A letter to President Trump

  " And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom."  Anais Nin

Dear President Trump, your Cabinet and Supreme Court nominees,

I would like to ask you some questions.  Then, please tell me how you make your decisions based on your answers:

1. You have daughters, wives, sisters, and mothers.  Have you or any of these females ever used birth control to help plan your families?  Have any of these females had accidental pregnancies or pregnancies involving life-threatening, medical problems?
2. Have you ever had a pal or colleague who came from a different country? Have you known well anyone of a different race than you?
3. Were you raised in a religious family that teaches that we should love our neighbors as ourselves, especially the little children?  And that pride is a seductive sin?
4. Have you cared about anyone who loved a person of their same gender?
5. Have you accessed health care for you or your families?  Most of you have so much money that perhaps you aren’t aware of those not like you, who barely scrape by, whose medical problems have caused tragic bankruptcies, some never recovering from their lack of affordable healthcare. You solicited their votes and offered healthy change.
6. Did you attend public schools or universities? Do you drive on streets and interstates?  Did you ever take your children to a public library?  Do you appreciate fire and police departments, and other services that provide safety during emergencies? Are these democratic socialist institutions?

If you answered “yes” to any question, I wonder then why you want to overturn Roe v. Wade, or how you think abortions can be decreased while reducing funding to the very organizations who offer medical care and family planning services?

Are you worried that women, LGBTQ people and immigrants are taking over the country, being elected to leadership positions, and that you rich, white men might not profit quite so much or might lose your power while implementing torturous, violent policies that most Americans disagree with?  Do you know that your grandchildren’s education will focus on teaching them to get along and work with people who are different from you?

But, maybe you don’t want your daughters to succeed except on the arm of a man. Can they not develop power or fortune for themselves?  Are you petrified of progress and fear you will fall from grace?

Please look deeply within and realize that you can prosper in America as it changes. Please listen to Americans who have more humane values than you.

In fact, President Trump, talk to those who elected you. And, don’t be fooled.  They all don’t want walls, and most don’t even like your bonding with Russia. Although they may have been misguided in voting for you, they want a healthy, profitable and safe country, and there are many better ways to get there than by your recent executive orders and policies. 

Perhaps the more you resist change, the farther you will fall. Surely you want something better for yourselves.

Not Only about Trump

"A house divided against itself cannot stand."  Abe Lincoln

The November 2016 presidential election affects us deeply. Donald Trump as President-Elect, his actions throughout time, and how his cabinet is evolving trouble me greatly. Some picks, like Jeff Sessions, would be excellent satire if not for their true tragedies.

50% of our citizens did not vote in this last election. It stuns me that our leaders are elected by such low numbers. I am upset with Americans who have been so angry and fearful that they voted for Trump and that only 25% of Americans elected this grandiose, dangerous man. I am sickened by corporate media’s constant and continual coverage of Trump throughout time, and I am distressed that the media chose not to highlight Bernie Sanders, a highly skilled and intriguing presidential candidate.

But, I am much more concerned about the daily issues that our country faces, that only partially depend on presidential and congressional politics.

I am speaking about American Values.  About our moral, civic and spiritual obligations to take care of the needy, poor, and oppressed peoples.  About our need to refuse to block the immigration of Muslims and others, all of us being products of past immigration.  About our need to focus on human and civil rights for all people and not just for the wealthy, the lucky, and those who buy our elections.  About quality health care coverage for all people.

I worry about Donald Trump being President because he is impulsive, arrogant, disgusting toward women, fickle (he loved Meryl Streep and her acting skills then reacted viciously when she spoke out against him), and a man who wants to illegally hold onto his businesses while governing our nation, thinking that he is above ethics rules and that nepotism is his God-given right.

But, I am far more concerned about our nation’s daily shootings, gun violence by police toward black and brown men and boys, guns in the hands of those who have extreme mental illness, some mowing down adults and children just because it is so easy to access weaponry in this country, weapons made for military action and not for hunters or for those protecting their homes and families. 

I am concerned about the fact that women’s reproductive rights and LGBT rights are being challenged to re-enter the early 20th century dark ages when women, LGBT people, African Americans and other minorities were frequently abused, lynched and/or killed just because of their gender, color of their skin, or loving their partners. That our culture began separating races, prompting European white people to feel so privileged that they could own other people or enslave them in correctional institutions for petty crimes, with money as incentive.

Lastly, I hope that Trump will be impeached and that Americans will become more active in their local communities, and in local, state and national politics that so that people like Trump cannot and will not be elected president again.

Words Matter: On Violence with sports and with Trump

"Stop the words now. Open the window in the center of your chest, and let the spirits fly in and out." Rumi

Sitting on my couch with a cold on New Year’s Eve 2016, playing Candy Crush Soda Pop (level 337 - Oh, that sticky bubblegum!), I was stunned when a TV sports announcer during the Peach Bowl’s Alabama/Washington game said, “And, put in the dagger!” He soon talked about “penetration” as if the football game was an exercise of war with flanks penetrating the enemy. Words matter. Roll Tide.

Other frequently used sports’ words: Attack, Ambush, Aggressor, Assault, Battle, Brutal, Capture, Chaos, Charge, Clash, Combat, Command, Confrontation, Concussion, Conquer, Control, Counterattack, Crash, Damage, Defense, Demolish, Destroy, Devastate, Dominate.  And those are only the A through D’s!

I began thinking about masculinity and violence: “Studies on gender and sports media find that sports commentary reinforces perceptions of ‘violent masculinity.’ By praising athletes who continue to play while injured, and by using language of conflict and war to describe action, sports commentary reinforces violence and aggression as exciting and rewarding behaviour….[reinforcing]the social attitude that violence and aggression are normal and natural expressions of masculine identity” (http://mediasmarts.ca/gender-representation/men-and-masculinity/masculinity-and-sports-media).

Violent, visual imagery affects not only children but us all. We become numb, traumatized, and/or desensitized when watching sports, news, violent video games and movies. Violence is all around us.

Throughout 2016, we also heard our President-elect using violent imagery as a regular talking point, a punch line, even a campaign strategy. Regarding Hillary: “If she gets to pick her judges, nothing you can do, folks… Although the Second Amendment people — maybe there is, I don’t know,” implying that some voters might assassinate Hillary if not “lock her up,” another favorite campaign slogan.

Dan Gross, president of the Brady Campaign and Center to Prevent Gun Violence said Trump’s statement was “repulsive — literally using the Second Amendment as cover to encourage people to kill someone with whom they disagree.”  Trump has called Mexicans rapists and just as hideous, he has bragged that he grabs women he doesn’t know by the genitals, using the slang word for cat.  Our President-elect brags about sexual assault, and offers troubling terms at the drop of a tweet.

Pope Francis speaking to U.S. Congress:  “All of us are quite aware of, and deeply worried by the disturbing social and political situation of the world today… a place of violent conflict, hatred and brutal atrocities… We know that in the attempt to be freed of the enemy without, we can be tempted to feed the enemy within… Our response must instead be one of hope and healing, of peace and justice” (https://www.paulist.org/paulist-fathers-statement-on-moral-issues-in-the-2016-presidential-election/#sthash.T81M0uWh.dpuf).

Words matter, and Americans too frequently live in a world described in hyper-masculine, violent verbiage. It is time for all of us to speak instead about the values of nonviolence, peace and justice, and act accordingly.