Who Are We versus What Are We

I awoke with a massive headache this morning. This is rather unusual for me. I would like to blame staying up too late, having a Dubonnet cocktail at midnight which did absolutely nothing to help me sleep, and incipient terror. All of the above. 

At the same time, a single question rattles around my brain: Who Are We?

I know some of my conservative GOP type friends will tell me the lies and hate speech came from both sides. That the memes and the social media were all lashon ha'rah, evil tongue. And they tell me that they are as afraid of antifa as I am of the new white supremacist movement lining the highways ready to push Biden buses off the road. 

Did leftist rebels line highways to ambush Trump supporters? Did anyone go around spray painting VOTE BLUE on headstones? Did I miss that on Fox? I might have; I've not had the news on, except for PBS election results, for the last 4 days. 

The corollary to the first question is: What Are We?

At this moment, we do not yet know who will prevail in the presidential election. Frankly, I don't think it matters much. You see, we are not WHO we thought we were and we certainly not WHAT we thought we were. 

A number of people posted about the desecration of graves in the Jewish Cemetery in Grand Rapids, Michigan. I posted it, too, because I have connections to the rabbi in that community. In the thread of my cousins' sharing of the post, a woman wrote: 

You don’t know me, but I support Trump. And I do not harbor hate and racism nor do my friends and family. This horrible act comes from those who do harbor hate and racism, which comes in all colors of skin, religious and political people. Unfortunately, there will always be those who hate...can’t get away from it. But don’t categorize and judge people you don’t know. Just my opinion.

Her statement bothered me a great deal. I replied:

Perhaps you should visit your local GOP office after the election to explain that you don't want to be associated with hate crimes, and to ask why they aren't they [sic]  denouncing these things publicly, loudly, and emphatically....which is hard to do when the leader of the party openly praises his cadre when they shove a bus off the road.

Lots of nice people just close their curtains and look away when their neighbors are victimized and assaulted because, after all, they don't want to get involved. Unless you are standing up and shouting, "THIS IS NOT OKAY," you are enabling stuff like this to happen.

And she replied:

I am not enabling anything. Racism and hate began in the homes of children brought up in that environment...these people were not born racist and hateful. It is not a political motivation unless they have separate agendas and mental problems, which all racists, I believe, do.

I don’t need to knock on the doors of a GOP office and denounce bad behavior or prove what I believe in. My beliefs are well know to my family, friends and neighbors, who are the only ones I answer to. I stand up for the right thing to do, which back our men and women in the military and the men and women in blue, and have my neighbors back, no matter which political party they endorse. 

"I am not enabling anything."

There you have it in a nutshell. She doesn't understand that enabling is exactly what she is doing. Like all those nice Germans, she looks the other way when it counts. And near as I can tell almost 50% of this country agrees with her. And if that is indeed the case, we have some pretty big things to think about between now and January whatever. 

She pretty much sums up who we are with her statement. We have become a nation that does what we are told. 

 I stand up for the right thing to do, which back our men and women in the military and the men and women in blue...

I don't think she is unique or uncommon at any level. She's a good American. She's a proud patriot, although I suspect she has no idea that the Revolutionary War was a revolt against just that authority. She has been indoctrinated to believe the propaganda...from either side. She thinks JFK was a martyr, but she doesn't know for what cause. She thinks MLK did a lot for the Blacks, but has no idea what. In many ways, she is just like the rest of us. And she never thinks to ask. She embodies the national WHO ARE WE? 

Shopkeepers all across the country have boarded up windows in preparation for the riots expected to happen once the election is called for one party or the other. Has this ever happened in our history before? Other than DEWEY WINS, has a candidate, much less a sitting president, ever declared victory before all the votes were tallied?  In a speech in the wee hours of November 4th, our president said the following:

This is a fraud on the American public. This is an embarrassment to our country. We were getting ready to win this election. Frankly, we did win this election. We did win this election. So our goal now is to ensure the integrity for the good of this nation. This is a very big moment. This is a major fraud in our nation. We want the law to be used in a proper manner. So we’ll be going to the US Supreme Court. We want all voting to stop. We don’t want them to find any ballots at four o’clock in the morning and add them to the list. Okay? It’s a very sad moment. To me this is a very sad moment and we will win this. And as far as I’m concerned, we already have won it.

Did anyone ever tell this president how elections are counted in this country, and that no tally is official until it is declared certified, much less processed by the Electoral College? We already know he was absent the day they taught three-branches-of-government-checks-and-balances. 

But screw him. You cannot fix anyone that stupid because he's not running the show. Someone else is. But screw him, too. In the end, this is about our national identity...you know...the one that is in a shambles. If our reputation is in the toilet, we have only ourselves to blame. 

WHAT ARE WE? as a national identity must be stripped naked for re-examination. We, the People, are not simply how the rest of the world sees us: rock'n'roll, bad Bermuda shorts, and lo-fat dressing on the side.  There is some pretty ugly stuff in our nation's history that we coded into laws. We made pain and suffering not merely legal, our government has encouraged it, made it mandatory. We, the People, are beginning to identify and own these shameful episodes.The conversation has been forced on America in a new way...through the death of our own citizenry.  If we want to know WHAT WE ARE, those have to be more than discussions; there must be actions along with them. 

Half the country thinks the current administration is just fine enough to keep in office. 

Let me say that again: half the country thinks the sitting president, his behavior, his policies, and his disdain for facts and science are all okay with them. 

What We, the People, take for action will determine WHAT WE ARE as a nation. Do not think for one New York minute that the eyes of the world aren't laser focused on what we do next. 

If Feckless Leader wins another term after the votes are tallied, recounted (as I'm sure they will be) and ultimately certified, then so be it. We, the People, have elected the government we deserve. 

How we deal with that knowledge will ultimately be up to each of us. 

The Wifely Person's Tip o'the Week

Stay sane.