RED FLAGS FLYING

    The red flags at a beach tell us to stay out of the water as too dangerous for swimming or anything else. Does anyone not see the red flags that fly every time that Trump opens his mouth? And yet as rhetorical as that question is, there are, it seems, people out there who do not see what is there in front of their eyes.
     "Blessed is the one who does not walk in step with the wicked." (Psalms 1:1)
     There is a tendency these days to overlook faults in our ostensible leaders, to see them as either all good or all evil. I do not understand why that is. Yes, I support Hillary Clinton for President for many reasons, but I do not look away from her dents and dings. Certainly I would rather have not had an email issue, overblown as it is, but there it is. It exists, but when one delves into the issue there is much that is exaggerated and overblown, particularly by her opponents.
     On the other hand, when I think of that verse from Psalms and think of Trump, the connection is frightening. Even if the man had some good intentions, to possibly mean that he wishes to keep the citizenry of America safe, his road to that safety is not one to drive down. Indeed, it is a wicked one.
     "I alone can do it." "I will be your voice." Well, in America we do not do things alone. That is the world of the dictator and the inflated sense of one's own importance. That is the arrogant assumption that he can speak for the many, he and he alone. Well, the man must think again for surely the path that a good society clings to is that of cooperation and unity, freely speaking opinions in a civilized manner with no threats or selfish assumption of the cape of a leader.
  
"But just remember this. Our Constitution is great. But it doesn't necessarily give us the right to commit suicide, okay?  Now we have a religious, you know, everybody wants to be protected. And that's great. And that's the wonderful part of the Constitution. I view it differently."
     No, I did not go nuts. These are the words of he who would be President, that would be our leader and if anyone can make sense of this, or can feel confident of this man speaking for us, representing us, either here in the States or internationally among the nations of the world, then please, I beg of you, explain to me how that is possible and what the heck that paragraph just said.
     A character in a book I read yesterday said, " Appreciation has the power to transform the mundane into something beautiful." I do not see the appreciation of the mundane in his world. Rather it is a world of superlatives, exaggerations, nonsensical statements and scary ones.  It is a world of poor role models, for no, dictators are not admirable even if the trains run on time and inevitably those trains will roll to a stop. Ostensibly there was a loosening of the reins in China and yet look what has happened - corruption, imprisonments and more dictatorial behavior. The truth will out. The Putin era in Russia is not a good one, ruled as it is by a demagogue, a man who has brought corruption and fear to a rare form. The Turkey of Erdogan is undergoing a frightening transformation. And the world stands still, if not in step with the wicked, then perhaps just a step or two behind. It seems we feel we can only critique our allies, our true allies, and we let the rest of the world do what they would. This is the world of the dictator, the world that admires them. This is the world of Trump and when he promises to take care of things, to bring about law and order, we should all shudder and question whose law and order and how will it be enforced?
     All leaders should answer to those they ostensibly lead. It is when they assume a mantle of arrogance and feel that they are exempt from responsibility, exempt from answering questions, exempt from justifying their actions, exempt from obeying the rules and laws of their political arena - it is then when we have great big problems. Thank the Lord above that we have not yet had that here in America, the closest being George III and you know what happened in that case! But we must be ever vigilant to avoid its peril and right now we are edging right up to the line that must not be crossed.
     For four days in July we had rule by riot, rule by demand, rule by emotion. We had an "America First" revival and a David Duke who feels he is empowered by Trump and his vision and announces his candidacy for Senator from Louisiana. Shudder!!!And this was all headed and 'inspired' by one who did the following:
   Allowed the convention to descend into riot and fear,
   Appealed to panic, to hatred to build a basis of support - and thank the dictators of history for that 'inspiration'.
   Had the world ignore his multiple bankruptcies,
   His obscenity of a 'university" that fed on its poor victims;
   Who took his money while ignoring the bills and payment due of the small people, the workers who did his building;
   And what I found most offensive, used some of the poorest speakers ever to represent him and his views, and preyed on a poor mother who lost her grown child and who has told Trump to stop this,
   Who allowed his supporters to shout for the EXECUTION no less of his opponent, for her hanging, her electrocution and at the very least, her imprisonment.
     This is not acceptable.
     Is this sane and balanced?
     Is this the leader that we want and hope for?
     and where does it end? It makes the 'lies" that  Hilary is accused of look like nursery tales, and of total unimportance. No one is perfect and no leader, not here nor in the international arena is perfect and we tend to either pick on these faults till we make them bleed or we ignore them and put the leader on a pedestal. Neither path is right and we must learn to weigh and value.
     Another character in a book said this wise statement. "The question all Americans must ask themselves lingers painfully. How does a war like this ever end."
     Yes, we are at war. We have the War on Terrorism And who knows the truth of all that. All I know is that we have seemingly no united plan to combat this in a victorious manner nor have we truly defined terrorism and its sources. We have not yet learned that being PC is not the way to win a war. We have not yet learned that saying something does not make it so. The statement of the Pharaohs of old - "as it is written so it shall be done" does not quite work anymore. All of Trump's overblown statements that he, and he alone, can bring this to an end are full of hot air and dangerous red flags. But we must start somewhere. We must begin. We must winnow through the wheat and the chaff of those who would be our leaders and folks, that means locally and internationally and if someone can define the difference between the characteristics of Trump, his failures, his lies about them, his nastiness and use of vile emotions, his lack of details to fill out his wild statements, his arrogance, his megalomania, his lack of ability to speak intelligently amongst the public - define the difference, if indeed there is any, between him and his ilk and the dictator we have here in CV - David Israel - who just gets worse by the day, more autocratic and less democratic by every statement made - if you can do this - please do so, for I am in as much despair at the possibility of Trump as I am at the reality of David Israel and his dictates. And someone please tell me why there is a person listed on the Executive Board who had not yet been confirmed by the DA as there has been no quorum to do so. The Village continues to rot, to sink into a morass of all that is wrong, and all he does is make threats and plan poorly, if at all, for the realities that face us in the very soon to be upon us present and future.
     Political arenas tend to mirror each other. We need to break some mirrors, do we not? Legally, please. Let us make war on those who would deny us all our liberty and our rights. Let us make war on those who would deliver us into a world that is not of our desire. Someone out there, start thinking of who we really need as our president - in the USA and here, in the Village. As the Brady Bunch used to sing - "When its time to change its time to rearrange....". The time has come.