Doing the right thing is never the wrong thing.
TED LASSO
I thought this was a humorous choice given the last couple of posts this week. I do not always get happy feedback from my friends when I choose to opine about the state of our country. I will not burden you with the varied responses, but they are not as well received as the ones where I concentrate on personal or professional topics. Once I venture into the world of politics, I offend some people (which is never my intention.)
I write about our political issues because they are the most dangerous I have lived through in my lifetime. I bring their attention to the forefront, because this nation is teetering on the brink of fascism. I talk about it because raised awareness is critical to overcoming this intense threat to our democracy.
Most of the people I know are not watching the televised hearings from the Jan 6 committee. Perhaps they catch a headline here or a short byte there, but I would bet that no more than about 8 people I know personally are watching, or have watched, any of the full hearings.
In the last hearing, Jamie Raskin quoted Abraham Lincoln, “No transatlantic military giant could ever crush us as a nation even with all the fortunes in the world. But if downfall ever comes to America, we ourselves would be its author and finisher.” This was true and almost happened in Lincoln’s era and Lincoln lost his life for exactly that reason.
The Chairman of the Committee, Bennie Thompson, opened with his statement, “We settle our differences at the ballot box.” We may not always appreciate the results, but we have always relied on fair elections to settle controversial topics and that is what makes America amazing.
What I choose to write and share with others is presumably controversial. I am aware of this. As a patriot who adores my country, I feel an unsworn oath (excepting the Pledge of Allegiance that I swore every day for years) to defend the Constitution of the United States of America, because without it being defended by honest patriots like myself, we will most certainly plunge into an era of darkness from which we may never recover.
I wish there were nothing of consequence to opine about politically and that the United States was progressing swimmingly. I wish that we were in a neutral position where both parties were behaving in accord with the laws of our nation. But sadly that is not the case.
To Ted Lasso’s point… Doing the right thing is never the wrong thing. If I am opting to speak out about the massive injustice that is looming over our nation and point out where, how and why it is happening, you may choose to send me notes telling me to love my neighbor and to be more tolerant and understanding, and I am still going to point to the issues that threaten to destroy us because they must be recognized and dealt with immediately. As a black belt, I am trained to assess danger as early as possible. Once recognized, danger must be met with action of some sort or another. Either direct conflict or evasion. But most certainly not with complacency.
Happy Friday!