Happy Birthday 'Murica!

Happy 4th of July, my fellow Americans! 

Or is it?  As I sit here having my morning coffee, I think about being an American and what that means. I think of the freedoms we enjoy.  The opportunities available to us.  The benefits we have of living in this country.

But then I think about the fact that all of this is under threat!

Since the start of the last election campaign year, we have all been hearing about how Trump wanted to “Make America Great Again”. At the time I asked myself, “Isn’t America already pretty great?”  Yeah, we have a ways to go when it comes to progress.  But we had been on the right path, and were getting better and better.

I don’t think the people who voted for him realized that when he said those words, he meant back to an era when there was more racism, xenophobia, inequality, etc.  Or maybe they did realize that. Maybe they are just racist assholes who want this country to go back to segregation, want women in the kitchen, want homosexuals to deny who they are, back to ruining our environment, destroying our education system, breaking down the international ties we worked so hard to build up and all those other “great” things that were the America of yesteryear (btw, for those who don’t know me by now … I am typing the word “great” while rolling my eyes!)

The one thing that Trump’s “Great” America does NOT have in common with the 1950’s is that back then, the President of this country would NEVER had been tied to the leader of Russia!!  

America came so far (with still much further to go) during the time that President Obama ran this country!  He showed dignity, grace, intelligence, class and truly had the best interest of ALL Americans in mind!  We became a nation that was stronger, more united, more respected.

Then something that is completely incomprehensible to me happened.  The bigots, racists and ignorant got out there and voted.  They elected their “leader”, who would bring this country back to a past of all the negatives!  And those who value the freedom, the equality, the true greatness of this country ... a great number of them just stayed home.  We lost more than just an election.  We lost our greatness!

Before, during and after the election, I heard people talking about how they just couldn’t vote for Clinton.  They would say that they wouldn’t vote at all, rather than vote for her.  That she robbed Bernie of the nomination.  That they would write in Bernie if they were going to vote.

Republicans, Libertarians, Independents, Tea Party and yes, even a number of the Democrats talk about how she is crooked and a liar.  What is so absolutely ridiculous and pathetic about this is that the person who is now in the White House is more blatant of a liar than anyone else in the entire free world!!  More of a crook than anyone else!!  Even when shown video evidence that he said or did something, he will deny it.  He lives in an alternate reality.

And he is running the Presidency of the United States of America like a damn reality TV show!  Complete with the drama, lies, deception, and immature junior high school antics!  A leader of a country (any country) should not be getting into Twitter wars.  He shouldn’t be “fighting back” because his “feelings were hurt”.  He, OR SHE, should be someone who is mature (not Trump) and intelligent (again, not Trump) and know that being in the spotlight (i.e., being the President of the United States of America) will require you to focus on the business of RUNNING A COUNTRY!!  Not on your social media apps!

Obama had plenty of haters!!  Yet not once did he waste his energies in online, social-media throw downs with them. He was focused on running our country and making it a better place for ALL people, every day!

But, as much as I can go on and on about Trump and how horrible he is for not only this country, but for the world and humanity in general, what I need to talk about is not him. I need to speak about the people of this country who are not standing up and doing something about this guy!

He’s already done enough evil to ruin this country.  And yet, very few are REALLY standing up and saying NO!!  Very few are actually contacting their representatives to voice their complaints.  And nobody (NOBODY) is making any plan to remove this guy from office!  We’re waiting for things to happen, and yet how long do we wait?

Martin Niemöller (the prominent Protestant pastor who spoke out against Hitler) said it most poetically with his quote:

First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Socialist.

Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Trade Unionist.

Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.

Hitler didn’t "overthrow" the government of Germany in a coup.  He was elected.  He assumed power with the support of the people.  And he slowly (at first) and methodically turned his country, a free republic, into a dictatorship.  Nobody stood up against him or spoke out against him until it was too late.  Until he had started a world war and killed over 11 MILLION people! 

People say it couldn’t happen again.  People wouldn’t let that happen again.  That people would never let someone do such atrocities again.

But it is happening again!  History is repeating itself!  Is Trump killing people?  Not yet.  But will he?  Did people think Hitler would do what he did when he first came to power?

Humans are a complicit species!  We sit by and let things unfold.  Is it that we are just hoping the next person will do something?  Are we afraid of being ostracized for speaking out?  Are we all just sheep?  Or are we all just lazy?

You may be reading this and asking … Ok, smarty pants, what is it that you would have me do?

Well, if you’re not an ignorant, racist jerk and you want to make sure that Trump does not get away with turning this once GREAT nation (a.k.a. the nation it was just this past early November) into his own dictatorship, you can get involved!  You can join your local political party.  You can go to marches and protests.  You can go to town hall type of meetings to listen, maybe even to speak up.  Don’t want to do that?  What about calling your representatives to voice your opinion, so they know which way the people they are supposed to represent want them to vote.  Don’t feel like picking up the phone?  Pick up a pen and write to your elected official.  Too much effort for you to do that? Don’t feel like buying a stamp or going to the post office or even the mailbox?  Then go online (Hey, look at that, you’re already online now!!) and google “who is the U.S. Representative for [your city/town]” and click into their website.  They will have a way to contact them and let your voice be heard!  Sign an online petition!  Post to your Facebook or Twitter page to get others to speak up.  Trump sure is doing that!  Why not do the same?

And when the mid-term elections come around, don’t sit home.  VOTE!!!  You don’t like the candidates?  Yeah, that happens.  But like it or not, these are your choices.  You can do several things when that happens …

You can vote for the one who is closest to your views (by researching their views, and not just going with the latest sound bite (i.e., the "wag the dog" way of getting informed))

You can get more involved yourself and either run for office or help someone that you do agree with run for office.

Or, you can just sit at home and let things happen.  Which, unfortunately seems to be the way that things usually turn out.  But by doing this, by "doing nothing", you are actually doing so much.  So  much damage, actually.  You’re not only hurting yourself, you’re hurting the entire country, the entire world!! 

GET OFF YOUR BUTT AND DO SOMETHING!!  Because sitting it out is just not acceptable!!  It should not be an option!!

To paraphrase Niemöller, if you won’t even speak up for yourself, who will?