November 2020
I had my scheduled exercise program shortly after the election. My trainer is a Trump supporter and has been espousing the usual Fox News disinformation: Covid-19 only exists because more people are being tested, Biden is suffering from dementia and the election was rigged. Well, Covid is real, Biden seems able to remember that he won, and Court after Court has affirmed that there is no evidence of vote tampering or fraud. I like my trainer. His political views do not affect his skills as a rehab professional. Now that the election is over, he is quieter, but digging in his heels, waiting for the next Oval Office tweet for proof of election malfeasance. I have numerous friends, college buddies and fishing cohorts who support Trump and each is managing the disappointment in their own way. Some are clearing the trees in their back 40, others have resorted to sending out emails of the Right, stoking rumors of Democratic Party plots to steal the election for Biden. The President will not concede and is attempting to stall the transition of the Biden administration. He refuses to provide the President-elect with the nation’s intelligence reports and has failed to address the rising infection rate throughout the country. This denial phenomenon has a major impact on the well-being of people everywhere. Those parents who refuse to wear a mask when taking their children to the public playground, those who continue to dine at local restaurants indoors and those who shop at grocery stores without masks, despite the signs at the entrance–their right to “liberty” may be depriving others of the right to “life.” How do they justify the danger to those who are more vulnerable? Is it morally right to place your family members or even perfect strangers in harm’s way? What is the moral obligation to look out for your neighbor in times of a health crisis? This is the strain we are all under these days. How can this be happening? The denial starts at the top, or the bottom, depending on how you look at it. The disregard of the science, the facts and the law. What has our country become? Where is the leadership from the Republican Party and its Congressional members? Do they care about their constituents or are they only thinking of their own re-election? There are a few Republicans who have taken a stand against all the misinformation. They are the future of their party and with the willingness of both sides to work together our country may return to sanity. Every day I count down to the inauguration of the new Washington with hope and empathy.
