God Bless John Lewis

God Bless John Lewis

“I believe in forgiveness.”

I get that. Totally. If someone punched you in the gut. Even if he did it on purpose. One could possibly forgive that person. But could you do it while the person was punching you? What if the person kept on punching?  Can you forgive someone who is punching you, has a history of punching others and has proven that he just won’t stop?

Can you forgive a person who punches people who are less able to defend themselves? Can you forgive a person who punches freely, without fear of any reprisal, whom you know will keep on punching, and kicking, and who will get others to do it for him as long as he possibly can?

The closer we get to inauguration day, the scarier this whole thing becomes. Trump's cabinet choices demonstrate how he has no regard for our political system, no intentions of placing people who would do a decent job of representing the people’s interests.

Rex Tillerson for Secretary of State. Could there be a worse pick? He is the ex-chairman for Exxon Mobil, has extremely close ties to Putin. In the past has been a climate change skeptic, but may be willing to change his tune for a shot at this job. He just acted dumb about foreign policy questions during his hearing. He is openly ignorant about foreign policy. You would have thought he could bone up for the interview, right?

Ben Carson for the director of HUD? It would be funny if it weren’t so apparently ignorant. Carson didn’t want the position. Admitted that he had no experience or knowledge of what to do. Probably doesn’t know what HUD stands for.

Michael Flynn for National Security Advisor. He lost his job in part for giving classified information to Pakistan. Trust issues?

Trump wants Linda McMahon to be in charge of the Small Business Administration She is an executive from World Wrestling Entertainment. Her qualifications? Promoting fake wrestling. Make sense?

Mike Pompeo as Director of the CIA. He called those at the CIA who participated in torture “heroes, not pawns in some liberal game being played by the ACLU and [former intelligence committee chair] Senator [Dianne] Feinstein”. (https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/dec/09/donald-trump-administration-cabinet-picks-so-far)

Rick Perry for the EPA! Kidding, right? Nope! The same Rick Perry who in a debate, forgot the name of this department as one he would get rid of. This department. A climate change denier in charge of the the Environmental Protection Agency he wanted to eliminate?!

Betsy DeVos who has spent all of her energy in education undermining public schools. She’s the pick to head the Department of Education. Seriously?

Sarah Palin in charge of the Veterans Administration? Sarah Palin in charge of anything?

So when Donald Trump tweeted that John Lewis needs to stick to his own business, and that he is failing to help his own district, I thought – Donald Trump isn’t worthy to be in the same room as John Lewis. John Lewis has spent his entire life helping others. He risked his life to do so. He has always stood up for the common man, the poor, the oppressed. The only person Trump has stood up for is himself, his only cause is to make more money.

So God Bless John Lewis. Between him and Donald J. Trump, which one do you think is the patriot?

Yes We Did

Yes We Did

I can hardly believe that these eight years are over. I can’t say that I agree with everything that Barak Obama has done as president. And there are things that I wish he had focused on more. But no president tried to do more good for more people than he did. There could never be a president of the United States of America that I could completely agree with. But he had integrity. Sincerity. He stood up for the oppressed. He was kind. He was generous. Welcoming. Strong when he needed to be.

There were no scandals in the White House. Michelle Obama is articulate, brilliant, beautiful. All of her causes were noble and forward thinking. She really did write most of her own speeches.

I can’t say I am not a little frightened. OK, a lot frightened – by our experiment in idiocy. Our next president has more honesty issues, more hypocrisy, more racism, more sexual violence in his past, than can even be imagined. I wouldn’t want my students in the same room alone with him. And we voted for him as our president?

Where are the conservatives who despised Russia? Are we now willing to suck up to a villain? And don’t give me that Russia had no effect on our elections. They hacked emails. Spread fake news. They lied. MANY believed the lies. They got away with it.

His racism and hostility towards minorities and immigrants is disgusting. His apparent sexism and brutality toward women, his bullying and incitement to violence at his rallies, his acceptance of indecency all should have disqualified him.

Ah, but these are different times. There are new rules in that there are NO rules.  Lies, scandal, ignorance, sexual assault – nothing stood in the way of the US voting for this man. Here are a few of Trumps “issues” listed by my friend Dan in an email, any one of these may have disqualified anyone else in the past. Charity fraud  - caught in lies, calling for nuclear proliferation, calling for national stop and frisk, violating the trade embargo with Cuba, bribing the DA in Florida and getting caught red-handed, employing a campaign manager involved with illegal corruption in Russia, he doesn’t pay taxes for 20 years – and brags about how he uses the system.

He called for banning an entire religion from entering the US, lied about his support for the war in Iraq, in court for the rape of a minor, being totally unaware of Russia’s invasion of Crimea and the many deaths there, being unaware of the situation in Syria, being penalized for discrimination in housing, filing for bankruptcy 6 times, showing very little knowledge of world affairs in all of the debates.

He slammed John McCain for being a POW while he never served in the armed forces (the details of his deferment seem to indicate that he lied to get out of serving in Vietnam), he called Mexicans rapists, he questioned a federal judge’s integrity because his parents are Mexican, he deleted emails in a casino scandal, he committed insurance fraud after a hurricane in Florida.

Dozens of assault victims came forward with allegations of abuse, he attacked and kept attacking Miss Universe for being overweight (while Trump himself is considered well beyond a healthy weight), he called for US citizens to be sent to Gitmo, he called for more extreme forms of torture to be used, he asked why we can’t use nukes if we have them.

He called to kill women and children in families of suspected terrorists, he said women should be punished for having abortions, he made fun of a disabled reporter and then continually lied about doing so, he has called for an end of freedom of the press, he has called global warming a Chinese hoax, he continually praises Putin as being an intelligent man and a strong leader, he openly admitted to not paying his employees during a debate, he delegitimized Obama’s presidency hundreds of times by lying about his citizenship.

He used campaign contributions to enrich his own businesses, said Ted Cruz’s father was involved with the assassination of JFK citing the National Enquirer as his source, he said that Black people are inherently lazy, and his appointments for cabinet positions and advisors are almost comical in their absurdity.

I will miss Barak Obama more than I can imagine.