My Dad and Shenanigan Outrage

My dad was a gentle man.  He showed no malice toward man or beast.  On one occasion, when he was young, he was invited to go deer hunting.  Borrowing a gun, off he went with his buddies.  Soon he found himself alone and tired from tramping through the forest so he sat down to rest.  Leaning his gun up against a tree and lighting a smoke he sat quietly, deep in though.  It didn't take long before a deer approached, looked him in the eye, and then slowly wandered on.  My dad did not lift his gun.   At the end of the day he returned the gun to its owner and never again picked one up.

George Abel

Throughout my childhood my dad modeled kindness.  He was a man with a huge heart for family and friends as well as strangers.  He exuded patience but had no time for the  swindler.  Despite his Republic Party affiliation, I know, if he were still alive, he would be outraged with present day Republican shenanigans.   

  

This election has not been the typical back-and-forth push of one set of principles against another.     Most of us acknowledge that differing opinions are healthy, deepening  political  discourse.    Instead, in this election cycle, we have watched fear mongering, hate and anger, walking in lock-step with mean.   The vehicle, the man, chosen to make America great again is vile and uncouth.

My father would be outraged that his Party has stooped to this level of low.    We have a mean bully as our president-elect.  A man who, while demeaning others, has filled his pockets with wealth, dishonestly earned.

"Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled
masses yearning to breathe free, the wretched
refuse of your teeming shore.  Send these, the
homeless, tempest-tossed to me, I lift my lamp
beside the golden door!"

America has advanced a man to the highest office of our land who holds none of the values I admire and all of the traits I abhor.  He has none of the fine qualities we have had with President Obama or my dear father.  Who could have imagined the populous would turn a blind eye to his heinous attacks against people of color, women, veterans and the disabled.

"A nation ringed by walls will only imprison itself."

~Barack Obama

Our nation's White House is the official residence and principal work place
of the President of the United States.
It has been the residence of every U.S. president
 since John Adams in 1800.

It is a sad day in America!  To those of us who prayed for a kinder nation, we are feeling a deep, deep loss and great fear.   For those who thought making America great again could be accomplished by a man with malice in his heart, there will be disillusionment.    

~~~

"The sacrifice 'of' self for the greater good is the greatest calling
imaginable, and it is the bedrock of the greatest nations.  The sacrifice 'for' self
is the most pathetic calling imaginable, and it is the quicksand within
which nations perish."

~ Craig D. Lounsbrough