I’ve seen a meme quite a few times over the past year. It’s of 45 hanging from the side of a building by his fingertips. The meme asks the question: What would you do?
Some larger Twitter accounts posted the meme and the answers were resoundingly in the “I would step on his fingers” category. Followed closely by the “I would walk away and do nothing” category.
Seriously? What would I do? Would I help another human in peril? Fuck yes, I would.
We must keep our humanity. We must.
For all that is fucking holy, if we become monsters from this fight, why are we fighting?
Just fucking join them.
So, I responded to the tweet stating my views and got a little push back.
I’m paraphrasing, but responses basically said of course they would knock him off because, so far, he’s getting away with his crimes and his policies are killing people. Also, his hatred and bigotry are hurting the world and must be stopped.
I have two problems here.
First of all, of course I loathe him.
I will fight against him with everything I have and will not mourn when he dies.
Quite frankly, I am stunned the Big Macs haven’t done their job yet.
But I believe in the sanctity of life and if I decide I can pick and choose, then where does it stop? Where?
I have to believe that in the end, the good guys are going to win. When this dark chapter closes, we are going to be left with millions and millions of terribly racist, angry bigoted people. Do we just stomp on all their fingers?
We have to find a way to live with each other.
I am not saying we condone the behavior. Fuck that. It should be renounced, rejected and shunned. People who choose to keep their bigoted views should know no peace. But we’re going to have to give them room to grow and change.
The second issue I have is we are fighting for our democracy. For our rule of law.
Our rule of law.
The only way the right can win is by cheating. With gerrymandering, voter suppression, fraud or help from foreign hostile governments.
We need to win, and protect our rule of law, but we can’t when we don’t follow our rule of law.
The president needs to be held accountable. If he is, that will strengthen our rule of law.
If accountability gets sidestepped, rule of law will stay in peril.
It will not be tested and will not grow.
If we had the opportunity to dispose of our problem without following our own rules, wouldn’t that mean we won by the same means we are fighting against? Wouldn’t that mean we must admit we are fighting for something we actually don’t believe in?
I believe in life. I believe in us.
When all is said and done, I hope what remains doesn’t look like what we were fighting against.
I hope we can still call ourselves the good guys.
Photo courtesy of Anja.
Beautiful writing. Thank you.
Thank you so much! Thanks for being here
Yes, we can’t make it right by doing wrong.
Exactly!
As much as I hate him, you are spot on. Thank you for writing this.
I can’t stand him, but damn…
I have said often I wish he would just die or other similar views, but I wouldn’t actually help it along any. You’re right if we start acting like that then how are we different! Great piece Sister!
Thank you, Rena! XO
Yes! Thank you for being a voice of reason.
Thank you!
Shoot. Still no ‘like’ button.
This reminds me of a quote I read about WWII in that all sides claimed that G-D was on THEIR side. Let’s hope we all don’t sink to a level we can’t climb out of.
I hope we don’t sink that low, too.
I agree with this so much.
xo
I agree with you there girl! It’s your opinion too and no one should judge you because you have morals. I personally can say I wouldn’t save 45 BUT if it really came down to it I could never stand there and let a human being die. What you put out into the world is what you get back.
YES! That is so true. We do get what we give.
LOVE the new look! Congratulations on waging that change battle… I’m not sure if you considered it a win or an acquiescence, and I struggle so much with ANY change, but you just settled in so nicely in your new home, so I can see how this might have been a ‘step-forward’ change that you initialized, but if it isn’t, then – it looks fabulous and we’ll all adapt fine 🙂
*blows kisses*
*waves ‘Douche Twizzles Rock’ sign*
I love when you talk/write about the things I been thinkin’ ’bout. If 45 accidentally stumbles into doing something right (the China tariff thing :/ ) I’d like to believe I’d be the first to say, “Yay! Something great for America! Good job, Donny!”
But. it is going to be through clenched teeth and steel heart simply for the fact that it won’t be a clean win and the fight was fraught with ugliness and dishonesty and it cannot be dismissed that this is just a game he knows will make him look good.
Grrr.
I guess I’m more worried that the college kids are going to have to buy a whole bunch of new textbooks 😉 Previous editions of Sociology and Poli-Sci automatically null and void. Publishers are not gonna worry about re-arranging the text for YEARS!! :'(
I agree Michelle – I may not wish death on someone, nor push them over the edge of the abyss, but, I refuse to undercut Karma’s grace and wisdom and will give her the credit she deserves if divine intervention finally delivers us all from this Hell.
This shit’s got me going all random religion…
Thank you a bout the site. I like it. And I’m ready for Karma to do her job.
Yes, yes, yes. The ends don’t justify the means, especially if the means turn us into the very thing we’re fighting against. It’s something that’s been forgotten, or simply ignored too many times throughout our history–the terrible acts committed by Americans at Abu Ghraib is just one example that comes to mind.
We’re fighting to make the world a better place, and with an optimistic spirit, one that presumes everyone is capable of redemption. If we forget that then, you’re so right, what we’re fighting for becomes meaningless.
I don’t want it to be meaningless.
I’d like to think that I would save the bastard, but in reality I probably couldn’t, because of my disability. I could call 911, though, although by the time help arrived it might be too late.
This sort of encapsulates the whole political struggle right now.
The universal healthcare we are working for would save at least as many Republicans as Democrats, and in the redder states, far more.
The fact that they vote against the people who want to save them does not make me want to save them any less. I’ve been through a major health crisis, I know what they’re facing, even if they try to deny it. That makes my position about me before it even gets to them, which I believe is sort of what you’re saying.
The other aspect of this particular scenario is that he can’t be killed, or really, even impeached and removed from office if we want the actual country to get better, as either of those scenarios would turn him into a martyr in the eyes of tens of millions of Americans, who would then set to elevating an even worse monster to the presidency.
And don’t kid yourself that the next one won’t be worse. The only consistent thing about Republican presidencies is the fact that they always find a way to be worse than the last one, or in the case of Poppy Bush, identical to it.
Nixon did Watergate, but Ford pardoned him. Reagan began the destruction of the middle class with his attack on unions and did Iran-Contra, and Poppy pardoned the remaining Iran-Contra felons. George W. Bush was a goddamn torturing war criminal who lied us into a war that destabilized the middle East so badly that we’re still fighting there over it sixteen years later after trillions of dollars and about a million lost lives, and who can even know how many ruined lives? And managed to preside over the worst financial crash since the great depression, fueled by a housing bubble that was his official policy. Remember “ownership society”? Yeah, that was the official denial of the housing bubble that the rat bastard thought would prop the economy up until after he left office, but instead burst and took trillions of dollars of the wealth of ordinary citizens with it when it went down the drain.
Now we have Trump, who is a waddling constitutional crisis assisted by hostile foreign powers and busily eroding the checks and balances that are supposed to hold our government (and by extension our society) together, all the while stealing children from their families and jailing them to please the monsters who support him.
Those monsters are who we must defeat. Trump is just using them as a political resource, and the next Republican will do the same damn thing.
Just like the Republicans in congress still support his actions, the next one to win the presidency will repeat them, only worse, as Trump is wildly incompetent, and we can’t count on the next one to be that lame.
So we have to beat them fair and square, resoundingly, and in the face of all of the electoral cheating they will do.
And we can do that, if the results of last year’s election are anything to go by.
But like last year’s election, it will be a hard fight.
But two things about that:
First, what is the other alternative?
And second, what worth having comes without some kind of fight? (h/t: Bruce Cockburn)
Thank you for this. So scary, but you are right, we have to fight. We can.
Bravo! well said.
Thank you!
❤️ . That’s all.
Right back at you. xo
I honestly don’t know what I would do if I were witness to a horrible debilitating or potentially fatal thing about to happen to that rat bastard. Like others, I do often (privately) wish for his demise, but I know that we can’t just rid ourselves of HIM to reset back to before all the damage. We have to rid ourselves of all the puppetmasters (because he is, after all, too stupid to be anything more than a puppet). And that’s not likely to happen with the hypothetical tragic thing you’ve suggested. So would I spend any personal effort to save him? I just don’t know. Probably depends on how much yoga I’d already done that day. 😉
Hahah..yeah, it’s hard to say what any of us would do. It’s not a likely scenario
Applause. Applause. Applause.
Kindness works both ways. Tolerance, acceptance, understanding. If you want to receive any of that you must give it, too.
XO
Welll, shit. I’d responded but was holding off posting until I had my blog post link to add here – I was here because I knew you’d have something to say that would apply to my blog post. THIS POST WAS PERFECT. Like our tin foil helmets were in tune.
Your statement about rule of law is Sofa King important and needs to be a stand-alone meme to be blasted everywhere.
Thank you so much! XO