Fear-Based Acts

I was just out on my front porch enjoying the day with my husband when the sound of a rapid-fire machine gun destroyed that peace. It’s a regular occurrence now, beginning when Barack Obama was president. I guess folks around here believe the nonsense about liberals or Democrats coming for their guns. It’s not true, but it seems that hyperbole and lies are more readily believed than the truth.

I read another threat by the current occupant of the White House directed at Adam Schiff but knew immediately that nothing would be done about it. Twitter won’t suspend or ban his account and no one else seems willing to convince him that this is not only sheer folly but something that’s likely impeachable. But then, we already did that. Rumor is, though, that we can do it again when the need arises. I say when because if seems irrelevant at this point.

Serial offenders are like that.

Last Monday, a rally was held in Virginia where at least one sheriff said that he would not be enforcing the new gun laws soon to take effect in that state. I suppose he’ll lose his job for that but you never know. A state legislator in Washington apparently became involved in some sort of government take-over plan thought now to be an actual terrorist plot. The last I heard was that he won’t resign his office but has been removed from committees and suspended from his party’s caucus. He is also alleged to have been involved in the take-over of the Malheur Wildlife Refuge building which hits close to home given that it’s only a couple of hours from where I live.

I don’t know what’s happening anymore, but it’s terrifying that a president can threaten anyone he likes and nothing happens to him. He provides the catalyst for the rest of the tension that’s increasing between people in this country. I’ve said before that I can no longer go to several grocery stores in the area because of volatile men that now frequent them. I’ve had two incidents where large men ahead of me in the checkout lines became volatile and inappropriate, one incident focused on the checker and the other focused on me when I asked the guy to slide his stuff up a bit so I could add my own groceries.

As I left the store, the store owner followed me outside to my car and asked what happened. He said he knew the guy was a problem but confessed he had never done anything about it. He also knew that we were regulars there and that we were done.

But this is what’s happening now, and it’s not only violence but arrogance run amok. Some of this I’ve experienced personally and some I’ve only read about in the news. A short list follows:

• Dentists who overcharge a patient until the insurance money comes in. Oh, they’ll refund if you ask but if you don’t notice, then they keep it until the next time you have another appointment.
• Self-checkout workers who stand next to you and watch everything you do and then try to insinuate that you didn’t check out everything.
• Neighbors who believe they can trespass on your property to do as they please.
• Endless threats that if justice is served and the current occupant of the White House is removed that harm will come to all liberals and Democrats.
• Threats to allies that is they don’t support the lies of the current occupant of the White House indicating that they’ll be punished financially.
• Threatening Iraq when we’re asked to leave the country, again, affecting them financially.
• Suggesting that security officers should rough up a female protester at a rally as she’s escorted out.
• Anti-semitic comments that result in attacks on temples.
• Anti-Muslim comments that result in attacks on mosques.
• Anti-Immigrant comments and actions that result in some nutjob trying to run over a Hispanic teenage girl with her car saying it was because she’s “Mexican”.
• Babies in cages…children separated from their parents…children missing…children dead
• Environmental controls removed so that no one is safe.
• Threats against the whistleblower and other personal attacks and threats on witnesses testifying against the current occupant of the White House.

All of the above represent fear-based actions. They may serve the purpose of a chosen few such as the corporations and industries who will make a killing now that they can do as they please with the land, water, and environment, but make no mistake, they are based on an unrealistic perspective with fear as a component.

In the case of dental offices who use their patient’s bank accounts to keep them in business until the insurance checks arrive, it’s a level of arrogance that suggests the patient/dentist relationship is purely transactional. Because after all, it costs a fortune to have the latest equipment and pay your staff. What’s a little overcharging when you estimate the charges. We’ll work it out later…again…if the patient notices.

In the case of the self-checkout lady, it was her air of superiority, almost to the level of a security guard, and I was offended to the point that I told her I would never shop there again. She tried to stammer her way out of it when she saw I wasn’t tolerating her lies, but it didn’t matter. She blew it by behaving as if she was some sort of cop looking for a crime. She watched everything I did…stood right next to me…and then behaved shamefully. Arrogance run amok.

And don’t even get me started on the neighbors. I’ve always believed in two principles: follow through on my word and don’t trespass. Let’s just say that arrogance prevents others from following my lead.

It’s not only the personal experiences we have in our regular lives that we contend with now, but it’s also the fact that we have a president who threatens and demeans anyone who doesn’t kiss his ass or do his bidding. He threatens them publically and on social media likely resulting in increased security measures for members of Congress and other government officials and staff.

It’s the personal attacks by the occupant of the Oval Office that seem to instigate attacks by others in our communities and neighborhoods. And now that he’s been impeached and the trial is taking place in the Senate, the sound of gunfire is everywhere.

Friends, this is wrong. This cannot be allowed to continue in our country. But I don’t know what to do about it other than to ride it out any way that I can. The Senate will likely not do its job and convict him. He deserves it, but unless something extraordinary happens, he’ll be there until November. Then, it’s up to voters to decide if we want this travesty to continue or we want a different path forward.

The isms of the world are predicated on other-based fear. That’s all they are. None of it is based on truth and to see that drive many in the country to behave with such arrogance and violence is profoundly difficult to watch let alone experience.

Those in the government who surround him and enable the destruction of our society will continue to do so because it serves them in the long run. He will continue to run amok and instigate others to do the same, giving them the same cover that his protectors give to him.

These are tenuous times with decorum long-absent. Sleep eludes all who worry over the outcome with the end not yet in sight. But if our resolve has been threatened, we need only remember the House Managers presenting the impeachment case on the Senate floor. Brilliant presentation, scholars all.

Because of them, we know that truth has been spoken to the poorest excuse for power, not the traditional president or Republican party of the past, but to something less than. And something that stands to ruin us all.

This will end at some point and the light will shine again.

Blessings to all!

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