I’ve been trying to process the shear magnitude of what happened this election and the horror of it. Took a sick day to keep from sobbing at work or driving while sobbing and was able to string a few thoughts together about how this could have happened. Maybe this was inevitable as long as we as a country kept refusing to acknowledge the less pretty parts of our past. So here they are for what its worth.
The United States of America has long liked to think of itself as “exceptional”, as a “Shining City on a Hill” Ronald Reagan referred to it, referencing a 1630 sermon by John Winthrop. It’s a lovely reference and the US has done truly wonderful things in its history. Most of us learned them in history class and I won’t recount them here as we are familiar with them. This is about the stuff that we haven’t looked at and most don’t want to or refuse to. The stuff that comes back to bite you when you don’t deal with it.
From the attempts to wipe out native Americans with smallpox laced blankets and later attempts to wipe out native people’s cultures by stealing children and putting them in schools where their language was forbidden, the horrors of slavery, the exploitation of Chinese immigrants to build our railroads, Japanese Internment Camps and too many other atrocities to mention, efforts to teach about these things so they are not repeated are squelched by those who cannot bear to look in the mirror, own what happened, apologize and try to right the wrongs.
It is interesting that a certain former and future President of the United States, when asked if he’d ever asked God for forgiveness for anything he responded that he didn’t think there is anything he’d done for which he’d need to ask forgiveness. This person has now been convicted on 34 felony charges for fraud, guilty of sexual assault, cheated on three wives, bankrupted businesses, misdirected money from his own “charity” for personal use, has called for the execution of people he disagrees with, brags consistently he has the biggest crowds (or whatever he’s blathering about at the time), covets Hitler’s Generals and lolls around whatever luxury abode in which he reside stuffing his face with cheeseburgers and throwing ketchup at the wall when upset, doesn’t call off an insurrection where people were killed. I think that pretty much covers the seven deadly sins and there are legions of other examples. Yet people who identify as “Christians” see him as a savior. Someone who embodies all the traits of an anti-Christ. Really.
Instead of looking inward for answers, fingers have been pointed in blame, projecting what people dislike in themselves onto any (or every) handy group that can be seen as “other”. And acting like they’re “proud to be and American” which unless you emigrated here and applied for citizenship, you had nothing to do with. You were just born lucky. Is luck something to be proud of? I learned in Sunday School it was something you were supposed to share with others who weren’t as fortunate. But we’ve developed a culture that says “If I have more, that means I’m worth more and if I’m worth more that means I’m entitled to more and since you’re not as well off that means you’re worth less and so I deserve to take what little you’ve got left.” Quite the opposite of the Sermon on the Mount. It’s gotten the point where for the promise of some extra coin, people will sell out the lives of their neighbors because somehow they believe those neighbors have threatened their financial well being with no proof of this. All to avoid the responsibility for looking in the mirror.
All of this “stuffing down” and avoidance of that which so many people in this country refuse to acknowledge out of their own fear of “looking weak” or somehow lacking has come to a head. It is likely that we could have a breakdown of all our systems. Project 2025 calls for pretty much exactly that. A complete dismantling of what we’ve until now called the United States of America- which is not exactly united right now. When we reject science and facts for whatever comes from a Russian bot, we’re in rough waters.
It will be critical for those of us that want a brighter future to be vigilant in not projecting our own fears and anger at the gross injustice of all that has transpired, to transform those feelings into positive outcomes. We do this first by grieving what we’ve lost, and recognizing our fear and anger, acknowledging it, but not sitting in it. Take a beep slow breath and think about something/someone you love and focus on feeling that love in your heart. Then take a mental helicopter ride and look down at the situation, searching for the paths available to a better future and the resources that already exist along the way. Start taking action.
Mr. Rogers once advised scared children who felt helpless to “look for the helpers”. A lot of us are feeling a bit scared and helpless right now. Let’s be the helpers and hold our head’s high and look to each other for support and encouragement.
