Bob's Blog

10 years!

It’s been ten . . . long . . . years!

For an entire decade, we in these United  States, as well as people around the world, have been forced to deal not just with an inept and immoral American president, but with a large percentage of America’s population behaving like misguided and misinformed, undemocratic and unGodly, bullies. 

At first, many of us were just angry. And so during the first Trump presidency we protested and prayed, stood up and spoke out, wrote our members of Congress and marched until the heels of our shoes were worn thin. But if we’re honest, little was accomplished. I don’t believe any of us regret our actions; for at the very least they kept our souls from becoming hardened, and they also forced many of us to become better informed about our history, primarily by listening to those voices that had been silenced for so long. 

But as far as affecting or impacting the policies of the unAmerican, right-wing extremists who were in charge, little changed. Joe’s Biden WAS elected President; but that only allowed many of the disingenuous opportunists on the left to surface.  And that is why we are now left to deal with a second Trump presidency.

So today, I, and many others, are feeling nothing but pity. We’re still angry. And we’re still doing all we can to affect change. But ten years has allowed a growing pity to take hold of our hearts: so much so that we now find ourselves following the counsel of twentieth century artist and social activist Lawrence Ferlinghetti.

Pity the nation whose people are sheep,

and whose shepherds mislead them.

Pity the nation whose leaders are liars, whose sages are silenced,

and whose bigots haunt the airwaves.

Pity the nation that raises not its voice,

except to praise conquerors and acclaim the bully as hero

and aims to rule the world with force and by torture.

Pity the nation that knows no other language but its own

and no other culture but its own.

Pity the nation whose breath is money

and sleeps the sleep of the too well fed.

Pity the nation — oh, pity the people who allow their rights to erode

and their freedoms to be washed away.

My country, tears of thee, sweet land of liberty. 

Pity! That is what so many Americans that I know, and what so many around the world, are feeling today. We’re grieving over what used to be. Respect and admiration have given way to sympathy and sorrow, as so many of us wonder how we got here. 

Women, people of color, and members of the LGBTQ+ community, will tell us that we’ve always been here. Some will blame it on a white, Christian, patriarchal nationalism that has gripped our nation since its founding. And still others will point to both a colonial and/or capitalistic mindset that continues to blind us to our pursuit of “a more perfect union.” And all of that is at least partly true. But that only deepens the pity we feel. 

So today, ten years into what has now become the new American identity, we need to embrace the pity we feel. For it is Ferlinghetti’s pity that can continue to motivate and deepen our resolve to become advocates for truth, goodness, and justice. It is Ferlinghetti’s pity that can caution us to become more mindful of the things we’re being told, and who or what is to be believed. And it is Ferlinghetti’s pity that can allow us to see the good in those who speak, think, believe, and behave, in ways with which we may not be familiar. 

No! We don’t hate MAGA. We don’t hate the right. We don’t even hate Donald Trump. Not at all. Rather, ten years has taught us to pity them. And is that pity that will continue to motivate us resist, repent, reclaim, restore, and yes, resurrect.