Personal Reflections of a Middle-Aged Man

Am I the only person who wakes up feeling good, ready for the day, then it hits we are in the middle of a pandemic, an economic crisis, and a country that seems to be falling apart, led by an infantile little man who has no meta cognitive skills, working hard to become an authoritarian leader at a time when other leadership is severely lacking.

This morning when it hit me, for what seems like the millionth time, I became very angry and it hasn’t left me. Listening to as much of Barr’s testimony today as I could, then the highlights after, have not helped the anger.

I’m angry about having an elected president who doesn’t care a whit about the people, only about enriching his own coffers and running rough shod over the Constitution.

I’m angry I can’t go visit my grandson because an elected president, and the people around him, ignored all the warning signs about COVID-19, and allowed thousands to die, created the circumstance for thousands to have complications of the disease, most likely for life, and fostered an environment for millions to become positive and potential carriers.

I’m angry there are people who believe doing something as simple as wearing a mask to help protect us all has become an affront to their rights, even though the government tells them where they can smoke, whether they can drive, how to behave on an airline, and mandates wearing clothes in public.

I’m angry that stores, with mandated policies of wearing masks to enter, are afraid to enforce their policies with staff and customers because someone might become mad and belligerent, and seem to be afraid to call the police on these customers who have become trespassers to private property when asked to leave due to not wearing a mask.

I’m angry the most powerful woman in the country, Nancy Pelosi, isn’t pulling the purse strings on operations, such as the private mercenary troop in Portland and coming soon to a city near you, or seems afraid to begin impeachment proceedings against Attorney General Barr for his lies to the American people, his interference in judicial proceedings, and for sending a private mercenary troop to a city extra-judicially.

I’m angry at the American Bar Association for not disbarring cabinet members and any elected official who is bending the law, breaking the law, and dishonoring their oath to defend the Constitution.

I’m angry at civil servants working in the Executive and Judicial Branches who are not stepping forward to blow the whistle on all the corruption occurring in and around the White House.

I’m angry I can’t see my family and friends, go out to dinner, see a movie at the theater, or take a vacation away from home because COVID-19 was allowed to become so rampant.

I’m angry at all 50 governors for not coming together as a team to do the right thing for the country in the absence of federal leadership during this pandemic and to defeat the rise of tyranny.

I’m angry at police officers for not calling out, stopping, and/or reporting officers who escalate situations unnecessarily and disproportionately towards people of color, for how they are treating peaceful protesters, and for their treatment of our senior citizens.

I’m angry at newspapers and other media outlets are not calling for the man in the Oval Office to resign in light of his lack of leadership and his march towards authoritarian rule, and because they still haven’t learned how to report on the man in the Oval Office’s behavior, always amplifying his lies, and hateful and cruel rhetoric.

I’m angry there are children in detention camps, away from their moms, their dads, their homes, and being treated as sub-human.

I’m angry the religious leaders of our country are not on television every evening, quoted in newspapers, and writing daily op-ed’s condemning how the poor, the downtrodden, people of color, and the people in the detention camps are being treated, of how these leaders have remained silent when Jesus would have been out among these people doing everything he could to improve their lives.

But most of all, I’m angry at the voters who felt it okay to put this man in the Oval Office to begin with, at my brethren of white men who felt okay voting for a man who treats women with such disdain and disrespect, and my brethren of white Americans who felt it okay to vote for a man with a history of not paying workers on his properties, propagates racial inequality, and spreads hate wherever he goes.

Am I alone in feeling angry?