Sometimes, you have to speak up and say something.
Generally speaking, I try to lay low regarding world events for several reasons. One, my influence on the big picture is bound to be small. Two, everyone else is yapping constantly, and I’d only be adding to the noise. Three, expressing myself only gets me labeled and categorized, and who needs that?
But sometimes…
Starting with the glaring orange elephant, I’m proud to say that I have never given him a vote, and I have tried to give him as little attention as possible. There comes a point when ignoring someone of his lack of character can be dangerous, though, as the world has now amply seen. My refusal to even consider him worthy of a vote was originally solely based on his lack of integrity or morals. I would later on be disappointed by his lack of knowledge of the Constitution, etc. I could go on, but it seems pointless to repeat all of his bad decisions.
It’s not even the reason I’m writing this, although he is the person writing with excrement on the walls of our human history. I realize he is in many ways a puppet, as most politicians are to some extent. I also realize that he is a creation of society, as Hitler was, and he was enabled by a lot of bitter people who felt powerless, or were otherwise just frightened by propaganda.
Whatever the resonance (which I have given up trying to understand), it’s not that I “hate” anyone, but I have serious concerns about how a person with money is automatically respected, when it is now more obvious than ever that while money buys power, it has no claim on respectability.
Furthermore, money only buys power because we are willing to sell power. There are so many possible tangents for this blog. However…
I want to move on to the Epstein files. For so long, I have looked forward to the release of these. They don’t shock me at all. I’m more aware than most of the depravity most humans hide behind.
What shocked me was the lack of response. This, more than anything, more than the ridiculous acceptance that ICE agents are justified in killing people and throwing people into camps without due process, more than the blatant sexism and racism that now passes as “normal”, more than backward, narrow-minded misogynists who want women to be submissive incubators, more than xenophobes and homophobes (and all the other terrified people) who can’t exist without everyone being the same as them…the silence following this file release completely pulled the rug from an area of my psyche that I thought was relatively stable.
No, I’ve never been very patriotic. I saw a lot of patriotism in my youth. Schools were steeped in the rhetoric. History books I learned from were one-sided. I watched my parents move from left to right on the political spectrum, and I heard their reasoning, although I rarely agreed. Maybe it’s because I always had international interests. I don’t know, but I could see how this country was once considered a major leader of the free world without it making the country or its citizens superior as human beings.
But all of that aside, I can only guess that I thought we were at least better as a people than this. In the face of hundreds abused children in sworn testimony, some of us are still clinging to a political party as justification? The evidence is overwhelming. This level of corruption is the most embarrassing stain on American history so far–and that’s quite a list already.
My hat is off to those members of Congress who are still battling with those who have been bought to agree with the perpetrators of these crimes. It can’t be easy arguing with walls every day, and they must feel they are living in a nightmare.
I know that feeling well. I grew up in a household where we were expected to believe lies told to us in the face of what we were eyewitnesses to. That kind of existence will screw up a brain. Years later, I still find myself replaying what I experienced and saw, and I become enraged that I was called a liar instead.
And maybe the recollection of that trauma is why this hits so hard with me.
Nevertheless…
I can’t pretend this isn’t happening, and I am shattered for the survivors and the further humiliation and rejection they are feeling. I hope they are getting some sense of validation from other countries that are doing something about offenders.
I have always had friends and family on all sides of politics. I tend to agree with Tim Walz–that there are good people in all parties, and it’s when we listen to media summaries of our friends and neighbors that we become so divided. I don’t believe that any party is perfect or pure evil.
But sometimes…
If you find yourself defending these criminals, it’s time for some soul-searching.
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