My Truth, Spoken in Love
I hope I can express my beliefs lovingly and positively here. I never want to offend anyone, not because I’m afraid of their reaction, but because I don’t want to hurt anyone, or add more heat than light to whatever issue we’re talking about. I want everything I share here to be not only truthful and loving but uplifting and profitable for making the world a better place. So here goes: my break with tradition—my thoughts on the current political climate in the U.S.
Like many of my Facebook friends, I am worried about the results of the U.S. election. I’m not worried about what the upcoming government is going to do to the country. I believe that will all work out in the end. But I am worried about what we are all going to do to each other.
I watched a recent video post on Facebook that described, in great detail, one person’s honest despair about the new government that will come to power in the U.S. in January, and his negative feelings about the people who voted that government into power. It was crushingly judgmental. This person feels that no one who voted Republican could possibly be “kind, generous, loving to their neighbour, empathetic, understanding, sensible, truthful or level-headed” etc.
The thing that really frightened me about this post was realizing that it could have been written by someone of the opposite political persuasion just by replacing the name of the political leader mentioned in that post with the name of the leader of the other party. It seems like half of us Americans are convinced that the other half is evil. That’s what I find very frightening.
Both political candidates have spoken, truly I believe, about the need for unity in our government and in our country as we go forward from here. Unity is essential to our survival as the United States of America. It’s the way we have survived through many disagreements in the past. Unfortunately, both political candidates have also indulged in rhetoric that has worked exactly against promoting unity among us.
Both Kamala Harris and Donald Trump have spoken of each other in the most disrespectful terms; both have undoubtedly been speaking hyperbolically, but both have only piled flammable material on the fire of the political passions of the people they each have claimed they wanted to represent and work for the benefit of in the next four years. They have set us a very bad example.
They have both convinced us that we cannot trust either of them or each other. They have planted an unhealthy fear in us. I am disappointed in both of them in that regard. And the biggest fear in my heart right now is that we citizens will not be wise enough to rise above those unhealthy fears—to recognize that this is not the end of the world, to be able to forgive and forget, and to move forward, together, to make the best of our local situations.
I am going to take a great risk here and borrow a quote from Donald Trump that sums up what I am trying to get across in this post. I am going to say that, regarding the political situation right now, “There are good people on both sides of this issue.”
Donald Trump said this months ago about a political disagreement between good Americans who felt that statues of colonial patriots should be torn down because they unjustly honored those men, and other good Americans who felt that the statues should be left standing to preserve an accurate historical record. Unfortunately, his quote was misrepresented as being about the neo-Nazi riots that were going on nearby at the same time. This misunderstanding naturally ramped up the rhetoric supporting the idea that Donald Trump was an evil fascist and thus a danger to society.
As I have said, I am unhappy with both of the political candidates and others in their parties who have abandoned the long-standing American tradition of speaking honestly but respectfully of their political opponents, no matter how strong their disagreements. I am old enough to remember federal elections in the U.S. that ended peacefully, partly because the rhetoric had been restrained and respectful. I long for that tradition to be re-established.
But in the meantime, I can only hope that we, as lowly citizens of this
great country, can overcome the damage done during this campaign and, in turn,
set an example for our leaders in how to participate in a healthy democracy,
with reason and compassion, with acceptance of different perspectives on how government should be
run, but with respect for the rule of democracy and the right, however unfair it sometimes seems, of the majority to rule.
There is a reason our courses in government when I was in high school in the States were called “civics” classes. I would love to see that terminology and all the words that went with it being reintroduced into our present culture.
Thank you for listening, if you have read this far. I welcome any comments that are civil and constructive. And thank you for those of you who still are willing to consider me a friend here on Facebook.
I love you all, and will whatever.
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