If you prefer no words of political discord, please stop reading. It’s your right to read or not read, to agree or not, to comment or not. As Americans we have significant rights and we have significant responsibilities. The upcoming election is stirring the emotions of many people and hopefully it is causing us to think about our opinions and decisions. My thoughts of what we are as human beings, where we come from as a nation of immigrants and where we are going in this world is forefront in my mind as we close in on November 5. The consequences are profound.
Every person in the United States is related in some way to an immigrant or is a direct immigrant. Our diversity is a hallmark of our strength as a democracy. We should be singing the praises of our immigrants and founders. It is not perfect but it is humane. My maternal grandmother was from Denmark, my paternal grandmother was from Italy. My husband’s grandmother was from Poland. I am familiar with survivors of the Nazi regime. They all struggled to make a new home in America and succeeded. Overall, we have a privileged life compared to many parts of the world. Our relatives succeeded along with the Irish, English, Asian, African, Arab, German, Swedish, and many world wide immigrants, who managed the discrimination and the neighborhood battles and the blended cultures. They did not poison America. They grew America.
Catholics, Christians, Jewish, Muslims, Buddhist, Haitian and even the non-religious blended into communities, sometimes peacefully and sometimes not. We are the proud United States of America, or so we hope. But what is happening to our country now is disparaging and divisive. In my many years of life I have never felt or seen such negativity and distrust among our own people, even in myself. Friends, families and neighbors are divided, separated and isolated due to political differences. I personally have never felt dislike of any one individual person or candidate, as I do now with Mr. Trump, and have felt this throughout his political life. I’m generally kind and respectful of most people and respect their opinions. Yet nothing about this candidate and his behavior, his words, and his actions appears to be normal to me. I experience these feelings because I cannot imagine another human being acting as immoral, indecent, corrupt and downright cruel as the candidate for republican president, Mr. Trump. His words are insulting and violent and ultimately dangerous to every human being in our country and in the world. Many of his fellow republicans simply seek the power he will give them if he returns to the presidency so they totally ignore his behavior and words and do not join in speaking out and stopping the destruction he creates. His base followers will never change their worship of their savior no matter what he says or does. Some followers cannot fathom voting for a non-republican or a woman, or a black woman, no matter if they dislike the republican candidate or his behavior and words. There is hope for some of these people who will seek to preserve humanity. The current republican candidate used to be a democrat until it served him better to be a republican. He spreads fear and chaos so that his fervent followers believe he will save them from disaster, without realizing he is purposely creating the fear and chaos. He has no use for any of them but they seem to have no clue that they are being manipulated for their sacred votes. The savior wants to be saved, at any cost. The obvious to me is not obvious to them. It is nauseating when the news clips show his fervent crowd laughing and cheering as he insults and belittles fellow human beings, as he lies with no care that the lies are easily proven to be outright lies. These followers are all immigrants or related to immigrants, as he is, but this crowd laughs and cheers as he states he will round up immigrants into camps and deport them, using our volunteer military members to do that task, using our sons and daughters and neighbors and innocent National Guard and military personnel to treat fellow human beings like dirty cattle and pigs to round up and lock up. He states that his political opponents, the enemy within, should be jailed or executed and yet his fervent followers continue to cheer and laugh. He is not joking but maybe they believe he is. What has happened to decency and kindness and compassion? True Republicans, Democrats and Independents and non-affiliated voters should be able to stop this chaos now and vote for humanity no matter what their political views. This is not a normal election and cannot be treated as normal. This is truly a choice for humanity. The world has fallen prey to horrific inhumanity in the past. We are far better than that. We are the greatest country and we have been leaders of the free world for decades. We are not perfect but we cannot allow this wonderful country to be lost due to one man and his followers. They are still the minority of voices, although the loudest, and we cannot ever allow them to become the majority. Use your precious vote in the 2024. You and your ancestors fought for your right to vote, so honor them by voting to save humanity. Your vote matters. VOTE BLUE in 2024 to protect your future vote in your preferred party affiliation. Your vote in 2024 matters now and in the future. Early voting in CT is October 21 through November 3. Many states have early voting. Election Day is November 5. We cannot sit this one out. A non-vote is a trump vote. His followers will never sit out an election. They will vote to save him. So we must vote blue to keep the majority and save our humanity. We are part of history now more than ever!
