In an undisclosed beach city on the California coast, I was talking to a young woman while she took my order for an acai bowl, and the subject of the state of affairs in our country came up.
Unlike here in Utah, where at the outset of most conversations I have to allow for the likelihood that I am engaging a Trump supporter, I find more often than not that in larger cities along the coast, a more open-minded and educated mindset prevails.
Yes, I just said that if you support Trump, your educational prowess is in question.
In any case, she said to me that she thought these were perilous times and that the uncertainty of the future was more intense than any time she had known in her life.
I nodded that I understood and somewhat related but thought perhaps this was an opportunity to articulate a thought that has been ruminating in my head for the last week or so.
First I told her that I was pretty certain my parents as well as hers had at one point likely said the same thing. And our grandparents and their parents for that matter as well. What would define these times would not be the perpetrator’s avarice, malice, and what they unleashed on the world. What would define these times is how people responded to them. I told her democracy was fledgling in the balance, but it was not dead. Not by a shot.
I gave her an analogy I thought she might relate to. She had told me she was a surfer and liked to sail. I asked her when she thought she was at her best in the water, when the sea was calm or when the wind and swell was up the ocean raged. I asked her if she realized that in those conditions, that she was likely at her best because the conditions demanded it. Experience and skill were all pulled out from a deep place honed over time to be acutely present in the moments where the consequences of decisions were heavier than normal.
She began to see the correlation and I hope you do to here.
Donald Trump and his administration are the living embodiment of what the founders were protecting us from when they drafted the papers that laid the foundation for this nation. A clear and present threat to dignity and liberty as nation is as focused as any has ever been in this group, and it is understandably easy to allow fear to overcome you.
But take heart, because the storm, while doing some damage, has also brought out the very best in us, not only here in the states, but across the world. Those who would stand up to tyranny have not recoiled.
And when at last the waters again calm, history will reflect what has happened. Paraphrasing King Leonidas here, “The world will know that free men stood against a tyrant, that few stood against many, and before this battle was over, even an orange megalomanic can bleed.”
See you out there.
Articles related to “Even an orange megalomanic can bleed”
If truth fears no questions, what is the Trump administration afraid of?
On President Donald Trump and what this election proved to me
How to submit an article, guest opinion piece, or letter to the editor to The Independent
Do you have something to say? Want your voice to be heard by thousands of readers? Send The Independent your letter to the editor or guest opinion piece. All submissions will be considered for publication by our editorial staff. If your letter or editorial is accepted, it will run on suindependent.com, and we’ll promote it through all of our social media channels. We may even decide to include it in our monthly print edition. Just follow our simple submission guidelines and make your voice heard:
—Submissions should be between 300 and 1,500 words.
—Submissions must be sent to editor@infowest.com as a .doc, .docx, .txt, or .rtf file.
—The subject line of the email containing your submission should read “Letter to the editor.”
—Attach your name to both the email and the document file (we don’t run anonymous letters).
—If you have a photo or image you’d like us to use and it’s in .jpg format, at least 1200 X 754 pixels large, and your intellectual property (you own the copyright), feel free to attach it as well, though we reserve the right to choose a different image.
—If you are on Twitter and would like a shout-out when your piece or letter is published, include that in your correspondence and we’ll give you a mention at the time of publication.
