Things are pretty bad in America. The worst I’ve seen in my 40 years. We need healing.
As we struggle to get our act together, people are dying. Lemme tell ya I saw them dying in my 3 visits to hospital ERs the last 3 months.
More people will needlessly die. Unrest. Coronavirus. Wars. Poverty.
Not to mention an incredible step back from our potential to live healthy lives of growth and love — the pursuit of happiness. Freedom.
Actually, things are probably not much worse than they have been. The pandemic just makes our preexisting flaws more readily visible.
Add to that a “Republican” President Trump that trashed the name of his party, made us a laughing stock internationally, and based his leadership on insult and trickery. I used the past tense on purpose. He’s no leader. He’s an un-Presidential poser extraordinaire, capital “P” out of respect for the power of the office not of the man.
I have never seen a leader who loses so much of their inner circle. He turns friends to enemies. I have to assume those still in the Trump Administration are equally as terrible or, more likely, taking one for the team and doing everything they can to serve their country despite the leader.
Add to that the option of Vice President Biden from the Democrats is not very good. It’s apparent that a Democratic victory this year will not actually be much of a victory at all. It may be better than what we have now. Goodness, I hope it would be. I’m not even sure.
Our two options are terrible. We are debating which one is worse rather than deciding which one is better. Each has glaring personal defects.
People with glaring personal defects should be the first to be booted from an election process within our two esteemed parties. Both parties are a joke.
It sure would be nice if a plausible independent candidate stepped up to the plate with a running mate from the other side of the table and a single-word message — healing.
We are a wounded nation. We have taken a lot of licks, some all too literally.
Take this video for example that I ran across today. It strikes me as highly patriotic. It’s a wealthy man, Kendrick Lamar, doing the best he can to warn the rest of us about the unrest that is swelling in the neighborhoods we’re too scared to visit.
In Atlanta, south of I-20 is dangerous, or so I have been told. I actually have many friends from south of I-20. They’re wonderful people. What a terrible geographic generality.
Those struggling need real solutions not placating. That much I know.
If we go with the terrible generalization, you’d say we need the north of I-20 side to actually listen to their plight. To solve systemic issues once and for all. To help and to heal with the prosperity with which we have been blessed.
Generalizations yes. But clearly, those who currently lead and many who aspire to lead are detached from those in need. Anger.
Watch this. Don’t squirm. Listen.
Lyrics are here.
Ain’t no Black Power when your baby killed by a coward
I can’t even keep the peace, don’t you fuck with one of ours
It be murder in the street, it be bodies in the hour
Ghetto bird be on the street, paramedics on the dial
Let somebody touch my momma
Touch my sister, touch my woman
Touch my daddy, touch my niece
Touch my nephew, touch my brother
You should chip a nigga, then throw the blower in his lap
Matter fact, I’m ’bout to speak at this convention
We lost Barack and promised to never doubt him again
But is America honest, or do we bask in sin?
Pass the gin, I mix it with American blood
Then bash him in, you Crippin’ or you married to Blood?
I’ll ask again—oops, accident
It’s nasty when you set us up
Then roll the dice, then bet us up
You overnight the big rifles, then tell Fox to be scared of us
Gang members or terrorists, et cetera, et cetera
America’s reflections of me, that’s what a mirror does
Kendrick’s words stand on their own. I hope we listen.
Other white males my age often have the refrain: vote with your pocketbook. I have enjoyed that concept in the past.
I still enjoy that concept. Vote for someone who makes the economy better for all, especially those in need. Not handouts. Love and a leg up.
A terrible leader will not produce that.
The Trump Administration is hurting my business, ArrayFire. I’ll share a story to illustrate.
I have an employee from India who graduated with a very tough Master’s degree from an engineering program at Texas A&M. He applied for a job. I hired him. He’s terrific.
America stands to greatly benefit from him, his family, and his gratitude for what this country has to offer. It’s a win-win situation to allow him to live and work here. We should staple green cards to diplomas in this country.
My employee is no longer here. He left years ago because his visa ran out. I cannot get him back here. The Trump Administration ruined that for us.
We only allow a fraction of people from India and other nations, with firms willing to hire them, to move here for work purposes (H1-B). We put them in a nonsensical lottery. The odds of getting my employee here are low.
He lost the lottery two years in a row. There is only one lottery per year.
Last year he finally won the lottery. Yay!
I imagine he told his wife, his extended family, and his friends in India.
Then the Trump Administration sent out his visa. It was only 3 weeks long instead of the standard 3 years. A terrible joke. A move that makes America look like a joke. A move that angers me and likely angers him.
It’s a major headache at best. A major expense. It’s $4,000 per year. I’ve spent a lot of money on this headache over 3 years, and nothing. I still do not have my employee and his family living where they want to live and doing what they want to do.
It’s trickery as a tactic to subvert the rule of law and enact a terrible policy.
I will not vote for the man behind that leadership style.
Oh wait, Kendrick is not the only one warning us. Let’s checkin with Lil Wayne.
Lyrics are here.
God bless Amerika
This ole’ godless Amerika
I heard tomorrow ain’t promised today
The end of time is like a hour awayBack to life, back to reality
Used to say fuck the police, now I say fuck jail
Same shit, different air freshenerEverybody wanna tell me what I need
You can play a role in my life but not the lead
I saw a butterfly in hell today
Will I die or go to jail today?
Is a large swath of America feeling that we’re headed to a decision between death and jail? When you feel like those are your two options, you might justify angry behaviors.
Is it a “K”-shaped recovery for Amerika, as Biden described in the debate tonight? That is how revolutions spark.
Are we living in the past, a bubble that looks like this?
That American image of a bunch of homogeneous old white people calling the shots IS NO MORE. Get over it.
Well it should be no more. Our political ascendancy systems are out of touch.
My intellectual mentor on presidential politics and pulse has been Peggy Noonan for over a decade. What an amazing column she masterfully composes. I hope to write as well as her. She’s telling us to get ready for an election crisis. Read that article if you want to prepare for our nation’s election chaos.
I hope we get along and heal.
No better place to feel that than at a baseball game. God, I love baseball for America.
Let’s solve tough problems, hit home runs, take a 7th inning stretch, and respect our flag and more importantly each other.
God bless America in this crucial year of our history.
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