For perspective, if I overheard a punk talking, even in a
locker-room, about my niece using these words, “I moved on her like a bitch… when
you’re a star you can do anything, whatever you want, grab em by the pussy”, I
would warn them never to come near any of my family. I’m a poor judge of character, so maybe if he
was a smooth talker, he might convince me he was just joking. Yet if I already knew he bullied kids at school, called girls that fought off his advance fat and ugly,
paid kids to do his homework,
and an exhaustive record of cheating others, the greasy sales pitch would only solidify my judgement.
Instead 49.9% of voters
want the same creep I wouldn’t let near my niece to be the most powerful
person
on the planet. The most cited reason for
his support is the need to “shake things up”, and that this whiny playboy’s bullying tactics are just “clearing the air”. The idea that a game show host style
brashness and a savvy for luxury real-estate qualifies as leadership, while
ignoring fundamental character flaws is why the only newspaper in the country
to endorse him goes by the moniker “Sin City”.
It is difficult to believe that even deeply conservative newspapers have
such a bias that they cannot see the virtue in such a shallow character.
I do not understand the willingness to disregard those
warnings and the moral ambiguity to dismiss the hateful rhetoric as “locker-talk”
or “keeping it real”. I can only
question the lapse of judgement that brought us to this moment, and it leaves
me with a sense lasting distrust. Of all
the campaigns I’ve experienced, this one reached new lows in the treatment and
respect we have for each other. The
wound is raw and I fear it’s infected.
Aside from the obvious and well-founded concerns most people
around the world have about the character of our playboy president-elect, the
personal pain for me goes beyond this.
The 100 day fast-track plan has many items that are deeply concerning to
me, but #2 on the list affects my own dreams directly - to work for the
National Park Service. The only new
federal jobs over the next 4 years will be for the military and attrition will
shrink all other departments.
At my house, I leave the chimney uncapped. This allows the migrating chimney swifts to
raise their family there each spring.
They circle our house each morning and evening and their bright calls
can drown out the din of the city. That
such a tiny bird can migrate each year to Argentina and somehow know how to
navigate across the ever-increasing sprawl of urban and agriculture is amazing
to me. Unfortunately, they do not earn
income or pay taxes, therefore they have no perceived value in Trump’s plan
(despite the fact he also does not pay taxes).
Maybe one of the fledglings this
year ate a mosquito that could’ve trigged a Zika outbreak near my home and saved
many lives. Maybe it didn’t. It does not matter to men who value
gold-plated toilets in luxury hotels.
Our wildlife refuges, forests, parks and other natural areas
are already being attacked, exploited, and sold. Agencies needed to protect both our health
and the economy will shrink drastically, and science needed to monitor them
will be cancelled. Our own health and
security is at risk, as agencies such as the EPA that track lead and mercury in
our water supplies will be abolished, and other agencies that interfere with
profits, such as the SEC, will be sharply curtailed.
There are many more grave concerns in just the first 100 day
plan, so I will spend the next few months writing about some of them with a constructive perspective. Yet I feel so sad that nearly half of my
country is only concerned about short term gains regardless of long term
consequences to our economy, health, and God’s creation that we selfishly
exploit.
If my soul had a vagina, I feel
like it was just grabbed it with cold, greasy fingers and half of my country
cheered as the light in me faded.
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