How often in your life have you judged someone, perhaps not even realizing what you were doing? I think we all may be guilty of judging others without full information or even the right to do so. Judging is only part of what is tearing our country apart in the U.S. There are many other factors but judging our friends and neighbors for their political and personal beliefs ranks right up there at the top.
In the last eight years, U.S. society has become more polarized than at any time since the civil war from a political perspective. It’s very much an atmosphere of us versus them. During this time, many of us have lost friends and even family because one or the other of us were judged harshly for their political beliefs. The political beliefs that each side holds couldn’t be more different. One side wants to maintain the progress of the U.S. and try to improve it. The other side wants to take us back to the past and even worse, establish a fascist regime. We all have friends on both sides of this argument.
What do you do if you are on one side and a friend is on the other? Do you judge that friend for their political beliefs and in the process, you realize you may lose that friend? The number of people in the U.S. over the past eight years that have lost friends and family because of our political divisions has become innumerable.
What is the solution? Can you maintain a friendship with someone on the other side of an issue or many issues? Can you just not bring that into your conversations? Can you refrain from judging your friend even though you don’t agree with them? Believe me, it’s difficult since almost all the conversation currently is about the politics of the U.S.
I don’t have a solution, but what works for me is just talking to my friends as always but avoid the politics discussion if possible. I realize that will never solve anything, but I’m starting to wonder if judging people based on their political beliefs is becoming entrenched in our culture. There may be no turning back.
She sat on a bench across the street from the museum, studying the sculpture in front. It was a man, seemingly sculpted from wood, reading. He reminded her of a book she once read, “A Man of Two Faces.”
If you looked closely at the man, you could see his skeletal-like face. Above it, between his forehead and the crown of his head, another face appeared to her. You could distinguish two eyes and a nose that would be looking skyward if the sculpture could have looked up. He captured her imagination particularly given the times she was living in.
The outward looking face of the man was bowed, reading a book. The book he was reading, she imagined, was a book on American culture in these unsettled current times. There were bitter political rivalries, hundreds of conspiracy theories, religious involvement, misinformation and disinformation. Neighbors turned against neighbors and family against family. Long-time friendships were forever destroyed. The American dream to her seemed to be gone and she had no understanding of half the American population and its thinking.
She looked at the other face of the sculpture. That face wasn’t as clear, the expression was more off-kilter, perhaps confused, and a little dreamy. Maybe that face was dreaming of what could be, but wasn’t, in America. The American Dream, but this time an inclusive American Dream that was available to everyone. Was it now lost forever? Destroyed by greed and the lust for power? The sculpture had no answers.
It’s a beautiful Sunday morning, but cold, in northeast Kentucky. If you just look out the window, it looks like June. If you walk out the door, it’s January. At least it is a sunny winter day!
I heard a news clip first thing this morning – a debate about democracy and the state of our democracy in the U.S. Since my field is finance (though my interests range far and wide), the news clip made me ponder our form of government, which is democracy, and think about it in relation to our economic system, which is capitalism. Since many or most Americans believe firmly in an economic system of capitalism, how can we also believe in a dictatorship where businesses are owned by the government and workers are only paid a wage? I see a contradiction there.
Some fear that the U.S. is moving toward the theocracy form of government where the laws of the state are based on the laws of whatever the dominant religion is in the country and the leader is seen as some sort of religious deity. Although there may be less room for corruption in a theocracy since governmental activities are confined to a few, most theocracies are unstable. Although there are theocracies that have a fairly successful capitalistic economic system, Israel being an example, there is not as much economic growth or personal freedom as in a democracy. Again, I see a contradiction.
Then, we have the monarchy form of government, but I’m not even going there today!
Americans, or most Americans, believe in a capitalist form of economic system. They denounce socialism since they don’t want the government to own the means of production or the companies that drive economic growth, development and stability.
We have a lot to think about and consider in this most important election year of 2024. We have two candidates running for the highest office in the land with very different perspectives. What are your thoughts? Comments?
After reading a number of news sources, I’m left wondering what the current President of the United States has to do to get thrown out of office. He is trying to shut down one of America’s great institutions – the United State Postal Service. Can you imagine? When he first started talking about it, an optimistic person might have thought that his concern over mail-in voting was an opinion he formed legitimately. After you hear Trump talk about the Post Office and mail-in voting, many of us realize that his concern is not legitimate at all. A number of states have had mail-in voting for years, The incidence of fraud is less than one-half of a percent. What’s more, he’s allowing one state, Florida, his state of residence, to have mail-in voting. This is fair?
It is apparent that Trump is trying to suppress the vote. He knows that many people will not go to a polling place to vote for President in November 2020 due to fears over the pandemic. A pandemic that his administration failed to even try to control until it was too late. Instead, he tried to say that the COVID19 virus would magically disappear and offer solutions which were medically unsubstantiated. Even dangerous. Trump thinks that if he gets rid of the Post Office and any chance of mail-in voting, he will have a better chance of beating Joe Biden in the race for the Presidency.
The unbelievable thing is that Trump is not even trying to hide that he is engaging in voter suppression. He admits it. He is actively trying to cause people not to have the opportunity to exercise their right to vote and he is breaking laws regarding election tampering in the process. What does this man have to do to get thrown out of office? Kill someone?
The latest news is that Trump is having the mail sorting machines removed from post offices around the U.S. Leaving postal workers without any way to sort the mail is such terrible thing that it almost defies believability. Of course, mailed in ballots will swamp the post office and without any way to sort the mail, it will take months to receive and count the ballots.
Trump installed one of his political campaign donors as Postmaster General. He is, of course, complicit in this effort at voter suppression. The Republican Senators that sit by and allow him to do these things are complicit. They are just as responsible as he is. Trump and his Republican cronies in the Senate should all be voted out of office in November and the Postmaster General should be removed as soon as possible.
Any voter that puts their stamp of approval on what Donald J. Trump is doing, from actively breaking the law to morally bankrupting our government deserves what they get if he is elected. The rest of us need to vote, regardless of where or how we have to do it. If we don’t vote him out of office, the future of our country is, indeed, at risk.
We’re in the seventh month of the pandemic in the U.S. When I talk to friends, family, and strangers, I hear them speak of a range of emotions. Depression, anxiety, despair, rage, overwhelming sadness, grief. It’s hard to sort it all out. I feel all those emotions myself combined with a few more. Panic, desperation, claustrophobia, and even happiness. What we feel is a reaction to the unknown and it manifests in each person differently.
The situation we face, at least in the United States, is one we’ve never faced before. To one degree or another, what sums up all of those emotions is fear. We’re afraid. We fear we’ll get sick and that our loved ones and friends will get sick. Even those people who deny that COVID19 exists, and there are many of them, feel fear. They fear that their lifestyles have been taken away from them and they don’t know if it’s permanent or not. It’s quite likely that all of us have both fears. The fear of illness and the fear that nothing will ever be the same.
At the first of the pandemic, many Americans were in shock. Those that were most prepared for the situation we faced were The Greatest Generation. They are the ones who lived through the Great Depression, World War II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, and so much more. Very few are alive who lived through the Spanish Flu pandemic in 1917 and 1918. To our dismay, The Greatest Generation is rapidly disappearing. They could teach us so much if we would listen.
Imagine the unknowns The Greatest Generation faced. During the Great Depression, some literally did not know where their next meal was coming from or if they could continue to provide shelter for their families. Then came World War II. Most able-bodied men between the ages of 18-35 were sent off to war or enlisted voluntarily. If you were an enlisted man in combat, you had no idea if you’d ever go home again, ever see your family, or even live through the day. If you were a woman who had not enlisted, you were home without the 24/7 news cycle that we have today. You had the radio and sketchy, spotty news reports. You sat by the radio and listened to the American President, FDR, whenever he came on to give a report. Most of the time you didn’t know if your husband, brother, son, father and many of members of your family were alive or dead. We think we are scared due to the pandemic or feel any of the other common emotions right now? Imagine how they felt.
During the first part of the pandemic, despite our shock, we had to get ready to isolate ourselves. That involved stocking up on food, supplies, medicine. There were runs on grocery stores that caused fear and anxiety since we didn’t know if we would be able to get what we need. Since I have a co-morbidity, I have been at home since February with very few exceptions. I haven’t seen anyone in my family during this time and I’ve only seen a friend once or twice. There are a lot of people out there just like me.
I feel everything every other American feels. I’m angry that the coronavirus was allowed to get out of hand in our country and blame the lack of leadership at the top for that happening. I carry a high level of anxiety most days, I worry if I get out, I’ll get sick even though I wear a face covering and take all the recommended precautions. I miss my friends and family. If I allow myself to think too much about the pandemic, I feel panic and despair. I listen to the statistics every day about the deaths this virus has caused, and I feel grief and overwhelming sadness for those families. I feel claustrophobic daily even though I’m luckier than so many people and have a house and yard in which to move around.
Mostly, when I think about it, all of these emotions culminate in fear. Fear of the unknown. I wonder what life will be like after the pandemic. I even wonder if there will be an “after.” The virus could be here to stay. A vaccine will only be moderately effective. Will Americans ever have the freedom we once had and probably did not appreciate? The virus deniers are determined to live their lives anyway and there is something I admire about that while fearing their lives will be cut short.
Perhaps, besides fear, my primary emotion is gratitude for what I have. I still have a job while many don’t. I’m with my husband here in our home and we try to take care of each other. So far, we’ve been able to get the food and medicine we need. The pandemic makes us look at the very basics of life.
I still have hope for the future although it isn’t as shiny as it once was. The pandemic has devastated not only the American economy but also the American society. Will we ever get back to being the “shining city on the hill?” No one can answer that question right now.
For many years, they were friends. In some ways, they seemed an unlikely pair. She was married. He was single. There was nothing romantic about their relationship, although no one ever believed that. They met in graduate school and found friendship through studying together. They stayed together through two degree programs and helped each other every step of the way.
Others viewed their friendship with curiosity. He was abrasive, arrogant, and difficult to be around. She was friendlier with a touch of arrogance. People liked her more than they did him. She had a wide circle of friends and he did not. When she tried to include him in her circle, most of her friends found him difficult and unlikeable. She never understood this because she liked him, understood him. She had the ability to be with normal people despite her intelligence. His intelligence shined and intimidated others.
What she enjoyed most about him was their conversations about every topic under the sun. Long, philosophical conversations. He had strengths in some areas and she in other areas. They complimented each other and learned from each other. He filled an intellectual hole in her life. Somehow, these long conversations never included politics. Not in the early and middle years of their friendship. As she looks back, she wonders how they avoided it. She decides they were too busy learning their respective fields to be concerned with political matters. That was then.
Gradually, their friendship extended beyond the academic and philosophical and they met each other’s families. They helped each other with personal matters. Their entire lives became intertwined. There was still no romantic relationship. Not even when she divorced. They truly just had a good friendship.
By now, 25 or 30 years had passed. They had grown old as good friends, this unlikely pair. The world was changing around them and the U.S. had become politically polarized. Politics began to creep into their conversations. Until now, they’d had only a basic awareness of each other’s political leanings. Just enough to know that they leaned in different directions, but that had never mattered. Until now.
Suddenly, everything in the U.S. was defined by whether it was right or left, red or blue, conservative or liberal. There was no middle ground anymore. Their conversations were increasingly couched in politics. Their political positions couldn’t have been more different. Over the space of several years, she found it difficult to talk to him knowing his political position. It was like he was suddenly from another world. A world she wasn’t familiar with. A world of hatred and exclusion. He found it difficult to talk to her since he did not enjoy knowing anyone who had the political beliefs she had.
Their communication became less often and more tense. One evening, he blasted her with political rhetoric that made her feel like he kept in touch with her out of obligation only. That he didn’t really enjoy it since she believed so differently than he did. She felt like his political leanings were monstrous. She couldn’t hear them anymore.
She didn’t have it in her to be mean to him. Life had become too stressful in the politically charged atmosphere of the U.S. society. She had to get away from his rhetoric.
Through tears, she made a decision. She quit answering the phone. She finally had to save herself.
Watching the solar #eclipse today made me think about this planet Earth, our place in the universe, and how we, as some of the inhabitants of this planet, have affected it.
#Earth is but a tiny dot in a vast universe. Imagine how everything came together here to give us all the ingredients necessary for life. The right atmosphere to breathe, the water to drink, the soil in which to grow our food. Imagine how it is so unlikely that this could have happened. It makes me think that we cannot possibly be alone. Somewhere out there, there must be other life, although maybe not life like us.
What have we, as intelligent human beings, done to our precious atmosphere, water, and soil? We have polluted it beyond measure, almost to the point where it is not useful to us anymore. The Environmental Protection Agency was established in 1970. If not for the EPA, I’m not quite sure where planet Earth would be at this point in time. Would it be able to sustain our life? I think it’s doubtful. But it was created and it began to study the concept of pollution.
The EPA determined that the smoke pouring from steel mills and other manufacturing companies was polluting the air. They had to install scrubbers. Sure, it cut into their profits in the short-term. In the long run, it helped save our atmosphere, keep us healthy, and the share price of these corporations did not suffer in the long run. The same is true of the water in which manufacturers and coal companies poured sludge. This is only one of hundreds of examples of how the EPA has protected our environment since 1970. Protecting our environment is protecting us, our health, and our long-term survival on this planet.
There is one irrefutable truth. The EPA doesn’t know what to protect us from without scientific research. That is the backbone of the organization. Unfortunately, our current President does not understand this or does not care. He has slashed scientific research and EPA programs in his 2018 budget by 31%, a steeper cut than for any other governmental organization. Around 3,200 jobs will be lost, just from the EPA, many of them highly trained and valuable scientists. Is this really wise?
I could list the other cuts the President is making to EPA programs that will impact our ability to live on this planet. The Paris Climate Agreement which addresses rising seas levels. An order to expand off-shore drilling. Then, we have such things as dropping the agreement to protect sea turtles and whales from fishing nets. Do we want to live on a planet when the caretakers don’t care about such things?
We have another solar #eclipse in 2024. Unless the EPA is given its money back to protect us from air pollution, we may not be able to see that one for the pollution in the air. It’s good we all enjoyed the 2017 #eclipse.
The U.S. Congress, the legislative branch of the government, has become corrupted. This is the branch, of the three branches of government, set down by the Founders, that is supposed to represent the people of the United States. Do you think that we are fairly represented by the U.S. Congress? I am here to contend that we are not.
We only have to look as far as the current Senate Health Care Bill and the debate surrounding that bill. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is the primary senator pushing the bill. He is doing so became he is being pushed by the President, but that is not the only reason. Since 1989 and to date, five of the top industries contributing to McConnell are: Health Professionals, Insurance, Hospitals and Nursing Homes, Pharmaceuticals and Health Products, and Health Services and HMOs. Can McConnell truly be unbiased?
Mitch McConnell represents the state of Kentucky as a senator. He is supposed to represent the people of that state. Kentucky is a poor state. A high percentage of the population, particularly in the Appalachian region of the state, use the Medicaid program. For example, in Kentucky, children represent 19 percent of all Medicaid spending but 43 percent of its enrollees. The Senate Heath Care Bill, pushed by Senator McConnell, would take away these benefits for many or most of these children who are not even the driving force of the Medicaid expenditures.
I ask you. Is Mitch McConnell representing his Kentucky constituency? Perhaps he is, instead, representing those five health care industries that contribute to his campaign funds? He is lobbying to take away the Medicaid benefits from his constituency.
The McConnell example is only one example of a senator who is not serving his constituency. Congress is supposed to serve as the voice of the people and the states to the federal government. Do you really think it is currently, or has in the recent past, been fulfilling that function?
Congress is also supposed to serve as an oversight body on the Executive Branch of government; in other words, the President of the United States. That, to me, is laughable at this point in time. Yes, there are committees in place to investigate the dealings of the Trump administration and I fervently hope they are doing their jobs. I count on the Special Counsel, Robert Mueller, to oversee those committees at this point in time. The Senators and the Representatives are too worried about losing their own jobs to really serve as oversight on the President.
Congress now, instead of representing the people, represents money. The money they can make from the lobbyists of corporations like health care corporations if they follow their agendas. There is only one way to solve this problem. Term limits. Limit the terms of the Senators and Representatives so they don’t have time to become millionaires through lobbyists and on the backs of their constituencies, the taxpayers. Only then will we have something approaching a representative Congress again.
I am tired of our political system in the U.S. Don’t get me wrong. I’m not tired of our democracy. I’m not even tired of capitalism. I support both. I am tired of politicians refusing to admit their real positions on issues and what they have really done. I am tired of lies and deceit in politics that are destroying the U.S. political system.
Although I am a news and information junkie, I’ve started tuning out the news as I listen while I work each day. We have no idea what the truth really is. We can’t even believe politicians as they testify under oath because they have no respect for the oath.
There are two things, and two things only, that give me hope. As I’ve listened to the hearings, I have heard just a few young politicians question witnesses. Not the rich, older, white men we are so accustomed to but some new names and faces. New and young politicians from both sides of the aisle. They have seemed sensible and not yet jaded. Perhaps they are our hope for the future?
My second source of hope is the American people. My own opinion is that we got it wrong during the 2016 election. I think I am backed up by the polls since the President only has an approval rate of around 36%. That leaves a huge percentage of the American people dissatisfied. Perhaps in 2020 one of the fresh young faces will run for office. Even if they don’t agree with my point of view, they will be steeped in the ways of government. Perhaps we can reclaim our position in the world and in NATO. Perhaps the checks and balances of our political system, wisely put in place by our forefathers, will work during the next three and a half years and too much damage will not be done. Maybe one of those fresh young faces can re-establish some sense of political sanity and dignity to the U.S. political system and get Russia out of our affairs forever.
Donald Trump. At this point, I cannot bring myself to say President Donald Trump. Does a President of the United States, the leader of the free world, give away classified secrets to our adversary, the Russians, because he needs to brag to make himself feel good? That’s what happened a few days ago when he met, in private, with the Russian Foreign Minister and Ambassador. It makes the job of any of our enemies so much easier. Our President has put us at risk. What does this mean for our intelligence community?
The intelligence community keeps us alive. Donald Trump has just put that in jeopardy. Do you think that the intelligence community is going to keep sharing information with the U.S.? The answer is no. They are not. We are now in more jeoprady than before our President opened his big mouth because of his bigger inferiority complex. To make this all worse, Donald Trump basically admitted what he did in a tweet.
This, in my opinion, is the worst thing Trump has done. There are other things.
Trump fired the Director of the FBI, James Comey. Comey was leading the investigation into the Russian connection to Trump’s campaign. Trump fired the man who was investigating him. Shades of Richard Nixon and Archibald Cox. Trump could be impeached just for firing the Director of the FBI. Then, he threatens the Director with the existence of tapes if Comey talks about their conversations. The President of the United States threatening someone like a common thug?
Then there is the evidence that Trump is using the Presidency for profit. When the President of China visited, Trump’s daughter, Ivanka, was seated beside him. She ended up with Chinese trademarks for her clothing line.
I have mentioned just a handful of inappropriate actions Trump has taken since his inauguration. Perhaps passing classified information to the Russians is the most dangerous and certainly the worst, but not the only egregious action he has taken.
My question is what is Congress waiting on? This man needs to be removed from office. It may already be too late now that he has passed classified secrets to the Russians. He has now put us all in danger. It is time to act. Impeachment is not enough. We are in uncharted territory. In my opinion, he is mentally incompetent and needs to be physically escorted from the White House. I don’t know who would take his place. Mike Pence, Vice-President, does not seem to be the right choice as he has been complicit with many of Trump’s actions.
What are we waiting on? Destruction of our democracy and our country, not to mention danger and our way of life?
The Write Scribe 