The wind talkers debacle with the President made me crazy with frustration and shame. It literally made me sick to my stomach – and left me rehearsing all the ways the recipients should have given our President “what for”!
Then I thought of those who would laugh and defend even this behavior, those who voted for change because it was better than not having change. This brings to mind the more than one third of our citizens, who love calling themselves Americans, couldn’t recognize the fundamental values of same if their lives depended on it (as they do right now). It’s a bit like funeral-protesting “christians” who would be stunned at the abundance of melanin in Jesus’ skin and his reported determination to help those without health, means, or power!
Some days there are not enough yoga classes to slap me out of my profound anger and grief for the country our forefathers’ envisioned. Sadly as a white woman from a middle class background, I have lived under the delusion that their America ever existed at all. In that delusion, I believe, today more than ever, we have continued to fall woefully short of the original standard since the day the documents were signed and the government was formed.
They had great faith that a more open and learned society would emerge from the ideal they captured in that Declaration. What they did not plan for, perhaps, was an overall apathy that would creep into the fabric of our Americanism – and a fear of change on the part of the masses. Common sense became uncommon sense – and “me too” turned into “only me and mine” – and oddly enough, back to “me too”.
Perhaps Eli Whitney was the original Jack Welch – because his innovations certainly resulted in lost jobs – but we don’t focus on that in history books. Instead we focus on the increase in production and quality of American-manufactured goods. Maybe that was the beginning of an angry population? Currently, I believe the one third are experiencing a sick satisfaction with their poster child sitting in a white house cheerleading their bad behavior and ‘better than’ attitudes as the US government slowly creeps backward in time, like a 1972 Ford LTD left in neutral perilously at the top of Mt. Everest. We can see the crash coming – we just don’t know how many souls will be taken out as it bangs and crashes into the climbers on their way up or frankly, those standing perfectly still.
Patton Oswald and Terri Gross recently discussed that this president is such a colossal disaster that comics are actually doubling and tripling up on each other’s material because his behavior is completely out of line with anything we have seen at the top of our government and so potentially devastating to our country, both domestically and internationally, that it’s hard not to keep the spotlight on him.
It’s difficult to continue to fully comprehend and communicate how damaging his presidency has been and continues to be for the majority of the citizens of this country; how hate-full and disingenuous his behavior, language and true beliefs are; how quickly he is destroying the foundation of contemporary law; and perhaps, how utterly self-involved and misdirected he truly is – until the next level-headed, fair-minded administration uncovers the damage done.
We can only pray at that time there will also be a Congress who will restore the 21st Century rule of law – and that all who are damaged by this man-child’s reign will remember the hurt long enough to allow them do so.
