Insurrection
When I woke this morning I felt compelled to write about my fear of civil insurrection in America. At first I thought this essay would be a rant but as I began to really think about what to say I knew it would be a lament. Trump is ruining American unity.
Growing up I worked. My father was an electrician who was raised on a south Texas dairy farm that was lost in the Great Depression. Like many people with similar stories he learned to value thrift and hard work and passed this on to me. I've forgotten a little of the thrift part over the years but the hard work part stuck. As a kid I worked part time jobs as a printer's assistant, movie theater ticket taker, photo technician, electrician helper during the summers, merchant marine seaman, and during medical school as a scrub nurse every fourth night. My medical career was spent in the emergency room in a big urban hospital seeing all comers, all classes, all types of problems; all unsorted, unplanned and distressed. As a result I feel I understand the problems of the working class, a class I myself am part of. I was never part of the monied class, the administrative class, the political class, or the academic class. Somehow, even with a big education, I never changed my class affiliation. This doesn't mean that my tastes are lowbrow, but they never were, even as a kid.
Armed insurrection may happen in America. When Trump is eventually convicted of crimes or kicked out of office by impeachment I am afraid his followers will decide to restart the Civil War. In Trump's case we should call it the Uncivil War, because the rules of civility do not apply to Trump, even if he had read anything by George Washington. I am afraid that his followers, will take up arms against government workers, against liberal judges, reporters, Democratic politicians, anyone they feel is part of the 'deep state' apparatus, and, I suspect, it will broaden to include people of color, jews, atheists, and intellectual urban dwellers.
My lament is for the loss of our country's unity. Look at my family, because it is probably your family. Even after I stopped going to church, I had family dinners with the same cousins, some of which became fundamentalist. We talked gently about it, but it didn't drive us apart. Some family members worked construction, some taught, some became professionals but we all stayed family. This family started mainstream white but added persons of color, different sexual orientations, religious affiliation. Some members had abortions and some campaigned against abortion. Some protested the Vietnam war and some enlisted.
America is armed and dangerous. We have a belligerent attitude toward people who try and tell us what to do. We stood together as a country through WW1, WW2, and Korea. We started to come apart a little during Vietnam and Iraq. But even as we started to come apart politically over these costly conflicts (human and financial costs) we obeyed the rule of law at home, we paid out taxes so that we could have schools, roads, police, clean water, electricity, and safety from foreign invasion, and we respected the views of others. Trump is whipping up anger and intolerance in America. His rallies are workshops in hate. His wall is a symbol of racism. His 'fake news' is poisoning the well of truth that our reporters are giving us. His 'witch hunt' is a rallying cry for his supporters to threaten the hunters, who in this case are the FBI, CIA, NSA, local police, all those we have hired to work for us to keep us safe from both foreign and domestic crime. The witch hunters represent the rule of law in this country. Trump wants it to destroy it.
We must not let Trump nor foreign governments drive a wedge between the members of our American family. We must stop pointing fingers and start holding hands.
Growing up I worked. My father was an electrician who was raised on a south Texas dairy farm that was lost in the Great Depression. Like many people with similar stories he learned to value thrift and hard work and passed this on to me. I've forgotten a little of the thrift part over the years but the hard work part stuck. As a kid I worked part time jobs as a printer's assistant, movie theater ticket taker, photo technician, electrician helper during the summers, merchant marine seaman, and during medical school as a scrub nurse every fourth night. My medical career was spent in the emergency room in a big urban hospital seeing all comers, all classes, all types of problems; all unsorted, unplanned and distressed. As a result I feel I understand the problems of the working class, a class I myself am part of. I was never part of the monied class, the administrative class, the political class, or the academic class. Somehow, even with a big education, I never changed my class affiliation. This doesn't mean that my tastes are lowbrow, but they never were, even as a kid.
Armed insurrection may happen in America. When Trump is eventually convicted of crimes or kicked out of office by impeachment I am afraid his followers will decide to restart the Civil War. In Trump's case we should call it the Uncivil War, because the rules of civility do not apply to Trump, even if he had read anything by George Washington. I am afraid that his followers, will take up arms against government workers, against liberal judges, reporters, Democratic politicians, anyone they feel is part of the 'deep state' apparatus, and, I suspect, it will broaden to include people of color, jews, atheists, and intellectual urban dwellers.
My lament is for the loss of our country's unity. Look at my family, because it is probably your family. Even after I stopped going to church, I had family dinners with the same cousins, some of which became fundamentalist. We talked gently about it, but it didn't drive us apart. Some family members worked construction, some taught, some became professionals but we all stayed family. This family started mainstream white but added persons of color, different sexual orientations, religious affiliation. Some members had abortions and some campaigned against abortion. Some protested the Vietnam war and some enlisted.
America is armed and dangerous. We have a belligerent attitude toward people who try and tell us what to do. We stood together as a country through WW1, WW2, and Korea. We started to come apart a little during Vietnam and Iraq. But even as we started to come apart politically over these costly conflicts (human and financial costs) we obeyed the rule of law at home, we paid out taxes so that we could have schools, roads, police, clean water, electricity, and safety from foreign invasion, and we respected the views of others. Trump is whipping up anger and intolerance in America. His rallies are workshops in hate. His wall is a symbol of racism. His 'fake news' is poisoning the well of truth that our reporters are giving us. His 'witch hunt' is a rallying cry for his supporters to threaten the hunters, who in this case are the FBI, CIA, NSA, local police, all those we have hired to work for us to keep us safe from both foreign and domestic crime. The witch hunters represent the rule of law in this country. Trump wants it to destroy it.
We must not let Trump nor foreign governments drive a wedge between the members of our American family. We must stop pointing fingers and start holding hands.
The hate groups meeting in Portland on Saturday are scary crazy. It’s amazing how on the edge so many people were, just waiting for some stupid yahoo like a Trump to come into power. — B
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