Why is it OK with you? It isn't OK with me.
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I don’t understand why so much of what our President does is okay with his
supporters. The President brags about being a sexual predator, “grab ‘em by the p****.” He is a serial adulterer who pays porn stars for sex then has his henchmen buy them off to keep them silent. Is this the ideal of behavior you decided to encourage in your sons and daughters? I don’t understand why this is okay with you. It isn’t okay with me. The President makes fun of disabled people, mocking them in public. This lack of empathy is cruel, bullying behavior. Why is this okay with you? It isn’t okay with me. In our country, arrested suspects are presumed innocent until proven guilty at trial. The President calls on law enforcement officers to be more brutal when arresting suspects. Why is this okay with you? It isn’t okay with me. The President had immigration officers rip infants and children out of the arms of their parents, and lock them up in cages where some of them sickened and died. The administration has fought against court orders to help reunite many of these children with their families. This terrible trauma is perpetrated against innocents in our name. Why is Trump’s depraved indifference to human life and well-being okay with you? It isn’t okay with me. The President said skinheads, Neo-nazis and white suprematists are “very fine people”. He can’t bring himself to condemn them even after one of them ran over and killed an innocent woman. I don’t understand why this is okay with you. It is not okay with me. These are but a few of the innumerable examples one could cite of President Trump’s utter unsuitability to hold the office he holds. His egomania, callousness, immorality and lack of character are not okay with me. I hope they will no longer be okay with you. George S. Roland |
Culture of respect
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Editor's note, this was a Facebook post by Eric Wise that he allowed us to repost here as a letter. Eric posts a lot of thoughtful and historic musings on his page. A former journalist with a heart for the facts.
When I prepared to travel as an exchange student nearly 20 years ago, we learned that Americans abroad had a reputation as The Ugly American™, expecting things to go their way, to be done their way and for others to accommodate them. We had to learn that just because culture or beliefs were different, they were not wrong. There are inroads to building relationships across cultures. One of the first things they taught us was to listen closely to names because a person's own name is the sweetest word in the world to him or her, so make an effort to get it right. This means pronouncing it correctly, and using the preferred form of their name, for instance their choice of James or Jim or what have you. I bombed my first attempt at this, as I met the student visiting from Indonesia, Virga. I said "Virga" like the initial sound in vertigo or Virgil. It was "Veer-ga." But I got better. I also tried to learn about Islam while living in Indonesia, the largest non-Arab Muslim nation. I asked questions respectfully and brought home a prayer rug as a memento of the people I met. They were surprised that a non-Muslim would ask for one, but I said I liked the designs and I promised I would not wipe my feet on it or anything. Even from that time and through the 1990s, it was not easy to be a Muslim in America, as terrorist attacks, hostages and the first Gulf War had given a bad impression in the United States. This got worse with the terrorism of 2001. When Barack Obama ran for president, many people spread the word about him, warning that he was running for a "Muslim Takeover" of the United States, regardless of his history as a Christian. I have relatives who voted for him twice and who liked Obama, but admitted, "I don't like that he's a Muslim." It's sad it never mattered that he was never Muslim. Now we have women in Congress, including an outspoken Latina and a Muslim immigrant, both of whom won their seats handily. Not even close. Both have been relentless attacked for not fitting the white Evangelical mode of Mike Pence and whatever he thinks is "Christianity." They have never been given a fair chance because the propaganda cranked up before they had a chance to prove themselves to everyone. And now we have a California Senator nominated on a national ticket for vice president. Yes, it's rude to fail to take the time to learn her name before discussing her views. But it's pure bigotry and ignorance that allows someone to purposely butcher her name and make a joke of it. It says, "She's not one of us!" She's not Mike, Fred or Harry, she's not even Amy or Sue. It's a way of saying "You don't want your country ruled by someone with a foreign or funny sounding name, after all, didn't you hate that black guy?" That's the message here. That's what's behind butchering this senator's name to belittle her. Americans can be better than that. Someone might even say we can "Be Best." |
