Monday, January 23, 2017
Saturday, January 21, 2017
"One Angry Dog"
The Angry Dog bared her teeth and finally came out from behind with a vicious growl.
My father was a Republican and my mother was a Democrat.
Everyone in town loved my dad, even the politicians, but he thought politics were a distasteful activity and his only exposure to them was in the voting booth.
My mother however was a dedicated liberal. She only had the most "bleeding" kinds as friends. They stuffed envelopes, went to endless meetings, marches and demonstrations. In their little reality ghetto, they never hardly associated with other types: the unenlightened.
Out of the charmed environment of my father's successful world and my mother's militant one, I emerged - a righteous mutt.
Perhaps it is only logical to conclude, since Dogs have a naturally intuitive compassion for humans, I would have a different take on American Politics 2017. I've found though, after years of participation in my county's Democratic Central Committee, that they don't like me. No wonder, many Democrats are elitist and prefer purebreds,
like for example, Portuguese Water Dogs.
Since the local Republicans seemed devoid of the effection a caring Dog would need, I have spent the last few years of my life in my house. The Trump election has changed all that. Here I come. Out of my doghouse, into the American reality as it currently is. Not how we want it to be, or how is should be, but in it's rough, unedited form.
I forgot to mention, I was born in Nebraska and maybe that's another reason why I don't always feel welcome in the place I was raised, California.
Californians seem unaware the rest of the United States exists. And they don't care. They believe until you get to the East Coast, American are simple-minded ignorant fools. So, of course Californians are Democrats.
The recent reactions human Democrats have to the election of President Trump have made the hairs on my back stand strait up!
The real issue is: Hillary Clinton, Democratic candidate and Party leader, lost the election herself. She did not act like the leader she was supposed to be for all of the states. She didn't even show up in many important states where humans were hurting and in pain. When she showed up in California, it was mostly to raise money. Lots of Democrats didn't show up to vote and the national election was given away.
Meanwhile candidate Trump identified the pain, despair and hopelessness of many Americans. He told them what they wanted to hear and he won the vote.
In this country, the Land of Professional Football, sportsmanship is a salient value. Win: fantastic! Loose: congratulate the victor and prepare for another day. Evidently that's not what Democrats do in 2017.
Many Democrats have forgotten those American principles of good sportsmanship. When we think our opponents "go low", we go lower. If I see another photo of a mother and daughter with matching "pussy hats", I think I'll howl!
The Americans who didn't vote for President Trump better start learning about empathy and compassion. There really are towns throughout America that are abandoned because employers have left. There are major cities like Detroit, where acres and acres of neighborhoods are ghost towns with burned out buildings and people. Those people, in the depths of despair have medicated themselves into functionless humans incapable of parenting, going back to school or any self-help productivity. They have no answers for their misery, but Candidate Trump did and they got themselves together enough to go to the polls and vote.
If America is going to continue to be great, we must take a better look at ourselves. We must be as inclusive of those American humans in despair as we are with minorities, the disabled and immigrants.
It is time for all humans in the United States of America to be compassionate, loving, gentle, faithful and trustworthy Dogs.
Merylee Rucker Shelton
Professor, Emeritus
Communication Studies
Program Founder: Community Arts & Lectures
San Jose City College, Silicon Valley, California
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