Middle Child

I’m a middle child and normally that means I play the role of peacekeeper in the family. Conflict is particularly hard for middle kids. Offering an olive branch is usually the go to move for middle children. I’m not sure when this philosophy changed for me, but it has. I used to be the type of person who tried to seek to understand, rather than be understood. To kill people with kindness. To reach out to those with completely different perspectives and ideas and try to walk in their shoes. Likewise, the rule of addressing the behavior of a person that might be abhorrent versus attacking the person.

A switch has gone off that may never return, and I am no longer the quintessential middle child. Why? Because at this point, enough is enough. I don’t even want to try to understand those who adopt conspiracy theories to justify violence. I’m starting to ask questions like, did the Jewish people and those who were sent to the gas chambers try to reunite Germany with an olive branch? The answer is HELL NO. This call for unity and reaching out to the other side is frankly ridiculous. Perhaps I will change my mind if the radical right reaches out, apologizes, and offers that olive branch. If those same mobsters wish to try to mend the country and are sincere in their desires, I’ll listen. Until that time, this call for a measured response is bullshit. It is not the responsibility of the victims to meet the other side in the middle.

I readily admit I was very upset four years ago when Trump won, and I was among the protesters chanting, “Not my president.” But, and this is a big but, I never considered violence or anything other than chanting my displeasure. Trump supporters have a right to be upset. Their guy lost. They do not have a right to bully their way into a different outcome. Nor do they have a right to attack our capitol, or engineer a different outcome by taking out political opponents or critics of a twice impeached president.

I’d like to leave this world returning to my former stance on conflict and become that middle child again where I try to understand the other side. Time will tell if I’ll ever get there. In the meantime, I can’t help interjecting my views on social issues, injustices, discrimination, violation of human rights, and yes, politics, usually on a small scale, but sometimes the lure is too great to write a book inspired by what’s currently happening in this country. Thus, my current WIP, The Others, will definitely have more of a political bent as a dystopian novel than many of my other books. In the meantime, I have managed to write many books mostly free of politics and filled with romance. You know the drill, click the links below to check them out, including my most recent novel that is getting great reviews.

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