At the end of last year my husband shared an excellent article with me called 57 small things you can do every day to be happier and more successful. (I know, I know. You may be thinking: “Who has time to do 57 things each day to be happier? Much less to remember all 57? Sounds like recipe to make someone more neurotic.” You may be right, but we’ll have to explore that in another post.)
Anyway, one of the tips that I took to heart was number 10. “Deflect partisan conversations.”
Arguments about politics and religion never have a “right” answer but they definitely get people all riled up over things they can’t control. When such topics surface, bow out by saying something like: “Thinking about that stuff makes my head hurt.”
Wayne has sort of always followed this rule naturally, but I have not. In fact, I had a bad experience on Facebook that cost me what I considered a very good friend when I expressed my opinions during the last presidential election. All because I stated an opinion, she didn’t agree with it and blasted me. I blasted back and before I knew it she had unfriended me and we stopped talking to each other.
So, now I try to keep my mouth shut and my opinions to myself when it comes to politics. I’m not going to change anyone else’s mind, and they’re not going to change mine. I get that now.
Breaking the Rules
But there are times exceptions need to be made, and this is one of them. I need to unleash an opinion about something.
I cannot abide Donald Trump. He’s all show, no substance, and even worse than that he’s uncouth. His kind of rhetoric inspires action, all right. More like provokes. And it’s not the kind of action that ever leads to any good. I’m talking about hate and fear.
Dean’s Scream Worse than Trump’s Bluster?
For Pete’s sake. Do you remember the scream that ended Howard Dean’s presidential primary? It was a scream, people. A scream. Not a mad rant. Not a fit of fury. Not ethnic slurs or sexist babble. It was raw, unbridled emotion that bubbled forth and that apparently offended people because he was letting too much passion show.
But Trump has bashed just about everyone possible, from POWs to women to immigrants, and he only gets more popular. Mind. Blown.
When he insulted John McCain I figured he’d lose the military supporters entirely. How he didn’t, I don’t know.
But the one that I really was disappointed didn’t earn him even so much as a slap was his awful speech about Mexican immigrants. Sure, some people spoke up in protest but…no one took him to task.
Shameful.
However, the other day one of my tennis teammates, who immigrated from Mexico when she was a teenager, shared an amazing video on Facebook that a young Mexican American woman made. Wow. What a way to combat the ignorance Trump put out there.
I posted the video below, but first…
My Immigrant Family
I posted it below, but let me just say why I found this particularly offensive: Three of my four grandparents were immigrants. My dad’s dad, Grandpa Eric, came from Germany. My dad’s mom, Helen, came from Poland. My mom’s dad, Ferdinand, was from Mexico.
My grandpa Eric was one of those immigrants who started his own business. Mroch Motor Transfer, a trucking company. He worked hard. No one ever gave him anything. He didn’t have a billionaire daddy financing him. He had muscle and gumption and that was it.
As the story goes, Grandpa Ferdinand did come from money, but it meant he’d have to go back to work on a ranch in Mexico and he didn’t want that kind of life. He attended university in the States, in New Orleans, where he met my grandma.
I know they briefly returned to Mexico and he worked there for some kind of company (I want to say engineering, but I’m not positive and everyone I could ask if dead). But he wanted to come back to the States to raise his family. He became a welder and that’s how he supported them.
Not All Mexicans Are Bad, Not All Germans Are Nazis
What made me think of sharing any of this was watching the video I referred to earlier. My dad told me a story about how him and Grandpa Eric faced discrimination during the World War II years. People wouldn’t give “that damn German mover” business because they didn’t want to support the Nazis. My dad and his parents were not Nazis. Their only crime was being German, and really that shouldn’t have been a crime.
A story that really got to me was one I could tell affected my dad. Grandma Helen had booked a job. Grandpa Eric took my dad to go move a lady from one apartment to the other. But when they got there and she saw my grandpa was German, she went ballistic. She was screaming all kinds of nastiness at them and threatened to shoot them with her shotgun. All because of my grandpa’s accent.
Grandpa Ferdinand had similar stories of people treating him poorly because of his ethnicity. He just always kept his head down, never got in trouble with the law, and was a good citizen.
Melting Pot
But he was an immigrant. I am from immigrant stock. At the end of the day we all are. Almost. Except for the true Native Americans.
When I was growing up that’s what our country used to pride itself on. Our diversity. The fact we were founded trying to be a place where all people were welcome. Where we could live together in harmony. That our melting pot was our biggest strength.
It’s more of a reality than in some places, but it’s still just a dream in so many ways.
You Get What You Give
We’re losing sight of what our country really represents. Trump is trumping that.
I don’t like to try and influence people what to do but please. I beseech you. Don’t be a chump by supporting Trump.
It’s bad business for America and will only bring ruin. Because you give what you get. Hate begets hate. Ignorance begets Ignorance. Violence begets violence.
We have so much more to offer. We’re better than stooping to accept the low brow pandering of a spoiled little rich boy.
The Awesome Video