Photo: https://www.flickr.com/photos/ susanmelkisethian/34220231991/ sizes/m/
by Ernie McCray
I just hurriedly clicked off a discussion on TV concerning how Trump might do in the 2020 race for the presidency.
What little I heard was too much for me – because with all I’ve seen of this man idiocy – just mentioning his name in regard to his being re-elected.
That such a conversation can even take place in our democracy says to me that we are undoubtedly, in a bad place, in a state of social and political disgrace aka crisis.
Just look at us. It’s like we’ve lost our way. I mean there’s an NFL quarterback who can’t find a job because he took a knee during the singing of “Oh, say can you see” without us, for a moment, addressing the crippling racism in our country that he was protesting. No word in defense of his patriotism or against our national shame by the top dog in the Land of the Free.
Instead of leading us down paths to respectability he’s busy introducing “English Only” games in his anti-immigration schemes; trying to destroy health care for millions of human beings and kicking Planned Parenthood to the curb like a man smoking some kind of heart and soul disturbing herb; rallying those, who are hired to protect and serve, to rough up their arrestees.
Unaware of history, of how many warriors have, over centuries, dared to dream that they could overcome the Taliban and other insurgents and the rampant corruption and instability of the Afghan political scene, only to die trying, he entertains naïve fueled fantasies about “winning.”
God save our teenagers who have to sacrifice their lives for these needless armed conflicts, these violent crises, that seem to never end.
Crises here. Crises there. Crises everywhere: plans for schools to be privatized while inner-cities rot on the vine; people of color finding it harder to vote; climate change painted as a hoax; talk of transgendered folks being drummed out of the military; affirmative action programs threatened by “reverse discrimination” notions that white males are being left behind as if Blacks and Chicanos are swarming our universities like bees forming new colonies.
There can be no crisis bigger than when a president speaks to 40,000 boy scouts at their annual Jamboree and dishonors the occasion with the most inane insane vain profane inhumane un-urbane un-restrained shameful hard to explain comments imaginable about swamps and cesspools; about how great the election was; about sewers and firings and loyalty (to him his highness); about being able to say “Merry Christmas again” – with him throwing in, for good measure, a putdown of Obama, and a story about an old friend who sailed yachts and lost all his money and his accessibility to the “hotties” of the Big Apple.
I can still hear the chilling “We love Trump!” and the “USA! USA!” cheers that reminded me of the Hitler Youth of Germany I used to see on the Movietone News at the picture show during my childhood years.
The president had an opportunity to talk to these innocent young people about striving to be all they can be, about being loving and caring and appreciative of the rich diversity in our society or about looking for ways to serve their country well.
He could have praised the BSA for coming around to accepting and respecting our nation’s LGBTQ citizens. But ideas of hope bypass his brain like flour going through a sifter.
So how do we end a crisis that dampens any so called effort of making America great again?
I think the solution requires that we fully acknowledge that our national leaders, generally, have little to no integrity, no real sense of right and wrong or good and evil – and then call on our spiritual selves, our abilities to look into matters deeply, and commit seriously – in spite of the lack of positive leadership in D.C. – to creating the kind of respectable highly moral critical thinking society we so desperately need.
And we need to do this in full sight of our children. They won’t have as many tools to face the unknown and unseen challenges and crises awaiting them down the line, if they don’t see us at our best, in this moment of time.
We can start with strategizing how to keep Trump from ever being president again, as he is a crisis making machine.
Photo: https://www.flickr.com/photos/ susanmelkisethian/34220231991/ sizes/m/
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