You pack up your belongings and flee north to Toronto. For a while you ignore the news about the situation in your former homeland to the south. You invest yourself in Canadian politics. But you see how it is ugly, too. You’re disgusted to learn the Canadian government is a major investor in an oil pipeline — despite claiming to have progressive climate policies. You watch how Donald Trump’s anti-constitutional moves are echoed by autocratic wings inside Canada.
One day someone hands you a book about Jermain Loguen. He was a pastor who escaped slavery and established his home in Upstate New York. You read his words written after the Fugitive Slave Act passed. That law allowed white people to accuse any Black person, even one living in the North, of being a slave — and then incentivized judges with $5 more in pay if they sent the person into slavery. Despite this, Jermain wrote, “We repudiate the idea of flight [to Canada] for these reasons; first that we have committed no crime against the law of the land, second resistance to tyrants is obedience to God, and third that liberty which is not worth defending here is not worth enjoying elsewhere.” Courageously, he then published his name and address in the newspaper telling any fugitive slave that he’d help them along the Underground Railroad.
Meanwhile, President Trump rips apart the constitution. He forces the military to clamp down on pro-democracy protests. Democracy in Canada nose-dives, too, following in the footsteps of the bully to the south. With regret, you wish you had helped the Resistance. You live the rest of your life in Canada feeling deep remorse and wracking guilt.
THE END.
You didn’t win this time. Luckily, this is just a game. Sure, we know there is a history of people fleeing a country and playing a useful role in resistance from abroad. But for many people, it’s a dream they clutch to support denial. Don’t be in denial. You can do this. We can do this together.
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