It has been almost a week now since Election Day. I have tried to figure out a way to write this without offending any particular person or group. It just ain't going to happen.
For those who know me, put aside my sarcasm and road rage, and I generally am not someone who goes out of his way to be offensive. I try to find the middle ground, I try to build consensus. But, as anyone who has been in a position of leadership, or been the ultimate decision-maker, you must at some point make a decision, and move forward or remain stuck in place.
If you ask me whom I cast my vote for, I shall inform you to go pound sand. As a rule, very rarely endorse any particular candidate or push for any particular ballot initiative or proposal. Instead, I advise folks to become informed and decide based on facts and how well a particular candidate represents them overall, not just on one or two issues, or how a particular proposal aligns with what you believe to be right. I am an independent voter and have cast my ballot for who best represents the most important issues to me, and voiced my opinions to them about issues where we disagree. That is how representative democracy works.
Most of you should know that, on some basic level, so I shan't deliver a lesson in civics.
I am sure that many of my friends and family members, as well as many of you part-time purveyors of my wordsmithing, had your candidate for President of the United States. The rest of you did not. So much for the introduction and attempts at remaining non-offensive.
I want to say congratulations to you who believe you won. I want to be optimistically hopeful that the good that can come from having him as the face of the United States to the world and the good that he can proffer as the executive of government to help the citizens of this nation he will lead. I want to believe. I want to be surprised, and shocked even, that I wasn't willing to give that person the benefit of the doubt, because his bombast and divisiveness were the character he portrayed, not the actual character of the person.
As a rational, thinking person, who values logic, I can't. Not even a little. I am disgusted, I am heart-broken, I am confused. Four years of division, derision, and deceit weren't enough to convince you. The intervening four years of unmade plans, waffling on a stance, and continued hate, didn't convince you. Now, a narcissist and extreme present hedonist will again be in charge, and use the bully pulpit to move this nation further away from the ideals that the United States represents (represented?, strove to represent?)
I fear for those who are different. Those who don't look, act, speak, think, or worship, like a specific group with a narrow view of the world, a rigid system of belief that is rarely based upon any fact, and who are afraid of those differences because they do not fit into that narrow, rigid system. Hate Groups, Supremacists, and Followers of extreme and radical beliefs emerged from the shadows and actively supported this person. They may have been emboldened under his previous tenure as President. This time, they are not just emboldened but will feel empowered to spew the hate and divisiveness that are their stock in trade.
I understand your frustration with how things are, and how glacially slow the response from our government and its representatives can be. Been there, and dealt with that. Most politicians have little desire to actually represent their constituents unless they have deep pockets and can provide a way to smooth and straighten their path to More. But they can be held accountable, if and when people actually participate in the processes that make a bureaucracy continue to inch forward regardless of how grudingly it wishes to do so. Instead we send money to this advocacy group, this political organization, and allow them to sell their agenda, in which your voice is lost in the cacophony that is the Political Action Committee and the professional Lobbyist.
Do not fear, I will not be someone who says "Not My President." I haven't renounced my citizenship (and have no plans or desires to do so). But, I will fight for the People. I will fight to defend The Constitution of the United States.
Anyone who swears an oath for some position of authority and responsibility over any part of the populace of this country (federal, state, municipal) does so with the knowledge and therefore acceptance of a duty to uphold the Constitution of the United States first and foremost, before any other similar organizing doctrine. Not to a particular leader; not to a partisan platform; not to their own personal aspirations, but to the ideals and foundational principles that our Constitution and the subsequent amendments enshrine.
I believe that if we can keep this in mind, regardless of any social, economic, political, religious, or any of the other differences that make us all human, we might just be able to come together, clean up our public spaces, and return to making our nation move ever closer to the ideals that we want the world to recognize us for, and be The example of how to move towards those ideals - Liberty (with responsibility), the pursuit of happiness (that does not limit, deny, or circumvent the freedom of any other to engage in their pursuits), strive to ensure that all basic human rights are available to all, to Live in the way that they believe will best allow them and their family to utilize all of the other rights without interference unless done so by due process of morally, ethically, and Constitutionally aligned laws. Laws that prohibit some individuals or groups, make them less equal under the law than others - that is not due process; that is the beginning of tyranny, of suppression of the many to benefit the few.
However, I am not so naive or have my glasses so rose-colored that I am not aware of some who are so entrenched in ideas that are not only extreme but antithetical to the freedom that we all cherish for ourselves. Liberty means nothing if it isn’t applied to everyone. Exercise of one’s rights is not without limit - limits that prevent any person or group from reducing, revoking, or restraining the exercise of any other to do the same or place any person or group's needs above those of the rest of the citizens at least not without due process of law - laws that continue to be in support of that same concept.
I hope that the divisive and denigrating rhetoric will dissipate, and that the extremist who have exposed themselves to the daylight will not be allowed to skulk back into the shadows and darkness, but be made to withstand the glare and answer for their push to make others less so that they can pretend to be more.
I hope that we as citizens of these United States can come together despite our differences, whatever they may be, and find the commonality, the middle-ground that allows for the most benefit for everyone - equally,.
I close for now, with the usual requests for comments or questions. All I ask for is civility. We can disagree, but it does not require any hate to do so. Thank you for taking the time to read this, and understand that there is not any maliciousness intended; should any have been taken - may we find ways to ameliorate any wounds and work to repair whatever relationship we have to at least return it to some level of amiability.