“United we stand”… or not…

Three simple words: “United we stand”

In a perfect world these words represent what this country stands for; a group of people under one democracy standing together, strong and proud, fighting for what’s right for our fellow Americans, our country, and hopefully for the world.

It is hard to read these words and consider these thoughts while watching the news today of the radical anarchists storming the nation’s capital, roaming through the halls, rifling through offices, leaping down from the gallery on to the congressional floor.

Only a few hours earlier today, before all of this started, the President was calling for a rally in the nation’s capital. He called on all his supporters to step forward and make a stand for what he believes, and what many of our nation’s population also believes to be true: that Trump lost the election to unfair political policies, voter fraud, and other evil conspiracies that took from him four more years in the White House.

As we watched the drama unfold with all major television channels streaming live coverage of the event, it was interesting to note that the president elect was the first one to make any kind of formal statement. I feel that it is a sad statement about the character of our existing president that he would even allow an individual who has not even been sworn in yet to address the nation on a national crisis before he himself, the true President had a chance to say anything.

As a proud American citizen, I will be the first to defend the office of the presidency. Regardless of your political stance or beliefs, whether you agree with what the president does, or you do not, the office and the person who fills it deserves a measure of respect, and this president is no exception. However, regardless of whichever side of the aisle you plant your belief system, there are limits to how much a country can and should tolerate.

And if you are one of those Americans who, like our President, believes that every news anchor desk on television is presenting a “fake news” perspective on all the trump supporters who are there protesting, and all of the Republicans in office that have vowed to stand and fight against the electoral college outcome, then you two, like our President, will believe that this is all being presented in a very unfair light.

Yet unlike most politicians who somehow can only see one side of the argument, and most news anchor desks who somehow can only see one side of the argument as long as it agrees with their political stance, I personally believe in fairness. I believe in an “honest as possible” approach to the reporting of the events taking place.

For as this mess played out on national television across the country and I’m sure around the globe, for hours, people close to the President had been trying to communicate with him; trying to contact him to plead with him to make a formal statement to disperse the crowds and allow our government officials to conduct the business of the country.

For hours there was no response.

Finally, when he did eventually make a recorded message and release it to the public, it basically consisted of about five minutes focusing mostly on how unfair everyone has been to him and to his supporters. He spoke on how the election was stolen from him. He said to his supporters that, regardless of how much he and his supporters had suffered at the hands of these evil people, that they should disperse because violence is not the answer.

In effect his five-minute rambling message was nothing more than a reaffirmation of his long-believed conspiracies, thereby fueling the fire and further supporting those who had already taken over the capital building and were causing so much chaos.

I am now, have always been, and will always be a proud American. I am a proud American, and yet not so proud that I am blinded to the truth that, as wonderful as this country is, it is far from perfect. This country has made many mistakes in its past, and there will be many more mistakes to come; anyone who believes otherwise is simply blind to the reality of what it takes to keep a country like this together; unified and all working together for the same common good.

I am a proud enough American that I even remember and believe in that line from the Declaration of Independence which says:

“But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.–Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government.”

To be fair to those who stormed the capital and caused such turmoil today: as noted in this line from the Declaration of Independence, this country was founded on such revolutionary and anarchist thinking. Many lives were lost as this fledgling young country made its stand against the then King of Great Britain and the unfair and tyrannical practices that he placed upon the then 13 colonies.

But to be fair to the memory of those 13 colonies, and the founding fathers that built this country from that revolution and the newfound freedom that followed, I hardly think this present situation is in any way even remotely similar.

I too, over the last several years, have become somewhat disillusioned by our government’s inability to accomplish anything substantial for the American people. I too have become frustrated by so many politicians focusing more on their own reelection and their own job security than on what is best for the people and the country that we represent. And I too am frustrated by a government that has become so fat that no amount of money that we can feed to it ever seems to be enough to slate its hunger.

As a proud American who believes in what this country was founded on and what our founding fathers created, I would be the first in line to demonstrate and to protest the unfairness of a government that had fallen away from the people that created it and that it is supposed to serve.

The line that Lincoln spoke so long ago:

“…of the people by the people for the people…”

should never be so old and antiquated as to be forgotten as one of the founding and most important reasons for this government ever to exist.

It is obvious when you look at the election results that politically and logistically divided this country right down the middle, combined with all the political and social unrest that we have been facing, this country right now is in a bad place. It is in a place that I fear we have not visited in all these modern times. And, It is a place of anarchy and chaos that should once and for all proved to all Americans, that regardless of how special we think we are; we are not above the kind of anarchy and chaos and violence that we are used to only seeing in other countries: Third World countries that we historically have felt we are far above.

I say to you now: we are not above any of the chaos and political rot that has toppled many a great nation much older than we.

And if we care about this country and what it was founded upon, we will make sure that we work hard to keep this from going any deeper into the hole that is beginning to form where once this proud nation stood.

When Mr. Trump first announced that he was running for President, I admit that I was ready to jump on the bandwagon. Based upon my frustrations and concerns noted above, I was then and am now a firm believer that this country needs change; that this government needs to be reminded who they actually serve and who is actually in charge.

But then Mr. Trump opened his mouth and began to speak. He then began to display, to me at least, what a self-centered and self-serving individual he is. I then, all too quickly realized, that regardless of my frustration with the status quo, that this was not the right person to step into the office of the most powerful individual in the free world.

But Mr. Trump became President. Trump… and here we are.

As Mr. Trump became President Trump, if he had been capable of putting his pride aside and working for the people instead of his own self-interests, I would have supported him wholeheartedly.

If President Trump had shown any amount of civil decency and respect for the others in the government who were working hard to try to make a difference, whether they agreed with him or not, I would’ve stood by him.

If, every now and then, the president tried telling the truth, I would have been more apt to believe the things that he told me.

And if the President had been man enough to accept the results of a legal and binding election and welcomed the President-elect with open arms and a hearty Covid-19 handshake, I might’ve even considered him a possible President in 2024.

But that “Mr. Trump” became this “President Trump” that many of us have learned to live with and to tolerate.

And so, here we are:

We live in times when the country has seen more social unrest, racial injustice, and all-out violence and disorder than we have seen in decades.

Although President Trump is not responsible for the pandemic that is crippling this nation, he is responsible for the federal government’s response and its dealings with this crisis. While some of this nation’s hospitals are at 300% capacity, turning away ambulances with critical patients, and stacking bodies in refrigerated trucks because they cannot keep up with the death toll, our President is focusing on how unfair the election was to him, and how he can rile up the country to fight for his right to be president for four more years.

In truth Mr. President., I am grateful for one important thing right now: that I still, for now, live in a country where I am allowed to speak my mind and say what I believe.

Because, thanks to this fragile freedom, I can tell you, with all due respect Mr. President, that I believe you have lost focus with what your purpose as president is. I believe that you were given the opportunity to affect positive change; to turn this country around 180° and really take a stand for progress and growth, and to set a global example for how we should all live on this small rock floating around in space called Earth.

You lost focus on the fact that your job was to serve the people.

You failed to realize that bullying and bad mouthing everyone who disagrees with you is not necessarily a way to run a country.

You forgot a basic cardinal rule of life: that telling the truth in the first place is a lot easier than trying to remember all the lies as time goes by.

You seem to have gotten confused just a bit, thinking that this was just one more television program, or one more social event where you are allowed to use your money and status to make people laugh and to bend them to your will.

Soon you will finally leave office and continue in the private sector. Based upon American tradition, you will always be called Mr. President. However, I fear you will not be remembered as the great President I believe you hoped you would be. Rather, I see you as the main character from the story “the Emperor’s new clothes”. You have presented yourself as being embarrassingly naked before the world; you have proven that your most memorable contribution to the world will be the line:

“You’re fired”.