There are a number of opinion writers who I read regularly, and Charles Blow of the New York Times is one. His column on Sunday struck a chord, for much of what he says mirrors my own thoughts very closely, especially when he says, “I would love nothing more than to write about other things, worthy things, more intellectually stimulating things. But for more than two years, I have written almost exclusively about Donald Trump.” I initially intended to only provide a few snippets from this column, but after I studied and pondered it a bit, I decided to share the entire column after all. Give it a read … I think you’ll be able to relate to much of what he says …
You Have a Right to Weariness
The struggle for goodness and decency is an eternal struggle, not a seasonal one.
By Charles M. Blow, Opinion Columnist
Do we have a right to weariness in an era of animus? More precisely, can we afford it, or is exhaustion a luxury reserved for those whose wealth, privilege and status insulate them from the losses the rest of us could suffer? Does patriotic defense of country require perpetual, obsessive vigilance, or is it permissible to retreat occasionally for one’s own mental and spiritual health?
These are questions I ask myself regularly, and ones that are frequently asked of me, if not in those exact words. People are trying to figure out the proper posture to take in a world riven by deceit and corruption, a world in which the leadership of the country represents an assault on decency.
This is a conundrum, I must confess.
I, as much as anyone else, feel trapped by our current predicament. I would love nothing more than to write about other things, worthy things, more intellectually stimulating things. But for more than two years, I have written almost exclusively about Donald Trump.
I feel compelled by what I view as history, fundamental and consequential, playing out right before me with nothing short of the life of the republic at stake. And yet, at a certain point, words begin to fail, or the obvious has already been stated. Once you have pointed out that Trump is a liar, you can then note only that he is telling more lies. The same goes for his racism, bullying, anti-intellectualism, corruption and grift.
At some point, it becomes clear that the abnormal, outrageous and unacceptable have become a constant, and even the rolling boil of righteous folk’s indignation reduces to a simmer.
People often ask me, “When will it end? What can we do to get him out of there?”
My answer always is, “I doubt it will end soon, and there’s very little anyone can do to change that.”
I hate to bear that message, but it is the only one I can deliver if I wish to be honest rather than popular.
As much as there was to celebrate last week, with liberals winning control of the House of Representatives, and doing so with such a diverse slate of candidates, it was also clear that Republican control of the Senate means that any hope of removing Trump via impeachment has shrunk to nearly nothing. Even if the House impeaches Trump, the Senate remains highly unlikely to remove him.
Democrats are even debating how far they can take oversight in the House without turning off people politically.
The only hope is that the Robert Mueller investigation may deliver something so damning that some Senate Republicans view it as unacceptable. But there is no evidence as of yet that anything would sway them.
Trump is taking steps to severely hamper Mueller’s efforts. Last week, he fired Attorney General Jeff Sessions and installed Matthew Whitaker as acting attorney general. The F.B.I. is currently investigating corruption at a company where Mr. Whitaker sat on the advisory board.
At this point, it may be more prudent to view what comes from the Mueller probe as fodder for the 2020 presidential campaign. It may not pave the way for an impeachment conviction by the Senate, but could well pave the way for an electoral “impeachment.”
It is very likely that we are stuck with Trump until the 2020 election, and even then the Democrats can take nothing for granted if they wish to defeat him.
That is the root of people’s distress. How can Republicans in Congress abide this behavior and use it for political positioning? How can so many of our neighbors condone open hostility to minorities, the press and the truth?
Or maybe the questions are for us. How could we not have registered fully just how hostile a substantial portion of America is to inclusion and equality? How could we not have registered the full depths of American racism and misogyny? How could we not remember that American progress has always been like a dance with a disagreeable partner, stumbling backward as well as moving forward?
I remember calling my mother when Trump was elected, and she was not nearly as distraught as I thought she’d be. Her stated reason: We’ve been through worse. She is an elderly black woman from the South. Her sense of history and heartbreak are long and fraught.
Recently, I’ve delved even more deeply into this line of thinking, reading about how black people positioned themselves during both Reconstruction and Jim Crow, when the political structures were largely arrayed against them.
I wanted to know how they survived and made progress against open hostility. The recurring themes are to never lose hope in the ultimate victory of righteousness; to focus your fire on the things you are most able to change; and to realize that change is neither quick nor permanent.
The struggle for goodness and decency is an eternal struggle, not a seasonal one.
Don’t beat yourself up if you need to tune out every now and then and take a mental health break. There is no shame in it. This is a forever fight. Once you have recharged, reapply your armor and rejoin the fight with even more vigor.
The song was used in the movie Milk, about gay rights activist Harvey Milk who, in 1977 when he won a seat on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, became the first openly gay elected official in the United States. Less than one year later, on November 27, 1978, Milk was gunned down along with San Francisco Mayor George Moscone. The shooter was Supervisor Dan White, a conservative board member who had campaigned on a platform of law and order, civic pride, and family values. The movie is worth a watch, if you haven’t seen it.
Sly & the Family Stone was a mash up of musical styles with band members of different genders and ethnic backgrounds — they lived the message they sang about. And now, I’ve chattered enough … just listen …
The Georgia election is a sham and should be declared null and void. Never in my life have I seen so much blatant corruption in one single state in a single election. Brian Kemp should be on his way to the federal penitentiary for his tricks to suppress the vote, but instead he is likely on his way to the governor’s mansion in Atlanta. While running for governor in this election, he was serving as Georgia’s Secretary of State, and thereby overseeing this farce of an election! Talk about putting the fox in charge of the henhouse!
The candidate challenging Brian Kemp is Stacy Abrams, an African-American woman. In addition to all the above shenanigans, she has had to put up with lies, lies, and more lies told by none other than Donald Trump. Trump has claimed that Abrams plans to “get rid of” the second amendment (false) and also that she would turn the entire state of Georgia into a giant sanctuary city (both false and irrelevant). Now, to those of us with a working brain, these are blatantly made up rumours by the ‘man’ who calls himself a president, but how many of the under-educated white people in Georgia believed him and cast a vote for the bigoted Brian Kemp? Another blow against election integrity in the state of Georgia.
Election reform is needed, for this has been a year of dirty pool all the way around, in the congressional races and governor races alike. Can we not at least require honesty, if not integrity, from our candidates? We have blatant white supremacists running, people who are affiliated with hate groups, and yet we have a president who is championing these abominable people. Is this civil? Is it even sane? Is it fair? Is it just? The answer to all of these questions is that no, it is not. The 2018 mid-terms, no matter the outcome, has been the dirtiest, most unfair, nastiest election in the history of this nation and it has left me with a terrible taste in my mouth, pain in my heart, and a feeling of deep shame for the country I once respected.
What Does It Mean To Be An American?
Last month, TIME magazine featured an unprecedented photograph of 36 undocumented young people, myself included, on the cover of its U.S. and international editions. “We are Americans,” the headline declared. “Just not legally.” Shortly after, President Obama, in the most significant step in the fight for immigrant rights since President Reagan signed the Immigration Reform and Control Act in 1986, issued a directive to stop the deportation of an estimated 1 million DREAM Act-eligible undocumented youth and welcome them to our workforce. America, in turn, embraced 1 million dreams. And in last week’s Supreme Court decision on Arizona’s immigration law, Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote in the majority opinion for the highest court in the land: “As a general rule, it is not a crime for a movable alien to remain in the United States.”
Her name was Fannie Lou Hamer. She was born on October 6, 1917. Her parents were sharecroppers in the Mississippi Delta area. As a child, she often went hungry and without shoes. In the winter, she tied rags on her feet to keep her feet warm. She began working the fields when she was only 6 years old.
Langston Hughes was a leader of the Harlem Renaissance and a great poet, activist, novelist and playwright. He was one of the earliest innovators of the then-new literary art form called jazz poetry. Hughes is best known as a leader of the Harlem Renaissance in New York City.
First let’s look at some similarities …
Bolsonaro’s election is another feather in the cap of the populist movement. He won by tapping into a deep well of resentment at the status quo in Brazil — a country whiplashed by rising crime and two years of political and economic turmoil — and by presenting himself as the alternative. Unlike Donald Trump in 2016, Bolsonaro actually won the popular vote by 55%, but one thing they both said that is striking is that “I alone can fix this”. And they have in common their loudness, their crassness, their utter contempt for such things as respect, common courtesy and quiet dignity. They are both loud, ‘in your face’ sorts. Both countries have a large women’s protest movement … in the U.S. it is “Never Trump” and in Brazil it is “Ele Nao” (Not Him).
All indications are that Mohammed bin Salman authorized or ordered the brutal murder of Washington Post reporter Jamal Khashoggi last month, yet Donald Trump continues to throw his support behind bin Salman. And why? In part, because his friend, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu asked him to, but also because Trump has significant financial interests in Saudi Arabia. Trump has denigrated the leaders of many of the nations who are our allies, such as Canada, the UK and Germany, but at the same time, he is willing to befriend a cruel dictator … a man who almost certainly murdered one of our own.
That Trump is such an unconscionable ‘man’ should not surprise us, but I am highly confused by a group of so-called evangelical Christians who are willing to turn a blind eye to bin Salman’s many human rights violations and sit around the fireside chuckling and telling jokes as if he were just another of the ‘good ol’ boys’.
Just as an aside, does anybody remember that 15 of the 19 hijackers on 9/11 came from Saudi Arabia?
The Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act allows the president to impose sanctions, including freezing of assets, against individuals or entities responsible for or acting as an agent for someone responsible for “extrajudicial killings, torture, or other gross violations of internationally recognized human rights,” or if they are government officials or senior associates of government officials complicit in “acts of significant corruption.” In other words, Trump could freeze any assets held in the U.S. by the Saudi government or by bin Salman. Instead, Trump sends a delegation of his trusted ‘religious advisors’.
Trump’s evangelical advisory board has come under fire before for having tested the limits of separation of church and state by advising Trump and White House staff on issues including taxes, health care and judicial appointments. And now, they are assisting in setting foreign policy, supporting a cruel dictator. Ah well, they’ve been turning a blind eye to Trump and his obscene behaviour for two years now, so what’s a little bit of murder, beheading and dismemberment among friends, eh? Especially when there’s a profit to be turned.
