Going back on my promise

I’m breaking my word. I promised myself that I would post just three days a week this year. Here I am barely three weeks into the new year and I’m posting an extra day this week.

It gets better. I’ve long made it a goal to stick with writing about the human condition, the situations we get ourselves into, and the lighter side of life, but I’ve been getting sucked into the news. It doesn’t bode well for what is likely to be a crazy year with the 2024 presidential election.

I generally try steer clear of politics in my writing, because, as I’ve explained on my blog in the past, it’s a losing game. You’re going to upset half of your readers right from the start and goodness knows I need all the readers I can get. It’s a no-win situation.

I’m breaking both rules this week. Here goes:

—I hate our current political party system in the U.S. for putting us in this situation. I want better choices than what we have. I’m ambivalent on President Biden. I feel like he’s done some good, in fact a lot of good, but I still feel there’s a general malaise that needs to be overcome. Saying all that, I abhor GOP front runner, former President Trump. I’ll never be able to vote for him. Call me a Rhino. Call me weak. Call me whatever you want. I always feel like we’re one false step away from leaving the keys to the corvette with the rich kid everyone appeases because he’s got money, but nobody can stand.

I’m really not sure what he believes in. His policies always seem to separate us, instead of uniting us as a country. The next day he goes without lying or fibbing or stretching the truth will be his first. I suspect in his mind, he doesn’t view it as a lying, but he lies about things that are oftentimes easily to be tracked down. I can never get over that fact. My mom and dad brought me up to believe a lie is a lie.

I’m tired of his big lie too. You lost the election, the Supreme Court rejected his countless 2020 election challenges, because they didn’t think a case existed, live with it.

It gets better. I hate bullies. He claims that he should have immunity from the Democrat’s “trumped up” charges, but then I listen to him talk and the first thing he talks about is taking on a dictator role and charging President Biden. Am I the only one who doesn’t get this logic?

He loses me too every time he tries to act coy, mocking a reporter with a disability in the first campaign and then claiming to simply be retaliating against someone who was rattled and exasperated. You want to go after the reporter’s coverage fine, don’t try to make us doubt what we all saw with our own eyes, Trump making fun of the man’s disability. And most recently, trying to be coy once again, but still letting his white base in on his joke, by referring to Nicki Haley by her birth name Nimarata. Yes, Donald, we know that she’s the daughter of Indian immigrants and was born Nimarata Nikki Randhawa. By bringing up her Indian background, when it’s not even relevant, you do nothing but make yourself look small. And, well, a racist bigot too.

I’m a fiscal conservative and social liberal, meaning I think we would be smart about how we spend, but I don’t think the government should have a role in certain things. What does this all mean? It mean’s I’m a man without a party and I want better choices.

–When did we start to demonize people who believe different things from us. For example, when I grew up, the guy next door could’ve been a Republican or a Democrat or Libertarian for that matter. I’m pretty sure my parents didn’t know and certainly didn’t care. Country and family came first.

Now when I see regular folk talk about the other side, they talk about it with an extreme anger and vengeance. There’s real hatred. Yes, some of the issues we’re facing — the second amendment and the “right of the people to keep and bear arms” and the abortion issue — have far-reaching effects, but when we put these issues over the needs of people standing right in front of us, we’ve lost our soul. We’ve lost what makes us human.

–Last week when I got in the car, my phone was dead and I had to listen to the radio. The news came off rapid fire and it was all rather upsetting. Continued bloodshed in Gaza; Ukraine’s battle against Russia, natural disasters, the list went on and on.

I was still thinking about this when I heard someone in an aisle of the hardware store complaining about the US involvement in aid and attempts to help other countries. Now, I’m as fiscally conservative and patriotic as they come, but does death and dying across the world not get your heart beating?

If not, then I fear something is wrong with you. We can’t police and safe the world, but if we’re as religious as many folks like to think we are, then we should be trying to help. I left the store fuming and did the only happy thing I could think of: I texted my kids and wished them a happy weekend. Yes, I broke my word and maybe I upset a few people, but just like my writing, I need to be authentic and open.

In short, I need to be me. Let’s hope the next year shapes up becomes more optimistic and we can come together for the best of us all. Yes, let’s hope.