THE INTEGRITY OF DEMOCRACY: BLESSED OR CURSED?

 A series of essays.....

THE PERSISTENCE OF MEMORY
BY SALVADOR DALI

Courtesy of: Artsy

.....as seen through my eyes!

By: Jacqueline E. Hughes

The world has officially turned topsy-turvy in my lifetime and what I once considered to be an ordered life has turned into a state of utter disorder and confusion; it has turned upside down and infused with a bitter anger that leaves a sharp, pungent taste on the palate of our existence.

By virtue of applied math and science, the average American citizen could or should be on the verge of either a mental breakdown, experiencing heart disease, stomach ulcers, or, at the very least, mired (become stuck in swamp mud?) in a state of total confusion!

Others opt to exist within a ‘state of oblivious bliss’ and completely ignore the chaos that describes the state of our nation, which may include the fate of hundreds of children caught-up in the right wing politics of the Family Separation Policy issued by the Trump administration. Innocent children who have been separated from their parents at our border are being placed at risk and used as pawns to create anxiety and fear in the hope of deterring future immigrants from crossing our borders to seek refuge from the unfiltered chaos they leave behind in their own country. 

Through her tears, Digna, an immigrant mother from El Salvador, who had her young son and daughter taken away from her over a month ago, asked, “Why was it so easy for them to take my children away from me and so difficult to have them returned?” My heart aches for her.  

Until a California judge decreed that these vulnerable families needed to be reunited, immediately, these children had slipped through the political cracks with no hope of ever being cared about or heard from again; lost between heartless leadership and a policy that should be totally disconcerting for all of us who care about the health and well-being of one another. 

If ignorance is indeed a form of bliss, then those of us who refuse to react to this hatred or even acknowledge that this hatred exists among us, will suffer a rude awakening in the near future. While this administration chips away at every conceivable program designed to enhance and protect people and the land we hold so dear, it is unfathomable to think that there are those who would not react to this form of governmental terror that exists in Washington D.C. today! 

We’ve already seen a popular response via organized, massive marches and instant protests where the voices of the people can be heard loud and clear, day and night. Organizations have been instantly established, such as INDIVISIBLE, whose mission is to cultivate and lift up a grassroots movement of local groups to defeat the Trump agenda.

Internal terror attacks are happening around us all of the time. The very people we’ve chosen to represent us in Washington have elected to place their personal needs of Money, Power, and Politics before the needs and desires of the people who elected them. 

When was the last time the word ‘ISIS’ rolled off your tongue? Instead, our fear concentrates around mass shootings initiated by fellow citizens armed with guns, the stronghold of foreign political influences that have wrapped their emboldened fingers around the neck of democracy itself, and the lack of leadership by a narcissistic and heartless president whose agenda seems to be working on weakening or abolishing our democratic government and ideals.

It should concern us that there is what we call this president’s ‘small base of supporters’ who, unflinchingly, uphold every move he makes....even to the point of harming themselves and their families in the process. I am speaking about the loss of affordable health care, shared values, and of monetary growth and security due to the lack of jobs based on the destruction of healthy trade relationships with friendly foreign nations. Not only does his ‘base’ support his constant flow of manipulative lies, they seem to bask in them to the extent that the lies become the truths they are searching for under the influence of this shallow, harmful man.

If you have become familiar with the many terms that have surfaced due to the political unrest and divisiveness of our country within the past several years, you will recognize the phrases ‘Nuclear Options’ and ‘Collusion,’ as well as the two men who own them: Kentucky Senator, Mitch McConnell and Vladimir Putin, President of Russia, respectively. I’m uncertain as to which man should frighten us more; the manipulator from within our government or the powerful foreign manipulator outside of it!

We now live in a world where the sky is green, the grass is blue and just about ‘anything goes!’ Suddenly, the rules and ideals that reflected an order of normalcy have been thrown out the window and are melting away like the clocks in Salvador Dali’s painting, The Persistence of Memory. 

Will we choose to throw the Integrity of our Democracy out with the dirty bath water or, if time remains on our side, decide to experience a profound sense of vigor and change growing within us as a nation that cares enough to believe in a new sense of hope for all people? It’s not too late to move out of ‘Topsy-turvyland’ (Trumpnation). We just have to want to badly enough.

If we do not work together to make positive change happen...time, the American Dream, and the Integrity of our Democracy could be melting away, forever!

            

Copyright © 2018 by Jacqueline E. Hughes

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