We are all so confused these days. We have given up retaining the names of important individual officials as they change so often. We confuse truth and falsehood as often because there appears to be no length to which some people will go to in order to attain their goals. In fact, we are even uncertain as to what these goals are. Are they truly stated or are there underlying reasons. And what about all those lines?
Here are my new guidelines to sanity, my lifelines to reality. First up is the most important and I have learned that the hard way. Do not EVER try to understand the Trump supporters, particularly if they ever had functioning brains at some point in their lives. What is so obvious - his lack of intelligence, his nastiness, his focus on self to the detriment of all others, his narcissism, egoism, paranoia, crude language that remains on a second grade level and I apologize to all second graders for that comment - all are deep and troubling symptoms of danger. We have a demented, damaged man serving as president when he is not even capabe of serving as that second grade class president.
So why do people believe his obvious lies, his recanting of one lie and replacing it with yet another and another and another until one is not sure of one's own name! They believe because they cannot believe how foolishy naive they were, how they allowed this less than classy guy overcome their brains, and they are deeply ashamed. So what to do? Keep defending the lost cause until you actually begin to believe the lie because that is your lifeline to sanity, to pride, to trust in oneself. Sad, but true.
In fact, it is the same excuse people made for all the times they trusted in an upstart politician who promised the world, gold clad, a new ideal. When the ideal tarnished, when the lies and excuses came along, ever growing in numbers, one continued to hang on. How could one be so stupid? Fall for it? Should have known better? Shamed, they put on blinders and like sheep, follow an ever diminishing herd. Worse, they find a way to profit from the shambles of a nation, emulating the leaders own habits and practices.
Hence the second line. Understand that many, if not most, people are greedy and look out for number one. That is why the do gooders, the samaritans, the volunteeers, stand out. Thank the Lord these people exist. So instead of fuming and fulminating, do something. Speak out, speak up, join in volunteering and supporting a worthwhile cause. Push for the truthteller, the one who goes for honesty over selfish reasons, such as benefitting from government funds. Look for the person who leaves family home, as he travels somewhere on country business. Look for the person who does not engage in insider trading. Look for the one who does not treat employees as slaves, personal body servants. From dog walking to cleaning clothes trips, and even food delivery.
Finally, though there are more things to do, look for the one who can accept responsibility for deeds done by either himself or by others in his name. The buck stops at the top dude or dudette. Take it. It is part of the job. Clean up the mess, install better people, better process and procedure and always make one's way forward. Where oh where is such a person? Certainly not in the WH today. Certainly sparse on the ground, but for sure we can keep raising the bar, reinstall pride in public serivce and gather the better part of our people to work for us, for the country and for the world, not for the wallets of the fatcats and friends. Continue to be blind to the truth and these people will laugh all the way to the bank as they break laws, untouchable, always excused via the friend in that Oval Office. Nothing will ever change. Not if we continue to wear blinders, do not believe in our true minds, and allow a dangerous fool to lead us into perdition and doom.
Certainly do not believe that this criminally stupid behavior on the part of all ends at the federal level. How many times have we not exposed a governor or mayor who has refused to follow the correct advise, or followed the faulty advise? Why are we encouraging armed, crazed people who focus, obsess, on facial masks as symbols of freedom, enough so that they shoot people in its name with a president who encourages this. And why do we tolerate inefficient people, people beyond their sell by date, to continue to faultfully man the steering wheel at the prow of a boat going under?
We all know the cases of people who should have retired long ago, now well past their prime, yet either unaware or ignoring it. So they make mistakes, some expensive ones. They become nasty in their urge to retain power in their little pond, where they think they are big toads. Sadly, others suffer for this and certainly the physical plant or the funding or the movement suffers from this lack of the best leadership. Yet people still support. Why? They think they need to justify past years of support when they already knew better. They hesitate to jeopardize their own little circle of power. They are tired of covering up. They realize the dire need for new blood, fresh air. They finally accept the truth.
In the meanwhile we have all levels of government and opposition either taking advantage of a bad situation, a time of great uncertainty and fear, who close down the windows and lock the doors. Meetings are canceled in the name of security even as Zoom goes universal, used by many of the same people here - even for meetings!! But why let people into the inner circle? Much better, much easier to spend funds, to prioritize incorrectly, to keep a strangle hold on the reins of power and money, even as the backing is evaporating.
Right now we are approaching at 'warp' speed, (sorry, couldn't help that) a fork in the road. Momentum can continue us onto the bad fork, the dangerous one, the one where liberty, faith, truth, honesty, all are among the missing. Or we can exercise speed restraint, control the curve and proceed on the other road, harder at first, but certainly more beneficial in the long run. On this road there are no"super dooper missiles" nor a President assuming an actor's performance of an uplifting speech from an old movie, superimposing his face on the screen, thinking he is fooling anyone. The truth is, the man has no class, no brains, no functioning intelligence, only the whims and impulses of the second grader with two baseball cards to trade, one bent and the other a nobody, even as the gum in the package is prechewed, touted as better for your teeth. And there are people who will be fooled. Always.
Folks, there are hard battles ahead, difficult and trying days and weeks, months and years. There is much to reform, to fix, from dangerously incompetent judges, to refilling the empty desks of of professionals fired for delusions of Trump. We need to return to the regulations of safety for our citizens, for the environment. We need to take back the free gift of monies to the corporations who banked it rather than spend it on expansion and hiring. We need to reform medical care in the country, remake and format our immigration system, being fair and humane, smart yet caring. We need to protect our Supreme Court, return to the separation of powers of our Constitution. We need to return to law, acknowledge that no one, NO ONE, is above the law.
We need to roll up our sleeves and dig in, work hard and long but it can be done. Under it all we are still Americans and whatever lines divide us now can be filled in, tamped down, eliminated and a new line of unity can be installed. We need to eliminate the line, the growing line of hatred and prejudice for once and always. We need to eliminate the lines of fracture in the country and we need to reestablish our lines of communication with allies and even our enemies. Most of all, to do this we must BE WELL and STAY SAFE. Wear the dang masks and distance yourself. You are not only killing yourself if you do not, but also your neighbor and your parents and your kids. Have we not all lost enough?
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