Phil's Personal Perspectives

No time for anger was a blog posted on December 16, 2016. The attitude conveyed was that maximum engagement in the political process should be the course for people to pursue in objecting to Mr. Trump’s policies. This is a time for active participation but not anger. Working to inform people and help all to understand which policies matter and should be advocated should be our direction. Now after two months of the Trump presidency being engaged is still critical but how critical is beyond the imagination. Is it time to reconsider anger?

First was President Trump’s call for the repeal and replacement of health insurance through the Affordable Care Act with no plan to insure the 20 million plus people covered by it. Granted the Republicans have been trying to repeal ACA since it’s inception. The residents of seven countries which have never been involved in any terrorist action within our country are banned from entering. This blanket executive order resulted in people who were returning to America with green cards or other legal authorizations to be here being detained. Even the wife and son of Muhammad Ali were detained. Both are American citizens. Families being separated, parents or children being deported even though each may be employed, paying taxes and some actively seeking a way to legally reside in this country and having no criminal record. A person with a foreign sounding name and appearance is shot and killed, apparently without provocation. Jewish cemeteries desecrated, head stones pushed over, swastikas painted on temples. Muslim citizens and residents afraid to be out in public. Concern for their children in schools facing name calling. Mr. Trump’s lack of knowledge of world affairs and history never mind no understanding of what’s going on in the world has himself and our nation the laughing-stock of the world. Two or three maybe more of his staff had contacts with Russia during the campaign and since. Yet some of them deny under oath about having such contact. The right to bear arms is sacrosanct according to Mr. Trump but freedom of the press is not. If he doesn’t like it then it must be lies and fake.

We don’t need college degrees to comprehend what is happening under President Trump. It may not be possible for many of us to look beyond our political party affiliation or even various organizations we may be members of. Regardless we all need to consider how we individually arrived at this point. Is President Trump the person who we would have envisioned as the leader of our country to be respected and followed? What is it within each of us that creates a vision of who and what to follow? Our lives and opinions are shaped by the same factors along the way. Each of us is born into a family and family may be the most impactful factor. We meet friends and neighbors and interact along the way. Our religion also instills values just as these others do. The workplace and coworkers lead to so-called water cooler discussions which can affect and alter our understandings of issues and life occurrences. Education is a huge factor. Our schooling through high school teaches many topics from math to reading as well as history and civics. All these factors in combination allow us to make choices and decisions. We may at times look back and realize the choice was wrong or the decision was bad. This happens but as rational thinking people we can change or try to correct what has happened. We can’t re-do it but we can alter the path we are on. We can change jobs, relocate, seek new friends or attempt to further educate and inform ourselves of what matters in our lives. We don’t need a PhD or to be a scientist to question our life choices. We need to consider all the factors that got us where we are, the good and the not so good.

When considering where we are in this country and the actions that President Trump and his administration have pursued and intend to pursue, are we good with that? Do all these life learned experiences say this is good and what we believe? When we reject more than we support, it’s time to look inside to best determine how to act outside. Maybe that little voice we all have is telling us that what we see is just wrong. If that’s the case then we need to reconsider our choices and decisions and change them. We can’t erase what we did but we change to a better direction.

When I started writing this my intention was to change to accepting anger as my course of action. Anger can never be a solution. Solutions only come from knowledge and common sense.