This and That

Hello! I was out of town for a week at Alt Summit, and came home to house guests, my daughter’s middle school play (which was beyond amazing–more on that later) and now I’m just barely getting my feet back under me. I wanted to share some random thoughts that have been jumbled around in my head for weeks. This is good ol’ fashioned blogging at it’s finest folks! Mostly politics, but a little personal stuff at the end. Besides, politics is personal.

Elizabeth Warren
First, I am so sad Elizabeth Warren dropped out. I know that feels like old news now and I never talked about my support for her on here, but I was so very excited for her and what seemed like a lot of momentum surrounding her campaign. Like many other women I know I keep thinking, If not someone as smart, experienced, capable and scandal-free as Elizabeth Warren than who? Personally I think that when the media focuses on things like “electability” it becomes this thing that gets into people’s heads. I appreciate and very much support the free press, but I also dislike how much influence they can have to negatively impact something that should be a foregone conclusion by now. Of course a woman can and should be President of the United States, but by questioning a woman’s “electability” or whether America is ready for a woman president, plays right into the blatant sexism that is keeping smart women like Warren from going further. In the words of one graphic I saw recently, “She’s Electable If You *!$#@& Vote For Her!”

Faith and the Current Administration
I am struggling to put my thoughts into words that will meld into ideas that make any sense, but why worry about that? Nonsense making perfect sense is the world we live in.

I was in high school in the early 90’s when Bill Clinton was running for office. I remember my high school social studies class getting into semi-heated debates with our teacher. She was (rightfully) flummoxed that a bunch of little republican wannabe’s were voting (in our minds, not in actuality) for a republican candidate solely because of abortion. I have since become acquainted with the fact that if you want fewer abortions in the world, than the best thing to do is to make it legal. Additionally, while I may be personally be against abortion–meaning I would never get one and only in rare cases would ever encourage anyone close to me to get an abortion–for many reasons, I am politically pro-choice. But this post isn’t about abortion.

The other thing that made me so averse to Bill Clinton was all the chatter from the adults in my life about the lack of his moral character. He was a womanizer. He had a sleazy reputation. I didn’t know any members of my church at the time who were openly supporting Clinton, although I’m sure there were. But the general buzz was, how could we ever stand behind someone with such low moral character?

Which is why seeing so many of these same “conservative” members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints fervently support the moral trash dump that is Donald Trump is so mind boggling. But more than mind boggling, it has become a splinter that I can’t ignore. How are these the same people who read the scriptures and/or church manuals and yet defend a 1) seriously STUPID man who basks in his ignorance like a prize hog and 2) who’s moral sinkhole has not yet found a bottom? While I have always known that people within our church view the world through personal lenses that might shape the specifics of their beliefs, there was always–for better or for worse–an underlying sameness. Character counts. Words matter. Corrupt and twisted “means” do not justify what one perceives as positive policy “ends.” It would be one thing if I heard more people talk about supporting his policies, but disliking the person but I don’t. I have heard from a few people about what a good man he is, and that if I really took the time to educate myself on Mr. Trump, I would see what they see. The cognitive dissonance feels emotionally abusive as they suggest that what I see and hear from the President himself with my own eyes and my own ears is not trusted.

I just keep thinking, How are these my people?

Of course I know that many of the things I hear from people are the regurgitated propaganda bile of Fox News, and other far right pundits. And while I know propaganda is powerful and makes parsing fact from fiction purposefully difficult, I still find the twisting of the truth (and otherwise sound minds) shocking. Yes all politicians lie to a point, twist the truth, and/or flip-flop but the boldness with which Trump and his administration have made facts relative will never not be stupefying.

For me, and for many of my faith, I think that’s why it meant so very much to see Mitt Romney take such a strong and moral stand against the President by voting against him in the impeachment trial knowing how much hate was going to be slung his way. Every action that speaks to doing what’s right over towing party lines gives me my next breath of hope. However, it was still defeating to see how many members of our church bitterly criticized and even personally attacked Mitt, once again parroting Fox News sounds bites as their go-to explanations.

And if I sound emphatic, it’s because I am. I find that amidst the ongoing onslaught of crazy these past 3 years I have to continually, emphatically, unrelentingly call out this bullshit and stand firm so as not to give into complacency that is so very tempting after years of constant mental whiplash.

So that’s where I stand. Make no mistake about it. I am not a Democrat. I am not a Republican. But I am always and forever anti bigoted, sexual assaulting, fear mongering, disability mocking, stupid is as stupid does President Donald J.(ackass) Trump.

My Daughter’s Middle School Play
I am going on the record to say I have NEVER seen a better middle school production in my LIFE. And further, I have seen a few professional productions that would not stand up to this one. It’s Wednesday after the weekend of the play and I’m still hearing chatter around town about how amazing the production was.

My daughter’s school did Joseph and The Amazing Technicolor Dream Coat and from cast to costume to set, it was absolutely amazing. My daughter was cast as one of the wives and also ended up being one of the main dancers and SHE WAS SO GOOD! Just to give you a taste of how legit this performance was–my daughter alone had 7 costume changes, lead who played Joseph just happened to be a 5th grader who could SING, people kept asking where they rented the stage backdrop from but it was made by parent volunteers, there were 3 drop down signs during the play including a final “Joseph” marquee with blinking lights, the choreographer (and I’m not kidding here) was brought in from Germany (apparently a friend of the director) and there were confetti canons and hand throw streamers used for the final YEAH at the end. 

The cast and crew worked for weeks on this production and even a week before the play my daughter was saying that they weren’t going to be ready. And while she has said that before, she was like NO REALLY MOM WE ARE GOING TO LOOK LIKE FOOLS. I was actually worried. I was still out of town on opening night, but apparently after the final number and when the lights went out, the entire cast and crew erupted into shouts and applause because they couldn’t believe how well it all went and they were so proud of themselves!

I really feel like this is going to be a stand out moment in her young life as a time when she worked so hard and was really pushed to the brink, but then came out on top. I am so glad she was able to be a part of this experience.

OK I know this was mostly politics–ha!–and I have more I want to share but in the spirit of “done is fun” I’m closing this now and will write up other posts for later. I’d love to hear your take on anything above, but especially if you’ve been struggling in reconciling your faith with the current political and social landscape–what are your takeaways? How, or do you, reconcile the two?