Day 44.

This man.

I might be sitting on my sofa right now listening to “One Last Time.” That feeling overtakes me every now and again. But this man is making so much of the days before he teaches us how to say goodbye.

Let’s review the incidents of his administration – this week.

1. He has pardoned more people and commuted more sentences than any other president since such records have been kept. The commuted sentences (the vast majority) have mainly been drug offenses. The pardons have been for a variety of crimes, but they usually are amount to restoring rights after a person has already served time. He has granted clemency to more than his 11 predecessors combined.
2. Congress passed, and he signed, a bill that extended the definition of religious freedom internationally to include atheists. Now atheists can be protected along with religious minorities under the Frank R. Wolf International Religious Freedom Act.
3. He has permanently banned drilling throughout most of the Arctic and along the mid- and North-Atlantic coasts. The Continental Outer Shelf Lands Act of 1953 allows him to lease lands three miles from shore for drilling, or to remove unleased lands from disposition for drilling.
4. Today he dismantled the NSEERS program. I’ve written about NSEERS before, and I called the White House to add my support to dismantling the program. I’m so moved today to find out he acted.

Why does this matter that he did this? If the Trump administration wants to set up a Muslim registry, isn’t it still easy? Not so much. Now that the old program has been dismantled, they would have to draft new regulations, submit them for public comment, and go through a regulatory approval process (as detailed in this article). If challenged in court (as they almost certainly would be), they would have to establish that their program does not discriminate based on religion or national origin.

But it also matters because we sent a message, and the message was heard.

It matters because it gives me the spark to keep going.

He told us we were the ones we’ve been waiting for.