What is Wrong with You?

 

Five little words I usually never said as a young, impressionable man when someone uttered a bigoted remark in my presence. Mistakenly I thought peace meant the absence of conflict. And conflict was always preceded by vocal disagreement. This would inevitably escalate into physical violence. So I was a quiet kid. Never objecting to the insults and lies of crazy old men. Never agreeing with them either.

 

Older men infecting young me with hate was not the totality of my life’s experience. When I found myself surrounded by people who knew better I felt safe and secure. I saw the bigot as an outcast. A malcontent living on the fringes of society and no real threat. He based his prejudice and bigotry on no tangible evidence I could corroborate in my life experience.. A life lived in many worlds with all kinds of different people.

 

I was wrong. Silence is not the way to combat that kind of hate. What I did not understand was that those individuals spewing vitriol were seeking validation. And that with my silence I was giving it to them. My silences made me complicit. Now these folks are talking war.

 

Violence has erupted and more is being planned. “You say you want a revolution, well ya know, we all want to change the world,” John Lennon said. We all want to see change. Change for the better. “But when you talk about destruction don't you know that you can count me out.” Destruction is not better. It is not good. Lies upon lies beget more lies to justify still more lies.The people who won office on the promise they are going to change government now want to destroy it.

 

Everybody is lying. Nobody telling the truth. 

Rioters and police dying under the Capitol roof. 

In the house of democracy, Insurrectionists made themselves at home. 

Blood stained our Constitution under the Capitol dome.

 

For a lot of people supporting the former administration there was a line crossed on January 6th, 2021. It’s a line we never should have come to in an era of enlightenment. This is what happens when good people do nothing. When we sit in silence afraid of the violence which might ensue by calling people out. Shame on me.

 

Especially shame on those who continue after January 6th, 2021 to support, endorse, defend or otherwise encourage this menace. He has gone from ineffective to dangerous.

 

You can blame his inability to cope with the enormous complexity and demands of the office on the press, the Democrat’s, the Republicans, China, illegal immigrants, Iran all you want. The fact remains he had a full term’s worth of opportunity to effect positive change for all people, not just those who agree with him or are “loyal” to him. What he chose to do was cultivate and foment the very worst instincts of humanity in as combative and authoritarian a way as possible. He could not handle the press or the negative things said about him by anyone and took each and every criticism personally. He could not stand the heat or the consequences of ill-conceived or poorly executed policy. He would not take advice other than that which conformed to his own narrow world view. His game plan was flawed. He has been soundly defeated which in turn has let down the millions of people who believed in him.

 

And now they are angry and want to take it out on everyone with violence and hate. And all I can say, because I won’t be silent any longer, what is wrong with you?