Fully Present Post 50

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.

When I was eleven years old, I recall for the first time feeling like this was my world, too, and that I should have just as much say in how it operates as anyone else. I don’t recall the exact event that inspired the thought, but my mother validated my declaration and actually empowered me to do some things. I was fearless, creative, a bit reckless, and certainly naive. What I didn’t understand at the time was that empowerment needed to be accompanied by enablement. Having the authority (empowerment) to do something and possessing the means (enablement) to do it are two separate things. I am eternally grateful to my mother for encouraging my sense of empowerment by putting forth resources (time and money) to enable me to follow through on many of my youthful exploits.

I took that new sense of empowerment and proclaimed that I should be able to decorate my own bedroom. My mother’s response was not only agreement, but shopping trips with her wallet wide open. I was into blue in those days and so I painted my walls a sky blue. I wanted an additional twin bed for a friend or cousin who might sleep over and she purchased it. I selected fabric for my curtains and two royal blue velvet bedspreads with matching headboards I fell in love with. She purchased them all. I selected and she paid for the new lamps, shelves, throw rugs, and pillows. I painted the walls, installed the shelves, sewed the curtains and put them up all by myself. l loved the finished product. But most importantly, by creating my own space as an eleven year old girl, I felt powerful and in control of my environment for the first time. My self-esteem and confidence blossomed to the extent that I dreamed up and took on other projects that at first only impacted my life and later those in the community.

The mindset that this is my world, too, has never left me and I’ve spent my life trying to encourage my children and my students to believe that they have the power and responsibility to influence and help shape the world for good. For women and people of color, this is a relatively new concept. Oppression is forced impotence in the minds of people through violence. For much of U.S. history, blacks and other people of color were made powerless through laws and violence. In the 1950’s it took the joint efforts of oppressed people and their allies to change the laws. As the late John Lewis said, they decided to get into “good trouble” by using what they had, their bodies. Perhaps my mother’s lesson to me about empowerment came from the Civil Rights Movement we were living through. Empowerment has to be accompanied by enablement. And the Civil Rights leaders were enabled by their bodies, their numbers, their pain, and their strong passion for right. They used the tools of their voice, their numbers, their organizing, and their courage. A person can only do what is in his or her heart and mind to do if he or she is able. Given the right resources and tools, we can be a force for change if we want it. Right now, I have turned my sights on changing the political leadership in our nation.

I’m a patriot and this is my nation, too, so I’m determined to use every tool and resource I have to help oust Trump and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and to help elect Joe Biden. I am forever grateful to the Civil Rights warriors for my expanded tool box so that today my power and capability can be fearlessly directed in my blog and social media postings. I can use my pocketbook to donate to the campaigns of Biden and McGrath (McConnell’s opponent). I will use my “blood-purchased” vote to help select Joe Biden and Kamala Harris this November. I’m thankful for others who continue to take to the streets, phones, use their art, music, athletic platform, and speeches to combat the white supremacy that seeks to maintain the remaining bastions of oppression.

As Americans we are empowered and enabled by our Constitution to protest, to express ourselves, and to vote. We have the power and the ability to design or redesign the destiny of this nation. Others made the ultimate sacrifice to not only empower but to enable us to make changes for the greater good. Let’s take our power and use our tools and resources to do what is good, right, and just in November. If nothing else, we have the power and the ability to vote. And for many of us, that was not always the case.

When I was a kid I discovered that embellished stories and outright lies were more compelling, attention getting, and sometimes “ass-saving” than simple truths. Adults were amused, entertained, moved, impressed, and sometimes acted based on my lies. At first I thought that this was a good thing. My exaggerations and false words were powerful. However, I soon learned that embellishing stories and telling lies often had dire consequences. I recognized that real people could be hurt by my lies. I soon understood that the damage to my personal credibility was too high a price to pay for momentary gratification. And because of these early lessons, I grew to value personal integrity as a virtue and a way of life. I think similar experiences have had the same kind of moderating effect on most people’s behavior. But what happens when a person who is prone to lying is addicted to the attention, craves constant adoration, is overly ambition, is shielded from consequences associated with his lies, and doesn’t give a damn about hurting other people?

What happens is what we are living through in this moment in our nation’s history: A liar in the White House. A liar who is addicted to applause and power. And so the outlandish lies just keep coming via tweets and public interviews. They get aired on television and repeated by Fox News commentators and radio hosts and end up on social media and then they are either silently ignored or endorsed by Republican politicians and religious leaders seeking Trump approval to further their own agendas. The lies are false accusations like, Biden wants to defund the police. Lies like voting by mail causes voter fraud. They take the form of saying you will protect Social Security while seeking to decrease the tax dollars to pay for it. They take the form of associating Black Lives Matter with violent protest groups. It’s saying a deadly pandemic will magically disappear. It’s claiming to be a Christian who doesn’t need forgiveness while being unable to name a single Bible verse that is meaningful to you. It is calling the press the enemy of the people. It is claiming to be pro-life when you separate babies from their parents and refuse to promote wearing a mask during a pandemic. It is saying whatever comes to mind that will boost his ego or gain applause no matter how ridiculous.

The outlandish lies garner attention and capture the imagination of desperate people who want to be entertained, to feel relevant, or who feel threatened by the changing diversity in the U.S. These people grasp unto lies like we’re going to build a wall and Mexico is going to pay for it. These people grasp unto lies like people coming through our southern borders are rapist and murders. They grasp unto lies like trade deals are really easy. Such a person easily stokes underlying fears, elevates deep seated prejudices, readily incites violence, and poisons the morality and reputations of otherwise decent people. Such a person is dangerous. And when the lies are continuously met with silence, or worse, complicity, all hell breaks loose. The chaos we are experiencing today has Donald Trump stamped on it as the creator.

It is difficult to counteract outlandish lies, especially when the lies are more interesting, salacious, emotive, inflammatory, and provocative than the truth. But if they are not loudly exposed every time, then the truth itself is co-opted. Americans must beware. We are obviously not immune to being dazzled by the cult of personality and we can be led down the same road that Nazi Germany was by a loud and bullying personality like Adolf Hitler. History is screaming at us that Donald Trump is not much different. Hitler wasn’t taken seriously until it was too late. The opposition within his own party were silenced through intimidation and later through death. Sound familiar? And our consequences will be just as dire if we are not careful.

We are already seeing that those who get caught up in his lies are at risk of damaging themselves and others. I think about the 28 year old man, Edgar Maddison Welch, who fired on a pizza parlor with an assault rifle, believing that he was disrupting a Hillary Clinton child sex ring. Or Trump supporters who attended his political rally without social distancing and masks and got infected with Coronavirus. Herman Cain was at that rally and is now dead from COVID-19. For Trump, there is no attention getting, self-promotion, self-aggrandizing lie he won’t tell.

If we allow it, the lies will take over like they did in Nazi Germany. The truth will be snuffed out and decent people pushed aside in favor of the murderous few. At this moment, our fate is in our hands. Will we allow our friends, family, colleagues, and neighbors to be enamored by outlandish lies every day until the truth is completely buried and more innocent lives are loss? The choice is ours. The vote in November has never been more consequential.

I understand that good people never want to think of themselves as racist, white supremacist, or anti-black. Good people shudder at the thought that others might see them in this light. And good people certainly want to avoid perpetuating any of these horrific character flaws. Good people rightly and honestly want to be free of these both internally and externally. The reality is that racism, white supremacy, and anti-blackness are an almost inescapable infection living in the hearts and minds of the vast majority of people in the world. And black people aren’t immune from this infection. We too, are infected with subconscious impulses toward white supremacy and anti-blackness. None of this was by accident or divine providence. This infection of the human soul was created by elites greedy for more money and maintained domination.

Although the human tendency toward building a hierarchical society has always existed as part of the human DNA, for the majority of human existence, skin color meant nothing. It wasn’t until Europe and then particularly an emerging America, where the economic necessity for cheap labor made perpetual human slavery irresistible. Blackness became the number one determination of who was to be a slave in perpetuity. There were a few characteristics that made black people particularly attractive candidates. First, the color of the skin made them easy to spot. Second, was their resistance to European diseases, and third was the skill sets and ability to work they brought with them. The decision to create the harshest system of slavery known to man was purely economic but it also meant dehumanizing its victims in order to ease the minds of those participating in such an inhuman system. Success in establishing the belief that slaves were less intelligent, devoid of human emotions, in need of discipline like rebellious children, sub-human, and little more than machines, meant that working them 15 hours a day, feeding them scraps, buying and selling them, and beating or killing them at will was all okay. So ingrained were these notions of black bodies that even in the north where slavery was viewed as barbaric because of its cruelty, blacks were stilled viewed and treated as lesser humans.

Fast forward from 1619 through a Civil War that ended slavery in 1865 and to another 100 years of government sanctioned Jim Crow laws enshrining an American caste system to appease the southern mindset and making it legal to discriminate against black bodies in any and everyway in society throughout the country. Blacks were now solidly at the bottom of the social order. Those in power recognized that they needed to find a way to help poor whites and immigrants feel that they have a shot at the American dream and that they are not at the bottom of the social order. They could feel better about themselves at the expense of blacks. European immigrants coming to America were for the first time considered “white”. That designation immediately placed them in the mix of limitless opportunity. They could vote, they could own property, they could get education and jobs, they could get loans to establish businesses, they could travel where they liked. The sky is the limit. But for blacks and other people of color, none of this was true. Blacks who broke with caste were severely punished and financially successful black communities were met with white jealous rage. All with impunity. Our history reveals that the designation of whiteness was so essential that there were lawsuits from other groups of color petitioning to be considered white. Armenians were successful while Japanese were not. Strangely, and for weird political reasons, Mexicans were also designated as white.

People of color were second class citizens with limitations placed on their every move and movement. And at the bottom were blacks. Their rights and opportunities were and continue to be limited not only by laws, but by state sanctioned policies and practices. It took a whole Civil Rights Movement to end outright legal discrimination against blacks and to finally open the intellectual mindset of Americans to the fact that racism, white supremacy, and anti-blackness are evil. However, despite new laws, the hearts and minds remain entrenched in these flaws, reflexively acting out the enshrined racial social order in daily life, transactions, and interactions. The continued disparities in education, jobs, housing, banking, and criminal justice are the result and almost seem “normal”. As rationalization for these disparities, the actual flaws of the nation’s racist, white supremist and anti-blackness turned into imagined character and/or cultural flaws of blacks themselves. We were to blame for our low social position.

It is only now, with cameras capturing black people being brutally beaten or murdered by police and a president who caters to white supremacist views that America is again called upon to reckon with the racism, white supremacy, and the anti-blackness that plagues it. I believe there is a treatment for those who want to be free of this infection. However, it is not easy. And there has to be a willingness to pursuit a path that disrupts, challenges, and ultimately dismantles the current social order where whites are at the top and blacks are at the bottom. It will take the hard work of self-reflection, self-confrontation, and self-education, to cure the character flaws that make people hold black and brown bodies to a different standard. And like I said before, black people aren’t immune from this infection. You can see them at Trump rallies.

Start with self-reflection. Examine a wide range of black people through television, in music, through art, books, movies, in magazines, on the street, and in the places where you do business. What emotions emerge as you look at each image? When you look at Michelle Obama, do you think of her as a credit to her race or as just an incredible human being or something else? Compare those thoughts to Laura Bush? How do they differ? Did race even come into your calculus for Laura Bush? When you heard that another black man was shot by police seven times in the back in front of his three children, where did your thoughts take you? What did you feel? Where did you place blame? Would you think or feel differently if this had happened to a white man? When a black person speaks and a white person speaks, notice if you value one voice over the other. This is self-reflection. Don’t be afraid of what you find in your self-reflection. Don’t allow guilt to stop you. Remember, none of us planted these thoughts or emotions into ourselves. We inherited them and so it is time to confront them head on and one by one. I had to do this myself as a black woman.

Self-confrontation is interrupting one’s own negative thoughts and feelings about a person of color simply because he or she is a person of color. It is how we confront the unconscious bias we all have. It is literally saying to oneself, “Stop!” and evaluate this person on the basis of what he or she says or does as an individual, not as part of any particular skin color group. Imagine a white person were to say or do the same thing. Would you be offended? It is reminding oneself every day and in every situation that human beings are individuals that fall on the bell curve evenly across human characteristics such as intelligence and empathy. Some people are more considerate than others. That’s not a racial characteristic; that’s a human characteristic. Some people are more violent than others, but that too is not based on skin color, but on personality, upbringing, and lived circumstances. Compare the virtues of Trump and Obama? Imagine if Obama behaved as Trump?

And finally, self-education. First, learn the history of America and its impact on the entire world with its creation of white supremacy. Recognize how notions of white beauty have negatively impacted people around world. Then, learn about the impact of this history on people of color. This entails reading, listening, and watching to hear the stories of black and brown people and watching to see the ugly the truths that unfold about how our history has and does play a role in our current situation. There is plenty of literature, art, and music to consume to inform you. It is not the job of black people to educate white people. Some may be willing to do this, but I can tell you from experience that it is exhausting and traumatizing work because it triggers past emotional pain and reopens wounds. It takes days to recover from episodes that involve trying to educate white people about how it is to be black in America. The information is already out there to be consumed.

I believe that people can be successfully treated for this infection of racism, white supremacy, and anti-blackness. The road to recovery is doable, difficult though it may be. Set aside any guilt (deserved or not) and become brave, intentional, and willing to have a broken heart in order to heal. As I see it, this is the road to recovery. I know because I traveled it myself.