Revealing Ourselves

WORDS MEAN THINGS. Personal integrity matters. When my fellow senior center member assured me that had President Nixon proceeded with his plan to nuke North Viet Nam in 1970, she, then a high school student like I was, wouldn't have been a bit bothered, I was at least mildly concerned, and maybe a bit shocked. Her comment sounded so horribly evil that it was sardonically funny; OK, maybe she was merely talking trash, blowing off steam? So what? There are many ways to do that, aside from expressing unconcern at the death, in theory, of millions of people. We never do anything out of character, speaking or behaving. As someone wise said, whatever is in us must come out. Whatever we say and do comes from within ourselves, obviously. That's why I would want to be very careful, if I happened to find myself in the middle of a turbulent, screaming mob, about chanting "Lock her up" unless I knew for certain I was yelling about someone who deserved to be locked up, by having been charged or convicted of some heinous crime. When on October 7, 2016, one month before the election, the Access Hollywood tape exploded into the public awareness, I gleefully assumed that it was the end of Trump presidential candidacy. I overlooked the willingness of people to overlook horrible speech and behavior in support of someone whose viewpoint reflects our own, someone whom we perceive as potentially helpful to our own self interests. The support for Trump, since Oct 7, 2016, is shocking and appalling in that those who support him must either ignore, overlook, forgive, or embrace the veritable plethora of vicious attacks on others, his constant lies, and the racism within himself he reveals daily. Maybe Trump supporters have an enlarged sense of humor, and love the entertainment so much they can't conquer their addiction to it. Trump is funny ,when he doesn't intend to be. If the people of California would simply rake and clean their wilderness areas, all one trillion acres of it, like they do in Finland, said Trump. there would be no wild fires, and no problem. Trump knows that no matter what he says, his knee jerk minions will lap it up, or ignore it, or not give a damn. That gives Trump the option of making up whatever fake facts (lies) suits him at any given moment, no thinking required. He has been perfecting this technique all his life, and meanwhile in Finland, thousands of good people who listened to Trump have gotten their rakes out, and are flocking into the woods, raking, and posting selfies showing the truth of trump's remarks. Aint it grand to be an American?