Courtesy: John Towner – Stormy seas from a political hurricane

The sea is calm.  Slowly, white caps skim off the surface as if the ocean is whispering a hint to its neighbors.  Then, before you know it, the massive body of water is churning in a circular fashion, one huge wave after another.  It feels like a disruption.  It is worse….it’s a game changer in the making.

A disaster has begun.  There were warnings but the public did not take them seriously.  They thought they have been through these storms before, and there was never severe damage.  Yes, street lights went down, power was cut in many areas, and shortages of food and fuel were inconveniences for a few days.  A slight sacrifice for the perceived benefit of living near the ocean as a ‘fully thought-out’ choice.

However, this storm had all the warning signs of a complete disaster to our way of life, yet many chose to believe in what they wanted to believe.  Science was damned, consequences not taken into proportional effect and facts redefined as opinions.

A category five hurricane is a special circumstance.  It does not come along often, yet when it does, it is a major life altering occurrence.  Prudent people take these storms seriously.  They show a level of respect and humility to the awesome destructiveness that which mother nature can inflict.  They don’t display unbridled bravado, nor do they disregard the disasters that this storm has imposed on other people who were in her path.

Why don’t many people apply these fundamental and rational judgments when it comes to the behavior of our current president?  It is one thing to agree with policies that are in sync with one’s ideology. It is a whole different situation if the policies are coming from a corrupt and rotted place.  There seems to be this dichotomy between the Trump supporters’ political beliefs and their humanistic value system.  How is this possible, and how do many have such a blindspot where in every other part of their lives they would never tolerate such willful disregard to their core values of decency, ethics and respect?

Most of the country is not happy with our current president  That is a fact.  It also played out in the election where the president lost the majority vote yet won the presidency due to the electoral college rules in place.  The national scar tissues have only gotten much worse.  Today, after over a year of the absurd, the unfit, the uninformed, our president is trying to destroy our country as we know it.  We cannot let it happen and it will not happen, notwithstanding even violent and unexplained storms.

Sadness is what has befallen on us.  The notion of tribalism, political loyalties, power and self-interests overtook our loftier goals of unity, kindness, honestly and ethics.  No longer should most of Americans be mad.  Instead, they should be sad.  Yes….this is sad for this once great country, despite the flaws we have had to try to build this most perfect union.  Today, the morass we are in will take our collective will to come together and lift each other up.

It can be done.  It has been done before in the history of our nation, and the world.  We can make it less painful now, or suffer the consequences which will affect all of our lives, and more sadly, our kid’s lives.

Forget most Americans – Republicans, Democrats and Independents – who have rejected Trumpism.  For those loyal trump supporters, they should ask themselves these fundamental questions.  Would they ever want him to be their father?  Would they ever want him to be their husband?  Would they ever want him to be their business partner?  Most chilling, if you were being attacked in the streets of New York or the battlefields of Iraq or Afghanistan, would you ever feel comfortable relying on Donald Trump to be the one who saves you from imminent mortal harm.  The answer if there was true introspective would be a resounding no by almost all.  So why do so many people throw away that which they hold most dear for the sake of short-term self-interests which will hurt them all long-term?  Its like a cigarette.  I few tokes won’t hurt you, but we all know a pack a day will catch up and maybe kill you.

For all Americans, both pro-Trump and those who see him as a cancer to this country and to the world at large, this too will pass.  There are too many headwinds and bunkers holding up natural order.  This presidency is not normal, and I am convinced that we will never allow it to be normal.

The playbook is now understood and our collective adjustments have been made.  The shtick is up.  Which side of history do you want to be on when the books are written.  Let the feelings of sadness give us all empowerment rather than despair.  We will have a great story to write.

So the next time you see a hurricane approaching, just know that with hope and perseverance, the sun will always rise from the eastern side of the Atlantic Ocean the following day, ushering in tranquility and a rebirth.