I have the most extraordinary longing to say "Bloody Hell!"

Let it be said, by me, by all of us, that we will not sit silently by and watch our country be shredded by ignorance and cowardice, by hate and violence, by meanness and cruelty, or by discrimination, sexism, ageism, barbarity and intimidation.

The election of Donald Trump is not now an invitation for all of us to be punks and jackasses and beasts. For those who think they will have in the White House someone who will defend indecency, bigotry, and lawlessness, be warned: you will be confronted and opposed.

For those who think Trump as president is now your right to mock and piss on and shame, him and those who support him, get hold of yourselves. This is not a time for juvenile rants and petty retaliation.

Respect for the Office of President, reverence for the Constitutional framework of our government, must be honored. If we play this game of seeing who can beat up the other, whether in words, photos, memes, or actual deeds of violence and cruelty, then we do not have a country any longer. All we have is a wasteland of indifference and hate.

This is America, and though our history records times of human blight and the debris of our stubborn selfishness and the fears that turned us against one another, it also records periods of unity, of compassion, of high achievement when we worked together to build our nation into a paradise of invention, brilliance, freedom and hope.

Over the decades, people all across the world have not come here to be oppressed or scorned or fought. They came here to escape torture and evil, to create a new life, to raise their children in an environment of justice and safety, in a society of acceptance, welcome and promise. We have been that for them, time and time again. Of course there have always been the detractors, the ignorant, those who thought they owned the country because of their color or their status or their religion. They were wrong. They are wrong. They will always be wrong. And we must keep reminding them that they are. Not by bullying and tit for tat and outright chaos and riot. But by living strong lives of decency, fairness, equality and yes, love.

19^th Century playwright and poet, Henrik Ibsen, has his famous character Nora Helmer say in a moment of intense frustration, “I have the most extraordinary longing to say ‘Bloody Hell!’”

I do, too, as I see what is happening to our country. What are we doing? It is time to stop this incessant fighting and scolding and evening the score and getting an eye for an eye.

Ibsen also wrote, “Those who possess liberty other than as an aspiration, possess it as soulless and dead.”

What do we truly aspire to be as a nation? Once we answer that truthfully, intelligently, decently, with heartfelt sincerity, we can then get on with being America.

It’s time.

If I had five minutes to evacuate--what would I take with me?

If I was told there was a bomb in my building and I had five minutes to evacuate my apartment I’d grab a grocery bag and quickly toss these items into it: 1. A photo of my grandparents, Mom and Pop and me, when I was 15 years old. I learned what love is made of from them. I learned what it is to be kissed on and hugged in arms so tender they felt like God’s arms. I discovered self worth from those two angels in human flesh. Of all the people in my life, they were the ones who made me feel I counted. Honestly, whatever capacity I have to love others came from them. 2. A sentimental, dog-eared, stars in the margin copy of Pat Conroy’s, “The Prince of Tides.” It is a book I have read three times and often return to for its wisdom. It is a harsh, profoundly tragic novel, the story of a family so broken and tortured by such flawed and wounded people that it is sometimes difficult to turn the next page. And yet it is the story of such Herculean courage and endurance that you want...

A Losing Strategy

OPINION PAGE (c) 2024 Timothy Moody The Republican strategy to mock and judge others has passed into some form of insatiable, all-devouring nastiness. It is so poisonous and contemptuous that it is now just evil. Republican Governor of Arkansas, Sara Huckabee Sanders, suggested to a crowd of Trump supporters Tuesday night that Kamala Harris can't be humble because she doesn't have any children of her own. When will Americans decide they don't want government leaders who are so arrogantly insensitive, as Sanders was, that they offend everyone? This crude, villainous rhetoric transcends political partisanship. It’s evil, dangerous, and insulting. The poet Ezra Pound’s brief lines are appropriate here, “Pull down your vanity, How mean your hates” To suggest that someone cannot be humble because they don't have children is not just a cheap political comment. It's an attack on a person’s humanity and worth. And that is now, and has been fo...

OPINION PAGE:

OPINION PAGE © 2024 Timothy Moody The apparent assassination attempt against Donald Trump last Sunday afternoon at his Trump International Golf Club was foiled by the Secret Service. Details are still coming in about it, and it's not yet known why the suspect, Ryan Wesley Routh, 58, apparently wanted to shoot Trump. The botched attempt was amateurish in every way, just as the one in July was by a kid 150 yards from Trump. Conspiracy theorists are having a field day. The former President is, of all things, blaming these attempts on his life with what he called the “violent rhetoric” of President Biden and VP Harris. Of course, that is absurd, especially coming from Trump, who has consistently been guilty of that very thing since he became president in 2016 and even before. His speeches, X posts, and comments on his Truth Social platform have been endlessly filled with threatening language and incitement to violence. He suggested those protest...

The Unclad Soul

Search This Blog