Day Ten

I listened, this morning, as Sean Spicer alternately lectured and shamed the press corps while they tried to clarify the circumstances surrounding this weekend’s executive order banning travelers from seven eastern countries from entering the U.S. Sean is going to have improve his side-step as well as his poker-face, if he remains the white house press secretary for long. In all fairness, he was much better at both than Reince Priebus was on Meet The Press on Sunday.

Priebus, who’s voice is always a little whiney anyway, sounded and looked as if he had one foot in an enormous pot of warm dog poop and couldn’t get it out. Actually, I suppose that is the case. Trying to defend one of Trump’s new executive orders, that has people marching and petitioning in protest all around the world has got to be a prickly predicament.

We Are The People

Yes, I will be boycotting the inauguration on Friday, not that I got an invitation anyway or that I think the incoming president will notice my absence. He did not win this election fairly. I respect the people who will attend because they don’t want to cast a pall on the election process. I also respect the people who cannot accept this man as the legitimate president. Theirs is the right to protest.

I will be boycotting because this election was important. They all are, and too many people are beginning to think they aren’t. A very dear friend said to me recently, “I don’t think it really matters anyway. Everyone in politics is crooked and they are all out to make money for themselves and screw the rest of us. There’s nothing you can do that will make it different.”

I refuse to believe that. There are some, way too many, politicians that are like that and with agendas that don’t reflect the needs of the regular people. But there are some good people who really want to see a change and to administer that change. There are really people who, whether I agree with everything they say or not, are really working hard to preserve the good things about this country. One of them was in this past presidential race.

Another country did, without a doubt, interfere in this election and in previous ones. That disturbs me. That and a few dozen other things about our democratic process. We are our own worst enemy when it comes to getting a fair and accurate vote here in the United States of America. Voter fraud, gerrymandering, voter suppression, misinformation, the entire primary process and campaign season violate my sensibilities and make finding the best choice a bigger chore than it needs to be.

This election exploited every problem to the max with the help of a foreign leader that had a favorite candidate. He won. He cheated, he lied, and lied about lying. The Republican Party helped with the tried and true voter suppression methods, and then there was a widespread fake news program that continually assassinated the character of Hillary Clinton.  Add to that the questionable actions of the FBI director and some other unfair acts and we are now about to inaugurate the most unsuitable person to ever have the office.

So, I won’t be watching the inauguration. I’m sure I can find a transcript of the speech he says he is writing himself. I doubt that, even after the picture he tweeted out to prove it. The President Elect has already insulted all our allies on the world stage, most of the women in his country and the world, anyone who isn’t white skinned and rich, Muslims and more, who he now wants to support him. But he refuses to say a word against Putin.

He communicates his hurt feelings and future policy actions via tweets and has nominated a cabinet full of wealthy racists and misfits, most of whom have no knowledge or experience in the fields they are charged with heading up. Several of them have been openly against equality for gays or women or races or religions.  Now he wants to cripple the press. This is the stuff that makes fiction exciting and reality very dangerous.

We need to fix the voting problems. We need to count every vote of every citizen of this country. We need to do this now. As we sit here with an unqualified president at the helm and ultra-conservative republicans rushing to take away healthcare, social security and medicare, we have now been backed into a corner, the best position from which to fight.

So, no I won’t be watching the coronation. I will not give to him the respect he would never give to President Barack Obama. I will not call him illegitimate, though I don’t think he won a fair election. We do need to respect the election process. I will be in support of the millions that will march on Saturday. They are our voice, the voice of THE PEOPLE. We are the People for whom and by whom and of whom this country was founded.  Speak up, let us know what you need.

Indivisible

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands -  one nation indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

This is the way I learned to say the Pledge of Allegiance and I really prefer this version.

“I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America”

Our children say this every school day, although they cannot be compelled to. Many of us say it regularly for one reason or another, in club meetings or patriotic ceremonies, sometimes as part of our jobs. Do we really bear allegiance to a piece of fabric? No, our allegiance is really to “the republic for which it stands,” the United States of America. The flag is merely a symbol of our republic. Nothing we can do to the flag will destroy the country. It is our standard and in battle and in diplomatic situations a great deal of importance is bestowed on being able to see the colors flying high and free and treated with respect. If those colors, that flag, is not in evidence it means we are not in control, but the country continues to exist.

“I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands…”

It is the republic for which we will die and live. We will stand together against common enemies and foreign foes. We work together for a better life, a better life for us all; better health, better opportunities, better jobs, better roads, better beaches and parks, better values. The values of the United States should be constantly improving.

“I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands; one nation indivisible with liberty and justice for all.”

I love the simplicity and purity of this sentence. “One nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all” captures the essence of what our country stands for. “One nation, indivisible,” meaning we stand together as one nation accepting of our diversity and of change. “Indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.” That is what we will fight for and die for and live for.

When the pledge was first written by Francis Bellamy for the opening ceremony of the Columbian Exposition in 1892 we were a long way from achieving “liberty and justice for all” but it was implied, even then, when the definition of “all” was still incomplete. We have come a long way and we have a bit further to go yet.

In 1954 when the words “under God” were inserted it created the possibility of a small threat to the word, “indivisible.” ‘Under God’ seemed to say that non-believers no longer had a place in our nation, a right to the liberties and justices we had been promising. For this reason, even though I had barely learned to repeat it from memory, I still prefer to say it and hear it without ‘under God’.

The sentence originally read: “I pledge allegiance to my flag, and the Republic for which it stands – one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.” Bellamy soon added a ‘to’ before the Republic. In 1923 the words ‘my flag’ was changed to ‘the flag of the United States’ at the urging of the Daughters of the American Revolution, so immigrant children would be clear about which flag they were saluting. The next year “of America” was added and in 1954 ‘under God.’ These two words have been challenged many times since they were added.

Of all the words strung together in 1892, “indivisible” is the strongest and the most important one to remember at this time.  We are one nation, indivisible, in spite of differences of opinion, of spirit and of physical attributes. We are diverse and stronger for our diversities, but divisible we are not.

Goodby and Hello

It was certainly a sad day in America. I listened with a heavy heart to President Obama give his farewell speech last night. A man and his family that have stood before us with elegance, intelligence and compassion will soon step aside. He leaves the office with the country in a much better state than when he took it. Except, of course, for the great division of our people.

Before I could even begin to process that eloquent speech this morning, I was bombarded by the antithesis of President Obama. The current President Elect would give the first press conference in 6 months and before he could do that the breaking news broke and shattered any thought of that press conference being anything near civil.

Although he used his new “presidential voice,” he didn’t even make the attempt at civility, attacking the mean media, of course and the wrong one, also of course. One would think that someone who had spread such vile things about his opponent just a couple of months ago would not be shocked to reap what he had previously sown. Fortunately for him he was able to focus most of the attention on the lewd and somewhat perverted sex act and keep the attention away from the unproven items like “Putin did know about the Wikileaks war against Secretary Clinton” and the back and forth communications between Trump’s campaign staff and “somewhere in Russia” for several months, etc. We will find out more about them later on, I suppose.

Anyway, I am going to do my best to bask in the afterglow of our current President’s speech for as long as I can. He and his family have given us something to look up to. Good night. Sweet dreams.

Dear Mr. Trump,

I want to speak to the fact that you do not feel you are not getting the respect from the public and the media to which you are entitled. You feel you are being mocked and you are understandably hurt by this. It does hurt to be mocked publicly, or privately, for that matter.

For the past many, many months I have listened to you mock one person after another and smirk; one group of people after another and puff your chest out and bow to the applause. Rosie O’Donnell, Megyn Kelly, Marco Rubio, Jeb Bush, a Gold Star Mother, a reporter who has a successful career in spite of birth defects and many more have come under the knife of your cruel and witless tongue.

You gave yourself permission to jettison the truth from your campaign agenda because “winning” is the important thing. You refuse to acknowledge facts that put the security of this country and its citizens in danger, because you like what Putin says about you. I don’t like Putin so I don’t care what he says about you.

I could go on, but there is no use. What I want to say is this: I think you are getting exactly the respect you deserve. In fact you are getting the respect you have taught us to show. You are being treated as you have been treating others. Not by the media that you call crooked. They are doing their jobs. You are being treated this way by the citizens, the majority of the people you serve, the people who did not vote for you.

You won! Congratulations! You had to cheat and lie and behave badly to win, but you won. That’s all that matters. You had to hurt people and make promises that are meaningless now, but you won. Now you get to live with the knowledge that the majority of the people of this country don’t respect that kind of behavior. You are the most unpopular person to ever take the oath of office for the President of the United States of America. But you won. Enjoy. But if you want to be treated better, you need to learn how to act better. Do unto others as you would have others do unto you.