Thursday, November 10, 2016

The Miracle on 5th Avenue: A Holiday Fantasy

I've been listening to various supporters of Donald Trump, and especially several advisers to his transition team. The unifying theme of their comments is that he will change more or less on a cellular level by surrounding himself with intelligent, and experienced people who will guide him in decision making. The story I'm hearing is that the crazy ideas, the racism, bigotry, ill manners and general ignorance of government will all disappear as he changes into a man who, at 70, becomes a thoughtful individual who never acts rash or rude and follows the advice of those around him who understand the job he is about to undertaken. I'm an optimist at heart and am completely willing to believe this can happen. I also need to see results. A first major test of this holiday story line will be whether or not the President-Elect divests himself of all his business holdings, and of course not just the silly idea of turning them over to his children, but the entire family divesting themselves and everything placed in a blind trust by the time he takes office in two months. Anything short of that would create a mine field of conflicting interests and render him incapable of being President. I realize that placing such a large company with it's connections to foreign governments in a blind trust in two months time would be a huge undertaking, but if his supporters can believe that he will change into a completely different person in that amount of time, I'm sure we all could believe such a miracle would occur.

What I Know (post election reflection)

What I know: I am still the same person I was yesterday, the day before and tomorrow. I hold the same values that motivate and inspire me - simplicity, peace, integrity, equality, conservation of our natural world and community. Sometimes I see those values reflected in the leadership of our country and sometimes not. Sometimes my work is devoted more towards moving those ideals forward and sometimes the energy is directed more towards defending them. I am old enough to recall decades like the 1980s where my primary work was standing up for those principles against the prevailing political winds. I see a new storm blew in last night, I am pretty sure I know what my job will be. Time to get to work.