By Troy Headrick
I realize that this blog is not primarily a place for political writing, but bear with me for a paragraph or two. Though this piece is going to have a political start, it’s going to end up being about culture and human relations and teaching. In it, I’ll even make a recommendation about actions we need to take during this scary political moment in world history.
I had a piece written for Pointless Overthinking that I planned on posting today, but then something happened this past weekend that made me reconsider. If you’re not an American and don’t consider yourself very political, you may not realize that President Trump—I always shudder when I type “President” before his name—is terribly corrupt and acts like a dictator wannabe. Because of this, he’s been investigated, by all sorts of investigative bodies, since the day he took office. This past weekend, the Special Counsel investigation, headed by Robert Mueller, ended and a summary of the findings were released by Bill Barr, the United States Attorney General and a Trump sycophant, which supposedly exonerated the president. Of course, this summary stunk to high heaven—something definitely seemed rotten in Denmark—and everyone, with the exception of Trump’s followers, are concerned if not outraged. It appears that Barr’s summary of Mueller’s findings bear the signs of being a blatant whitewash.
Trump is as evil as he is clever. He uses divisiveness to pit groups of Americans against one another. He does this to great effect, and we all know this is tearing the fabric of American society and the body politic. To stoke tensions between groups of citizens to give himself more power—divide and conquer is his modus operandi—is hateful, despicable, and nihilistic.
Racism, xenophobia, and Islamophobia are on the rise in America and Europe (and possibly elsewhere). Thoughtful, inclusive, and caring people everywhere have to pull together when fascist politicians what to tear us apart. I’m lucky to live in San Antonio, Texas, a very multicultural and progressive city. My wife is a Muslim and an immigrant and has never been treated badly by anyone in this part of Texas. We very much hope things stay that way. I, in fact, have been an immigrant on several occasions and can tell you, firsthand, how hard it is to move to a faraway place and to confront the isolation that accompanies such a relocation.
Years ago I declared myself a pacifist and thus I shy away from conflict of all sorts. It therefore pains me to have to write the following sentence: We are going to have to push back (very vigorously) against the forces that want to tear us apart. We may have to very strongly stand up for what we believe in. We may be forced to do things that make us feel uncomfortable and fearful. We cannot allow hate to crush love.
While doing this pushing back, just remember that your Muslim neighbors are your brothers and sisters. They might dress differently and worship differently than you do, but they are human beings who yearn and love and feel sadness and want to make the world a better place.
And immigrants, no matter where they came from, are mostly hardworking people who often leave their home countries out of necessity. Having been an immigrant myself, I can’t tell you how hard it is to leave comfortable surroundings to go to a place where one often doesn’t speak the local language and feels culturally and financially adrift. People don’t uproot themselves on a whim. People who do this sort of uprooting are tough—indomitable survivors. Such individuals are the sort one wants to have in one’s country because they have struggled and understand what real struggle looks and feels like. They have character and integrity.
I realize I’m probably mostly preaching to the choir here. I’m not writing this for the regular readers of Pointless Overthinking. I’m writing this to encourage those with an open mind to share this message of love and tolerance with everyone. Spread it far and wide. Preach hope and love and tolerance and goodwill toward all. Plant seeds of acceptance in the mind of everyone you meet.
Troy Headrick’s personal blog can be found at Thinker Boy: Blog & Art.
Reblogged this on and commented:
REBLOGGED: “I’m writing this to encourage those with an open mind to share this message of love and tolerance with everyone. Spread it far and wide. Preach hope and love and tolerance and goodwill toward all. Plant seeds of acceptance in the mind of everyone you meet.”
Thanks for reblogging my post!
So well written. If it’s okay I would like to share this post.
I’m happy you found it well written. Of course you can share it! And thanks!
Hi. Would you mind sharing a link to the site where the piece was reblogged. Thanks.
Here is the link to my reblog of your post:
http://lifeafter50forwomen.com/2019/03/26/we-are-one-spread-the-word/
Love it. Not American and not someone who follows politics, but eff racism and ignorance. 😎
Thanks! I worry that we’re moving into a period where many of us will not have the luxury of ignoring politics. If the far right rises, we free-thinking people will be under threat. We can’t wait too long to counter this pernicious influence. And yes, eff racism and ignorance.
Over the weekend we had our own state and local election so my happy and little interest in politics was spent following that. My state had it’s first female elected premier win, but I don’t like the party she represents. Oh well.
Something that frustrates me is the apathy of the nation in where people are all too ready to complain, but when it comes down to vote, where are they?
Here in Australia, voting is compulsory and you get fined if you don’t vote. But there are people who donkey vote (waste their vote by filling out the ballot incorrectly, or drawing on their ballot paper, etc). When people say “What difference will one vote make?” That annoys me because there are thousands of people who think that way. That’s thousands of votes and that makes a world of difference when squandered so readily like that.
Thanks to those who are liking and commenting on my blog!
Reblogged this on Keep it alive and commented:
An excellent thought provoking post By Troy Headrick.
Thanks for the reblog!
Reblogged it on Keep it alive. “An excellent, thought provoking post by Tory Headrick.
Well written post that expresses my thoughts, fears, concerns, and hopes for the future of our country.
I’m totally with you, brother (or sister). Now’s not the time to sleep. We have to wake up, stay vigilant, develop a plan, pull together or were going to wake up one morning and find ourselves up shit creek (to use an American colloquialism).
Thanks for sharing!.. 🙂
“Change will not come if we wait for some other person, or if we wait for some other time. We are the ones we’ve been waiting for. We are the change that we seek.” ― Barack Obama
I totally agree! We are fast approaching a time when we can no longer afford to be passive or disinterested (unless we are willing to give up a lot of our rights and live in an America that only vaguely resembles what we once had). The cavalry ins’t going to ride in in the nick of time. Superman isn’t going to swoop in the save the day. Political participation doesn’t just mean stepping into a voting booth from time to time. It requires us to speak out, debate, sweat, engage, hit the streets, educate others, push back–you name it.
Thank you for your comment.