Okay, I'll admit it. Some of the things he's done so far are...worrisome, to say the least. Some of his candidates for cabinet posts are...troublesome. Unqualified.
A lot of my friends are lost in despair. How can this have happened here? I've got one answer to that.
We became complacent.
See, there's a problem with the battle between the light and the dark. The light wins battles. Significant battles. But the dark never goes away. It just retreats. Hides in the corner until the light isn't paying attention. Then it leaps out and says "Ta-da! I'm baaaack!" (Cue your best Jack Nicolson here.)
And it's not like we got totally complacent. We knew there was still work to be done on women's issues, racial tensions, religious tensions, relations between the various components of society. But we got complacent enough. And the Dark is really, really opportunistic.
I admit that I've hidden a lot of news stuff from my Facebook feed. I don't go to Twitter these days. Why? It's too overwhelming. Too much "the sky is falling" hand wringing. Too much ugliness, from both sides (see the snarky Twitter bullying of Barron Trump by some of the opposition).
Our social commentary as gotten vile and vicious.
I get most of my news these days from the BBC or The Guardian. For some reason, maybe because they are foreign, there's a tone of rationality that makes the bad news not less bad, but easier to deal with. Because I, like so many, am exhausted. Not just with the national picture, my home front isn't helping. (Can someone please give me solution to getting a fourteen-year-old boy to, you know, do his homework and get up in the morning? Please? Something that doesn't involve me getting up at the crack of dawn? Thanks.)
Recently, a few friends have said they can't get over the sadness, despair, and anger in their hearts. As a Catholic Christian, I can't help think this is wrong.
I'm not advocating rolling over. Far from it. Remember Jesus in the temple? He was pretty angry. As I recall, he "fashioned a whip of cords and drove them from the temple." That's pretty physical. Not exactly rolling over. Christ never advocated rolling over.
But he also cautions us against fear. "Do not be afraid" occurs over and over in Scripture. I forget exactly how many times, but it is one of the most common - if not the most common - phrase in the Bible. Clearly, God is pretty serious. Things may be bleak. You may be angry and justly so.
But do not be afraid.
There's a natural tendency to fall into despair, I think. But this, I think, is wrong. We have to cling to hope. We have to believe that people are essentially decent. We have to believe that we as a culture will rise up to protect that which we believe.
"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, —We do not consent. We must not consent. And we must remember:
What country ever existed a century and a half without a rebellion? And what country can preserve it's liberties if their rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms. The remedy is to set them right as to facts, pardon and pacify them. What signify a few lives lost in a century or two? The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is it's natural manure.That quote is from Thomas Jefferson. How long has the American republic existed (republic, not a democracy, remember that)?
Perhaps it is time for a little blood. A little rebellion. A little resistance.
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