Shame
Shame: a painful feeling of humiliation or distress caused by the consciousness of wrong or foolish behavior.
It’s odd to realize we’re led by a man who has no sense of shame. Or perhaps, odd isn’t the correct word. Infuriating, frustrating, disappointing. Those terms are closer to the truth.
I came with my mother and father to the States as a kid persuaded it was the greatest country on earth. That belief lasted many years. Over the past several decades, though, I have felt this certainty ebb away—Vietnam, Iran-Contra, Kent State, the macarena (sorry, trying—and failing—for a little levity here)—and I’ve gotten to the point where what I now feel is a great sadness and a great anger.
We are in the throes of a monstrous peril, one that calls for courage, exemplary leadership, and a willingness to face the truth with sagacity and candor. As the crisis worsens—and it will—and as we begin to lose loved ones—and we will—those who serve and lead us must rise to face the crisis head on. We need a Churchill, a de Gaulle, a Ghandi or a Mandela.
We have a Trump.
His entourage is equally venal and inept.
Somehow, the country’s leadership has morphed into liars and thieves, miscreants and opportunists whose goals are to stay in power and amass greater wealth. We have elected officials who have become the worst of the worst.
Their dishonesty is glaring, their lack of care for the health of the nation so apparent that it leaves me grief-stricken.
In the past few days, the President has accused health-care workers of stealing hospital supplies needed by the infected and dying. He has made sure states whose governors grovel before him will get federal assistance. Governors who do not abase themselves face obstacles. He is willing to accept the death of a quarter-million Americans and pat himself on the back for a job well done. The good news, we are told, is that his ratings now equal that of a popular television show.
How did this happen? How do we allow it to continue?
In the end, we’re to blame. Trump’s tactics of flaying at us with lies and misinformation are bearing fruit. Many of us are shell-shocked. More of us—and I am not talking about the Trump cultists—have been perfectly comfortable voicing our despair on social media but doing little else that could lead to reform. Now, of course, it’s too late to take to the streets.
The shame. The shame.
It’s odd to realize we’re led by a man who has no sense of shame. Or perhaps, odd isn’t the correct word. Infuriating, frustrating, disappointing. Those terms are closer to the truth.
I came with my mother and father to the States as a kid persuaded it was the greatest country on earth. That belief lasted many years. Over the past several decades, though, I have felt this certainty ebb away—Vietnam, Iran-Contra, Kent State, the macarena (sorry, trying—and failing—for a little levity here)—and I’ve gotten to the point where what I now feel is a great sadness and a great anger.
We are in the throes of a monstrous peril, one that calls for courage, exemplary leadership, and a willingness to face the truth with sagacity and candor. As the crisis worsens—and it will—and as we begin to lose loved ones—and we will—those who serve and lead us must rise to face the crisis head on. We need a Churchill, a de Gaulle, a Ghandi or a Mandela.
We have a Trump.
His entourage is equally venal and inept.
Somehow, the country’s leadership has morphed into liars and thieves, miscreants and opportunists whose goals are to stay in power and amass greater wealth. We have elected officials who have become the worst of the worst.
Their dishonesty is glaring, their lack of care for the health of the nation so apparent that it leaves me grief-stricken.
In the past few days, the President has accused health-care workers of stealing hospital supplies needed by the infected and dying. He has made sure states whose governors grovel before him will get federal assistance. Governors who do not abase themselves face obstacles. He is willing to accept the death of a quarter-million Americans and pat himself on the back for a job well done. The good news, we are told, is that his ratings now equal that of a popular television show.
How did this happen? How do we allow it to continue?
In the end, we’re to blame. Trump’s tactics of flaying at us with lies and misinformation are bearing fruit. Many of us are shell-shocked. More of us—and I am not talking about the Trump cultists—have been perfectly comfortable voicing our despair on social media but doing little else that could lead to reform. Now, of course, it’s too late to take to the streets.
The shame. The shame.
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