Once upon a time, not so long ago, Americans walked the earth with confidence and joy. They were proud of a country which welcomed in new Americans, who reached out to help others, who basically had decided to look on life with a rosier eye than not. They had read Robert Louis Stevenson's Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and the statement that "All human beings, as we meet them, are co-mingled out of good and evil." Americans used to make the choice of good, not that they were perfect and made lots of mistakes, but basically good was what they wished, what they taught their children, what they showed to the world.
Yes, there were aberrations what with the HUAC and McCarthy, the KKK, hateful periods of time as during the time of President Warren G. Harding, the corruptness and the hatred, the rabid anti Semitism of the time, the prejudice that African Americans faced, and groups of immigrants, including white ones from various countries. But somehow we managed to right ourselves, to come back to the center. But not now. Now it is different, frighteningly so.
Today we have a new organization called the Professor Watchlist, ostensibly there to watch those in the academic world who "advance leftist propaganda in the classroom." This was set up by a conservative youth group called The Turning Point USA. What was that again about the refuge of tyrants is patriotism?
Plato quoted Socrates as saying "As long as I draw breath and am able, I shall not cease to practice philosophy." Meaning? That justice came before and still comes before other concerns and it must always be so if we are to live in a world of justice and peace. But that is no more the motto of the day - not at all.
Today we have an administration to be that is almost laughable if it were not so sad and dangerous. We have bigots. We have people whose children are being brought in and that is not only Trump's kids but also Flynn's and Mercer's Rebekkah and all these kids are chips off the old block and even more extreme in some cases. They have not ben taught to act on morals but on what will make money and especially how to find a way to leave others holding the bag whilst they march off with a profit. Talk of the circuses of ancient and collapsing Rome. We have the Mercers sponsoring a costume party called Villains and Heroes and Trump attends going as himself. (You choose which category he falls into!)
Today being American means watching Kellyanne Conway, Trump's campaign manager, as the proposed head of a new organization that will boost Trump over all and when she was challenged at a meeting with Clinton's communication director, who accused Conway of running a campaign that "emboldened white supremacists and white nationalists" Conway reacted. She said or asked "Do you think I ran a campaign where white supremacists had a platform? You're going to look me in the face and tell me that?" The answer by one who held on to values and stood up for the truth said, "It did. Kellyanne, it did." And so it did.
And what do we do about it? What do we do about a new administration that is being called "Agents of Idiocracy"? What do we do with a president elect who is being greeted with contempt, who has lowered the bar so far down that there is almost no unqualified person anymore. Come ye, all ye sexual predators, and come ye all you liars and cheats and come ye all those who fail repeatedly in business, and come ye all who use hatred and spout hatred for all of you are the new Americans, the new face we will present to the world.
And yet, there are still Americans of old who refuse to lose that "Americaness" that gave the world much, that endowed us with a special heart, a flag that meant something, that we were proud to wave. There are still Americans who will stand up for what is right, for justice, for equality of all, no matter race, creed, color, religion, ethnic origin, orientation, gender, and any other category which now stands liable to be on the receiving end of hatred and even violence. Not everyone is cowed by the man with his finger on his Twitter button, by the man who thinks that everyone is "terrific", "believe me" - bigly so! And that his promise to us that he will make us great again is a slogan filled with lies and deceptions.
We have "bait and switch economics, we have empty promises", we have the same white class that voted for him just waiting there like lambs to the slaughter as their health care stands in danger even as they state that they like having coverage, something they did not have before the ACA. We have recounts being demanded and even now in Florida, a sign that the American people are not happy with this election, that it somehow reeks, especially as Hillary's popular vote now surpasses his by over two and a half million people. Where is the old rule of majority rules? Where do we really allow the voice of the people to speak? And how have we reached this point where Americans do not talk to each other anymore, so deep are the divisions and the tension.
Remember the "olden" days, those days in which we stood up to the Establishment and chanted "The whole world is watching" as we fought a war that was based on a lie of an attack, as we stood up for the right, as we took pride on those who rode the buses to the South and mourned the loss and disappearance of three brave boys, thrown into some unknown swamp. We had courage then, we believed in principles then, we stood for the right, the fair and where it was not we shouted for it, fought for it and put flowers in the rifles of soldiers. So where are those kids today? Would a Keith Ellison ever have been up for DNC chairman then? No, but he should not be today either, the man who has demonstrated anti Semitism of a strong degree over his lifetime But we are not thinking anymore. We just react and grow ever more extreme, forgetting that hatred has no boundaries; it oozes over all, drowns all it comes to and touches.
To be American today? You answer that question? Are we satisfied with the hatred, with the threats, with the coming four years of incompetence and dangerous posturings? Are we going to live past the idiotic insult to China, the country that owns over one trillion dollars of our debt, who lends us money as needed? And if they call it in? Yes, we need to challenge them on human rights, on some policies, but it must be done properly. And will we accept becoming a subject nation in all but name to Putin and his tactics? For surely we are headed there as Trump glows with praise for him. And are we going to see the last years of democracy here in the country, not perfect, but the best we have at the moment? Are we going to allow a demagogue to ruin it all, he and his lackeys and his Imperial Family and court figures?
Stand up for equality. Stand up for justice. Speak up where you see wrongs being done. Speak up for those who are losing their voices. Speak up for being an American. Remember what America is supposed to stand for, once stood for and must do so again.
I love my country, am proud to live here and to be an American. Why can we not all remember that? "The line between good and evil is permeable and almost anyone can be induced to cross it." True, sadly so, so let us work to stand on the side of good for that is what makes us human and that is what gives a hope for the future and that is what is supposed to make us Americans.
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