To be American used to be a cause for pride. It used to be a standard for others. And yes, it was not a perfect thing to be as America made errors in judgement and deed, but it was a person and nation that tried its best and was willing to fix its errors and stride forward.
We used to have figures that we admired, people who stood for something good, for something essential to the world. They were our leaders, in both the world at large and in our own personal worlds. Today? Today it seems that all I read has talks of the knowledge of the leaders, secular and religious, who knew of ill doings, of molestation, of embezzlements, of misuse of funds, of outright and egregious misbehavior and I wonder how it was that none of this ever exploded before and then I find out that every time someone spoke up, some corrupted soul quashed that lone voice crying in the wilderness. So perhaps our pride in being American was misplaced. But then again, this misbehavior, to understate it, took place all over the world.
Today all that festered underneath has erupted in a great big ugly fountain of disgust. Our leaders not only had feet of clay, but it appears that almost their entire bodies were made of clay, and not the good stuff that the good Lord above used to create man. We, humanity, has corrupted that clay for sure!
And now, we in America, have the most awful administration ever, led by a man who is a self confessed criminal and yet there he is, still in office, and actions and misdeeds that he has done, during the election campaign, prior to it, and even now as president, despite all that he has done, despite the admissions of his supposed base that yes, he is wrong, has done wrong and has so many character flaws it would take a page to list - and yet, there he is, still in the Oval office, leading the world to perdition, rather than to a better world.
We, America and Americans, have failed, totally, drastically and we are still failing every time one praises that man and his minions, or advocates looking aside. The one that gets me the most is that which says, "give him time' - and I wonder. Time? It is almost two years in office and he has grown from bad to worse, from nasty to evil.
This week we are laying to rest one of the world's last true heroes. He was neither corrupt nor immoral. He defended his country at a time when it was in a morass, underwent true torment during time of capture and yet, came out whole, mentally and morally, at the end and continued to serve his country. I did not always agree with his beliefs on some policy issues, but always, I knew and admired him as a true American hero. Now he is gone, and that piece of sludge in the White House, cannot even offer words of praise upon the death of McCain. So kudos to McCain that he remained true to his ideals even in death. He chose Obama and George W. Bush to eulogize him, bringing together two parts of America and has eliminated the presence, the divisive and corrosive and yes, evil, presence of Trump from his funeral rites and memorial services.
So yes, I am in despair, wondering when, if ever, we can pull ourselves out of this moral swamp that Trump has enlarged all this time and for which he has even greater plans for enlargement, even as he drowns the rest of America in it. I am disgusted with his behavior and with the cowardice of the Republican Party members, its Congressmen, their lack of moral backbones. I am ashamed at what we as a nation have become and where we are headed and I grieve for us and for the future we are destroying.
Do I have hope? Yes, but it grows dimmer every day. It seems that nothing will change, ever changes, no matter what that man does or does not do. And I just watched an episode of Salvation wherein there was Civil War, troops in the street, our own soldiers , armed and ready to shoot, entering the White House, in support of a criminal. And I wondered, is this what we have instore if things can not be handled legally. Is this what America has in its future? So far everything I have written has proven to be so. My very words and ideas are cropping up in the thoughts and articles of those far wiser and knowledgeable than I. I am not looking for an I told you so, and wish that I was wrong. That scene of troops in the streets of DC? Lord, I pray I am wrong and that somehow we get off that street, revert it to a lane of traffic and prosperity, trust and hope. And then despair rears its ugly head once more.
No comments:
Post a Comment