FOLLOWING THE LEADER......THE LEADER?

     Perhaps it is in the water we drink or the air we breathe, but there is something that is apparently causing adults to act more and more like children as time goes by. Cruel children, too.We should have all learned the art of being "nice" to others even as inside we were muttering to ourselves. Hypocritical? Perhaps, but at least it led to an ability to have calm conversations with compromises and conclusions reached and shared. But not anymore.
     Today we are all seemingly in a battle for control of the schoolyard. Who will get the basketball court and who will have to stand by and watch? But governing a nation, interacting with the world, is not a game, nor a time passing activity. It demands mental and moral strength. It demands an intellectual capacity for things other than cheating and lying and defrauding others. It demands a sanity that precludes megalomaniac and paranoidal behavior. It demands a leader with morals, one who can be a role model for the positive and the good. And hopefully, the leader should be inspiring.
     Well......we sure as hell do not have that leader in place today. Not only does that leader, the presumed President of the country fail in all regards as a leader, but he has somehow managed through various means to subvert the remainder of the Republican Party and they are playing following the leader with both enthusiasm and fear, hoping and planning to retain their power even as the country devolves into one huge mess.
     He lies. His aides and appointees lie. He threatens to sue - to SUE - the networks, in particular NBC and the show SNL for one sided and negative portrayals of him and his crew and their actions. What a fool! What an idiot. Obviously, he slept through the lessons on the Constitution or was simply too dumb to internalize and understand them, and/or he simply wishes to become the first dictator for life of this country, once a proud democracy and role model.
     The pundits make much of his increasing isolation and his feelings of abandonment and even his growing concern at the hill of legal problems rolling his way. Tough! Prices have to be paid and if one cannot stand the time, do not do the crime, the old adage we all heard growing up.
He has demeaned his own FBI and Justice Department which is such a prime example of the two strains of government we now have, pulling and tugging on the rope in between, the rope that consists of the USA. Who will win? Dear Lord, I hope it is us and not the illegitimately elected man serving himself as president.
     We are now at the point where if one is deemed a 'criminal', be it true or not, or one falls into a class deemed untermenschen,  then one has no rights as a human being. Yes, if one is allegedly guilty of check fraud, put that one on trial and see what happens in court, but no, their children are not freebies as spoils of victory, and whatever happened to the "protect and serve' motto of our law enforcement officers?
     So what do we do when a Senator like Collins votes for an alleged sexual pervert for Supreme Court and then plays coy with 2020 and Trump?What do we do when people are searching for ways to improve themselves and are fouled up in a mess the government made and refuses to clean up dealing with for profit 'schools' that were not worth a dime? Is it left alone because no supporter of Trump wants to remind the public that he cheated millions out of people with his proven false Trump University, pardon the expression! What do we do when women turn in droves from the rump of the Republican Party, now actually the Trump Party? Will these men ever learn a lesson? Or will we be doomed to increasing and more active expressions and actions of deep bias?
     The most inspiring statement I found today comes from a beautiful woman who is Miss Spain in the Miss Universe contest and at last there is a reason for this idiocy. Read her words as she spoke out about her purpose for being in the contest, she, a transgender woman and when will we stop using that term and just accept people as they are? Read. Think. Admire.
     "My hope is for tomorrow to be able to live in a world of equality for everyone, simply for us all to understand that we are human and we must make all our lives easier together," she said. "If I can give that to the world, I don't need to win Miss Universe, I only need to be here." 
 "I'm here to eradicate the intolerance and to raise Equality for everyone, even if I will not win the title" Equality for all - what a concept!