America's Crisis of Conscience

Donald Trump is an arrogant, ignorant prick. Coming back from the hospital against better judgment, still battling Covid-19, he tells us it was no big deal, we need not be afraid of coronavirus. With over 210,000 Americans succumbed to this plague, and as many as a thousand new deaths daily, downplaying the severity of this health crisis simply because Trump, with access as President to the absolutely best health care available in the world, still holds onto the strange notion that hiding the truth is a sign of strength. The abomination that was his incessant shouting over both opponent and moderator at the first presidential debate still reverberates through my battered skull. Even getting sick from the highly contageous Covid has not stopped him from acting with foolish, ignorant bluster. Is this what we want representing us to the world? Have we become so caught up in our own self-righteousness that we no longer can recognize, let alone admit, when we are wrong? I hold that this is a minority view. But will that minority accept the decision of the majority to change course, to move forward by going back to a more reasoned and reasonable America once again worthy to lead the world? That is the question now. Trump obviously is counting on the answer, “No, they won't.” They'll take up arms and march to protect his power. He's doubling down on it. Republicans across the nation are searching for ways to make it harder to vote safely. Freedom itself hangs in the balance. Badgered as we have been, the worst possible thing now would be to give in and not vote at all. Trump wins automatically if we stay home. America is having a crisis of conscience. Are we going to move toward finally achieving and accepting an all inclusive society, a process our Forefathers began 244 years ago, or are we going to hold on, tooth and claw, to a white-domninant nation? The choice is that clear. Personally, to do it right, I'd say we need all the help we can get. America has been on a journey to Equality. Call it the Freedom Train. Donald Trump is trying to derail it. He wants us to forget who we are and how hard our parents and grandparents worked to lay down the tracks. So: do we want to be Proud White Boys or a truly democratic, all inclusive, all welcoming nation living up to and striving toward the ideal set down by Emma Lazarus, engraved at the foot of Liberty herself: “Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!” cries she With silent lips. “Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”