amy Siskind, author of The List: A Week by Week Reckoning of Trump’s First Year in November of 2016 we were already experiencing ‘not normal’ things in our democracy.
I clearly remember then President-elect Trump’s attempts to erode our freedom of speech by criticizing The New York Times, Saturday Night Live and the cast of Hamilton.
Since that time, the chipping away of our democracy has been not so subtle and things that outraged us back then have been normalized. Amy’s quote about authoritarianism echoes in my mind each and every day since that time.
I’ve been fortunate to have shared conversations with Amy around the changes in our great nation and it was an honor to see her come home to Westchester last evening to host an event at the Mamaroneck Public Library.
The lively 90-minute discussion ranged from the mainstream media not covering all too important topics to how we, the people, can take action to the importance of the 2018 upcoming election to the growing racism and erosion of basic rights to large groups of people.
Amy has a way of inspiring people and the standing room only crowd was invigorated and left last evening ready to take action.
Amy has been and still is my reliable source for the erosion of the America we once knew. Her personal charge to record a week by week decimation of our democracy is truly an act of patriotism. If you are not following Amy on Twitter or Facebook I encourage you to do so. Get your hands on a copy of her book, so that together we will be able to find our way back to the great nation we know can be.
‘You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You are able to say to yourself, ‘I lived through this horror. I can take the next thing that comes along.’ Eleanor Roosevelt
Renee Coscia is a life-long Westchester resident living in White Plains with her husband John and Three children, Emily, Jake and Rebecca. Renee has been a teacher in a suburban Westchester public school district for 29 years.