“Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.” — Romans 12:21

A few weeks ago, I attended the commemoration of life for Reverend George Nagle.

I first met Reverend Nagle in the late 1980s. I was the librarian at Adirondack Correctional, where he was the chaplain. The library was at the end of the hall, so I walked past the chapel each day.

George led an exemplary life — something we can all learn from. As a youth and Boy Scout, he collected scrap metal to raise money for the war effort. As a young man and college student, he worked tirelessly to end Jim Crow segregation and bring civil rights and equality to all Americans. As an activist and organizer, he marched with others in protests demanding justice for all around the country, including Selma, Alabama. This was at a time when many who called themselves Christians supported white supremacy and segregation.

In the 1970s, he sheltered draft dodgers whose conscience didn’t allow them to kill people in foreign lands and support a war they didn’t believe in.

In the 1960s and 70s George worked tirelessly to protect the beauty of all creation, for the environmental movement that established the national Environmental Protection Agency in 1970 and here in our region, the Adirondack Park Agency in 1971. This work of ecological justice, protecting land, water and air from human encroachment and pollution, was highly controversial at the time.

In the 1980s and 1990s, George worked with the incarcerated, to reach the hearts of men society had discarded. During the AIDS epidemic, he offered communion and last rites to those who were outcast and alone. He traveled around the state, working to end the stigma by spreading the scientific understanding of this new disease. He worked to overcome fear with knowledge and anger with love. He shared God’s love with people that others, including other Christians, had written off. Jesus did not abandon the outcast sick, so neither would George.

George continued to work for justice, serving others and extending the love of God to all. In his 70s, he traveled out of state to campaign for President Obama’s first term, knocking on doors to advocate for a man he admired for inspiring hope.

As a follower of Jesus in 2025, I’m watching democracy crumble in the country that I’ve adopted as my home. Sometimes it seems like the book 1984 is unfolding a century later. I watch an angry bully take control of the hearts of many who claim to be Christ-followers.

In his first month in office, Trump indiscriminately fired 200,000 American civil servants in health care, science, education, national parks. He has cut funding for research, the weather service, park rangers, Social Security Administration staff, air traffic controllers, cancer research and lifesaving foreign aid, plus billions in Medicaid and food stamps. The President does NOT have the power to unilaterally block federal funding that the US Congress has authorized and appropriated – but no one is trying to stop him.

He defies laws, statutes and the Constitution. He has cracked down on immigrants who do much of the necessary labor. He has put himself in the role of a dictator and disregarded all our laws. I don’t like it but I feel powerless to stop this idiot.

Like Jimmy Carter, I believe that “My faith demands that I do whatever I can, wherever I am, whenever I can, for as long as I can with whatever I have to try to make a difference.”

Like George Nagle, I want to fight hate, racism and bigotry. I want to take a stand for justice and democracy. I want to speak out against authoritarianism and oligarchy. I want to protect my country. But I feel powerless. I don’t know how.

I watch helplessly as our country is run by a convicted felon and a bankrupt businessman. Our President is violating our Constitution and our laws almost daily. The rule of law is undermined, as our government ‘of the people by the people for the people’ is being dismantled by a wanna-be monarch, as the most vulnerable in our society are being preyed upon. It took Adolf Hitler just 53 days to dismantle Germany’s democracy. Will Authoritarianism replace Democracy in the U.S.?

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Yvona Fast is a poet, cookbook author and cooking columnist for the Adirondack Daily Enterprise. She lives in Lake Clear.