It is 5:51 AM. I’ve caught a cold from my youngest boy and not feeling too great. One thing about colds though is that they really make you appreciate your health. This cold in-particular has actually reduced my stress/anxiety level a bit because it has forced me to slow down, take a deep breath and put things into perspective. That perspective being, to not take my health for granted, stop worrying so much about work and enjoy life.
I’m hoping I feel much better tomorrow because I have a karate test for the next level. Speaking of stress I was also a little stressed to see if we would be invited to take the test or not. We finally received our invitations after karate class on Monday and then my cold hit. Either way I have to take the test so I can learn new things with the new level, I just wish it could be done without a cold.
Other things that have been on my mind is that for the first time in a long while I can truly get a sense of the feelings that the conservative side feels. As one of their websites say they are 100% fed up. I was speaking with someone from back home about the attack at Ohio State where the attacker ran their car into students and started stabbing people. This hits close to home (literally) because I’m from Ohio and went to Ohio State!
The person I was speaking with is another liberal, a Democrat, and she was saying, “You know, enough is enough.” This is one of the feelings that have washed over a very large part of the country. It is scary and especially so because I find myself feeling that darkness, that dislike starting to creep into my own mind. It seems the attacker was feeling out of place, as though he wasn’t being accommodated enough. He had a hard time finding a place to pray at Ohio State. He was upset about the USA interfering in other countries and stated that if the USA wanted these lone wolf attacks to stop they should stop interfering.
Yes, I for one agree that the USA should stop interfering but driving a car into students at OSU and stabbing them is not the solution. I’m open minded, worldly, and consider myself pretty smart but yet I cannot help but feel that I’m starting to agree with the conservative side, wrong as they may be. Yes, Muslims that commit attacks like this are a very small minority. Yes, if it was a Christian the attack the media would say it was due to mental issues, or something like that. It is only with Muslim attacks that they are called terrorist attacks.
Then there is the Black Lives Matter movement which has a small minority of people that destroy property. However, that destruction overshadows the movement and galvanizes Trump supporters who see the whole thing as lawlessness that needs to be brought under control.
Agree with me or not, the very grave fact remains that we now have a President Trump who wants to create a database of Muslims and bring law and order back aka. smack down some protesters.
So as for my own opinion? No, this is definitely not good. The best scenario?: Muslims continue to integrate into American society, America stops the constant war overseas, young Muslim youths stop carrying out attacks, America has a frank discussion about racism, the black community honestly looks at their own problems and struggles, and America figures out what kind of society it wants to have.
But no, it is all a big mess. Obama did not address the concerns of the middle class white voter enough and so we get a demagogue in Trump. Black Lives Matter’s rogue element went too far and is responsible for the ambushes on police which has resulted in a backlash in support of the police. The guy down the street from me now hangs a black and white “think blue line” flag in support of police. I too support the police but worry that a certain element base their support in racism and hate. And now some kid attacks my hometown?
Yes, liberals will use all these lofty arguments, poke a million holes in what I’ve said above and so on. However, I AM a super liberal, I’ve been around the world, and yet the feeling that Conservative “enough is enough” feeling has also started to creep into my brain and I’d like to see more support for police and more immigration controls, especially from troubled parts of the world.
This scares me because if I’m feeling this way then what are a large number of my country men feeling? They’ve already elected Trump so how nasty are things going to get?
Finally, here is a video one of my old friends recently shared on Facebook. Same feelings that again, got Trump elected.
