Choice. It's a loaded word. Depending on the conversation, the connotation and implication can divide, unite, or alienate. My seniors are studying the concept of the power in choice. My juniors delve into the myth and ideal of the American Dream. My sophomores study the transformation of innocence to knowledge. My freshman students reflect on the journeys we take in life. Using these unit concepts to guide my teaching for the semester, I find myself reflecting an awful lot on what these big ideas mean to me as well.
Philosophical goat ponders the ideas before him.
The seniors just wrapped up Hamlet. One of the themes in Hamlet is his action versus inaction; will he or won't he. Their final essay dealt with identifying one choice he made, examine how it caused other events in the play, and to offer an alternative choice that would have led to different outcomes. As I sat with my absentee ballot yesterday, I pondered the outcomes of my choices as I darkened in ovals.
Voting moose needed snacks after that.
Cognitively, I understand the theory behind tribalism and human psychology and how fear drives us at our most primal levels, yet as I looked at the very first option on my ballot I simply cannot fathom anyone voting for Trump. While I don't particularly hold with the Libertarian ideas that the free market solves everything and that we should eliminate all the superfluous government offices like federal assistance programs and the Department of Education, I can at least nod and understand why someone might cast their vote for Gary Johnson. I can also step back and look at the values in the Green Party and understand why someone would vote for Jill Stein despite her incredible lack of experience since she is the chosen one to represent their party on the national stage. When it comes to Trump, I got nothing. I cannot even begin to understand the mentality of support for him as it flies in the face of everything I believe. While I know that people change over time and what one said ten years ago does not necessarily translate to what someone might believe now, what Trump has said during this election is chilling. It demonstrates that he has not changed, and he does not feel remorse for anything he has said or encouraged along the way. His comments that his pussy grabbing remarks are "locker room talk" is indicative of his dismissive nature of minorities of all kinds. When it comes to exercising our power of choice, this should be an easy one: Don't vote for Trump.
Well, one would think voting for him is inconceivable.
Unfortunately, some people will. And that's chilling. Some people post on social media that they won't unfriend someone for their political views. I disagree. If you support Trump and openly profess that on social media, I will unfriend you. I don't think it's immature nor do I think it's degrading to democracy as one meme proclaims. I think it's me exercising my power of choice to reject an ideology that would erode democracy if allowed to thrive and accepted into the mainstream. I won't be a party to it. In this, my power of choice to spurn Trump's misogyny, bigotry, and zealotry upholds the values put forth for our country. Trump's values are not my values. I will not accept his values or any agent thereof. You may believe them, but I will renounce them. If that means losing your friendship, better we know where each other really stand. It's only social media after all. It's not like we're bosom buddies who hang every weekend and name one another godparents for our kids, or in my case for our cats.
Be gone, unclean spirits! I cast you out of my friends list.
As for the American Dream, well gee. We sure like to think we're all able to reach that house with a white picket fence and two cars in the garage blah, blah, blah. However, we don't all have that opportunity and don't always see the pathway toward that dream. My juniors just finished The Crucible. Tying that play to the American Dream--oh boy! The Puritans wanted their theocracy, their city on a hill where they could live according to their religious beliefs and lead the rest of the sinners toward the righteous path. Uffda. A country where only one faith is recognized for all didn't work then, and it won't work now. It completely contradicts what America set out to be--a land where all faiths are allowed and respected, but none are supported officially by the government. One of the major themes of the play involves mass hysteria. Doesn't that just sum up the rampant nationalism that Trump spits forth from his self-important podium? We closed the door on the Cold War years ago, but here he is breathing his hatred and vitriol like a frost giant intent on sating his blood-thirst all while earning the support and endorsement of a despot like Putin. Trump's American Dream is not my American Dream. He would have himself on top like a dictator in his gilded palace calling down to the masses of poor people to keep pulling themselves up by their bootstraps even though he's cemented their boots to the deepest possible pits of despair.
How do those boots feel? Too tight? Just you wait.
Then there is moving from innocence to knowledge. With every piece of audio recording, Trump reveals more of who he really is. With every Tweet he tells the world what he really believes. With every appeal to the basest levels of our humanity, he demonstrates who he really is as a person. Yet some people continue to support him. Women continue to support him. Those women baffle me. They must find some comfort in being used and abused and devalued by men. They have chosen to remain lesser members of society, but not me. I won't let the President of our country say it's ok to assault another person. I won't allow our President to say it's ok to revoke the vote the suffragettes fought for. I won't let our President pat me on the head and tell me not to worry my little woman head about things since my only real function is to let him pat my bottom and be his play thing. At this point, it's no longer innocence of who and what he is, it's willful ignorance. These people who support him want their racist and sexist views validated by a leader and that leader cannot be America's leader. Other political leaders who "reluctantly support" him because he's the nominee are just as guilty and worthy of rejection. The time of rank and file support in the Republican party has passed. They should all shun Trump's rhetoric. To do otherwise is to play the ostrich and give support through silence. When Trump started his bid, I admit that I didn't take him seriously. I made jokes and wrote him off, but as time went on, my innocence was lost in the knowledge that my country began to slowly raise up a leader who lies, cheats, exploits, and does it all with impunity. That knowledge leaves me with dismay and disillusionment. What are people thinking? They're not. They want someone to lead them into the abyss.
Chew on that for a minute.
OK, enough. I'd spit it out now if I were you.
As for journey, that's exactly what this election cycle has been: a journey to the abyss. His mouth opens and a gaping maw appears to swallow up our liberty. He would gather us up and ship us out or imprison us if we don't meet with his standards of compliance. To be clear, compliance means total obedience to him. He would have us believe that barring people from seeking the American Dream is in our best interest. He would have us resign an entire gender to pre-19th Amendment era rights. He would have us increase the economic disparity because the common man cannot possibly understand enough about business and the money and should just go work more hours in the mines because that caged bird sings its pretty song for thee right? Just listen to the music. It'll be fine. Less than a month and this journey ends.
Me, too, Samantha. Me, too.
I've made my choice to uphold the American Dream as I understand it. I've gone from innocence to knowledge on this journey toward election 2016. I'm tired, I'm poor, and I yearn to breathe free with the huddled masses on the teeming shores as we lift our lamps to shed light on his shadowy hatred so others see what we see. Then we can slam shut the golden door against Trump and his ilk. I want to hear America sing a song of freedom, and Trump doesn't know that tune.
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