No Respect at All

Hey kids,

I had to borrow the words of the great comedian Rodney Dangerfield this morning because that is essentially how I feel about this country right now.  I don’t respect you America.  I am ashamed of you.  I am ashamed of every one of my Christian friends and family members that voted for that monster.  I have never been more aware of how little respect this nation has for women and people of color.  I am truly embarrassed to be a white male. You elected Lord Voldemort.  Congrats.

This will be my final post regarding the elections and likely my final political post as well. I am sick and tired of it.  What I say does not make a difference and does little more than bring trolls to mock me, much like how certain individuals mock people with disabilities.  I don’t want to turn into what I hate and what I hated the past eight years was seeing hatred and vitriol spread towards President Obama and his family and incredibly misplaced hatred towards Hillary Clinton.  I refuse to stoop to that level. I am also staying off of social media for the foreseeable future and am considering deactivating my accounts.  I can remain in contact with the people I love and care for without having to deal with those that I do not respect.  And if you voted for he who cannot be named I simply have no words for you.  You have voted to take away my healthcare.  You have voted against my gay friends and family members.  You have thrown every person of color in this country under the bus.  I cannot handle seeing people rejoice in electing a white supremacist to the highest office in the land.  If you call yourself a Christian you are indeed lying to yourself because this is certainly not what Jesus would do.  You suck.

I am using a lot of quotes from others in this post today.  I just think they say the things I am saying, but much more eloquently.

I give you this quote from minister/author John Pavlovitz:

At times like these, Christians like to smile sweetly and say, “God is in control.”
No. God is not in control.
God didn’t vote for Donald Drumpf, you did.
Stop passing the buck to God.
God isn’t defacing prayer rooms.
God is not bullying kids on busses.
God isn’t threatening Muslim families.
White Christians are.
You are in control of this. You have pulpits and pews and a voice and influence and social media, so get to work. 

As I was watching Sportscenter last night I saw a story that Detroit Pistons coach Stan Van Gundy was having a an unusually quiet bus ride with his players.  He initially thought that it was due to a recent loss, but it was not.  It was, of course, the election.  Van Gundy said exactly what I and a majority of Americans (Hillary won the popular vote for what it’s worth, which is absolutely nothing) were thinking and feeling.  I give you his words:

“I didn’t vote for (George W.) Bush, but he was a good, honorable man with whom I had political differences, so I didn’t vote for him. But for our country to be where we are now, who took a guy who — I don’t care what anyone says, I’m sure they have other reasons and maybe good reasons for voting for Donald Drumpf — but I don’t think anybody can deny this guy is openly and brazenly racist and misogynistic and ethnic-centric, and say, ‘That’s OK with us, we’re going to vote for him anyway.’

“We have just thrown a good part of our population under the bus, and I have problems with thinking that this is where we are as a country. It’s tough on (the team), we noticed it coming in. Everybody was a little quiet, and I thought, ‘Well, maybe the game the other night.’ And so we talked about that, but then Aron Baynes said, ‘I don’t think that’s why everybody’s quiet. It’s last night.’

“It’s just, we have said — and my daughters, the three of them — our society has said, ‘No, we think you should be second-class citizens. We want you to be second-class citizens. And we embrace a guy who is openly misogynistic as our leader.’ I don’t know how we get past that.

“Martin Luther King said, ‘The arc of the moral universe is long, but bends toward justice.’ I would have believed in that for a long time, but not today. … What we have done to minorities … in this election is despicable. I’m having a hard time dealing with it. This isn’t your normal candidate. I don’t know even know if I have political differences with him. I don’t even know what are his politics. I don’t know, other than to build a wall and ‘I hate people of color, and women are to be treated as sex objects and as servants to men.’ I don’t know how you get past that. I don’t know how you walk into the booth and vote for that.

“I understand problems with the economy. I understand all the problems with Hillary Clinton, I do. But certain things in our country should disqualify you. And the fact that millions and millions of Americans don’t think that racism and sexism disqualifies you to be our leader, in our country … . We presume to tell other countries about human-rights abuses and everything else. We better never do that again, when our leaders talk to China or anybody else about human-rights abuses.

“We just elected an openly, brazen misogynist leader and we should keep our mouths shut and realize that we need to be learning maybe from the rest of the world, because we don’t got anything to teach anybody.

“It’s embarrassing. I have been ashamed of a lot of things that have happened in this country, but I can’t say I’ve ever been ashamed of our country until today. Until today. We all have to find our way to move forward, but that was — and I’m not even trying to make a political statement. To me, that’s beyond politics.

“You don’t get to come out and talk about people like that, and then lead our country and have millions of Americans embrace you. I’m having a hard time being with people. I’m going to walk into this arena tonight and realize that — especially in this state — most of these people voted for the guy. Like, (expletive), I don’t have any respect for that. I don’t.

“And then you read how he was embraced by conservative Christians. Evangelical Christians. I’m not a religious guy, but what the hell Bible are they reading? I’m dead serious. What Bible are you reading? And you’re supposed to be — it’s different. There are a lot of different groups we can be upset at. But you’re Christians. You’re supposed to be — at least you pride yourself on being the moral compass of our society. And you said, ‘Yeah, the guy can talk about women like that. I’m fine with that.’ He can disparage every ethnic group, and I’m fine with that.

“Look, I don’t get it. And I’m having a hard time taking it. I’m just glad that the people I’m with here — and I’ll include you guys, too — that I like. Because I’m going to have a hard time. I will say, one point of pride, I live in Oakland County, Michigan, and I was surprised, but Oakland County voted for Clinton. At least I can look around say, ‘We weren’t the ones putting that guy in office.’

“It’s incredible. I don’t know how you go about it, if you’re a person of color today or a Latino. Because white society just said to you, again — not like we haven’t forever — but again, and emphatically, that I don’t think you deserve equality. We don’t think you deserve respect. And the same with women. That’s what we say today, as a country. We should be ashamed for what we stand for as the United States today.

“That’s it for me. I don’t have anything to say about the game tonight.”

Now to me that is a very powerful statement.  If you don’t see it than I feel nothing but pity for you.  I want share one final thing before I sign off for today.  This post is from a friend of mine, James.  He is a compassionate and intelligent man that knows that we are stronger together than we are divided.  Please read his very powerful words and then wish you could have a mulligan.

“I’ve struggled to find the words to describe how I feel this morning. Disappointed and hurt for sure, but my feelings are more related to the way I felt when I woke up to the news of the Pulse attack. Heartbroken, terrified, worried, violated. Now more than ever I am afraid to be myself. I’m afraid to walk down the street, to hold hands with someone. No one, neither lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer; neither African American, Muslim, Hispanic; neither Woman or disabled should have to feel this way. And yet reading through my news feed and reading genuine concerns and fears says otherwise.

Our next President is a man who has invoked insult, homophobia, transphobia, Islamophobia, etc. to divide our country to a point that rivals the Civil War. With a republican president, republican senate, and republican house this man holds the power and support to backtrack our already GREAT country.

He’ll have the power and support to take away healthcare from millions, to ruin our economy, and to cause the middle and lower classes to struggle harder than before.

He’ll have the power and support to change everything that our country was built on, that we are a melting pot of all races, colors, religions, people, background, socioeconomic backgrounds.

He’ll have the power and support to tell women what the can and cannot do with their bodies.

He’ll have the power and support to take away the rights that the LGBTQ+ community have fought so hard for. To keep me from marrying the MAN that I love (yes, I’m GAY.) To allow persecution and discrimination. And when your running mate supports conversion therapy (literally shocking “the gay” out of someone) over HIV cure and research, it makes me physically ill to know that these men will hold the highest office in America, with the support from the House and Senate.

Although Hillary Clinton has conceded, I will always stand with her. Her platform built on Equality, Love, Democracy, Knowledge, and Unity is what I want and support, not one based on Hatred and Bigotry. The people have clearly spoken, but I cannot support nor respect Trump as president because he stands for nothing I believe in, in fact, quite the opposite. And if you have an issue with that, please unfriend me; it’s not worth arguing over at this point, it will only show the true colors, and I can’t surround myself with that ignorance and negativity.

It’s certain to be a long four years, but we have to keep our head up, and never stop fighting for what’s right. LOVE ALWAYS WINS❤️”

Again, extremely powerful words.  Thank you James. And friends and followers I ask you to please read this article and defend how this is acceptable in 21st century America. (Hint: it is not acceptable)

I am certain that I will lose friends and maybe even family members over my opinions, but I just do not care.  As James said “I can’t surround myself with that ignorance and negativity”.

I am moving on now.  I have said my piece and hopefully you read the whole thing.  My next blog will be about something much less serious.  Perhaps I can finally write about my beloved Chicago Cubs winning the World Series.

Namaste