Can we try to "Make America Good Again"?

Far be it from me to lay claim to any special abilities to see into or predict the future. It's not like it was difficult to anticipate events of the past week (or indeed, all of the vitriol and atrocities spoken and committed by Trump supporters over the past 2 years).  Anyone with a pulse and two functioning brain cells could have foreseen this 36 months ago at the start of the campaign season, could have offered guarantees of the outcome if they'd only been paying attention and applied the smallest inkling of critical thought to the last presidential election. What we've seen in the last week, is the culmination of all that #DonTheCon campaigned for--to make anger, ignorance, and lies in defense of stupid white men the law of the land. Yep, that was the entire platform.

#MAGA "Morons are Governing America."

As I said, I can't claim to have any special skill in prognostication, but I did write about this way back in June 2018 HERE, about how our current #NotMyPresident "leader" and the GOP are creating homegrown terrorists. And HERE writing about the beginning of the end of the US as a beacon of freedom.

I just didn't go far enough in shouting out a warning about what was coming. Perhaps I was in denial--we'd never let the racism, hatred, bigotry, and discrimination get so bad in this country that we'd ever again see two black people hunted down and killed, as they'd been back in the civil rights era, would we? No! We'd never sit idly by while some maniac wound up his sycophants to such rabid heights that they'd attempt to murder political opponents. Of course not! Not in the USA. That sort of nonsense happens in third world countries, banana republicans, and Russia, but never here. And certainly, as the champions of freedom around the world, the country that charged in and liberated the concentration camps, freeing the Jews, gays, political dissidents, academics, and all the other thinking people that Hitler had to suppress and murder so he could continue to spread his evil and lies, we would NEVER allow persecution like that in our country; never allow attacks on and the murder of Jews in Synagogue. Not here.

Until now. Until the past 3 years---starting with people accepting this insane man as a viable candidate to the highest office in the land. Our slide down this slippery slope into the hell our country began with people making excuses. "Give him a chance." Despite there being zero evidence that he deserved a chance as he belligerently railed against and made fun of liberals, the media, the disabled, women and anyone and everyone not an old, white, conservative male. Those still holding out any defense of him by the time the election rolled around were delusional. There was no other possible reason to continue supporting him after the vile campaign he ran. My favorite delusion comes from the "christian" Right (aka fascists): "I don't like the man he is, but I like his policies." WHAT?!? His policies are every.single.thing.Christ.Opposed. So, if that's your reason for supporting him, congratulations. You failed Sunday School. You failed Christianity 101. You failed at being a good human being. Stop deluding yourself. God knows you aren't fooling her or anyone else.

But some still did, and when he won, they offered, "The office will change him, he'll rise to the dignity of the position." Within days, he shouted down reporters doing their jobs, urged his crazy followers to attack those reporters (and indeed, anyone who questioned his propaganda), and blathered on about "fake news" each of the many times he was caught in a lie. By November 15, it was clear to everyone (again, everyone with the capacity for thought) that no, he isn't going to rise to the expectations of the office. He's lowering the bar for our country and the position to the least common denominator--his supporters.

As if "Pizza Gate" wasn't ridiculous and pitiable enough for every single person in the world to see what a lunatic was in that office. Didn't we all laugh and say, "no one could possibly be stupid enough to believe that!" But his followers did. One even charged in, single-handedly, rifle at the ready, to save the day. What sane person could believe such a preposterous and obvious fiction, much less act on it?

Words to live by.

And yet, here we are. It's difficult to fathom how far we've sunk so quickly. Did the majority of the German citizenry feel like this in 1933? Had they spent the previous few years thinking "He'll change," or "Someone will do something about this"? Did they feel terror when they knew Hitler's  claim that communists were behind the explosion at the Reichstag was false? That it was just a means to an end, allowing him to easily manipulate a willing legislature--through fear and promises of "greatness again"--into turn over power to him and the Nazi party? Did they feel a terror similar to what so many of us here and now feel when similar claims--"it was the liberals," "it's the democrats"--echo from the mouths of lunatics like Ann Coulter, Rush Limbaugh, and anyone at Fox News? They spew their blatant lies, misinformation, and innuendo, casting blame and aspersions on those of us who are mortified by these events, those who are targeted by the GOP's new brand of "nationalist" nuts, decrying as victims the criminals behind these attacks.

Let me state this in no uncertain terms: every single one of these acts was perpetrated by a Trump supporter, by "nationalists" like Trump proudly proclaimed himself to be just a week ago. That's what the EVIDENCE and FACTS--and even the words of the perpetrators themselves show. Yet, there are those who will still believe the conspiracy theories spewed by the propaganda machine that the White House has become because it feeds their anger and justifies their violence and hatred of their fellow human beings.

Will we, the people, act in time--in mere DAYS--to save our country from them?

I certainly hope so.

Until then...as I've asked in astonishment many times before: How can anyone still support or defend this immoral, lying narcissistic lunatic? While each time I've asked in the past, I've been amazed and disgusted to hear people still suggesting he and his supporters deserve the benefit of the doubt, this time, there is no doubt. If you still support this man, this party, and this direction for our country, you are not a good person. You are an evil, mean, despicable person with a black heart and soul. You can no longer hide behind the shield of "voting for my beliefs." Your beliefs are clear and what you believe in is being a spiteful, violent bigot. Your vote shows what you believe, and it's ugly. It's shameful.

I will never again underestimate the depths of ignorance and hatred rampant in this country.

Perhaps in the upcoming midterm election and in the next presidential election, we should elect a leader who wants to "Make America Think Again." I'd even he happy with someone who wants to make America GOOD. It would be lovely if we could live the way we perceive ourselves to be, as we break our own arms patting ourselves on the backs for being "God-fearing" and a "Christian" nation. How about we get back to just not going out of our way to hurt anyone and every who doesn't look like us? How about we at least stop proudly striving to be idiots?

The End and Beginning: Life in a Post-Obama World

We observe today not a victory of party, but a celebration of freedom — symbolizing an end, as well as a beginning — signifying renewal, as well as change.--John F. Kennedy, in his inaugural address on January 20, 1961

JFK's Inauguration Speech. (Photo from NP.org)

In the current situation, and following Barack Obama's eloquent, elegant, and deeply meaningful Farewell address last night, it seems appropriate today to tweak those words a bit:

We observe today not a celebration of freedom, but a victory of party--symbolizing an end to civility and democracy, as well as a beginning--signifying reversal, as well as demise.--Lynne M. Hinkey, in my paraphrasing of Kennedy's speech.

I've been succumbing to the temptation to follow Timothy Leary's advice and "turn on, tune in, and drop out." In my case, the turning on involved a lot of wine, the tuning in focused on the news (not the fiction fed to gullible folks via Breitbart, Fox, and other propaganda sources but the real news, found through due diligence, investigation, and critical thinking, that takes some effort), and the  dropping out of the echo chamber of Facebook.

Timothy Leary at UC Berkely (Photo from NBCUniversalArchives.com

Last night, hearing Obama's inspiring words recounting his feats (made more remarkable because they were achieved despite an obstructionist GOP Congress doing all they could to bring the country to its knees), and urging us all to stay engaged, I started to rethink my dropping out. Obama reminded us of George Washington's words to "be those anxious, jealous guardians of our democracy; to embrace the joyous task we’ve been given to continually try to improve this great nation of ours. Because for all our outward differences, we all share the same proud title: Citizen."

Those words resonated with me, with my beliefs, my life, with all I've worked for throughout my life: to continuously improve this great nation. My small piece of that very large picture has been in the realm of marine science and science literacy, whether in community outreach and extension programs, science communication, training coastal resource management professionals, or instructing the next generation, my mission has focused on ensuring the development or use of critical thinking skills, finding and evidence-based information derived from rigorous scientific process rather that opinion pulled out of someone's ass because it;s comfortable, easy, or benefits some person or company's bottom line.

It's not much, but it's what I can do. Now, more than ever, we all have to do our parts, small as they may be. (Given the global implications of our science literacy or our science ignorance with regard to climate change, food security, energy independence and renewables, maintaining academic and scientific integrity and rigor in STEM fields isn't small at all, is it?)

Kennedy's speech is primarily remembered for the line, "Ask not what your country can do for you--ask what you can do for your country." Despite my revision above, much of Kennedy's Inauguration Speech is as instructive and relevant today as it was fifty-six years ago. It's worth a thorough read, worth a reminder. Worth reiterating this notice:

Let the word go forth from this time and place, to friend and foe alike, that the torch has been passed to a new generation of Americans — born in this century, tempered by war, disciplined by a hard and bitter peace, proud of our ancient heritage — and unwilling to witness or permit the slow undoing of those human rights to which this Nation has always been committed, and to which we are committed today at home and around the world...

Perhaps Russia had in mind these words from Kennedy when they chose to interfere in our elections, promulgating fake news stories and feeding them to the gullible folks at Breitbart to be passed on to their equally gullible readers: United, there is little we cannot do in a host of cooperative ventures. Divided, there is little we can do — for we dare not meet a powerful challenge at odds and split asunder.

In the words of Abbie Hoffman, "The only way to support a revolution is to create your own." My revolution is a commitment to sound, solid science education, to ensuring critical thinking skills. I will provide my students with a secure foundation for reasoning, demonstrating and demanding not only the questioning of information, but also helping them to develop the research skills that will enable them to find and evaluate factual, relevant information. I refuse to surrender to ignorance, to legitimizing opinion over evidence.

Abbie Hoffman (photo from maxskansascity.om)

Obama reminded me that turning on, tuning in, and dropping out aren't what's needed, especially now. "Ultimately, that’s what our democracy demands. It needs you. Not just when there’s an election, not just when your own narrow interest is at stake, but over the full span of a lifetime..."

I am sincerely grateful to this president, our president, Barack Hussein Obama, for reminding me that my responsibility to this country and to democracy is not to recoil in horror and hide when it's threatened by the overwhelming, blatant ignorance as it now is. My responsibility--all of our responsibility and what's demanded of each of us as good citizens of this country, now more than ever is to 

Show up. Dive in. Persevere.

Barack H. Obama II, 44th President of the USA. (Photo from Elle.com)