Making Sense of What's What


Welcome to Making Sense of What's What!!!


This blog is devoted to addressing those issues which impact our daily lives. Political, educational, relational and transitional issues are all grist for the mill. Life is personal and my need is to personally share with you those things and issues that impact me and others of us as we move through our daily experiences.

Thank you for checking in.

Monday, January 15, 2018

As Simple As Treating Others, As We Would Like To Be Treated

This week has been a jarring experience for many Americans:
 
·      We had the President’s words regarding people who immigrate from Haiti and Africa that rang out as statements of either abject ignorance, or out-right racism.

·       We had the false alarm in the Hawaiian Islands, of a nuclear attack that many believed to be true.

·      We have an atmosphere of conflict, confusion and chaos in our government. We have the possibility of a government closure over an unresolved immigration policy.  Such unrest and upset certainly impacts the people of our communities throughout the country.

So what can we do about such a set of circumstances? Can we change our President’s ignorance or racist inclinations?  Can we correct the error that caused thousands of Hawaiians to fear for their lives?  Can we do anything that corrects our immigration policy so that our government stays open? In a word no. We are dependent on those who are responsible for dealing with these issues to do their jobs.

As citizens, we vote, we speak out and demonstrate and we wait for those who are suppose to represent us to behave like concerned adults.  If that doesn’t happen, and it has not for the better part of the last ten years, we are left with the consequences of our leaders inaction and disregard for the welfare of those who they are suppose to represent.

We have been living through a season of holding on to dogmas rather than appreciating others differing view of reality.  This has deteriorated into what is referred to as “tribalism.”  Tribalism has led to treating human beings as if they are so many pieces of furniture that can be moved and manipulated at the will of others. Sadly, we have been living through a time of viewing people as a means to an end and not an end in them selves.

Our country is suffering under this ignorance based, self centered, “it’s my way or the high way” approach to creating stalemates and political stagnation.  As a global leader, we are becoming a laughing stock to others and are undoing what we have spent the past 80 years creating; a safe, global community of equals who are working together to provide for the safety and needs of our various national and regional communities.

What we can do is to bring our core essence as people and as citizens---our awareness, compassion and human kindness--- into our sphere of influence and not get sucked into the vortex of the self-serving ignorance that is prevalent today.  We can treat others as we would want to be treated and over time, slowly but surely by our example and courage, we can effect change. We have role models in this way of relating to difficult, at times appearing, insurmountable problems.  One is Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Another is John Lewis.  Still another is Andrew Young. And there are many others whose lives have been placed on the line to stand for the importance of each one of us, for each member of our human family.

It takes one breath at a time, one step at a time, one blog article at a time, one example of standing up for an issue at a time, one vote at a time and, the courage to be patient and to trust that Life, as our teacher, will guide us through the suffering to a new day of overcoming our ignorance, fears and insecurities. Once again, WE SHALL OVERCOME!








  

Monday, January 1, 2018

Whether By Collusion Or Coincidence, Putin's Proxy is Our President

Whether it is by collusion or coincidence, both Russia’s attempt to disrupt our Presidential election and turn American’s against one another and Trump’s campaign strategy were one and the same. 

Russia’s hacking of DNC emails and giving those emails to Wikileaks to strategically release the contents over time, were intended to harm the Clinton campaign and to assist the Trump candidacy. In addition, Russian created “fake news” coupled with Trump lies and his disparaging of women, the pitting of racial groups and immigrants against white Americans, again, had the intent and impact of dividing the American electorate. 

Trump’s catering to ‘white supremacists and the David Dukes of the world, further made his attempt to divide American’s obvious.  The release of emails and fake news was reinforced by Trump’s “crooked Hillary” mantra and, as has been shown, “if you tell the public a lie often enough, over time, the public will come to believe the lie to be the truth.”

This coordinated appearing effort between Russia and Trump is, in fact, collusion. In addition, the numerous involvements of various Trump political operatives with Russian operatives cannot be ignored or dismissed.  All the while, the American electorate was completely in the dark about what was taking place.  The American public was being manipulated in a way that was intended to destroy our electoral process.  On the basis of these realities alone, the Presidential Election of 2016 should be considered null and void. Trump’s candidacy and ‘victory’ was compromised in that process and we should have another election between Clinton and Trump to decide who should be our President.

The damning aspect of this history is that, at present, there is no way to prevent its replication in our next election. Our whole system of democratically electing our political leaders has been compromised.  The Russians, in fact, have declared a cyber war on the United States and we must take steps to neutralize their incursion into our political life. In a real sense, this declared war by Putin, short of a nuclear engagement, is potentially more devastating than an armed conflict.  If we cannot believe in our political system of choosing our political leadership and in the addressing of our political issues, Putin has accomplished his goal, and we are a rudderless ship on a stormy sea of potential political disasters.


In todays world of ‘tribal politics’ it will be difficult, if not impossible for the G.O.P. conservatives to confront this situation with integrity and enthusiasm. Their historic hypocrisy on issues of such importance....gun control, abortion rights, voting rights, global warming and alternative life styles suggests their commitment to political power trumps Trump’s illegitimacy and the Russian threat to destabilize our political system. Only time will tell whether or not the G.O.P. steps up and turns its back on self-serving political expediency. Only time will tell if the G.O.P. begins to work together with Democrats to rectify our current political crisis of being politically destabilized by Russian cyber warfare, and having Putin’s Proxy as our President.