By Christopher Young ,
Contributing Writer,
The first text message of the day came at 5:40 a.m. from my daughter, Emily, “Disappointing. Not surprising.” She is an amazing young woman and mother. Her heart is boundless, as is her pragmatism.
I’ve always been more of a dreamer, perhaps even hoping against hope for more fairness and equity – more righteousness in a very troubled country. It would be true that passion can obscure one’s view of reality. Today, in America, fear has prevailed – anger has prevailed.
The term “better angels” has always been a favorite, sort of an aspiration leaning into the positive, the righteous. Yet we can’t be blinded to the reality that if better angels exist, certainly worse angels do as well. When you create boogeymen – immigrants in a country of immigrants, when you create doubt about what so many believe is theirs – “their taking away your country,” and when you elevate your own fictitious persecution to an increasingly me me me country, it creates a perfect storm. That’s what he did – selfish America bought the okey doke. In the end he personally wins at the expense of our country and our democracy.
Exit poll people are saying that the economy, the state of democracy, abortion, immigration, and foreign policy were the big issues for voters. Decency doesn’t appear on their lists. When we ask ourselves what it means when voters claim that the state of democracy is highly important, but then vote for him, it’s all very confusing. When we envision Lady Liberty and the Scales of Justice, it seems even more confusing.
Has America just codified that gas and food prices outweigh basic decency? Have the majority of Americans just said they have faith in a failed businessman to improve our economy? Have the voters just decided that our next president should be someone who calls our country broken and third world? Have women voters ignored that he has absolutely no regard for women? Have we elected a Commander in Chief that has called fallen soldier’s suckers and losers?
The potential for abuse of power is limitless now. With Republican control of both the House and Senate, legislation for his agenda will soar through and be signed into law. His majority on the Supreme Court, will provide little guardrails.
Per CNN reporting, “America has given us an unprecedented and powerful mandate,” Trump told an ecstatic crowd in West Palm Beach, Florida, early Wednesday morning. He summed up his approach to a second term as such: “I will govern by a simple motto: Promises made, promises kept.”
One of my neighbors, a thirty-two-year-old African-American husband and father of two daughters – 9 and 2 – who works from sunup to sundown every single day of the week is wearing a t-shirt today that says, “Racism is a public health issue.” He told me it’s not true that we are better off today, “before you had the snakes way down here at nighttime – gesturing low with his hands – but now they are right up here in our face in the middle of the day.”
In Mississippi, we really don’t need to spend any time questioning the prevalence of racism. We are last in everything, and of course, there is only one of our most prominent elected leaders that didn’t line up with the 47th President-elect – that is Congressman Bennie Thompson. All the rest, while claiming their support for law and order, firmly hitch their wagon to a prolifically lawless man. Character doesn’t matter to them. Only power matters to them. And on this day, November 6, 2024, we know inescapably that they are not alone.
Those much brighter, wiser, and more pragmatic than this writer will have to find the pathway for us to move forward in the land of the free, the home of the brave. What can one offer when they are drowning in shame and embarrassment – having been caught believing that we were better than we really are. We have been confronted by a sick, vengeful, lawless monster and We The People demanded he sit at the head of the table, again.
In John F. Kennedy’s, “City on the Hill” speech, he shared in part, “We do not imitate – for we are a model to others…we must always consider that we shall be as a city upon a hillthe eyes of all people are upon us.” A model? A city upon a hill? Power and greed have wholly corrupted these ideals. The balance has been tipped; the truth has been revealed.
Desperate for understanding, hope, and inspiration, we are reminded of the words of the great Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., “If you can’t fly then run, if you can’t run then walk, if you can’t walk then crawl, but whatever you do you have to keep moving forward.”
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