Author: tonihall805@outlook.com

I think I first heard the term, “Let the buyer beware” in a college marketing class. At the time I didn’t interpret that to mean that marketers had the right to knowingly and unabashedly misrepresent themselves or their goods or services to convince people to buy. Nor did I think that it was the sole responsibility of the consumer to discern between true and false claims in order to protect themselves. Perhaps I was foolish to assume that there were reasonable guard rails, protecting the public against being scammed by con artists on a daily basis. Well, of course I was foolish to believe this. I watch in horror as Donald Trump is tries to scam the entire nation out it its democracy and rule of law. In addition, every time we pick up a phone from an unknown number we run the risk of being scammed. I was taken in just this week by a phone call from someone claiming to be from Apple Support.

Being the victim of one of these scams this week taught me a few important lessons. First among these lessons is that the scammers are looking for an opening or a vulnerability. I don’t usually answer calls from unrecognized phone numbers. But because my husband is in the hospital, I’m getting calls from doctors and nurses and physical therapist and pharmacies. These numbers are all unrecognizable to me, but I don’t want to miss out on a call. So, when my cell phone rang and the number wasn’t flagged as a scam, I answered it.

The man identified himself as being from Apple Support and said that he was calling because they noticed suspicious activity on my I-cloud account coming from New York and South Carolina. I was receptive to the idea because just before my husband went into the hospital he was working with a tech support person because his computer had been hacked. I was ripe to be victimized. I was in a vulnerable position mentally and that provided the scammer with an opening.

Long story short, after two hours, it finally occurred to me that this was a scam. What saved me was a block I had long ago placed on my credit card account that ensured that I have to call the bank prior to making large purchases. Thank goodness because that phone call to the bank confirmed my growing suspicion that this was in fact a scam. They had cleverly gotten me to purchase a $500 gift card from the Apple app store by making myself the recipient with the understanding that Apple would refund me the entire amount within minutes. The $500 was to purchase a security key to encrypt my IP address. I questioned the “tech” person about the weird process for several minutes before finally giving in. But then two things happened that made me doubtful. First, was when she asked for the authentication code on the gift card. I refused to give it. She said okay and then supposedly needed a second $500 gift card to get another key because the first wasn’t enough to clear up my “big problem”. Having seen the refund in my email from Apple Support, I tried but failed to purchase a second gift card because of my self-imposed credit card purchasing limit.

It wasn’t until I was on my landline phone with my bank when the bank representative acknowledged that they saw the pending charge for $500 but that they did not see any pending refund. I then noticed that the email address used for this Apple Support refund was in fact from a Gmail account. Why would Apple use Gmail? The banker confirmed that this was a scam. When I told the tech person that this was a scam, she said the bank call I made from my landline was to one of the scammers. I hung up on her.

I spent the next couple of hours cleaning up my computer, changing all my passwords, and calling Apple Support where I learned that the scammer had already cashed in the $500 gift card without my even providing the authentication code. Apple apparently has a whole fraud department designed to go after these folks. I gave her the phone number (which was from the same area as the real Apple Support) and the email address used for the bogus refund. She would give this information to the Apple fraud team. She then told me that these people have gotten very sophisticated in their schemes but that they always leave a footprint. Apparently they are able to steal authentication codes when people purchase gift cards at retail outlets, including the Apple Store itself, and the money is gone before the customer even reaches home. Thankfully, I am not responsible for the $500. She provided me a case number to provide my bank for the credit card dispute.

The other lesson I learned is that having safeguards around your credit card account such as spending limits and disallowing new credit cards to be opened in your name without you calling in are necessary. Every security setting possible on each bank or investment account is a must, too. And changing passwords frequently helps to secure accounts. When traveling, always letting the credit card company know where you and for how long is also a good safeguard.

So, when it comes to being scammed, I have compassion for people who get sucked into a bunch of false claims. Liars and marketers hone their skills to overcome your objections. They fabricate credentials and narratives that seem plausible. And people who are ripe to be deceived because of their underlying fears of being hacked, robbed, or taken over by communism and socialism or minorities are inclined to buy into the lies. It’s frightening to hear that 75 percent of Trump voters believe the election was fraudulent. This fears made it possible for once respected former major and attorney Rudy Giuliani to boldly stand in front of the entire nation this past week and make a boatload of false and completely unsubstantiated claims about the presidential election. I’m hopeful that those individuals will come to their senses (as I did) as they digest the truth as court cases are thrown out and election officials keep expose the false claims.

I’m actually nervous and a bit sad today to realize that what I learned in that marketing class so many years ago is more true today than it was back in the 1970’s: ” Let the buyer beware”. There are plenty of corrupt and depraved individuals out there actively trying to steal our money and now we have a president name Donald Trump and his team actively trying to steal our democracy. Beware!

My husband is recovering from his second bout of cancer. This time he is recovering from lung cancer wherein a section of his upper right lung was removed. He is back in the hospital for the third time since his surgery because of an infection this time. The prognosis is good and I’m thankful that we paid attention to the danger signs, sought help, and listened to the medical professionals. We didn’t engage in wishful thinking, denying the symptoms that indicated the existence of a problem. We recognized a problem and chose to follow the advice of the medical experts. It came down to trust. While medical professionals don’t know everything, they certainly know more we do when it comes to the treating the human body. We trust them to do the things they have been trained to do to our benefit. And just because their outcomes are not 100% positive does not mean that we shouldn’t place his treatment in their hands. The same is true in this country when it comes to COVID-19 and elections.

What we have in this country today is an epidemic of mistrust in credible sources in government, science, and journalism. It is frightening to realize that many people have stopped listening to knowledgeable voices in favor of following their own mythical beliefs, conspiracy theories, fabrications, and fake news. When did educated, experienced public servants become the enemy of the people? When did Democrats become the only people willing and capable of casting fraudulent votes? Recent history has shown us that Republicans are more likely to suppress the vote, cheat, and intimidate voters in the opposing party when it comes to elections. So, why is it that every Trump supporter who claims that they saw a few ballots in the trash automatically assume they were votes for Trump? Or why do they assume that all the “dead” people who voted, voted for Biden? Why do they refuse to acknowledge the fact that election officials are from both parties and that poll watchers were also from both parties? Why won’t they be reasonable and acknowledge that there aren’t nearly enough “fraudulent” votes out there to overturn the election results? Why would they insist upon overturning the will of the majority? Biden won by over 5 million votes in the popular vote. And his margin of votes in battleground states is high enough that a recount won’t change the results. Why would they want the Supreme Court to disenfranchise voters who followed the election laws in their state and wisely chose to vote by mail during a pandemic? And why did they take to the streets yesterday and the to airways on C-Spann this morning screaming that the election was stolen?

I’d say it is because many lack basic critical thinking skills, knowledge of civics, and common sense. I’d say that when we as educators let our guard down too soon after the Holocaust and stop teaching junior high and high school students how to know the difference between truth backed by factual data and emotion driven propaganda.

When we failed to teach critical thinking skills at the high school level, we paved the way for conservative talk radio hosts with a profit motive to lead many non-college educated Americans astray. And then a charismatic and bombastic television celebrity grabs the biggest microphone in the world and begins repeating the lies about a “deep state” that is out to destroy the hard-working “true Americans” to usher in socialism or communism. And those who felt disrespected because of their lack of education, their loss of blue collar jobs, and feel under threat by people of color, immigrants, non-Christians, and LGBTQ folks preferred to believe it when Trump told them that he knew more than the generals, that immigrants were the problem, and that trusted journalist and news outlets were “fake news”. Trump, Fox News, and conservative talk radio ushered in a whole new era of “alternative” facts placing the voices of the actual experts into question. It’s obvious that there is a problem when your trusted source is a proven liar, draft and tax evader, sex offender, and business fraud. How is a person with this kind of character capable of “Making America Great Again”. Look at how great he has made the people around him?

It’s all so baffling. But then I watched the Netflix dramatized documentary, “The Social Dilemma” this past week and it helped me further understand how we have become so divided and how misinformation has so infected our public discourse to the point that we can hardly even talk to each other. My posts on Facebook or Instagram are only seen by people who agree with me. I don’t see the posts on Facebook or Instagram or Tic Tok of Trump supporters. I only see what Trump supporters are thinking when I watch CNN or C-Spann. I starting following some Republican senators on Twitter to hear what they were saying. And when I listen to them, I scratch my head in dismay. But now I know why they think the way they do. The senators are afraid of Trump because his followers, like me, are trapped in the social media algorithm. Recognizing this, I’ve been asking my friends with more mixed friends to share some of my posts in hopes of expanding a different viewpoint. Many of them say they are afraid to do that for fear of backlash from their Trump supporter friends and relatives. And there seems to be a friendship and family purge going on as well which is all the more scary.

When rational human beings are operating from a different set of facts they wiIl naturally draw different conclusions about the best course of action. Because their news source and these social media platforms and search engines have algorithms built to show more of what the user seems to like or be interested in, the user enters into a bubble where her likes and thoughts and ideas become reinforced rather than challenged or even expanded. It was scary to watch “The Social Dilemma”, but it helped me understand how people get sucked into believing that vaccines are dangerous, that Democrats are socialists who want to take away freedom, or that Hillary Clinton was running a pedophile ring out of a pizza parlor. It is how largely peaceful protests are characterized as violent mobs in need of military intervention. It is how Trump supporters truly believe that the election was stolen.

As an educator, I call upon other educators and parents to return to teaching our next generation how to consume information. We have to teach students what credible sources actually are and how journalism and science actually work. We have to teach the difference between truth that is backed by factual evidence and mere opinion. We have to teach that not every assertion made by a loud individual is a fact and that there are immoral people who lie for profit or personal gain. We have to teach them to dismiss the person who claims to be “in the know” but has no credible evidence to back up their claims. And most of all, we have to be willing to teach the unhappy truth that propaganda can have life and death consequences. There is a way out of the misinformation trap we have found ourselves in. And that road is a rejection of algorithms that trap us in a bubble and the education of our children.

I was hoping for, and even expecting, a decisive victory for Biden and a flip of the Senate as an indictment on the past four years under Donald Trump and the blatant hypocrisy of the Senate. But that wasn’t what happened. This has been a nail biter, causing anxiety and anger across the nation. No one is happy and we still face a runoff for the Senate seats in Georgia that will determine the majority. Trump supporters are crying foul and threatening violence while Biden supporters are shaking their heads in dismay. It is clear to me that we are living in a nation divided. And not all that division is based on reality, but baseless Trump rhetoric. After listening to different voices, I realize that not many people actually like Trump as a person. Most acknowledge that he is not a decent or even moral human being. But he and his policies stand for a way of life in America that his supporters want to protect.

I must first confess that I live in a progressive bubble. I work among academics who are largely liberal. I socialize among college-educated progressives. My family members are educated, liberal, and largely Christian. Because of the algorithms built into social media platforms, my social media “friends” are largely progressives, too. I avoid conservative media like Fox News and conservative radio talk shows. The only time I really hear conservative voices is on CNN and C-Span. Even in those rare moments, I wonder how people could view the world so differently from me. My mouth falls open in dismay when I hear people repeat the baseless falsehoods by Trump as if they were the complete rational truth. We know that they, too, live in a bubble where the lies are reinforced from every direction. So, they probably look at me with the same level of dismay.

I’ve also come to realize is that Trump supporters are terrified of change. They are afraid of diversity and inclusion because it means embracing differences and sharing power. If there is too much difference, they are afraid that their values, their traditions, their jobs, their decisions, their religion, and their privilege will all be challenged. They are afraid that they will no longer be able to force their will and their ways on others. They are afraid that they will be held accountable for their discrimination against women, people of color, immigrants, people with disabilities, and LGBTQ people. They like their jobs in oil and coal because they have grown accustomed to these industries and are uncomfortable with the notion of having to learn new skills. So, they willingly deny the science behind climate change based on a combination of their religion and their ignorance of science. They feel threatened by the thought that they’re losing jobs to people from other parts of the world, so they shut down trade deals and immigration. They are afraid of the kind of democratic socialism that will actually improve their lives because they literally lack the intellectual curiosity to learn about it. They think are told to think of Cuba and Venezuela instead of Canada or Finland when they consider democratic socialism that will provide them with affordable healthcare and higher education.

Trump voters simply do not want to change. They are stuck in the comfort and simplicity of the past where sex was only male or female, where men were in charge, where marriage was only between a man and a woman, and where minorities were discriminated against so that they could have an advantage in just about every facet of American life. They are stuck in the notion that sexual harassment, unwanted pregnancies, and even rape are the responsibility of wanton females because “men are just being men”. Donald Trump represents the ability cling to this kind of past. Many of his supporters say it is about being “pro-life” but I doubt it because they have willingly and knowingly thrown away the lives of Americans by refusing to wear masks in public, by allowing babies to be separated from their parents, and by allowing millions to die because they can’t afford healthcare. So, no, it’s not about abortion and being pro-life. Any Trump supporter who tells you this is lying to themselves and to you. It’s about their emotionally driven fear of losing power and privilege afforded to straight white people. They feel threatened and were willing to stand behind a totalitarian bully who promised to defend them.

Now that we have finally thrown the fear-monger in chief out of our White House, we have work to do to first secure a majority in the Senate and second, to bring these people along both intellectually and emotionally. At the moment, they are fearful and furious and itching for a fight. But Jesus gave us the answer. Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. Let’s be good to our neighbors, especially those who supported Trump. Let’s prove by our words and actions that inclusion is better than exclusion. Let’s prove that clean water and air and clean jobs are better than pollution. Let’s prove that good public health policies and expanded healthcare benefits us all. Let’s prove that economic growth lies in the expansion of health, education, and welfare and not in denying immigration, good education, and food stamps to poor people. Let’s prove that voter suppression and intimidation have no place in the U.S. and that reasonable visions and arguments should win the vote.

It won’t be easy, but I’m convinced that we can succeed if we take the same level of energy, creativity, and funding from this election and funnel them into winning the senate and then into campaign to win the hearts and minds of half the country based on legitimate science, compassion, reason, information, and evidence. All those red states that voted overwhelmingly for Trump need to be the target of campaigns for inclusion, public health, American history, government, patriotism, and climate science.

If we don’t start winning the hearts and minds of Trump Americans, we’re likely to find ourselves in the same awful place in four short years.

A former colleague wrote in his Facebook post that he was preparing himself to be forgiving after the election. From what I know about him, he is not a fan of President Trump and is likely voting for Biden. But he senses the need to be prepared to forgive. It was then that I realized that I don’t have any people within my circle of close friends or family whom I will need to forgive after November 3rd. However, I know this isn’t true for everyone I’m associated with.

Over the past few months, I’ve listened to family members, colleagues, and friends struggling with their frustration with people in their lives who stubbornly support Trump. I sympathize with them. It can’t be easy to watch someone whom you know and care about be taken in by a con man who absolutely doesn’t have the nation or their best interest at heart. It’s even more disturbing to see Trump supporters you know taking part in voter intimidation on the highways, through threatening notes and emails, and unauthorized poll watching. It’s uncomfortable to see a side of people giving place to cruelty, bigotry, and nastiness for the sake of anti-abortion, anti-immigrant, racist, and anti-LGBTQ judges and a promised tax cut. It’s infuriating to watch people blindly believe a truckload of lies to boot.

One of the common arguments for supporting Trump is a visceral fear of socialism. Because Trump supporters are largely uneducated, they bought into the fear tactic that leftwing Democrats are promoting the kind of socialism found in Cuba or Venezuela and not that which is found in places like Canada, Norway, Sweden, Demark, Finland, Australia, Japan, and Great Britain, a democratic socialism. In part, I blame us Democrats for not doing a better job educating these folks. Perhaps we’ve been too impatient with their ignorance or too lazy to bother with them or too condescending to believe they could grasp the concept. In any case, we were short-sighted because we forgot that they too, get to cast a vote.

Whomever wins this election, it is evident that we as a nation have some serious work ahead of us. First of course is convincing folks to do what is needed to end this pandemic while also avoiding the threat of post-election violence that seems to be looming in the air. There will likely be another period of shut down because of both.

Second, among our collective work is to end all the ridiculous laws that allowed for voter suppression and enforcement of voter intimidation laws. Every state and county needs to pass local laws that make voting easier and safer. Politicians must be forced to make the case to the voters for why they deserve election instead of making it difficult for people to vote. Post-marks, not post office delivery times should determine if a vote counts. And then ensuring the integrity of our elections is the job of the federal government. Our tax payer dollars would be well spent to ensure that every municipality’s voting machines and databases are secure. In addition, there should be a federal law that makes election day a paid holiday and another law that mandates the number of polling places and/or drop boxes per capita so that people in poorer neighborhoods don’t have to wait in longer lines or travel greater distances to a drop box. This is job number two.

Our third job after this election is to hold whomever is president and the Congress accountable. We will need to make our voices loud and clear about the kind of government and leadership we demand. No more corruption. No more lies. No more fleecing the American people.

And finally, after this election, we must take responsibility for our own welfare and that of our country by doing what we know to be good and right as individuals, communities, and a nation. The right thing to do is to patiently and lovingly educate our fellow Americans about our nation’s history, it’s representative form of government, it’s economics, and the environment. We must teach science and history in a way that helps individuals understand and gain an appropriate level of respect for it.

The last four years have taught us that we cannot depend on political leaders to protect us, serve us, or to do what is in our collective best interest as a nation. This election has also taught us that we have done a poor job of educating our population about history, government, economic systems, and how to think critically, to be proper consumers of media, and to understand science. Forgiveness is good, but a proper education moving forward is even more critical.

I’ve had periods in my life when I’ve loved humanity and periods when I’ve loathed it. Today, I’ve come to appreciate some aspects of humanity while I am terrified by other aspects. Humans can be empathetic, innovative, nurturing, brave, thoughtful, kind, creative, grateful, dependable, bold, sensitive, generous, disciplined, and analytical. But they can also be hypocritical, selfish, bigoted, cruel, greedy, reckless, inconsiderate, tyrannical, destructive, cowardly, violent, arrogant, apathetic, gullible, lazy, and ignorant. The choice between constructive and destructive character lies within each of us and is what makes us human. But depending on whether our admirable or despicable self wins in our daily decision-making determines our fate. I’m not talking about an ultimate destination of heaven or hell or whether we are reincarnated as a flea, but the quality of our lives now, both individually and collectively on this planet.

I feel like I’m living in a character war zone, not a personal one, but a societal war zone since most of my internal battles have already been settled. I’ve chosen sides on the big character questions in life and so I know who I am. I know what I value. I know how I will respond in most situations. And I know which side of most public debates I will fall on. I’ve chosen the character foundations upon which I will live my life. And for the most part, these traits are settled within me. For example, I’ll choose kindness over cruelty, generosity over greed, and empathy over apathy. However, there is always room for growth, additions, revision, and innovation in the expression of my values given my character. Choosing to share my life through this blog was one such innovation. Adding BTS to my musical playlist and joining the BTS Army (fan club) was another. Becoming more disciplined in my eating is a revision. Donating to political campaigns and advocating for one candidate over another was another addition. I’ll soon be revising my daily life routines upon retirement. But while my internal battles have been fought and settled, the public character war is raging and the future of our nation and the world is at stake.

One of my basic values is to care about the quality of life that others lead. I want to alleviate unnecessary suffering among other human beings. Each of us makes a decision as to whether or not we will care about others and if we do, the extent to which we will contribute to the public welfare. I’ve seen people who have zero interest in the plight of other human beings and I’ve seen others who dedicate their entire life and livelihood to helping others. I’m in the middle. I stretch to lend a helping hand, but I’m not entirely selfless. When it comes to the environment, I see people who have dedicated their entire lives to protecting the environment and sounding the alarm to warn us about the damage we are doing. I listen to the alarms and curb my behaviors. When it comes to public debates over social justice issues, I’m not one to organize a huge protest rally as I actually did in my youth, but today I might show up and I’ll definitely speak my mind to public officials and do my best to sway public opinion.

Right at this moment, we are in the midst of an election that will determine who we are as a nation and what we value. The human character traits that win this immediate war will impact the lives of women, people of color, LGBTQ people, immigrants, the elderly, children and the environment. We are at war to determine whether or not decent character and corruption matter. We are at war to determine whether we live in a representative government or a tyrannical government. We are at war to determine whether some human lives matter more than others.

As a soldier in this war, I’ve chosen to use my voice on social media to persuade others to use their voice, their talents, and their vote to fight for social justice, public health, environmental protections, and the preservation of our representative government. I’ve chosen to give financially to the presidential and senate campaigns to help win this election. This pandemic and this election season have highlighted how important governors actually are, so I’ll become more active in those future fights. And of course, I’ve chosen to vote and I encourage others to vote as well.

Our collective future is in our collective hands. Will we be a nation of humans who do good for ourselves and others while preserving the environment or will be a nation that allows individual greed and selfish acts to harm and destroy the lives of the vulnerable while ignoring the environment and climate change? The choice is ours to decide on election day and beyond.

Although Republican leaders will not openly admit it, their actions, inactions, and policies clearly indicate their belief that some American lives are expendable. While pretending to fight tooth and nail for the unborn, they knowingly and willingly trample upon the well-being of many already born whom they view as weak. Their tacit underlying worldview is for the survival of the fittest. So while they ruthlessly enact policies that strangle the vulnerable, they brazenly embark on voter suppression to prevent the expendables from voting them out of office. They deceive evangelicals into voting “pro life” when in reality they are actually supporting “pro-fittest” and anti-woman policies. Amazingly, these evangelicals have adopted views that are the exact opposite of Jesus’ teachings. I view Trump and the Republican leadership’s policies and actions as a form of legal oppression if not outright genocide. So, who are the expendables?

At the top of the list of expendables are the poor and uneducated, the majority of whom happen to be people of color still burdened by the consequences of past in present discrimination as well as current discrimination. Of course, Republicans refuse to acknowledge that giving white people a huge social economic advantage through opportunities and benefits open only to whites for most of American history has had any negative affect on the economic prospects of the average person of color. This is why they strive to severely restrict or eliminate affirmative action, labeling it as “reverse discrimination”. Even now, black and brown people who “make it” in this country have to be exceptionally strong, talented, intelligent, resilient, adaptable, and lucky. If you’re a person of color, average is not now, nor has it ever been, good enough and you are expendable. Republicans strive to keep the status quo where the lives of poor uneducated people of color remain subject to excessive policing and brutality, poverty driven crime (the theft of the desperate), environmental toxins, poor diets, almost non-existent preventative healthcare, substandard education, exploitive employers and predatory lenders.

Another group of expendables are the sick and elderly. It has been evident for several years that the Republicans are doing very little to ensure access to affordable healthcare, social security, Medicare, mental health resources, and with this pandemic, they are failing to safeguard the lives of the sick and elderly. It is not surprising that the deaths from this pandemic are heavily concentrated among the elderly as well as poor black and brown people. The Administration is encouraging a kind of herd immunity that will cost an enormous loss of life among the elderly and those with compromised immune systems. Poor black and brown people have more underlying medical conditions that are directly associated with their poverty. Their campaign of disinformation is working to speed the spread of the disease among these populations, making healthy gullible people agents of death among their family members.

I met such a person in Smart and Final on Friday afternoon. I’m grateful that masks are required to work and shop there and they adhere to strict social distancing. However, a comment I made to the twenty-something Latina who checked me out, made it clear that disinformation was spreading. She called the pandemic a hoax or at least not as bad as they were making it out to be. I commented, “Tell that to the thousands who are now dead” and left. This young woman is likely lax in her personal life and will endanger the life of her parents, grandparents, and other vulnerable family members.

Another group of expendables are people whom the Republicans deem as undesirables. These include homosexuals, drug addicts, people with disabilities, undocumented immigrants from “shit hole countries” and minority law breakers. They are happy to restrict the movement, rights, and access to opportunities for these individuals in order to feed their sense of safety, exceptionalism, job security, and false moral superiority.

In my opinion, the only people who should be behind bars are violent criminals. This includes pediphiles, rapists, armed robbers, and people convicted of assault or murder. All others should pay fines, pay restitution, get treatment, or do community service. The current system disproportionately locks up people of color, the mentally fragile, and the poor. It’s not that they are committing some crimes in greater numbers, but that they are targeted for arrest. And it has become clear that they receive harsher sentences for the same crime as their more valued counterparts. The current system benefits for-profit prisons and provides a false sense of security to white Americans while devastating the families, livelihoods, and lives of expendable people. The suicide rates among homosexuals grows as they are ostracized and discriminated against while homicides among transgender women of color soars unchecked. Republicans limited access to affordable rehab for poor drug addicts and adequate care for people with disabilities. The result is an early grave for both groups. And when Republicans dehumanize undocumented immigrants, children get locked in cages and separated from their parents. They build a wall and enact stricter immigration policies that ignore the desperate seeking refuge from danger as any human being would do.

The final group of expendables are the ignorant and the gullible. It is no surprise that Trump rallies are filled with conspiracy theorist and the uneducated. If these people who refuse to wear masks or social distance themselves don’t get sick and die, it is inevitable that people around them will. And since birds of a feather tend to flock together, Trump and the Republicans will be able to wipe out a whole segment of lower class people for whom blue collar jobs are disappearing anyway. The farmers, coal workers, and hourly workers who flock to his rallies are being lead as lambs to the slaughter because they, too are expendable. He may need them for the election, but he doesn’t need them to drive up his unemployment numbers or the number of welfare recipients. Many of his most avid supporters are evangelicals who have forgotten their basic Sunday School lessons such as “love thy neighbor as thyself” and giving to the needy and protecting the stranger. Having lost their way and given their vote to Republicans, they are blindly committing a form of suicide and homicide to pave the way for wealthier, smarter, and healthier Americans to survive without being burdened by them.

Admittedly, the assertion that Republicans view many of their fellow Americans as expendable sounds kind of cynical. But when I look at their rhetoric, policies, and the decisions that are being made on a daily basis, no other explanation makes sense to me.

We were never promised an easy, carefree life. Part of being human is facing challenges, winning some and losing others. I recall how “The Wide World of Sports” broadcast always began with “the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat.” I’m reminded of the lyrics to a 1971 song: “I beg your pardon, I never promised you a rose garden. Along with the sunshine, there’s gotta be a little rain some time”. That’s where I find myself today, tasting the victory alongside the defeat.

The victory is in the God given skills of the surgeon who operated on my husband, successfully removing the upper section of his lung. Yes, he has lung cancer. However, the prognosis is good despite the lengthy treatment and recovery time we are about to embark on. We were afraid he might lose his entire right lung. We were afraid the cancer had spread to other parts of his body. We are lucky that neither of these things happened. I don’t want to say we are blessed because I believe God gives us the strength to deal with the problems that befall us; but that He doesn’t necessarily keep us from experiencing the problems and the outcome isn’t always ideal in our eyes. The blessing is in the grace and strength He provides whatever the outcome. I think about the battle my mother lost to breast cancer at only 57 years old. Countless others have fought this battle and lost at even younger ages. Even in the midst of that dark time, I felt God’s grace and strength in me. The same is true now.

In the coming months, I believe we as a nation will continue to experience hardships as this virus infects more people, political unrests expands, and financial distress engulfs us all. Like the surgeon, we need to put to use the tools and skills at our disposal to fight the good fight on all these fronts. We’re going to have to insist that we and those around us wear masks, practice social distancing, wash our hands, and clean surfaces. We’re going to have to ensure that the people we know have the means to drop off their ballots or make it to the polls to vote in person. For the moment, protest marchers need to put aside their sneakers to volunteer at the polls in place of older folks who have bowed out this year. Those of us who are able, need to give more generously to food banks and other relief efforts as the needy among us grows. We need to continue to insist on social justice, lending our creative talents and intelligent voices to the cause. We need to get serious about pushing government and corporate leaders to switch to renewable energy to ward off life-threatening climate change. And finally, we need to be forceful in our opposition to the few white supremacist who are aching to start a civil war.

Trouble is all around us. Indeed, these are turbulent times with many life-threatening challenges. But like the surgeon who operated on my husband, we have the tools and the ability at our fingertips to face them. The question is do we have the collective wisdom to use what we have or will we simply go down without a fight. Whether we win or lose, I know God will be gracious in our sorrow.

What a week! I’ve always seen life at any given moment as a mixed bag of things happening that are good and others that are pretty bad. That’s normal and expected when you live on this planet. But right now, at this moment, I feel like my bag is filled with more bad than good. Without going into details, I’ll just say that I’m dealing with my husband’s life-threatening illness, my daughter’s mental health, finance related changes at work that changed both work conditions and benefits, bad air quality, the pandemic, the white supremacy/racism conflict, and a consequential presidential election. To say that I am emotionally overwhelmed is an understatement. As a person with stress-related ulcers, asthma, high blood pressure and kidney disease, I’m not feeling well. But there are a few bright spots that have become my happy place to rest.

Beyond feeling the love of God and the inner peace that I will eventually get through all this that comes from my faith in Him, I am thankful for my family and friends. They are a loving and supportive group. I am especially grateful for my eldest daughter and her husband who have stepped up to emotionally support me and to provide actual help with my daughter struggling with mental health. I have an aunt who is a long time nurse, who is providing advice and a girlfriend who keeps checking on me. My boss has been supportive, too, encouraging me to take care of myself and my family. I’ve rarely taken a sick day, but that is about to change.

I am also finding a happy place listening to the music and watching the performance of BTS. I don’t understand how seven young men from South Korea can provide a respite from the chaos that surrounds me, but they do. They make me smile and give me energy. Their performances improve my mood and add to my well-being. I think it is the combination of music, dancing, and aesthetics working together that touches me. Their message is uplifting, their music is really good, their choreography and swag is amazing, and their staging and outfits are always so pleasing to the eyes. I have been so moved by them that for the first time in my life I took the time to write a fan letter to each member to let each one know how much I appreciate their individual contributions to the group. I found the address to mail fan letters and then mailed them. I heard that RM, one of the members, actually carries fan letters around with him. Of course, mine will have to be translated for most of the members, but I hope they feel my appreciation and are encouraged to keep working hard at their craft. I know I’m not alone in this sentiment. With songs like Dynamite and Stay Gold, specifically released to boost the spirits of their worldwide audience during this pandemic, they have gained my admiration and appreciation to an even greater extent.

Times are tough and right now I am trying to reserve my energy and protect my health for the fights in front of me. It means that I’m doing less outside my home and work. It means that I’m taking on fewer projects and temporarily stepping away from groups and organizations I love. My priorities right now are my husband, my daughter, my students, the November election, and of course, my own health. This is all the capacity I have right now. I covet prayers and well-wishes. And as always, I am optimistic that the bag will eventually shift from mostly bad to mostly good.

During the past few weeks, I’ve been reminded of my childhood when a kid who was older, bigger, and stronger set the rules of a game and then reset them in order to win. It wasn’t uncommon for the bully to change the rules in the middle of a particular game if he felt a loss was looming. I recall my utter frustration and confusion over unreliable rules that ensured my loss and the other child’s win. My cries of unfairness were usually ignored, laughed at, or provided with a bogus excuse. However, the result of the rule changes always lead to my bewildering loss and a gloating winner. I wondered how someone who won by cheating, could be so happy with the win. I’m still puzzled by that. The sad part is that I didn’t know how to stop the shameless cheater then and I can see that we collectively don’t know what to do about the shameless cheaters in our politics now.

It frightens and frustrates me that there are adult human beings in political leadership positions who believe it is acceptable to lie, cheat, suppress the vote, conceal evidence, and steal to win an election to remain in power. For these people, winning means everything. I don’t know if they feel they must win to satisfy personal ambitions or because they truly believe that the policies they will enact are best for the American people. It could be a bit of both. But with 200,000 dead Americans, I’m tending to believe that they simply egotistical power hungry politicians. With the level of COVID-19 spread, the economic disaster, the racial unrest, White House corruption, and a climate that is screaming at us to change our ways, how can these power grabbers genuinely believe that their ideas are better than their oppositions?

If it is true that they believe that their ideas are better for Americans, then why don’t they make the case for those ideas without resulting to lying, cheating and tactics to steal two Supreme Court justice seats? It appears that their personal integrity, their honor, their credibility, goodwill, and actual fairness mean less to them than winning in the moment. I want to hear about how they will improve healthcare, protect the lives of the living not just the unborn, provide equal protection under the law, equitable opportunities, and how they will prevent climate change from ending civilization.

How does a nation move forward and effectively address pressing issues when its political leaders show themselves to be this unscrupulous? How do people trust anything that comes out of their representatives’ mouths? The better question is how do we rid ourselves of political leaders who do not deserve to lead us?

I think the answer is to be as unrelenting in calling a lie a lie as they are about lying. It is to expose the cheating on a massive scale. It is to shine a bright light on the thieves as they are trying to steal. And then it is to ban together to vote them out by overwhelming majorities in all fifty states by helping each other to overcome every obstacle they put in our way. I applaud Michael Bloomberg and LeBron James for paying the legal fines of 32,000 ex-felons in Florida so they can retain the right to vote. This is one way the cheaters can be dealt with.

When I was a child, I felt helpless against the older and bigger cheater. It didn’t occur to me that I had options. I could have called for a parent or teacher to enforce the rules. I could have quit and refused to play with that child. Or I could have announced to all the other kids that this particular child was a cheater and not worth playing with. I did none of those things and suffered unfair losses. What will we do as we are now faced with Republicans who will tell any lie, make it difficult for Democrats to vote, conceal any ugly truth, and change the rules when it suits them to the detriment of the country and the environment? If we do nothing or very little, we will continue to lose.

Every American who has ever lived through or read about oppression should be terrified by the prospect that Trump will nominate and McConnell will move to confirm a Supreme Court Justice to replace Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. May she rest in peace. Our task in this very moment is to raise our voices and our fists in order to prevent the unabashed hypocrisy of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell who refused to give Obama’s nominee a hearing in 2016 because he claimed it was too close to a presidential election. In 2016 the election was 300 days away; today it is only 43 days away. If the Court becomes more conservative, the majority will soon experience the oppression of a right wing religious minority. It feels reminiscent of that book and Hulu television drama, “The Handmaid’s Tale”.

However, I’m really not exaggerating by using the word “oppression”. It is a harsh and scary word that means being subject to prolonged cruel and unjust treatment or control. History warns us that the Supreme Court stands between whether Americans are free or oppressed. The Court once decided who is human and who is not fully human, deeming African Americans as “chattel” and only 2/3 human. The Supreme Court decided who was “white” and could therefore be a citizen of this nation, could own businesses, could buy property, get certain jobs, serve on juries, were deserving of justice, and could vote. The Court upheld Jim Crow Laws for 100 years. The Court decided on a woman’s reproductive rights. It decided on the legality of Obamacare that provided health insurance for millions of Americans. It decided on Affirmative Action that literally forced open college doors and occupations previously closed to women and people of color. It decided the fate of same sex marriage. It made George Bush president instead of Al Gore. It was the Court that turned corporations into people. These are only a small fraction of the decisions from the Court that determine our quality of life in this nation.

Another Trump appointee to the Court could literally turn back the clock on women’s rights, minority rights, immigrant rights, same sex couples rights, and a host of other issues near and dear to the majority of Americans. When a religious minority who don’t value science are in control of the Courts, the earth itself is in peril. When religious minorities believe they have the corner on morality and the will of God, then the lives and livelihoods of non-believers and people who believe differently are in peril. I may be a Christian, but I don’t believe in forcing my beliefs down people’s throats.

Beyond physical peril, the education and mindset of the nation is at state. I watched in horror yesterday as Trump blamed history teachers for the unrest in the nation. He proclaimed they teachers should be teaching history with an eye towards recreating patriotism as opposed to exposing some ugly truths about our nation. Imagine a Court that says science teachers must teach creation, history teachers must gloss over negative historical facts, that whiteness is superior, that gender is limited to male and female at birth, and that contraceptive education is banned along with abortion.

Even though I am older and Christian and so I won’t likely personally suffer from the affects of decisions made by an ultra conservative Court, I’m still an empathetic human being who cares about how well young people will be able to live. So, this morning I wrote directly to Mitch McConnell urging him to wait on this nomination hearing like he did in 2016. I participated in a national poll to amplify the voices of we who are in opposition to it. If need be, I will gladly protest against any hearings scheduled for a nominee. I predict that if McConnell confirms a new justice to the Court this year that national unrest will ensue with greater vigor than we’ve seen. And with good reason.

It is time for us to join forces to denounce the hypocrisy of Mitch McConnell and to hold Republican senators across this nation accountable for their hypocrisy along with their silence and consent in favor of the most corrupt, morally depraved, and lawless president in history. We will have the leaders and kind of country we are willing to vote for or we will suffer under the tyranny of the few who do the voting.