A few years ago I was at the gym where I do some of my most intense inner workouts too. I remember my father saying often “It’s a free country.” This first-generation American born of Russian Jewish immigrant parents who came here to escape persecution loved America and accepted people from all cultures and religions even as he experienced anti-Semitism growing up. He didn’t become bitter and reactive. He didn’t use it as an excuse for hatred. Where I sit with this is that while we are free to think and feel whatever we want socially and politically, I take issue when people use it as an excuse to support an administration that dealt in destruction. How do I reconcile my love for humanity with wanting to change the minds of humans who justify their political allegiances without thinking of the long-term consequences?
My father used to say that America was the best country in the world. In the naivete of my childhood, I believed him. Clearly, there are countries that are run (not governed) by brutal dictatorial regimes. I don’t think most Americans consider how close we came to that state here with those in positions of power who want to hold on to it through any means possible and attempted to subvert the results of a free and fair election. Now, 14 months later, there are still elected officials and the people who granted them that status who will not declare that Joe Biden is President of the United States. By the standards of our electoral process, he is. Pure and simple, more people voted for him. Cognitive dissonance runs rampant as they don’t object to the ballots that named them winners nor do they protest the votes for TFG (The Former Guy). Scratching my head at those. It reminds me of children who, if they don’t win the game, demand to change the rules. In my area, there are still signs, banners, and flags that align with the hoisters’, displayers’, and wavers’ fealty to the one they wanted to remain in The White House. Around the corner from my house is a sign that declares that the President’s first name and a derogatory word that refers to a woman, that rhymes with his name,(meaning the Vice President) got to go. Each time I drive past it, I want to take it down, but it is on private property so I don’t want to get arrested for trespassing. Then I remember my father’s words, “It’s a free country.” The First Amendment grants these people the right to plant that sign in their yard just as I have the right to display signs that read Hate Has No Home Here, Love is Love, Black Lives Matters, Science is Real, My Body, My Choice. The difference is that mine are not disparaging someone’s name, appearance, gender or cognitive ability.
I posted a meme that definitively declares that the President doesn’t set gas prices. A response was “Of course, he does not set gas prices; it’s not within his cognitive ability.” My response to this person was, “You missed the point, so I question your cognitive ability. NO PRESIDENT SETS GAS PRICES. And another question for you. Do you know anyone who stutters?” It grinds my gears when someone confuses a speech impediment with a lack of mental acuity. When I listen to President Biden speak, I hear a man who communicates with enthusiasm and from the heart. Does he occasionally stumble over his words? At times. I would be curious to know if this person would have anything to say about TFG’s verbal gaffes over the years. And a bonus, a series of troubling statements that I have little doubt that he really meant.
I am an avid watcher of the news (any network but FOX, since my skin crawls when I hear the falsehoods that the show hosts spew) and listener of NPR, since I want to keep apprised of what events are occurring on the planet, even as I sometimes want to curl up under the covers until sanity reigns supreme. Nothing that TFG says surprises me. What has me shaking my head is how many people still align with him after all he has gone to wreak havoc, cause damage, lie, incite an insurrection and attempt to undermine whatever semblance of democracy guides this country. I am not naïve enough to believe that our country wasn’t always fraught with violence, hatred, bigotry, racism and sexism. I fear for our country when I learn of a growing number of states ready and willing to outlaw abortion for any reason, even though a majority of Americans polled support abortion rights. In my area, school boards are moving toward banning books, protesting diversity education and in general, making the school environment less welcoming to any student who doesn’t fit the mold of their idea of normalcy.
I have more questions than answers, but as a white, cis-gender, upper-middle-class, educated woman, who definitely has privilege, I don’t want anyone to have fewer rights than I do and I don’t want anyone to have more rights than I do.