Our nation, the United States of America, and with it the planet as a whole, has entered into the most hazardous period in its history with the election last week of Donald Trump as its next president. The City of Falls Church and Northern Virginia, even if somehow able to secede or otherwise mitigate against the consequences of this development, cannot escape the chaos, fury and hatred that we anticipate will define the coming period. A cruise line now advertises a four-year trip for those seeking to avoid what is to come, but even that option will not protect anyone from the ravages that climate change or global war could bring.

Besides, there’s no cruise ship that has the capacity for a 2.2 square mile little city, especially not if we wanted to include parks and other open spaces.

Better to stand our ground and fight as proudly and resolutely as we can on behalf of the values and programs of compassion and good governance that the City of Falls Church has so bravely advanced over the course of the 75 year history since its official jurisdictional founding. How apropos that in this week, when the world continues to reel from the impact of last week’s election, that Falls Church’s mayor and City Council have adopted a resolution in firm defense of the rights and values of all its transgender and non-binary citizens, and moved forward plans to plant a large “Love” monument in front of its City Hall. Let it be clear to the entire cosmos, this City and its 15,000 residents stand above all else for love!

The uncharted course ahead requires of each and every one of us the calling forth of heaping extra portions of this noble, transcendent and passionate value. In every tiny act, we are now called to remember to use the turn signal, to slow down on residential streets, to bother to smile and say hello to and to assist if needs be a neighbor and even better a stranger, to volunteer or cut a check for a good cause, to greet and pet a neighborhood dog, to offer a caring ear or hand to someone in distress, and in general, to just be kind in all situations. These small steps now must become the core of our collective resistance to the kind of cruel and heartless treatment that we can now expect our federal government to inflict.

Some will say we exaggerate and it will not be that bad. We truly hope they might be right. But history shows us where the current path can more likely lead, and for far too many of our fellow human beings, for us, this could be worse than we can even imagine. This is not a time for recriminations or second guessing about what has brought us to this point. It is a time for only one thing: resistance rooted in the exercise of extreme kindness and empathetic human compassion.