Trump Is So Bad It Made Me Stop Eating: NJ Man On Hunger Strike

BLOOMFIELD, NJ — The 2020 election is giving people stomachaches across the United States. But a longtime activist in New Jersey has embarked on a gastronomical challenge of a different sort in his quest to help defeat President Donald Trump.

He’s refusing to eat until the election is over.

Ted Glick, 71, of Bloomfield, launched his “Fast to Defeat Trump” on Oct. 3. He plans to stay in his home until Nov. 3 with his wife and fellow activist, Jane Califf, consuming only water and vitamins for the 30-day period.

Here’s why Glick launched his hunger strike:

“I’m doing this because I think that Trump’s reelection represents a huge threat to the world’s already-disrupted ecosystems, people of color and low-income people, our struggling democracy and just about everything else that is important to decent people. I feel the need to do all I can to help generate the massive voter turnout essential to ensure that he and many of his Republican accomplices are defeated. Our situation is urgent, and I feel the need to respond accordingly.”

Glick said he’s also trying to encourage people who will be voting for former Vice President Joe Biden to sign up with one of the groups working to motivate and turn out voters, especially in the battleground states of Wisconsin, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Florida, Arizona, Nevada, Iowa, Georgia and Texas.

Glick, a former Green Party candidate for U.S. Senate, is no stranger to hunger strikes. His first politically inspired fast – a push to end the Vietnam War – lasted for 40 days in the summer of 1972. In 1992, he fasted for 42 days to protest planned government celebrations of Christopher Columbus' quincentennial. And in 2007, Glick stopped eating for 25 days to demand climate action.

It’s not for the faint of heart – or gut, he says.

So far, Glick said that he’s lost 17 pounds. He’s also reported feeling “persistent weakness” since the second day of his campaign.

“Fasting comes with health risks, and shouldn’t be undertaken lightly, especially in the [coronavirus] pandemic,” Glick wrote in a statement to the media on Monday.

Glick urged any supporters not to join him. Instead, they should “go all out” and work to defeat Trump over the next three weeks. And that includes his fellow third-party and independent voters, he added.

“The Biden-Harris campaign needs the organizing experience and commitment of Green Party members and other progressive independents right now,” he said.

• See related article: Third-Parties Keep Truckin' In New Jersey

Glick’s activist resume conjures the spirit of the 1960s, the decade when he left college to fight against the Vietnam War. It wasn’t long before he’d spent 11 months in prison as a Selective Service draft resister.

Since first taking up the call for social justice, Glick has fought against climate change in New York and New Jersey, battled for tenant rights and racial justice in Brooklyn, and helped to organize protests involving thousands of people in the South Bronx, at Madison Square Garden and in Washington D.C.

He’s also been arrested 25 times for acts of nonviolent civil disobedience, 11 of which took place after October 2006.

In his home region of Essex County, Glick has been a driving force with Roseland Against The Compressor Station, a grassroots group that’s fought against the expansion of a natural gas facility.

Last year, he was arrested along with a fellow activist after a group of people staged a protest at the Williams/Transco natural gas compressor station on Eagle Rock Avenue, linking arms and temporarily blocking construction equipment from moving onto the site.

• See related article: No Jail For Essex County Activists Arrested At Pipeline Protest

Glick also authored an inspiring message about race relations in the wake of George Floyd’s death earlier this year.

While riding his bike in Nutley – just a day removed from attending a massive protest in Newark – Glick said he started seeing Black Lives Matter messages on the pavement. Then he started seeing young people, teenagers, mainly women and mainly white, stretching out for what became a quarter of a mile, chalking dozens of messages.

He recalled:

“As I rode my bike by these wonderful, inspiring young people, I gave every one of them a thumbs up or said, 'good job,' or 'great work.' It was like a gift from God … These are the kinds of things that happen when a mass movement is alive and well, inspiring and moving new people to action.”

WHAT DOES IT FEEL LIKE TO FAST?

Glick has been documenting his latest fast on his website. Here’s where his mind has wandered since the hunger strike began.

Oct. 3 – “It’s now been 14 hours as I write since I had anything to eat, at a wonderful outdoor meal with Jane and close friends last evening, and I’m already feeling different. One thing I’m doing differently is yawning even though I had a good night’s sleep and have only been up for a few hours. It has to be related to my not drinking any coffee. I’ve usually had half a cup by now, and in general I drink at least that much on a normal day. I’m also feeling it a little bit in my stomach, a very slight discomfort, like it’s telling me, ‘time for some nourishment, what’s the problem?’ Based on past experience I expect it’ll be three to four or so days before this feeling and hunger pangs go away. I’m already looking forward to that next stage, the stage when the body’s craving for food has abated and I get onto a different plane, physically and psychologically. I hope, and expect, that because I ordinarily eat in a healthy way, lots of organic food, for example, I shouldn’t experience headaches or other discomfort caused by the body feeding on toxins and chemicals. We’ll see.”

Oct. 4 – “I’m doing OK physically, no real problems. But there are times when I long for food, times I need to remember why I am doing this, why it is so essential that President Chaos and many of his accomplices are removed from office, why this next 30 days and what happens on November 3 is so, so important. It takes literally seconds for me to shake off that food longing and get refocused. We’ll see how that goes going forward.”

Oct. 5 – “How do I feel? Weaker, no question. I can feel my stomach shrinking/crying out for food. I’m getting a little spacey, though I can definitely focus and do light work, like at the computer, and expect to be able to do so for most of the fast.”

Oct. 6 – “I’m feeling OK. My stomach feels like it’s getting used to the new reality. I was pleased that yesterday I took part in a small demonstration in the town of Roseland in opposition to the fracked gas compressor station there and in support of a rapid shift from fossil fuels to wind and solar. I stood with others for an hour and a half holding signs, and a lot of the cars which went by honked, waved or gave us a thumbs up. I don’t plan on going to other demonstrations for the duration of the fast, need to conserve my energy, but going to this one on day three seemed like an OK thing to do.”

Oct. 9 – “I am feeling my 71-year-old age. During my last, long water-only fast of 25 days, in 2007, I definitely had more energy and was more active over the course of it. How do I keep doing it? It’s easy; I just need to think of monster Donald Trump staying in the White House for four more years.”

Oct. 10 – “I decided this morning that I’m going to schedule an appointment with our family doctor for the end of the week, which will be about the halfway point of the fast. Friends have been urging me to do this since I announced the fast. I’m not doing so because there’s anything new happening with me. The main fast “symptom” is weakness and loss of energy, nothing else. But the thought of 24 more days feeling like this isn’t a happy thought, so it does make sense for me to be checked out by a doctor I trust.”

Oct. 12 – “My relationship to food on this fast, in part because I’m doing it at home, is not what most people would expect. Although I’m not eating, that doesn’t prevent me from smelling foods with a pleasing smell, which I do quite often. More than that, I have found myself making soups, salads and main dishes for wife Jane, and enjoying the experience. I enjoy working with the food, I enjoy making something that tastes good (according to Jane) and I am glad to be doing more than my usual share of cooking to give Jane more time to do other things. It feels very right. I almost never feel a strong urge to cheat and eat. My mind is very locked in, and has been for nine months, on my belief that this is the right action at the right time for me to be doing. I guess it’s a form of mind over matter, belief over usual human nature.”

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