No idea how to rec, if one can rec a message here. Long time reader, fairly new poster. You have stated the truth passionately and eloquently. But the dogs of war that have been unleashed are growing, I fear...
You see, all my life I'm been a pacifist, tho I'm an AF Veteran, Vietnam Era. I've marched for women's rights, for civil rights. I taught myself computers, building, using, and the popular software, and then turned around and taught other disadvantaged women what I'd learned. I cannibalized and begged parts of non-working computers to build a computer lab for a barrio school. I've taken in every kind of injured or abandoned animal you can name, and many became my 'family' if they couldn't be rehomed. I never had much money. If you wanted to make money working in computers in the 80's and 90's, you'd better have been male. And I wasn't. But as much as that yanked my chain, as long as I had enough to feed my daughter, my animals, and give to a friend in need... that's all I cared for.
After 4 years of Trump's Dogs of War, the peace and serenity I had in my life is gone... perhaps, I fear, forever. For the first time in my life, I realize what "hate" is, and I detest the feeling. But I can't rid myself of it. I can't forgive these people, especially since they won't stop being evil imbeciles. My father fought the fascists in WWII, and was proud when I enlisted to carry on the tradition. 1/3+ of this country makes a mockery of our service, and I'm just so glad my father isn't alive today to see what has become of this country he was so proud to serve.
My great-grandfather fought the Koch brothers' father. I boycott the Koch's. Seems to be embedded in the family DNA. But I'm to the point where all those states passing laws saying they're not going to abide by this or that law of the U.S., and those in militias, sovereign citizen groups, or just plain hateful, bigoted individuals... I want to put them altogether in a part of the country that's all theirs. Let "Separate but Equal" have a whole new meaning in the 21st century. I'm sick of them impeding progress and making us the laughing stock of the world. The truly awful thing for me to realize is I wouldn't care if we lined them all up and gave them a taste of their own 2nd amendment solution.
Can you understand how broke my soul got with all this? I still help, I still give, I still rescue; but now I feel like a hypocrite. Because I never really knew what hatred was... what true evil was... until 2016. And believe me, I really wasn't naive! But it was always an idea of evil; not evil thrust into your face. And I can't help but feel I'm not alone with this feeling; this realization. What happens when WE have enough of what they're doing to us, our fellow humans, and our country? Unless this country splits into two separate halves, I do fear we're headed for civil war. Too many of us feel downright militant now. We're no longer friendly "snowflakes" and we're willing to fight to retain the founders' idea of this great experiment. We're not going to buckle to fascism or authoritarianism. We'll fight back with our lives.
And thus ends the grand experiment, I fear. Trump did more than unleash the evil that lies in the hearts of men and women who were just like him. He pushed it until it infected the whole country, every man, woman, and child. Under those circumstances, how can there ever be a coming together ever again?
When and how can we reclaim our souls and what penance will there be?
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