Hope

Last evening late I sat at the computer and looked up various speeches of FDR because he was so eloquent, so brilliant and provided such hope to a nation in dire peril.  He was a father figure who was coming to the rescue of his children who were dying. 

I came upon his Second Inaugural Address.  Hearing him speak was like hearing words flowing from a golden waterfall into my ears.  It summed up that to which his administration was dedicated and spoke to the essence of who I hope I am today.  

"The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much; it is whether we provide enough for those who have too little."

I thought how far away from eloquence and humanity we have come electing Trump, this utter monstrosity of narcissism, lewd crudeness, lies and hate. I went to bed actually praying, yes, praying to God that he rid us of this plague named Trump that has infected us and all the men lined up behind him ready to enact more horrific, inhumane and violent policy.  They include many war hawks who initially made preemptive war on innocents who did nothing to us.  That accounts for the many refugees now waiting to get into this country's gate and the gates of Europe.  They are met by words of hate, rejection and calls for them to be returned to the horror of those fractured lands created by the west.  I sadly cried myself to sleep. 

I woke up and thought that I am still in a sea of incredulity. This great man, Roosevelt, whose incredible policies and words of hope helped us and have kept people alive even to this day who said in his First Inaugural Address:

"... This great Nation will endure as it has endured, will revive and will prosper. So, first of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself—nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance. In every dark hour of our national life a leadership of frankness and vigor has met with that understanding and support of the people themselves which is essential to victory. I am convinced that you will again give that support to leadership in these critical days."

Now we have elected a crude man, a violent man, an abuser of women, a man of hate, division and cruelty who wants to eradicate those policies of rescue.  We have elected this man to the office of the presidency an office that once held men of elegance and hope.

We must rise against this, all of us, and show the world we are the nation that rescued Europe, that we are a nation whose Lady Liberty has inscribed on her and my own grandfathers saw: “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.” 

How does a nation produce a humanity who has lived by those words and yet elect a man now who never spoke nor thought about them?  Trump is a man who lives for one man -- himself -- and I fear he will leave this nation to return to the dust from whence we all came.

We have a Herculean task before us but it must be done.  We need our voices to rise up loudly and say as Howard Beale said in the film "Network": 

"You've got to say, 'I'm a human being, God damn it! My life has value!' So I want you to get up now and yell, "I'm mad as hell and I am not going to take it anymore!"

and then go out and join groups dedicated to the task of unseating this Frankenstein monster, Trump, a monster of our own creation.