Woke up this morning to the news that President Donald Trump and his wife Melania has coronavirus.
And of course the internet exploded.
Your response says more about you
As with all things America, there were strong responses both ways. Ranging from wishes of a quick recovery to jokes, insults and a lot of wishing that this kills him.
Now if you are one of the people who sits there and says [or thinks] something along the lines of, “I hope this kills Trump!” then you should probably pause for a moment and think about the statement you are making. You are hoping for the death of another human being. Yes, maybe a not-too-pleasant one and maybe even one who is responsible for hundreds of thousands of deaths in terms of how badly he responded to the coronavirus pandemic, but a human nonetheless.
While i was trying to process these thoughts in my head this morning, this popped in to my head: What about Hitler? Would you have wanted his death? Sho, and that becomes a tricky one, because Hitler was responsible for thousands of deaths and… OH!
But here is one of the biggest problems when it comes to T. Rump [as i unaffectionately call him!] as i see it – he is not the problem!
[sounds of heads literally exploding all over the internet and people angrily fumbling for their keyboards for a quick response – fumbling cos they have no heads, try keep up here!]
T. Rump is simply one representative [and a loud and powerful and i would suggest destructive one] of the problem.
He represents a whole lot of the people
We saw it in evidence in the debate the other night when T. Rump, instead of condemning white supremacist groups as he was asked to do, inadvertently [or possibly quite vertently!] endorsed them. By the next day, the Proud Boys, a far-right anti-immigrant group had taken T. Rump’s words “Stand back and stand by” and turned it into a slogan for their group.
T. Rump is not an isolated problem, who, when he is voted out, means that the situation in America has changed. No, he represents millions of people who think like him. Of which white supremacists are one loud and destructive group.
He may not have the majority support as far as numbers in the country are concerned, but he has enough support for us to realise that America is hugely divided and filled with a lot of bigoted angry people.
So even if he was to die from this disease, that would not mean an end to the problems in America. Anyone celebrating his death would just be a bunch of people cheering at the fact that another human being has died.
We need to be so careful in our pursuit of justice against ‘the enemy’ that we don’t arrive at a point where we glance in a mirror and see that the enemy looks a whole lot like us.
Grip tightly on to your humanity
We saw this demonstrated in perhaps an even darker way just a day ago.
Woke up yesterday to the heart-breaking news that Chrissy Teigen had suffered a miscarriage and her and John Legend had to say a painful farewell to baby Jack, which they decided to share with the world as they had her whole pregnancy.
Once again, the responses on social media were completely polarised. The majority of people responding in the most beautiful, loving and sympathetic ways. But then people who chose that intent moment of the deepest pain to make jabs about her being pro-life.
So people who claim to be all about saving babies were celebrating the loss of a baby. It was completely inhuman.
This can happen to all of us. We get so focused on an issue of Justice or Passion that in pursuing it we can let go of our own humanity, often in the way we treat others or discard them along the way.
This can happen to all of us.
What are you for?
i think another way this manifests is if we find ourselves more vocal and mobilised towards the things we are against, than those we are for.
Yes, i know you are anti-this and i know you hate that and i know that you don’t want to see this hapopening BUT WHAT ARE YOU FOR?
Tell me about the world you want to see. Speak to me about dreaming and creating and vision and hope and opportunity and let’s start working towards those things. And no, it doesn’t mean that we don’t stop interrupting and dismantling and breaking down and removing… but it means we place a greater focus on the new world we want to see that hopefully works for everyone and get more active in doing what we can to start seeing that vision materialise.
What if we spent less time arguing with the enemy and more time pulling up a table and chairs and breaking bread together and focusing on the areas we do agree on?
Yes, i’m an idealist and i don’t apologise for that, because i believe that we are all better, so much better, than our worst moment. We are so much greater than our biggest mistake and we have so much more to offer than our deepest regret. And i absolutely believe that redemption is possible for everyone.
Everyone! Even T. Rump. Although at the same time i do hold that it might be unlikely. Redemption requires recognition and acknowledgement and change.
And at the end of the day i can only be responsible for my own actions. And thoughts. And words.
So how do i work for a better world and retain my humanity in the process? And how do you?
Wonderfully articulated and most thought provoking.
Thank you for stopping by Celia! Appreciate it!
love brett fish
Very left sided political view but a good article to think about!
Thanks Theunis, appreciate you stopping by…
I am a Trump supporter and hear your message. The simsons cartoon of the President in a coffin is very distasteful. You can achieve the same argument without it. Or do you find humor in that cartoon? What if your father were depicted lying in a coffin or a family memver of yours? Think how Melania must feel or Barron to see this cartoon. Would you like to see a cartoon of your wife in a coffin? So you can remove it and achieve same argument. Just a thought.
Thanks Heather. i didn’t use the cartoon as a joke but rather a sobering portrayal of the point i was making in the blog – some people write words of death and destruction far too easily without visualising the real life consequences. i could ask you some similar questions with regards to Trump in terms of how you as a woman vote for him given his disgusting treatment of women as objects and worse alongside the rumours and stories of much worse. What is that saying to the girls in your family? The other women? i imagine if we sat across a dinner table and broke some bread together we could learn a lot from why the other person made some of the decisions they made.
Thanks for posing the questions.
Have a great day
love brett fish
I hear what you stating. But do you think maybe it would be better to judge Donald if you sat and broke bread with him? Are we not all sinners? Who is perfect? What I find the most strange is how everyone lived him before he ran for office. And since he became president it’s been nonstop fighting and problems and accusations against him none have actually been proven. Russia etc.
He is definitely not perfect like we not. But his whole entire life is under a magnifying glass so sure some bad things will emerge. When he spoke about grabbing women by the…, it seems when I’m out watching the game or wherever I hear men speak like that. It’s not cool. But among girl circles they also seem to speak that way about men’s whatevers. As for doing anything really with these women do we really know the truth?
Trump is not really a Democrat or republican. He chose republican as it was easier to go that route to be president. And he became president despite all the odds. So maybe just maybe God wants him there to do His work?
Biden seems like a nice chap, but he also is a man and surely has at least thought similar things to heat Trump has said.
We are highly influenced by media who have interests and advertising and companies and special interest groups, so we don’t know anything for sure really. So maybe people are judging him. Incorrectly. Maybe we should not judge as Jesus said.
The virus I am terrified of, but not so much anymore becuase I was under impression millions here would be dead. And not many here wear the mask And not millions dead. So it seems milder than first thought. Trump closed the borders when Biden said they should stay open. But in hindsight it’s easy to judge anyone.
So let’s just agree that neither of us knows the full story. We get filtered and media reports. And popular opinion. He even dated a black lady and he is highly respected among the evangelical black leaders. So calling him a racist I don’t agree with. Perhaps a womanizer, but many men seem to be that way or have that desire. We really can’t judge. And definitely not hate anyone.
Thank you for your time and your decency to say people should not wish death on anyone.
God Bless
Heather
Thanks Heather. Sadly dating a black woman and even being endorsed by some black leaders does not mean you are not a racist, especially when you have so many policies in place that are hurting black people across the country. As president of the land he MUST be held to a different kind of account than you and me, especially when his decisions or lack thereof hurt people and endanger lives. He has the ardent support of white supremacist groups as highlighted this past week through the debacle of a debate. Jesus told us to “Love your neighbour as yourself” as so much of what Trump has done [including calling my country a “Shithole” as just one small example] has been so far removed from that.