Pardon me, I beg you.
I completely understand the fact that I have become a sweet, docile Nonni, the chubby old lady who rocks her darling Ellie to sleep and gives her a bottle and walks her around this bucolic country neighborhood.
I have sworn to myself that I will step back from the political activist world, (in my blogging at least). I will hold my tongue. I will not use words like “liberal” or “conservative” or utter the D or R labels. I have sworn to be non-partisan, but today’s events have overruled my very best intentions.
Paris is under siege at this very moment. Paris: the City of Lights. The City of Lovers. Isis is bombing, shooting and holding hostages. The war between the west and Isis has come to a place that is known for its gentle hospitality, its love of wine and music, its embrace of the arts.
The world has come to a very, very dangerous place.
I will absolutely not make any attempt to explain how this has happened. I will not weigh in at all on any foreign policy issue that may or may not have lead us to this terrible place.
I am not a military person. I am not a diplomat. I can make my ill informed guesses about the middle East, but I am smart enough to know that I do not truly have anything to say on this subject.
How to stop this type of terrorism is a question that is simply far, far beyond my feeble areas of expertise.
But here is what I do feel duty bound to write: I believe that it is incredibly important for me to acknowledge the limits of my knowledge.
I believe that it is incredibly important for us, as Americans, to elect a President who can also recognize the limits of his/her expertise. I believe that we have a serious duty to elect a President who IS in fact an expert of international relations and international law. Or at the very least, we must elect someone who will listen to those who are true experts on this incredibly convoluted matters.
Right now, at this moment in time, I am the mother of three young adults and the grandmother of one fragile little girl. I want them all to live in a world where peace is a possibility, no matter how faint. A place where reason has at least a chance to triumph over bombast.
And this is why I must write this post.
I am absolutely horrified and sickened by the words of Donald Trump, a man who seems to truly believe that he is an expert on every topic in every area. This is a man who believes that he is capable of single handedly solving every complex problem that faces the entire world.
And how would Mr. T solve all of these deep and complicated problems? To quote the man himself, although I am very reluctant to do so, he would “bomb the shit out of them.”
This is a man who finds it acceptable to call people “stupid”, “fat”, “ugly”. He routinely uses simplistic and meaningless words like “nice” and “crap” and “OK”.
This is a man who truly believes himself to be smarter than anyone else on earth. He truly believes that he can bully and insult his way to world leadership.
Tonight, as I sit here watching the terrible news unfolding from Paris, I am very very afraid.
But let me be very clear: I am more afraid of how the world will look if Donald Trump become President than I am of terrorists striking a major European city.
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If you reading this, and you are a Trump supporter, can you please try to explain to me what it is that you see in this man? What is it that makes you believe that he would be a reasonable and thoughtful world leader?
Empty Nest, Full Life 
Agree 100%.
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This guy just terrifies me……
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I often wonder what would have happened if GWB had asked himself (and his advisors and even Osama bin Laden) WHY 9/11 happened, rather than declaring war on a concept and rushing off to bomb the hell out of anyone he thought might be involved. What we need in our leaders right now – this minute – is intelligence, and not just IQ intelligence but emotional intelligence as well.
i can actually see (from afar) why Trump has got as far as he has. He is promising to ‘make America great again’, and given the struggles facing so many Americans in the last few years, what’s not to love about that? Hitler came to power on the same premise.
As for stepping back politically – I really don’t think you should. It’s people like you with the wisdom of intelligence and experience who see the big picture and provide an antidote to popular hysteria.
Sorry to rant, but what America does affects the rest of the world.
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So true, Helen; the US has created so much of the strife that has lead to the entire problem! I hate that my countrymen don’t recognize that.
I’m intrigued that you can see Trump’s appeal: I keep trying, but I truly can’t understand it. He is rude, bombastic, self-aggrandizing, narcissistic, short tempered and sarcastic. What on earth could make anyone want him as a leader?
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I agree with everything you say about Trump. He’s good joke-fodder over here. But – and I’m guessing – I think a lot of ‘average’ Americans are very angry at the moment. They have been done over financially, and probably in terms of social welfare, and they want someone to blame. Trump is coming out and saying all the politically incorrect things they’d like to say about all the minority groups they’d like to blame and painting a picture of glorious American supremecy ruling the world to suit American citizens. They see his self-aggrandisment as strength, and his rudeness is balm to their abraded souls. When people feel angry and victimised, intelligent moderation just doesn’t cut the mustard.
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I think you’re right, but the thing that angers me so much is that those who are feeling so angry refuse to look at reality. The economy is in an upswing, BUT mostly for the rich! I’m angry, too, but thoughtfully angry at the right culprits. I just hate how many people choose to wish for that easy answer. I’d like to give all those Trump supporters a good lesson in German history and compare his words to Hitlers. Grrrrrr!!!!
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Moms, what could be worse is if Ben Carson became president. He makes The Donald look like George Washington. Be afraid. . .be very afraid. 😦
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I am truly afraid of both of them. Is it only me, or is Dr. Carson hiding a very dark personality?
I heard today that some of the RNC higher ups are in a panic, too.
Working hard for Bernie Sanders!
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Something is definitely off with BC. I am sitting back and collecting my intel on him . . . waiting to write something that will shed light on someone who used to be an idol to me and most of the Black community.
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Can’t wait to see what you find! Its funny, I told my husband that I thought Carson had a barely controlled temper, and that was weeks ago when he was being interviewed and got very tight lipped and buttoned down with the interviewer.
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I, too, am watching the news reports about Paris in sadness and horror. My daughter and I were on a mother-daughter trip, staying right there, just blocks from the concert hall, exactly 2 months ago!
I can’t believe the Rep party can’t find more intelligent candidates. Both Trump and Carson are beyond ridiculous, and there are so many Americans who buy their BS! At first, it was amusing to hear what they were saying, but yes, as you say, it’s getting scary now. Regardless of what some may think of President Obama, at least he has class and can put a complete sentence together.
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I am amazed and appalled that someone like John Kasich can’t get any traction! What the heck is wrong with this electorate?
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You might check out the state of education in Ohio. Ohio is a joke even in the charter community the corruption is so blatant. Kasich is center stage. I have no idea what his foreign affairs background is, but he has a pro big business background. You are right, though. It is scary when the Republican front runners are so far right that they scare the bejesus out of fellow Republicans. It’s time for the moderates to come out of hiding and fight for their party. You would think their corporate sponsors would be leading some push back.
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Oh, please understand that I am not a Kasich supporter! I am a Bernie voter, all the way. My point was simply that at least Kasich is not insane, out of control, uncivil and dangerous. If you have to vote for a conservative, at least pick one who won’t blatantly state his intent to “bomb the shit out of” everyone he doesn’t like…..
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I don’t mean to offend anyone, but how on a night soaked in blood like this can we turn inwards and castigate our own? I am also dismayed by our choices for president. Donald Trump is a conceited jerk and Hillary Clinton is a bold faced liar. But neither of them – and none of the rest either – would take a jagged knife and saw the head off a toddler (horrifying photos online) or commit any of the crimes against innocents of the likes we have seen just in the last 10 days. We are truly doomed if we look into the eyes of pure evil on a night like tonight and all we see is our reflection.
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These are the people who could be called to deal with this evil. It is important that we trust our leaders to make intelligent decisions. It is important that we pay attention to who might be elected to make those decisions. They will not have the luxury of dwelling on the horrors that mankind visits on itself. They will be called on to act.
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I completely agree that we need to pick our leaders carefully. Where I fall away is when we say Donald Trump is scarier than the guy with the explosives strapped to his belly. I wish I knew how to crush these terrorists..I really do. President Obama went in hard with Libya, tried to go light in Syria, pulled out of Iraq, is staying longer in Afghanistan..He’s a smart guy and he can’t figure it out! I’m not saying the answers are easy. Heck, we were on the side of the Muslims in Bosnia as Osama Bin Laden was planning his attack against the US …proving once and for all, it really isn’t about what we do or don’t do..it’s simply who we are that makes them want to kill us..This situation will vex many presidents for years to come. We as a people though owe it to ourselves to be crystal clear about the danger..and not create distorted moral equivalents when we compare our failings as Americans to those who load bombs onto a plane full of families headed home from vacation.
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You’re right. My choice of words in that comparison was glib and incorrect.
But I do believe that our long, long history of supporting despots, throwing our military might at problem in the Middle East and ignoring decades of increasing poverty and unrest in the people there are a huge part of the situation that exists today.
We make the world more dangerous for everyone when we glorify a man who publicly states his intention to “bomb the shit out of” those who already hate us.
They don’t hate us for “who we are”. They hate us for the things our government has done.
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While I have no doubt that we haven’t helped our cause or standing with many of our policies, I also believe there is no helping it with terror groups like ISIS and others. They don’t distinguish between a UN aid worker or a soldier, an innocent baby or a CIA agent..there’s just us and them..”us” being anyone who isn’t the right kind of Muslim and doesn’t sympathize with their cause. We are shielded from so much in the US, but when you go online and read the papers from other countries you can literally see with your own disbelieving eyes the full horror of what’s happening over there as they crush those who won’t convert..it is every bit as unspeakable as the holocaust…and yes, it makes you feel like you want to “bomb the shit out of them” – this very minute – so you can spare another mother from having her own daughter raped by a gang of men and beheaded in front of her. This is what Trump is tapping into in my opinion..the feeling that we have to “do something.” I’m sure he’ll be spouting off his big mouth today about this latest attack and you watch..his numbers will go up..😟 The Middle East has always been a religious inferno..no Western leader or country has ever been able to figure the place out..and probably never will. But I have learned one terrible truth over the years..every time we remove a despot, we unleash the boiling furies of long simmering sectarian and religious strife. You think of Egypt, Libya, Iraq, Syria…I hate to say it, but these places are worse off without a heavy “lid on the pot.” We just cannot apply Western concepts, logic, values, hopes and dreams onto societies that still condone honor killings, the rape of young boys, stoning, forced religious conversions, the subjugation of women and on and on… The problem is, I think the option to look away and pretend we don’t see is well, no longer an option because the fanatics are not just over there anymore, they’re here.
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I understand your thoughts completely, Cindy. I think, though, that for me there is a connection between a would be world leader who threatens to “bomb the shit out of” his enemies and those who choose to take such horrific and evil actions. We don’t live in a vacuum, and I am truly afraid. I am honestly fearful of what will happen if Trump becomes President. His choice of words can only add fuel to those who so deeply hate our country and hate our allies.
I believe that we have a moral duty to vote very carefully for someone who can perhaps help to dampen what feels too much like a true world war.
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I agree absolutely, Cindy, that we can’t apply Western concepts to Middle Eastern culture and what’s more, we have no right to. They have as much right to their beliefs and mores as we have to ours, and I wonder whether we have brought some of the trouble on ourselves by failing to respect this. Obviously I’m not condoning rape, violence or brutality in any form, but these are the practices of terrorist extremists not the general Mid East population. But is terrorist extremism a reaction to years of our disrespect?
And realistically, Western culture isn’t looking too squeaky clean at the moment itself, what with institutional paedophilia, organised crime widespread material greed. The only hope is in somehow fostering mutual respect, and I can’t see Trump’s attitude helping. And I bet next up, the NRA will leap on the bandwagon to say that if someone in that concert hall had been armed, none of it would have happened.
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The scariest thing about a world that has from earliest history been warlike is that now one man can do with the push of a button what tens of thousands of soldiers were needed to do. That that person could even conceivably be Donald Trump or Ben Carson is the true horror of our modern situation. Where are the smart people that universal education is supposed to create? I fear that TV and computer games have turned the entire world into a reality show and people are just waiting to see the next horrible episode.
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Carson is even scarier.
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I’m scared of them both…..
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I think we all need a break from politics from time to time. Especially when paying attention means paying attention to Trump and Carson. That’s when I will hide in the blogosphere or watch reruns of Mary Tyler Moore!
In spite of the numbers, I don’t think Trump or Carson has a prayer of becoming president, thank God. I have no confidence in the GOP primary voters to choose someone who might actually know their way around Washington, but I do have enough faith in the country to believe they wouldn’t actually elect either of those clowns.
And I do wish The Donald would stick a sock in it.
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Jeez, I’d be willing to stick a sock in it for him……
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I think that as citizens of the greatest TV nation in the history of the world, many Americans believe that it would be extremely funny and great entertaining television to be able to watch Donald Trump every day in “Dancing with the Real President in the Big White House of Stars!” just to see what kind of mayhem and hysterically zany antics he can come up with on a daily basis as he insults and bombs his way across the world…just as long as none of those bombs fall on us. Dr Ben can be his Vice P. and consult the “Veeps’s Oracle” afternoons on Fox to keep us up to date on whether or not the Rapture has begun (sadly he will have disappeared before he can announce it) and The Donald has happily triggered Armageddon to set about the Lord’s triumphant return…coming next fall to The “6,000 year old Earth” History Channel!
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Well said, unfortunately. Because I agree with you wholeheartedly, I am now even more afraid of the future.
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