This event reminds me of what happened in the wake of the Boston Marathon bombing, but on a global scale. Some people are all too eager to surrender all rights to the government in hopes it can make the big, scary monster go away. It's as though they feel that pushing the responsibility off onto someone else relieves them of all stress related to the situation. Never mind that we have seen time and time again evidence of the corruption and ineptitude of many of the scum bags occupying political offices. It doesn't matter to them. If the people tasked with fixing the problem fuck it up, all the better. They have someone to whine about then.
I live in a rural area. Most people are being completely civil toward one another, and shaking their heads at just how ridiculous some people are acting, but today I ventured out into a more urbanized area to do some shopping and return a couple of things. I had to listen to some old woman whine about how "Trump's not making any decisions for us", while knowing full damn well how much she would be criticizing him for any decisions he does make. My mother-in-law, a lefty Trump-basher, started in on my wife today about how little he's doing. My wife promptly cut her off and told her how ridiculous she was being (so proud of her), explaining that her complaining wasn't helping the situation.
Anecdotes aside, here's the straight poop on this situation.
- Don't be fucking pussies.
- Don't panic.
- Don't put your faith in the same assholes we complain about on the daily to protect you.
- Teach your children.
- Handle your shit.
- Calm the fuck down.
I'm a high school government teacher. I have a poster of Ben Franklin's quote about not surrendering essential liberty above my touch screen, and point to it constantly when my students start to stray into this territory. Two points I make to my students on the regular are:
- Human beings are big, dumb animals when given the chance to prove so.
- Recent generations have not needed to endure a catastrophe the likes of world wars of plagues, and it's lead to atrophy of nationalism. We are long overdue.
You are capable of far more than many of the people running your government want you to believe you are.
Band together. Take care of your family and friends. Understand that community is always essential, and now more than ever. We don't want government minders telling us how to deal with crises when it means we become prisoners in our own homes awaiting our turn for rations. That's not what this country was created to be. That's not what made this country great. What made this country great were toughness, ambition, and the desire to overcome TOGETHER any hardships that we encountered.
TL;DR: Remember you're an American, and for God's sake act like one.
God Bless you! You are the salt of the earth. We need a million more teachers like you. Both my parents retired as teachers. My Dad took the first offer of early retirement after the DoE was created because the government takeover ruined everything where he was in Newark NJ. Tough school district. He was the only white teacher not to be beaten up by the students.
He had his sensibilities intact. Continued exposure to the NEA (plus living in NJ) turned him into a mush for brains leftist pussy. Stand strong!
Thank you so much for the kind sentiment. I teach in an urban area, and spend a lot of time playing devil's advocate for the students. I don't push an agenda on them (unlike my colleagues). I feel it's far more important to teach my students how to think, rather than what to think. I'm all about leading the horses to water, etc. I truly believe that if they learn what this country is (was) really all about, and how it empowers them, I don't need to convince them of anything.