EVIL

 Sometimes I feel like I'm beating a silent drum but, hey … a malignant dictator has been ruling my beloved country since, as he promised, the day he took office. He has continually trashed and degraded every promise of hope and tradition we have built in this country of such promise. He is a nasty, vile, and degenerate person who rules the country for which I gave up four years of my life.

That bothers me.

There are six elected officials, elected to national office, in my state who have chosen to become politically “joined at the hips” with this creature, enabling each of his antics with their silence. A majority of our state officials frolic behind him shouting hosannas.

This bothers me.

But, people I once knew as kind, generous, patriotic, and righteous souls laud his every act because he has attacked, or promises to attack, people they don't like or ideas they don’t agree with. Many of those ideas come straight from the mouth of the Galilean. Cult members support each destructive move as long as their enemies are in the line of fire. Good people now praise evil and worship the evil one.

That's what really bothers me.

RESIST FACISM

 MORNING THOUGHTS

One almost has to admire their cunning. Since Newt Gingrich showed them how, they have convinced enough Americans, including the young, that it is It is acceptable to:

Dishonor the dead,

Dishonor the veteran,

Dishonor the physically challenged,

Dishonor the female,

Dishonor persons of color, and

Disrespect the words of the Galilean on the Mount.

Can we even imagine an America fueled by youth indoctrinated so? It’s taken only 80 years to go from the band of brothers to the band of brigands.

DEFEAT FASCISM

 Journal of a Left-Wing Radical

Remember reading once (can’t verify the veracity)  that Archibald Alec Leach, a young performer, fashioned a persona for himself by mimicking a number of famous personages, one for voice, one for accent, one for bearing, and so forth. Whatever, it worked for the result known as Cary Grant.

I’ve been thinking. These increasingly seem to be the “end times” for the American Experiment. How would I like to be perceived as the final curtain falls? Let’s amalgamate the personages, real and fictional:

• -          The Andy Devine character of the “Happy Soldier” in the 1951 film version of “The Red Badge of Courage.”
• -          The unidentified character in the 1958 film “A Night To Remember” who, as the Titanic sinks, retires to the smoking room and calmly reads on a tilting deck.
• -          Joseph Campbell, the American scholar who once sought refuge at Woodstock, NY and read for five years.
• -          Bill Moyers, who produced the marvelous documentaries on Josehp Campbell and then on the song, “Amazing Grace.”
• -          The actor Keanu Reeves who appears, from all accounts, to be one hell of a great person.
• -          Liberace: A person highly skilled in his profession who never denied who he was and never took himself too seriously.
• -          Any journalist who saw early on that Donald J. Trump was a total fraud and grifter who had the magaligarch backing and degenerate moxie to destroy our country.
• -          Oh, best of all: Mr. Rogers, from one who will pass from this mortal coil wondering how the same country produced him and Cadet Bone Spurs.

Certified as Non-AI Generated and not ICE approved.

Redemption

Words matter. Sometimes they matter in a sad way. Sometimes they matter in another way. Sometimes their impact is predictable. Sometimes their impact is not. One person reads the immortal Sermon on the Mount and believes it carries a redemptive message of grace and righteousness. Another reads it and believes it carries a direct message to eliminate the tax on inherited wealth, punish immigrants, or despise those who are born with different sexual orientations.

Unlike water, words don’t remain the same after they are poured into a container. Consider, for example, a politician we all know. While running for office, he said, “I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody and wouldn’t lose any voters, okay?” He then mimicked firing a gun with his fingers, adding. “It’s, like, incredible.” For these words, he was elected president of the United States of America, albeit by the Electoral College and not by popular vote. Nonetheless, he now occupies the same White House where Abraham Lincoln, the two Roosevelts, Dwight David Eisenhower, Harry Truman, and others once slept.

Having arrived there, this politician used words to dishonor the military sacrifice of a man who served six years in a brutal prisoner of war camp on behalf of our country. He used words, with the assistance of gestures, to mock the speech and movements of a disabled man. He later used words to describe a group containing Neo-Nazis as having some “very fine people.” He used words to mock the family of a soldier killed in war in the service of our country.

His base supporters lauded and approved these and other words, solidifying even more tightly around him.

The sad thing is: consider what might happen if this politician were to request TV time tonight to make the following speech.

“My fellow Americans, we have become a divided nation and we must heal ourselves. We are all in this together, and face a highly complex and sometimes terrifying future. May I suggest that we face it together as friends, not foes? Our patriots faced a harsh future at Valley Forge. Our brave soldiers and sailors, men of every color, race, religion, and orientation, faced and conquered fear on the shores of Normandy. Our grandparents faced hunger and desolation, along with fear, during the Great Depression. Our heroes of the Civil Rights movement faced dogs and clubs on the streets, highways, and bridges of our nation in their fight for freedom.

“We survived these struggles through unity, not divisiveness. We joined hands as Americans and do what American do best, prevailing against the forces of hate and disparagement. In short, we faced the future as a united nation. That’s what I’m asking you to do tonight. I’m extending my hand in this symbolic gesture, and asking you, if you are physically able to move yours, to extend your hand toward my voice and join me in an oath of unity. If, because of infirmity or disability, you cannot extend a hand, simply smile as best you can and know that we stand with you and that we all stand together.

“The main religious figure for many of you charged us to care for the least of those among us. Another religious leader commanded that we care for the poor. I pledge to orient my administration to that charge. Starting tomorrow, I will not post my thoughts on the Internet. Instead, I will post my thoughts through action. Join me and let us persevere, as did our ancestors at Valley Forge. Let us charge into the Valley of the Shadow of Death as did those brave men in France. Let us welcome sacrifice in the name of justice as did my brother John Lewis and the brave women and men who fell underneath the horses and clubs at Selma. Let us be Americans, and show the world what that means, and may whatever God we each worship, including an inner-spiritual one who dwells in our own heart, bless us.”

Well. You and I both know what would happen. He would lose half his base overnight. Franklin Graham would never speak to him again. Stephen Miller would melt into a blubbering mass. Vladimir Putin would be shocked into silence. Fox “news” would shut down for emergency repairs, and five members of the United States Supreme Court would start wearing Groucho Marx disguises when leaving the building          .

Know what though? I think the Galilean would be smiling.

Many have given.
Many haven't.
 Some gave all.