No exclamation point needed.
One simple word.
Vote.
Everyone says democracy is on the ballot. For me, I checked the box for sanity.
Thomas Friedman, New York Times columnist, wrote last week:
“The good news is that we’ve survived four years of Donald Trump’s abusive presidency with most of our core values still intact. To be sure, the damage has been profound, but, I’d argue, the cancer has not yet metastasized into the bones and lymph nodes of our nation. The harm is still reversible.”
The same column added the bookend:
“The bad news is that if we have to endure four more years of Donald Trump, with him unrestrained by the need to be re-elected, our country will not be the America we grew up with, whose values, norms and institutions we had come to take for granted.”
That nicely captures what’s in front of us today.
Now comes the confession.
Wheel in the single light bulb recreating a scene from “Deutschland 83.” Let’s add an interrogator to left of the bulb who is gifted in non-verbal communications.
OK, I’m ready.
I had never voted in a public election — casting my ballot to elect Stanley Telson as our fifth grade homeroom rep doesn’t count — until the mid-term elections in 2018.
I know. I know. It’s absolutely pathetic. For the longest time, I rationalized this decision as my vote wouldn’t make a difference and that the country seems to chug along just fine without my participation. Call it apathy in its worst form.
But the one-two punch of Trump lounging in the White House eating Big Macs and my wife pointing out the stupidity — her word wasn’t quite as gentle — of my position prompted me to change my ways.
This passage from the New York Times on Nov. 6, 2018 hopefully bodes well for today: “The president unwittingly galvanized a new generation of activism, inspiring hundreds of thousands angered, and a little disoriented, by his unexpected triumph to make their first foray into politics as volunteers and candidates.”
That was 2018.
Fast forward to today and we’ve got a pandemic rampaging through society, racism on the rise and Trump putting a fence around the White House to keep the protestors at bay post-Election. In a sense, he did get his “wall” though it wasn’t paid for by Mexico.
Being the optimistic sort, I’m moving forward thinking that the glass is half full — hey, could have waited another 10 years — and life in America will take a turn for the better now.
Though I suspect sanity is still days or even weeks away.