November 8, 2017: Part Three

What to say about one of the hardest years of my life?

If you think this is going to be a "sour grapes" blog, you don't know me very well, and you should probably just stop reading now. Or, keep reading, and learn something about what I think and feel. Then, after you've thought about what I have written, I hope you take time to respond to me. A civil society cannot survive without educated, civilized discussion.

Part Three
As I have said, I heard his words while on the campaign trail, and I was sickened by the ugly divisiveness. Instead of inspiring us to be our best selves, working to make our world a better place, we were instead encouraged to turn on our neighbors, on "others".
These words, from our presidents, have all set a tone.

President # 1:  "My administration is committed to your security, which is why we will continue to fight to take all necessary and legal action to keep terrorists—radical and dangerous extremists—from ever entering our country. We will not allow our generous system of immigration to be turned against us as a tool for terrorism and truly bad people. We must take firm steps today to ensure that we are safe tomorrow."
President # 2:  "I've always thought New Year's Day was an especially American tradition, full of the optimism and hope we're famous for in our daily lives -- an energy and confidence we call the American spirit. Perhaps because we know we control our own destiny, we believe deep down inside that working together we can make each new year better than the old."
President # 3:  "America rejects bigotry. We reject every act of hatred against people of Arab background or Muslim faith America values and welcomes peaceful people of all faiths - Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Sikh, Hindu and many others. Every faith is practiced and protected here, because we are one country. Every immigrant can be fully and equally American because we're one country. Race and color should not divide us, because America is one country."

President # 1:  "If we think there is an undermining now, just wait if Sharia is adopted or utilized by justices in the United States."
President # 2:  "Well, the task I've set forth will long outlive our own generation. But together, we too have come through the worst. Let us now begin a major effort to secure the best- a crusade for freedom that will engage the faith and fortitude of the next generation. For the sake of peace and justice, let us move toward a world in which all people are at last free to determine their own destiny."
President # 3:  "God is not on the side of any nation, yet we know He is on the side of justice. Our finest moments [as a nation] have come when we faithfully served the cause of justice for our own citizens, and for the people of other lands."
[President # 1 is Donald Trump. President # 2 is Ronald Reagan. President # 3 is George W. Bush. I chose these three to show it's not just a Republican bias I have.]

In my opinion, a person who is elected to the highest office in the land has a duty to select the brightest, most qualified, most visionary people to work for him. To protect the American people, these officials have to be honest and ethical. To that end, they must disclose their tax returns, all business ties to foreign countries, and complete a thorough background check. How sad it is that we still do not know who Trump has business dealings with, who he is most beholden to. How sad it is that he has selected unqualified individuals for Cabinet positions:  Betsy DeVos and Ben Carson, and has placed his family in positions that need someone with governmental experience and international knowledge. How sad it is that a man who pledged to "drain the swamp" of Washington has already, in less than a year, lost a National Security Advisor because of the man's shady connections, had another Cabinet Secretary quit because he was basically using US military aircraft for his own personal use, and has had another Cabinet Secretary under scrutiny because a two-person company was given a no-bid contract to supply ALL of Puerto Rico with power. How sad.

And, how sad it is that a majority of people in this country knew this man was going to reverse the gains of women, members of the LGBT community, minorities, immigrants, the poor, and disabled, but yet our voices were ignored. Now, we are finding out that we were right. We. Were. Right.

I cried on November 9, 2016. I mourned the loss, but I mostly feared for my country. Sadly, every day, I watch my fears become reality. Every single day, the man elected to the presidency of the United States does greater and greater harm to our country and our world. He has succeeded in dividing us, turning neighbor against neighbor. He has succeeded in making the rich richer, and making the poor, the sick, and the elderly more at risk than they have been since the 1960's. He has made our air more polluted, our water more undrinkable, and our planet more at risk. Because of our new lack of standing in the world, our planet is more unstable.
That being said, I do have one hope today.
I hope my country survives. 

November 8, 2017: Part Two

What to say about one of the hardest years of my life?

If you think this is going to be a "sour grapes" blog, you don't know me very well, and you should probably just stop reading now. Or, keep reading, and learn something about what I think and feel. Then, after you've thought about what I have written, I hope you take time to respond to me. A civil society cannot survive without educated, civilized discussion.

Part Two
While this blog will contain my opinion, I assure you I have done some research, found factual information, and have thought extensively about what I want to say. If you want to respond to me, or if you are going to say that any part of what I write is untrue, I hope you will first develop a fact-based argument.
Last year, when I woke up on November 9th (after a night of fitful sleep), I cried. I cried because I knew what we as a country had lost, and I knew what I had lost. As a country, we had lost an opportunity to elect a highly-qualified, public-minded, empathetic person. While the majority of Americans had voted for this person, the Electoral College-based election process had selected Donald Trump to be the next Leader of the Free World. Instead of a person who had been in government and knew how enormous and important an institution this was, we now had a neophyte to lead us; a person with no knowledge of the complexity of the office he was about to enter. I cried, because I did not think he cared to educate himself about this new job of his, and he certainly did not grasp the history of our, or any other country, and its' people. I heard his words while on the campaign trail, and I was sickened by the ugly divisiveness, AND by the complete ignorance about how our government operates.
Unfortunately, my fears were well-founded. He does not understand how government works; he certainly does not understand how the three branches of government operate, and "Checks and Balances" is a term that seems to escape his understanding. What follows are his actual Tweets (from the Trump Tweet Archive). What a horrible way to communicate your thoughts and goals to the rest of the world.

"Love seeing union & non-union members alike are defecting to Trump. I will create jobs like no one else. Their #Dem leaders can’t compete!" Actually the president does not create jobs. But, by his words and actions, he CAN inspire business leaders to expand their businesses. Or, he can work with Congress to pass laws that might enable the workforce to expand and grow. HOWEVER, creating jobs is not the goal. Creating jobs that pay a living wage, and provide healthcare and retirement benefits for their workers will make this a far better nation and world.

"Mexico will pay for the wall!" Actually, no they won't. This wall will cost billions of dollars. We cannot force another country to pay for something in our own country, and our legislative and judicial branches will not support such a plan. If you believed this campaign promise, I am sorry. He lied to you. 

"With all of the Fake News coming out of NBC and the Networks, at what point is it appropriate to challenge their License? Bad for country!"  According to the Tweet Archive, he has mentioned "Fake News" 142 times so far. His predecessors in this job have understood that the job of the media is to hold the president accountable. They may never have liked the press, but his words here are downright dangerous. "Challenging their License"? That's a direct attack on the First Amendment to the Constitution. His remarks about the press are extreme, and undermine our democracy. 

 I could go on and on with his Tweets and the ignorance they reveal, but I won't. You have seen them, and can judge for yourself. Or, we can talk about it. But one final point I want to make about his woeful lack of ability to do his job as leader of our country:
According to the American Foreign Service Association, these are the countries still without an ambassador. Egypt, Iraq, MEXICO, UN Human Rights Council, and SOUTH KOREA are all still without ambassadors. In case you are unclear about the role of an ambassador, they are our eyes and ears in a foreign land. They often speak for the president to the leaders of that country. In times of crisis, they are the first who can respond for the United States. If you have any doubt about the importance of an ambassador, I suggest you watch a few episodes of "Madame Secretary". Seriously. 
I was worried he wouldn't care about other countries, and would have a simplistic knowledge, if any, about their history. I was right. Because of his words and actions, or lack thereof, the United States is no longer looked to for leadership in the world. We are no longer the shining example for human rights, free press, justice, and equality that we once were. There are other countries who are trying to step into the void left by the United States, but that in itself is a precarious thing--I mean, who wants to look to guidance from Russia or China in world affairs?
God help us, because our leader can't. 

November 8, 2017: Part One

What to say about one of the hardest years of my life?

If you think this is going to be a "sour grapes" blog, you don't know me very well, and you should probably just stop reading now. Or, keep reading, and learn something about what I think and feel. Then, after you've thought about what I have written, I hope you take time to respond to me. A civil society cannot survive without educated, civilized discussion.

Part One
Sadly, we have gotten away from discussing. Facebook makes it so hard to have intelligent, fact-based discussion. Copy and paste anything from any source--that seems to have taken the place of "this is what I believe, and these facts are what have led me to this conclusion." We are too busy, and life moves too fast for these discussions to take place. We are distracted by celebrities, by the "famous for 15 minutes", and sadly, by a Leader of the Free World who communicates to the rest of the world in 140 character Tweets. We have SO MANY news sources, and so little time to actually separate fact from fiction, truth from lies. An untruth at 8 a.m. is repeated so often that by 8 p.m. it is believed as fact. In the rush to get a scoop, or to be the first to report something, some news outlets go with "first impressions" rather than verified facts. And we, instead of being educated, responsible adults, read or listen to "commentators" to get our news, instead of reading or listening to fact-based news reports. And sadly, some of us do not know the difference.
For our democracy to survive we need to know the difference. We need to.
Facts are facts. There are no "alternative facts".
There are reputable news sources. There is "fake news", but it's up to YOU to figure out what news is fake. YOU need to figure that out for yourself; as a responsible adult in a democratic society:  YOU need to read various opinions, YOU need to find out the facts, and YOU need to decide for yourself. I will help you a little on this one:  News of the World is not a fact-based publication. The New York Times is. The NYT does print the facts. If they get the facts wrong, they issue a correction. For many reasons, The New York Times has been, and hopefully will continue to be, a highly-regarded source of news world-wide. 
And then there's Russia. We knew last year that Russia was interfering in our electoral process. We did not know the extent of their interference, and we do need to know that. If you are one of those people who believes that the majority of us are talking about Russia because "we just wanted Hillary to win", you need to grow up. This isn't another "sour grapes thing", this is REAL, and if we do not find out how far Russia went to sow discord in America, we will not survive long as a country. We were already being manipulated by politicians in THIS country; the "Us" vs. "Them" arguments were keeping us apart long enough for them to be re-elected. And now a foreign country is doing the same, but to a much greater extent. Re-read the last paragraph I wrote. We--all of us--have probably "copy and pasted" something written by a Russian bot. Heck, we've probably already argued with one on-line. That's why talking face to face, or writing original thoughts to one another are so important.
We need to communicate. We need to speak to one another as educated adults.
We need to stop being parrots. We need to start being thinkers.
If we don't, our country is doomed. I give this "Experiment with Democracy" another ten years, tops, if we don't change our ways.
Thus ends Part One.