What Now?

This was written on November 6th, the day before Pennsylvania gave the election to Biden.

We don’t have the final results yet, but it’s looking pretty good for Biden at this point. I probably won’t post this until things are more certain, but what I’m thinking about is healing this country. We can’t do much about what the other side says and does, but we do have control over what we say and do.

I’ll say this right up front. What I am proposing is very difficult for me. I think Trump is a vile creature who doesn’t give a rat’s ass about this country. The only thing he cares about is himself. Period.

I will also admit that I am at best puzzled, and at worst horrified by those that think he is the greatest thing since sliced bread. It’s very very hard for me to not think that his followers must be racist misogynistic

 xenophobic aholes just like Trump.

BUT, this is the hard one. The pro Trump people I know are not like that at all. They are caring, giving, and loving, for the most part. The way they live their lives, and the person they voted for, seem to be as different as they could possibly be.

So, what to do? There are a few things we can try to remember at this point. Remember how sick at heart we were in 2016. Trump’s followers must feel the same way. So be kind, don’t gloat. Remember how afraid we were in 2016. Some of Trump’s followers are afraid too. So be reassuring. Remember that Hillary had lawyers that examined the count in several states that were very close. Some of the states we’ve won, or are about to win, are also very close and it is absolutely right that the count should be double and triple checked. So be patient and let the system work.

We have a lot of work to do in the coming 4 years. I’m hopeful for the first time in a very long time. 

The best thing we can do with Trump now is ignore him. We can’t stop him from ranting and raving and holding press conferences that are full of lies. But we can turn our backs, turn off the TV, shrug and turn our attention to something more worthwhile. And we can start to try to mend some of the huge divides in this country. Not by abandoning our principles or caving in when something is deeply wrong, but by recognizing them, listening, and trying to understand.

Election Eve

 November 2nd

Today I finished scanning the last of my grandparents letters, postcards and documents from WW I and beyond. Most of the letters and postcards are correspondence from when my grandfather was in the German army and wooing my grandmother. But there are a few items from when he died, suddenly, of a heart attack, in St. Louis, long after they had escaped Nazi Germany. And there are a few documents from when they gratefully emigrated to the US In 1938, after obtaining visas and permission to leave.

There are two passports. One for my grandfather, and one for my aunt, who was 14 when they sent her to the US a year before the rest of the family left. The passports are interesting in that even though I can’t read them I can see where my grandfather’s citizenship in Germany was revoked, by a slash through some of the information.

 I know the stories about how angry he was, how he sat his family down after they were safe in America and told them, “you are no longer Germans, you are Americans,” and forbid them to speak German at home. I know he was deeply angry at what had happened. After all he fought for the Kaiser in WW I, put his life on the line, and earned an iron cross, and then the nazis came to power.

So tomorrow is Election Day. I hope to God that when all is said and done Trump will be long gone and decency will prevail at last. But nothing is certain at this point. What does it mean to love your country? Cause I do, faults and all. I love the ideals set forth in our constitution, even though we mostly fall short of embracing them.

I don’t agree with the “love it or leave it” philosophy. I think love it, but hold it to a high standard. Love it, but insist that it do better. Love it, and work for its improvement.

Whatever happens in the next day or week or month, this is still my country. Even if Trump wins. Even if the forces of evil prevail for a time. “The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.” It does. It does.