Vince’s Daily Journal – Day 11
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WHAT IS WRONG WITH US????
I’m writing this 45 minutes after the former president of this country and the GOP candidate for president next term survived an assassination attempt. In what universe is this acceptable behavior?? How can we possibly justify the hideously inflammatory rhetoric that is the lexicon of our political system any longer? How can we call another human being an ‘existential threat’ and NOT expect this to happen in a country with soaring rates of mental disease, gun violence, hate crimes, and just plain hate? This is not a commentary on one party or another. This is a commentary on US. Politicians do one thing – try to please the people who put them in office. We can argue all day about the hows, whats, whys, whens, whos, whatever, but good or bad, politicians’ job is to serve and represent their constituents, and they’re taking this hateful, violent, apocalyptic (Really? an ‘existential’ threat? Trump will eliminate the existence of democracy??? Hitler couldn’t do that. Come on people!) Our current president said it best, in comments just made – This is sick! WE, as a country, are sick with a deep, septic form of narcissistic hate – If you don’t look like me, talk like me, agree with me, and toe my line, you are EVIL. We really think that we’re any better than the people in the Middle East, slaughtering our neighbors wholesale, whether it’s shooting in schools, mass incarceration that kills, injures, and devastates hundreds of thousands of families, gang violence, drug overdoses, predatory corporations, domestic violence… any of us could go on for days.
When does it stop?
When we say so.
HOW does it stop?
We have to decide that everyone matters, everyone has value, everyone is worthy and deserving of life and love, and every single person is made in the image and likeness of a God who loves us so dearly that he gave himself in one of the most brutal forms of torture ever devised, even though he knew we’d keep doing this crap!
It ends now, if we say so, by putting our fists down and trying to see the human in the person in front of us.
Each of us MUST start this immediately if we want any hope of seeing this world change. The quote attributed to Gandhi has always stuck with me, and I believe that in this moment, it’s more true than it’s ever been before.
Be the change you want to see in the world.
Want to see less hate, a return to civil discourse and debate, a political system and a country that IS great again and that we can legitimately be proud of? Be love. Speak with reason and respect other’s emotions. Write to your elected representative and support them – even if you don’t agree with their views, you can support a person who wants to see everyone succeed. And vote your conscience, not your affiliation!
Please pray for all our politicians, for our country, and for BOTH of our presidential candidates.
We are better than this.
