BALANCE IN AMERICA

 Dear George...As you know from experience balance and leadership can be tricky. But it's even trickier when ethics is tossed aside as if it was an option...

As unsettling as Donald Trump's entry into DC politics was - spiced even more by a global pandemic that peppered the lives of everyone like a shotgun during the election year of Trump's Presidency - both Trump and Covid19 were actually steps toward restoring balance. 

Never mind making that face...I know what you're thinking. The old gal was in quarantine too long! Right?  I wasn't really. As a writer for many decades, self isolation is part of the deal and most book authors didn't even notice. So the limitations that covid pressed on the entire world was not such a hardship for the vast majority of professional writers. [That means the faculties with which I functioned pre-covid weren't affected - though, that said, perhaps I'm not the best judge of my original pre-covid faculties...

Regardless, after making that 'face' and thinking: How the hell did Donald Trump and Covid19 bring balance? I shall attempt to share my theory...

Main Street Delusion: Before Donald Trump there was a popular misconception that 'anyone' could be President of the United States.We now know that isn't entirely so... Presidents are expected to come from the ranks of a political-herd so you learn the secret hand-shake, so you learn when to look the other way, so you learn how things are typically done. But - DJT though a recognizable personality - came from the ranks of WeThePeople. 

Trump was not a career politician, he hadn't held any public office to seek fame and fortune, he already had both. Though - after years of meeting with and eating with and negotiating with career politicians here and all over the globe - Trump knew all too well 'how-things' were typically done. That meant he knew all too well 'how-things' should be done. When horror of horror's happened and the celebrity businessman, New Yorker was actually elected - all keys-to-the-kingdom 'with' all it's secrets - had to be handed over to someone DC considered to be a loud-mouth-loose-canon. 

In a blink, the politically entrenched on both sides of the House and Senate rushed into damage control, Big Time! And Trump [for all the good intentions he had and for all the overdue changes needed and for all the programs he started] soon - foolishly began to hand his sizeable opposition many many rounds of ammunition they could use against him. The massive, daily, relentless character smear campaign was designed so that if Trump 'talked' - if he 'told' any long hidden political secrets - his credibility could easily be questioned. But that smear-machine would not have ultimately led to Trump's 2020 defeat 'if' Trump himself had maintain rational thinking and not sabotaged all three national debates as he did. [What was it that Shakespear wrote: "The fault, dear Brutus is not in our stars but in ourselves..." Substitute Trump for Brutus and 'that' is what happened in November 2020.] 

*The years of Trump exposed; how biased, how ambiguous and how ethically weak U.S.journalism truly is - and - how tribal, insincere and ruthless too many U.S. career politicians truly are. 2016 to 2020 also exposed just how far voters allowed elected representatives to 'drift' from our Constitution. In his Gettysburg Address, Lincoln spoke to the original intention of the new Republic as: "...a government of the people, for the people, 'by' the people..." Which - has evolved to become a government of the Congress, for the Congress, 'by' the Congress.

Main Street Fractured: Before Covid19 the vast majority of parents/families, couples and career focused singles were in a constant-rush. Families, rushed from school to music lessons, to swimming lessons, to sports practices, to fast food, to golf, to yoga, to - you name it, from dawn to dusk every - single - day...Many couples had to pencil in a 'date-night' if they children or not because their waking hours were so packed.

Career focused singles were so career focused they had no social life so had to look for a possible romantic partner via an artificial [online] match-maker.

When I started in 1973 [with keypunch cards] computer technology was a tool designed and intended for humans to control. And believe me from a writer's perspective the ability to move entire paragraphs from one page to another - 'without' needing to retype entire pages is wonderful!  However, five decades later that technology tool has grown and expanded to a position that is controlling humans.

In a blink covid changed much of that. While technology allowed millions to keep their jobs because they could work from home and most kids to keep learning [somewhat] because they could take classes online - parents and couples and singles were instantly isolated. However, except for sad abusive environments, the majority of parents rediscovered their kids. Most parents got to reacquaint themselves with their kids and renew bonds. Thousands of husbands and wives got the opportunity to reconnect with their spouse. Thousands of singles rediscovered 'family' and friends they had not communicated with regularly for months - for some it had been years.

*The year of Covid19 lock-down exposed; how fractured we had become as a society with fractured communities and families and individuals who were distracted, paying more attention to the next big-thing than relationships. 

Covid19 forced us to look inward and to the massive support structure that keeps our culture working. It created an new appreciation for so much we took for granted like; teachers, grocery workers, truckers and utility workers, bank tellers, everyone in the medical field, police and firefighters, our trash collectors, gardeners, hair stylists, retail clerks---our post office and our military...  

Where is Balance In America? Balance is in all those 'places' in our memories and in our hearts and with all those people we would miss if both those places and people were gone. When we believe we don't have time to call someone or don't have time to take a break for a walk or an ice cream cone - we're out of balance...

For 2021, ironically not only America, but our globe has an opportunity for a reset because Trump and Covid19 influenced all politics and all cultures. Viewed then from that perspective - as we 'recover' from the experience of both, what do we want to keep and what are we going to make an effort to change?

https://medium.com/@BraveNewFilms.org/heres-how-to-contact-all-535-members-of-united-states-congress-call-email-tweet-20b8a1c54195

*Sherrie Todd-Beshore is a mystery suspense novelist and former journalist.

Via amazon.com or patchworkpublishing.com 

Suspense-Thriller: "The Count Of Baldpate"

Sequel: "Year Of The Dog"