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I’ve wanted to write about how Trump being elected has made
me feel for quite some time now, but
there’s so much that it’s hard to figure out what to say and every day
we see a next example of his hideousness.
I even spent some time searching to see if I could find
enough explanations of things he has done, may do, is doing, that would give me
pause and help me believe it’s not as bad as I feel it is. No luck so far.
So, I took a break and tried to step back from my frustration, disappointment and anger with those
who put Trump in power. I know a few of you personally. I don’t know you as
hateful people. I know you as people who believe you are caring, fair, just and
I have heard your concerns, your personal struggles, your fears and I
understand them even when I don’t agree with them on principle, or when I know I
am able to see a bigger picture perhaps, than you. So I can see that it
would seem you just don’t realise that you’re not in that bad a position, and a lot of the elements of your American
Dream actually require YOU to make things happen for yourself. It may just be that your attitude and entitlement are what's holding you back, and now you’re
following the age old habit of laying blame at the feet of those who have
historically been exploited and denied the rights you relatively comfortably
enjoy.
Yeah, I hear some of you crying, “No! That’s not me!” – I voted
against the corrupt/non-functioning/whatever-adjective system of government,
the cronyism, the Fed…ok. Fair enough. You chose to replace ‘bad and urgently in
need of a serious reworking’ with lawless. Very Wild West. Actually, very North Korea, very ISIS, very Marcos, Saddam, very Great Turkmenbashi – and please don’t
say the ‘Communist’ elements make him
totally different – no, they do not, Stalin, Putin, Kim family, Trump family –
there’s a lot more in common than you realise. Not so much with Fidel though, who
was much more a man of the peoples and led his country to great levels of
social and scientific achievements, or with many of your county’s other old
Central and South American 'enemies' who’s legitimate governments, yours has long
fought to depose through covert wars and replace with corrupt dictators who
work to fill your corrupt power-mongers' pockets.
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I’m, of course, not an American, I don’t live there and I
doubt I ever will. But I live in America’s back yard, in the small island
states that number among the neighbours that America has historically enjoyed
fucking with. So I have a genuine, valid, real, reason to have a say. I think
the whole world does anyway since America anointed itself ‘Leader of the Free
World’ – you don’t get rights without responsibility and if you pretend to
being the greatest democracy in the world, then hey, we are voters. Those in America,
who don’t see this, are just some of the (way too big), insular band of fools who
need to go back to school, preferably in a country where they can learn about
how the rest of humanity lives and little things like international relations,
trade, world cultures…
I feel you getting indignant now. Good. Join the club. In
your indignancy, please invest some time in getting to know your countrymen and
women whose labour and effort made the
life you enjoy possible. Of course if you are an out-and-out racist, then you
believe slavery and Chinese labour were God-given rights to you - well I just
hope you get a knock on the head that saves you from yourself. For the rest of
you good people – please work on developing a bit more of a less arrogant less self-entitled, and more of a ‘judge not, lest thou be judged’ ethos. You are not the only ones
who matter. Get out, educate yourself and get to know and understand a few
more of the many countries out there in the world that do a much better job of
democracy than you do, that have granted, not perfect, but certainly functioning social welfare systems that
require high taxes and yet somehow, wow, must be magical, don’t stifle business
or people living wealthy, good, happy lives.
You, Trump voters, God help you. You have done a huge
injustice to America, her neighbours, the world. You better hope this has the
effect of waking up the rest of us and galvanising us into action to set things
to right, because, yes, we are also at fault. We were asleep at the wheel it
would seem – we let our ‘surrounding ourselves with light’ and our (rightful)
pride in the progress we did make, to ironically, cause us to become a bit more like you; blind.
We allowed ourselves to believe the tide was turning in favour of humanity and
good. Well, you showed us didn’t you!
I, for one, am awake with eyes wide open.
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