by Bill Mayers
It was a November to remember. An election stolen by a horribly outdated institution called “Electoral College.” An attractive California mother abducted and viciously abused. Peaceful protesters attacked by forces with no legal grounds to do so for exercising their First Amendment rights at Standing Rock. A stunning increase in overt acts of racism and sexism. The mocking of disabled people by a national figure who blats like a spoiled adolescent on Twitter.
Holy bleedin’ crap, is this the image we want to project to the world?
Someone said that if you have a weak stomach, don’t watch a butcher at work or politics. Well, even experienced butchers were nauseated by this recent political circus. It was truly macabre. We’ll have a POTUS who can’t govern and who’ll let the vice president run the show, like Dick Cheney did in a previous administration.
Said administration led the nation into the Great Recession and grandly proclaimed “Mission Accomplished.”. Ooo-
Ooo-kayy…
People were ticked off, and with reason. Far too many couldn’t find work that would pay the bills. Social changes that came fast and furious frightened the bejesus out of conservative citizens. Overwhelming increases in health insurance cost. Misrepresentations and outright lies by the media baffled millions of us.
And so we reacted out of confusion and fear.
I ask you again: is this how we want the world to see us? We’re turning that Shining City on a Hill into a garbage dump, for cryin’ out loud! Maybe I’m a sucker for decency and fairness and honesty and truly abiding by the Golden Rule.
I believe we can once more become what we were: the inspiration for the world. We have the brains and the ability. We can and we must reverse the mad rush toward Fascism that has gripped so many of us.
We can, and we must seriously, address abuse such as that experienced by supermom Sherri Papini. We can and we must stand up to racism and abuse of the disabled among us. We can and we must demand accountability from the nation’s media outlets and insist that they honor and preserve the mantra that the duty of the press is to ask questions and raise hell!
All-Trump-All-The-Time was and is a disgrace.
Injustice has no place in America. Come and join the resistance!
William D. “Bill” Mayers RT, RN, of Sullivan is a retired senior U.S. Army Corpsman. A certified healthcare professional since 1964, he holds two professional licenses, including that of Registered Professional Nurse licensed in New York, Alaska, Virginia and Louisiana. He has four children, two stepchildren, three grandchildren and is an avid analyst of current events.