The president held the world hostage. Where were the Americans?
“A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again,” he Truthed.
Across Iran, thousands of people joined together to create human chains on bridges and around power plants to protect their civic infrastructure from potential destruction at the hands of the Americans.
A culture that we Americans have vilified for decades as terrorists stood together.
Where were we?
We were not in the streets of Austin or at the Capitol. We were in our homes, at our jobs, and in our classes passively viewing through our phones what could potentially have been “one of the most important moments in the long and complex history of the World,” as Trump put it.
Americans overwhelmingly oppose the war in Iran, and yet it continues anyway. Never before has this democratic government been divorced from the will of the people.
A democratically elected tyrant rules over us. We put him there as a people; he did not cheat or steal. By the laws and rules of the land, he has every right to be in the White House.
The Democratic Party’s opposition is completely farcical. A strongly worded letter here, a terse statement there. Maybe an infographic posted on the official X account.
We the People elected a tyrant. The laws do not restrict him and his goals. Other elected officials do not stand in his way.
The people of Iran are dying.
If our fair elections function as they are designed to through the election of a president, and our system of checks and balances fails to stop the president from executing his will despite the wishes of the majority of Americans, what is stopping the president of the United States of America from doing whatever he wants?
What are we as people doing to stop this?
Over the past several months, millions of Americans, including thousands of Austinites, have participated in a series of peaceful and non-disruptive protests titled “No Kings.” What were the demands? What was at stake? What did they achieve? What changed?
In 1776, 250 years ago, our forefathers overthrew a tyrannical government because of taxes. They felt that the British empire did not represent them as they wished. The people of America killed for their beliefs. They fought a brutal war.
Now the president threatens to kill the people of Iran indiscriminately, already having bombed a school, killing 175 people. This is not the will of the American people. We do not feel represented as we wish.
What makes an act of resistance now so terrible and fearsome when squabbles over tea 250 years ago look so brave in the American mind?
Our taxes build these bombs and drop them. The blood is on all of our hands.
No matter who and where you are in this nation, you are affected by this violence and are contributing to this violence. It is immoral to bury your head in the sand, to turn on your blinders and say, “I just gotta focus on myself, I can’t handle all the noise.”
The people of the world whom we suppress do not have that luxury. It is our duty as Americans to stand up to tyranny and prevent the terror of American hegemony from destroying more lives.
We should be lining the streets of Downtown Austin, on campus, on the Capitol front lawn, and not leaving. People constantly label Austin as a hub of liberal and progressive thought, but we have completely failed this image.
The president held the world hostage, and we did nothing.
We are all terrorists.
Stuart Hay is a junior at the University of Texas at Austin studying film and journalism.
Got something to say? The Chronicle welcomes opinion pieces on any topic from the community. Submit yours now at austinchronicle.com/opinion.
This article appears in April 17 • 2026.