How many times was that phrase repeated over the past few days. How many wishes were traded and how many winces were felt. We are urged to remember its meaning, yet I wonder: do we really and truly understand its meaning and the heavy onus it places upon us? Or has it become a joke, a sad joke, open to the adoption by bigots, by racists, by divisiveness, rather than unity? Has its very celebration highlighted the new and growing version of this country, one where we are delegated somewhere way down the line in the list of trusted and valued nations, where we are, truly, a sad joke, joining the historical heap of discarded, arrogant nations which lost their way and imploded?
Check history. List the great empires that flourished, that seemed invincible, that boasted of eternal rule, down to the Thousand Year Reich of Hitler and, sad to say, so sad to say, to the attempt by Trump and his blind and vicious acolytes to turn this country into the same thing, consigning us eventually, sooner than later, to that same historical garbage dump. But not before he and his subject all of us to a painful life as we change, devolve, from a democracy into a dictatorship, veiled by the same fake elections of similar countries.
Plagued by the same inefficiencies that grind down the economy, and racked by the ugly waves of hatred that divide the country and allow the dictator to wield even more power. He uses these hatreds, these words and deeds of hate, to inspire even more. Until finally, we breakdown after a frantic and frenzied attempt to remain viable. All the bread and circuses of Rome, all the boasting of the Huns, all the viciousness of words of dictators, - nothing worked. And it will not work here either.
What is left is an oy! as we contemplate our fall from the heights. Bad enough to have Melania as First Lady, basically huddling in the Residence until forced out by some need or other. Now we are faced with the chances of Kim Kardashian as one!!! With Kanye West as President? Oy, and triple that! This is what we have become. Every person who has a thought, right or wrong, feels capable of running the country. Right into the ground! And as the planes fly overhead, as the fireworks gain our attention, the busy little bees are working so hard at limiting our freedoms, our rights, our safety, our very being.
Being an American, How proud that used to feel. How often I told students that they were privileged to live in such a country. How ashamed I am now for saying that, for believing that - foolish me. Or perhaps I was just too idealistic. Could such a flawed yet earnest idea continue to exist? Could the high and idealistic ideas that informed the thinking of our Founders be translated into reality, at times missing the point altogether, yet ultimately trying again and always working towards a better country for all, a nation that took all, opened arms to those in need, treated our own who needed a helping hand with courtesy and true aid?
Yet as bad as it has gotten, there is still hope. There are those who do remember what the true meaning of the Fourth is. It is a day of hope. It is a day of recognition of the heroic efforts of all, immigrants all, strivers all, flawed individuals all, who all wanted a better nation for the world to follow. We went off track at times. We forgot the essence of who we were supposed to be. We would then pick ourselves up and walk further, back on track.
So we had our McCarthys. We had our Hardings. We had our misfits. We had the hateful and hate filled, the twisted, the Bishop Sheens, the Lincoln Rockwells, the KKK, the America Firsters, and the warped individuals who have taken advantage of a harsh and confusing time and sought to ruin our country, to become the first dictator of the USA. We have the Grahams and the McConnells who help this along.
Make no mistake about it. Conspiracy? Deep state? A dastardly and bastardly plan to place a placeholder in office, one so perfect for inciting divisiveness, for disunity, for cacophony rather than harmony. Then use that imbecile, that fool, to push to extremes. Use his dementia, his faulty character traits, his innate lack of any moral core, and await the day when it all collapses and the United States will have turned into yet another failure. When the president turns traitor, becomes our own generation's Benedict Arnold, selling our soldiers' lives, well, what is left to say?
Was this planned or was it simply a matter of taking advantage of a set of circumstances and then pushing , pushing, ever more, ever harder, towards a warped and twisted goal? I think it was the latter, but who knows. At least there is some hope peeking through the dark curtains of despair. At least there are even Republicans who have begun to wake up and see what they helped to be whelped and set down upon our shoulders.
But it is upon all of us, all Americans, born or naturalized, all lovers of peace and democracy, who value humanity in its individuality rather than in some nebulous and vague sense, who understand that yes, the country is flawed - but then again, so are we. Always, there is room to improve, but always we must value the goodness and the fervor and the honesty, the drive to be better, to become better, to do the right thing rather than not.
Want to be well? Stay well? Be Safe? The mantra of our times. Then you must take part in the effort to get us back on track, to turn our backs on hate, no matter where it originates. We must work hard and VOTE!! I cannot stress that enough. VOTE.VOTE. Democracy is a participatory activity, so participate and VOTE!!
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