HOPE

The dust is settling

The political fires are over

Some lost hope

Some are rolling in clover….

Another election has gone by, and I have post-election thoughts to share. I have resurrected my Google blog as this is where I feel comfortable posting about things of politics, beliefs, and hope.

Right now, 51% of our country is rolling in hope and joy. They have felt dis-inherited from their own country and have threatened violence in their deep angers and bitterness. Now they have their hero coming into place. Their hopes are high.

Forty-eight percent of the country is in despair, holding their breath, making contingency plans and hunkering down for a long - hopefully only 4 - years.

There is hope for all.

Now is the time for all of us - the 51 and the 48 - to come together to hold our newly elected leader accountable for his words both vague and clear, unpromised or dimly promised promises, and his actions. Fifty-one percent are expectant. Let them be fulfilled and joyous – may their times of hoped-for prosperity come to fruition. May inflation go down, wars end, small farmers flourish, and the rural working people prosper. May they receive the more affordable living they hope for, may they receive good health care for their daughters and themselves, be able to care for their elders, earn good wages and enjoy happy retirement. May they live in freedom and may the values of family living and integrity be preserved. May they feel safe and heard and may America be regarded as a great and good influence upon the world. May the national debt go down and our economy thrive.

And may the 48 percent be present to highlight these expected accomplishments, or the lack of them.

What can we, the disappointed, do?

Now is the time to watch, observe and comment. As things fail to live up to our countrymates expectations, we must be the patient and kind vocal commentators that help to keep the dreams alive. When the economy gets worse instead of better, when our allies do not view us as friends and our supporters are those who oppress, we need to raise a voice of comment to our 51 percent family and friends, calmly and lovingly pointing out where words, actions and results do not match or produce the desired and expected effects.

When their and our daughters suffer and die from preventable reproductive issues and the infant and maternal mortality rates rise as they have been, we need to talk about it. When costs are higher, not lower, when tax breaks and sweet favors flow to the very rich while the working people suffer, we need to talk about it with our families and friends. When health care becomes hard to get and does not cover what is needed, we need to talk about it – not accusingly, but commentatively. When small farmers see their lands and livelihood suffer and disappear, we need to talk about it. When internment camps and ethnic and gender group persecutions disrupt the flow of daily American life and when federal disaster response is a disaster, we need to talk about it. When prices rise due to tariffs, when higher education is unaffordable and public education puts our children behind the economic world curve, we need to converse around the supper table, in the grocery store, at the mall, in the parents’ meetings.

We are all in this together, 

for better or for worse. Let us ride the times with gentleness but with clarity and compassionate courage and speak, speak, speak in kindness with our neighbors.

These may not be the times we hoped for, but they will present the opportunities we need to bring our country’s people together. And that is the true source of hope.

Law and Order - for Some or All?

 

Of course, we must have law and order. The basis of any society is organization and cooperation for the benefit of all. Laws and order are essential to our communal survival and prosperity. And in America so are the freedoms, equality and self-government contained and guaranteed for all within our constitution.

Society is constructed to give greater power and survival to its members through shared communal resources, skills and talents. They must be for the benefit of all for a society to survive successfully, otherwise it will topple. The big, huge vision of a Democracy is to do just that. Provide a society in which all can flourish together. This society, with its attendant rules and structures, law and order, exists for the benefit and welfare of all its members. None of our societal institutions were meant to treat one segment of the population differently than others. 

The operation of Law and Order today we are told by Black, Indigenous, LBGTQ and People of Color, is doing just that. It is, they say, the work of Bias and Prejudice, built-in preference and privileges expressed in so many, many facets in our society that we white, straight folk are not aware of because we are used to current conditions we consider "normal" and "just fine." Right down to religious values that support our views. We will use everything we have to make ourselves right.  

While Law and Order were purported to be the instrument of a perfect society to preserve and defend freedoms for all, they were actually created to protect and defend white people against all possibly threatening others. Research it. Our white ideals have been subverted, often with very clear intention by some, but for most of us, completely without our knowing, realizing or understanding. The problems of racial and sexual persecution and suppression are couched in the ignorance of our minds and the hardness of our hearts.

And that is what all the fuss is about today as we stand polarized over is there a race problem or is there not in America. We are not a perfect people and we do not therefore create perfect societal structures. The United States is a people in process, moving toward an ideal with a set of values that embraces life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness for all within its borders. This ideal naturally and logically excludes the concept of life liberty and the pursuit of happiness for one segment of its population at the expense of other segments of its population. When, as a people, we become aware of these kinds of inequities in our country it is our duty as citizens of these United States to examine the issues and make every attempt to correct our course and keep us on the mark set by our struggling forbearers who gave up so much in pursuit of this ideal; they sacrificed everything for it to create a place of freedom and safety for future generations. That is the purpose of the democratic government they created for us, and the charge they have handed down to Americans through the generations. Do we take it or leave it? To leave it is to leave Democracy and drift into autocracy....

We must always be on guard for the subtle slips and sidewinders that distract us from our path as a country and very slowly change the operation of our systems to different outcomes. They are the result of our personal griefs and angers, fears and hates that influence and determine our choices and our votes, our actions and our speech. We are each responsible for holding the values and vision entrusted to us by preceding generations. That means we are each charged with examining the values instilled by our parents and theirs before them, to the values expressed in our Constitution. We are each charged with allowing that Constitutional vision to expand and grow with each new generation and every global situation we face in our life journeys. 

We cannot, as Americans, blindly trust in the proper application of our national values by agencies and institutions set up to do so, but must continually re-visit these institutions, holding them and ourselves accountable for making conscious choices to apply the founding values we profess in the ever-changing landscape of human existence and interaction within our borders.  We, the people, are responsible for the slow gentle twisting of our national values and vision, through whatever life incidents have shaped them, to support unrecognized biases. We are responsible. Our institutions reflect the choices we make and carry out our wishes. Not only is Law and Order not exactly what we think it is, many of our core assumptions about the equality of  social opportunities and benefits reflect these same discrepancies. Today is one of those times of shining an uncomfortable light on places that need change.

Law and order of the people, by the people and for the people, is a big inheritance and huge responsibility to embrace and grow with the changes needed to serve all ethnicities and cultures citizened within our borders. This is the charge of our Constitution. And let's not forget that our founding vision and the economics of what was really happening in America, a land discovered and exploited by European countries for economic gain and world power through colonization and imperialism, differ greatly. Our real history and our story are not congruous. Teaching a realistic view of the forces that actually shaped our country, one that includes this disparity between our intentions and our origins and actions, will help provide a solid basis for making informed decisions. 

To deny and repress voices of dissent crying for a review of our systems by labeling them as vicious and un-American by exaggerating negative impressions and mis-reporting or mis-interpreting reports, is to ignore the process of democracy instilled within our fabric that pays attention to the voices of all members of society and to repress the only process (that of assessing and revising to extend our vision and values more clearly to all) that keeps us truly free and American. Let’s welcome those who do not feel law and order are being applied justly and equally to all into the discussion tables with those who feel there is not enough law and order. Let's invite them into the legislative halls and the future planning of America. It is the very same cry our visionary founders are shouting to us through the centuries. Are we open enough to listen or will we drown them out with protestations of our rightness under a set of invoked laws and beliefs? Law and order equally for all to ensure the right to life liberty and the pursuit of happiness without repression and persecution of one group by another only occurs through listening to the voices of all. That is a truly Great America. Let’s work on it – together.

 

Thoughts on Campaign Conversations to have following Meet the Press this morning

 

 

Relief Bill - Authoritarianism in Action: They missed a big opportunity on Meet the Press this morning when discussion of the relief bill came up. Trump’s Chief of Staff said the President has a 1.3 trillion-dollar package that the Democrats are keeping from the American people by not agreeing to Trump's terms.

What is really happening is that Trump is unwilling to negotiate with the Democrats in any way. This is the leadership model he uses and will use for the next four years if re-elected. No negotiation, no listening; his terms his way. It is a clear expression of authoritarianism, which can, in the right clothing, with the right clean up, look like good, strong leadership - but this is misleading.

      Good leadership brings all the pieces to the table and puts together a solution that works for everyone – A win-win or at least an attempt at it in the best form possible. Donald Trump offers no such solutions for the American people. He offers his solutions and his only will he accept, even if he says otherwise. This is the discussion that needs to be held publicly.  The one around Donald’s leadership style. Authoritarianism versus leadership. What the vision of our founding fathers was for presidency in the United States and how has this developed over the years leading to the ability and ease with which the current administration continues to subvert this role? For an interesting article discussion on the historical development of the presidency check this Washington Post Article interview with Ray Raphael who wrote “Mr. President: How and Why the Founders Created a Chief Executive” Here is another good piece on the Presidency from US History.org. *

       Corona Virus - Leadership skills: the American public needs to understand that Donald’s leadership (or lack of it) on this one event is not the issue. What is being revealed here is Donald’s lack of leadership skills across the board. Because he cannot negotiate, listen to or compromise on anything that involves communication with those who do not agree with his views, he cannot provide leadership here. The leader of a free country voted into office and governing a diverse population needs the ability to delegate and use the skill and expertise of the people on his team for the good of  all the people in times of crisis as well as times of calm. It is a learned, embedded skill. Instead, Donald spent months (of precious activation time) trying to wrap his head around medical matters so that he could appear to be expert in them. Rather than acknowledging a problem and turning to experts to provide swift solutions he doubted the voices around him and spent precious time trying to bring himself up to speed in an area where he had no real knowledge because he wanted to be the one to appear knowledgeable and hold the limelight at the microphone and have the people hail him as an expert and a hero. (Good and honest managers attract and retain good responsible honest people around them and then let them do their jobs.)  His lack of knowing and sensing what was the true issue, lack of ability to listen to chosen experts and lack of ability to coordinate his team and to inspire and bring people together are lack of true leadership skills seen in every area of his administration. The corona virus just hit us all at once instead of in little pockets of areas one at a time as do his other actions and decrees that take away benefits and freedoms from the people. Here, with Covid 19, his lack of leadership skills is more evident because it is widespread and single-pointed in time.

      This conversation needs to be held with the American people. What are true leadership skills and how will they benefit us as a country? Someone who retreats from a crisis and does not believe what experienced experts are reporting and then replaces them all to match his personal beliefs is a person who does not have the skills to guide a nation through any crisis except perhaps for one where he can put his finger on the button and order his troops to war. Leadership skills need to be discussed. Authoritarianism versus Democratic.  People need information to begin to re-assess their own perspectives and we need to consistently repeat and repeat the information over and over and over…. No one has called this behavior out consistently in this repetitive manner. Let’s get on it right away. There are two months left.  We have already seen the efficacy of Donald’s repetition of whatever he wants his base to believe. It works. So let’s use this one successful tactic he has given us from his own arsenal and go for it. Keep repeating ideas and skills to your friends and family. Don't talk Trump, talk leadership skills. Talk the ideology of authoritarianism versus democratic leadership. Ask people what they want the most. Fast relief from pain (authoritarian action) or a cure for the illness (democratic process)? 

             The Rule of Law – Rescue or Repression? The Thin Blue Line, the Law and Order issue:

Again – this sits well within an authoritarian style of government. What you cannot control you suppress, repress and destroy. Every dictatorship on earth has done just that. The solution to problems of racial inequity will not be solved by restoring law and order through suppression of the many voices of American citizens being expressed through civil protest. There is no question Donald Trump wants to outlaw protest. We need to explore motivation honestly here. Everything he does is pulled together within the thread of establishing an authoritarian regime. {Violence is an issue and part of this plan to move us toward a "friendly dictatorship" form of government  – and that just erupted again when Trump support protesters interacted with social justice protesters. Social justice people died at the hands of Trump supporters. This is a violent administration that wants to use images of military dominance to support it - check the pictures and then look at Hitler's rally images} Use of the ideology of Law and Order further puts the country in danger due to escalating the confrontational elements between law enforcement and freedom of expression and putting the police on the line as enforcers rather than protectors. The answers lie in the leadership qualities and skills that Donald Trump does not possess nor does he fill any part of his government with people who have those qualities to stand in for him. The Law and Order mis-ideology needs to be discussed, dissected and explored in public conversation. Peace is not restored through law and order. Peace is restored through addressing the issues.

Donald has not acknowledged the validity of the issues raised by protesters nor promised to address any of their concerns or needs or expressed any honest condolences over the killings of black people and racial inequities in the country. Not acknowledging issues that he is not prepared to handle (anything that opposes his views) is another authoritarian leadership trait exhibited by Donald Trump. What does that say about the leadership currently installed in the White House and its ability to lead all the people of this country, not just its own base and those who agree with Donald's agenda?  The job of a president is to bring us together; those who agree and those who disagree with whomever is voted into office, and take care of the entire country. This is supposed to be a democracy - a free and open society with self-rule, not the rule of  someone's version of "law and order." This concept needs to be discussed and explored in public conversation. We must make space for one another, not repress and deny one another. All must be heard - all - on both sides, and all views must be discussed and dialogued together - all views. Once we are all heard we are not divided. We may disagree, but we are not divided. Humans have a basic ability to hear and understand one another. This builds trust and a strong country where we can act together in spite of our differences. That is role of leadership. 

Basically, we need to spend time taking apart the issues to have a discussion around the leadership qualities and traits we may be looking at living with for the next four years. Exposing authoritarianism and the lack of true leadership and management skills that have dominated both Trump’s presidency and businesses and are changing the face of democracy in this country is an important conversation. Donald Trump’s changeability and inconsistency needs to be re-visited. His constant shedding of advisors and changing of leadership positions must be continually re-highlighted. The issue of how quickly someone falls out of favor and is terminated has created gaps in our leadership at very fundamental levels. The fact that so many of this administration's former leadership team members have expressed dissatisfaction with what they are seeing happen in the White House needs to be remembered verbally and re-visited and talked about consistently as we face the future together. The lack of stability all of this creates which has led to the inability to muster forces in the face of a national health crisis, or any crisis is the danger – not specific issues over which we can argue but conversation around exploring the leadership qualities that have governed in the last four years and the ones that we will choose to govern us for the next four years. Are they truly authoritarian? What does that mean to different segments of our population and what do the terms democracy and authority really embrace? What is healthy authority and what is not? What is a healthy democracy and what is not? Why are we drawn to what we are drawn to and how will our inclinations expressed in our votes make our country truly strong from the inside as a whole, a true leader in a free world that honors the dignity and human rights of all people?  Let's take a closer look and remember we are all eating at the same table.

*            AUTHOR	ushistory.org
TITLE OF PAGE	The Evolution of the Presidency
TITLE OF PROGRAM	American Government Online Textbook
URL OF PAGE	//www.ushistory.org/gov/7a.asp
DATE OF ACCESS	Sunday, August 30, 2020
COPYRIGHT	2020

 

Federal Government Terrorizes Protesters - A Study in White Fragility

An Op Ed Piece

Unlawfully unmarked Federal Troops have invaded the city of Portland Oregon to provide a show of Federal force with which to threaten and bully other cities in other states into suppressing protests supporting societal change for equality and justice for people of color in the United States. Now the tide of bullying extends to other states as well.

The true message of Portland and what is going on these days is one of white fragility in its most eloquently elevated condition. The greater the push for equality the greater the use of force to keep that change from taking place, once again reinforcing the underlying purpose of law enforcement in this country as being that of protecting the institutions and systems that keep white privilege in place. As the voices of change call out for equalization, those steeping in the security of white privilege feel threatened, become extremely alarmed and call for help to keep their institutions in place.  After all, says the white privileged person, we are all good people. We mean no one any harm. Please protect us from these irate and disturbed unhappy people. Please make them go away so everything can stay the comfortable same. Call in the military if needed! Do not let our way of life perish! Taking no responsibility for the systemic suppression they live in that directly harms huge portions of the population and therefore they are able to claim innocence and cry for protection. The use of force is then justified to protect their very white way of life and the systems they are comfortable with. 

Does this somehow not remind one of the French Revolution? The simple happy playing of the days by those with income, wealth and the means for a happy life that allowed the aristocracy to ignore their responsibility to the people upon whom their way of life depended until an uprising of what finally became utter hatred was spawned that brought them to their death and ushered in a military coup? Is this not the basis of white fragility? The heart-felt fear of loss of those with privilege? And is not that fear the basis of class war and revolution? Is it not the lesson of history – that those who ignore the cries of their brothers and sisters do so to their peril? That the innocently guilty cry innocent on their way to the guillotine? That a whole class of people is punished for its blind existence in and dependence upon the privileges it refused to acknowledge and felt entitled to?

Can we not learn anything from history? Must we repeat the blindness over and over again? Will we not listen – listen to the voices crying in our streets and take a second look at ourselves? True disaster will be heralded by the deaf and the blind. The very worst that they fear and fight to keep from happening will come upon us all collectively unless we begin to move toward change. Toward equality. Toward true freedom for all. The human spirit will not suffer constant suppression and oppression. The blood of our brothers and sisters killed through oppression, repression, and violence calls to us from the streets. The cries of those standing for them call to us from the streets. For all the Evangelicals out there – God is listening. Not to your prayers and cries for help, and remonstrances of innocence, but to the cries of the blood of the dead and their brothers and sisters calling to Him in the street. Wake Up.

Tell your dog to lay off. Quell his military trained private forces sent to defend and preserve your  way of life and your dominance and supremacy by attacking and suppressing "others",  and put your hearing aides on and listen. We are all hanging in the balance waiting for you to wake up. Sitting on the precipice of your disaster. This whole society with all its light and freedom will go down the slide into autocracy and military dominance with you, if you, the good white people, choose to stay deaf. The light of freedom will go out in America because of you. And you will think it is everyone else's fault. You will not even see it happening. It will feel like "the right thing" to you....until it is far too late. Wake UP. 

Building a Case for War

One that is very poor

based on scenes seen before

A sad and paltry place

where words are used to encase

giving an unpleasant taste

to all that's said.

Its specter fills with dread

a place of sanity fled

before the rhetoric of war.

Geneva's conventions are by far

and most, including us, ignored.

Made at conflict's end to ensure

in retrospect, our sanctity of life

idealistic protectionism

sweetened good intentions

salted with hypocrisy

both time and expediency

and war

I cannot listen anymore

to why we should intervene

take upon ourselves another's world scene

Lead the charge of morality

tainted with complacency

giving away what is not ours

the lives of our young to preserve

our sense of dignity.

Let others bear the burden

of democracy themselves

take its reins upon their shoulders

put their youth to its presses

That we stand not alone

and first

in meaningless words

well rehearsed

as we push them off - pawns across the

world of our kingship

Protecting not the purity of life

but the vanity of supremacy

Building a case for war

When there is none.

This was written after President Obama's speech to the nation urging a strike in Syria a few weeks ago - before the budget brouhaha struck - I thought it timely on a Sunday morn of bloodshed overlooking the taking of an ounce of blood for an ounce of blood. When are we justified? What is our justification? Usually a religious source, used to create a sense of the rightness of an action that is essentially wrong. And how do we reconcile these goings on? An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth - all preachers should preach on that one this morning, and help us find a place of comfort in it. May you find peace somewhere today, a little bit of it - not the solace of its placebo, but a true step toward achieving it.