Tag Archives: trump

My Lifejacket

A month ago I made a post outlining my concern with Trump.  I concluded it by stating my strategy that I was going to get tighter with Jesus and stay that way.  In the comments I was moved to get specific about what that might look like.  I put into writing what I figured I needed to do.  I committed to read a chapter of the gospels every day, until I had them memorized or the turmoil south of us had passed, which ever came first.  I have mostly made good on that promise to myself, I have missed days but I am working at it.   Its funny what you notice when you read with different eyes.  For instance I knew that Jesus and his Mom and Dad had to flee to Egypt when he was very small, to avoid being found and killed by Herod the ruler of the day.  However something never really hit me until I read it while also pondering what was happening to immigrants in the USA.  It hit me, “Jesus was a refugee!”  He was received by Egyptians as a human fleeing threat to his life.    We say that having been human Jesus knows what humanity faces, this story adds texture to that and adds strength to the Christian mandate to treat the refugee, the immigrant with dignity.  There is a lot percolating in me as a result of my reading. 

This morning I grabbed coffee and found myself thinking as I picked up my Bible, “why am I doing this?”   The notion that came to me was “because this is putting on your lifejacket.”    That makes sense for me.  I am finding the daily onslaught of developments dizzying.  I don’t know enough to make good replies to what I see on social media, I don’t know how I can make a difference.  Things seem so significant, with so much potential for harm near and far, it feels imperative to attempt to make a positive difference, and certainly I need to not drown in it all.   I pondered then that my readings serve as a lifejacket for me when they help me stay clear eyed about what matters, what is true and right.  Staying clear about that, speaking from that, will keep me from starting to go under.  Here is an example of how that worked one morning recently.   I read the part of Matthew where Jesus says “it is easier for a camel to go throught the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven.”  I have preached on this passage many times.  There is much that could be said, but in the context of getting the wisdom that is going to keep me afloat, there was a clear message.   It goes something like this, “Kathy, first of all, you are a privileged white person, you see things through that lens, don’t think otherwise. And….. Be careful.  Be wise.  Be unselfish.  Secondly, do not trust anything that creates harm for some so that others can be rich.  Do not trust it.  It is not of God.”

That” lifejacket” tells me I am right to be concerned when the richest men in the world sit closest to the incoming president at his inauguration, and when I hear that their wealth has increased immeasurably since the election, I am right to be suspicious, and when I refuse to give my allegiance to a way of life that blesses all this, I can feel justified.  Holy shit, why do these thoughts feel so radical to say out loud? 

One Week In

I have read in several places lately that to be silent when harm is unfolding is to be complicit in the harm.   That’s hard.  I am not someone who likes to ruffle feathers.  I am not someone who wants anyone to think badly about me.  There is a part of me that thinks its time though.   Recent events in the United States have me deeply uncomfortable because I believe that something very nefarious and therefore very harmful is now underway.   I have been following Trump and his actions closely for almost ten years.  As a result I could speak long about what I have been processing.  I will not.  There is actually so much from the last week that I am wrestling with. 

Trump was elected, by his own admission, because the regular people of the U.S. need life to be more affordable.  He promised to address this on day one, with lower eggs prices and lower gas prices.    One week in he has not done anything to effect these changes, in lengthy speeches he has given he has not spoken of any plan, actually, I understand he has not mentioned these things at all.   Maybe that will yet come.  However, what he did do on day one is revoke price protections on prescription drugs.  Low income people who until then had a $35 limit on insulin costs now must suddenly absorb costs for this same drug that are several hundred dollars a month.  There was a time in our married life when money was extremely tight, a constant source of stress.  Despite our best efforts and conservative lifestyle we had no flex.  The moments that seem cemented in my memory include standing at the teller at the bank, cashing in a $1000 RRSP so that we could take the kids on a week long camping trip, there was no other way to fund it and it was June, a slower time, when maybe we could squeak out some time away with Russ.  It was an embarassing moment at the bank wicket.  Admittedly we were lucky that a prior time in our life had allowed some RRSSPs to be a cushion for us. In those same days I didn’t have internet banking and our balance was not always readily available or something I was organized to always know.  There were so many times I stood at the grocery store cashier with fear that the transaction would be denied.   That is what I call up in my mind when I think about people all over the U.S. who will somehow have to come up with extra money now.  How will they do that?  What was gained by taking off these caps?  Something tells me it appeased donors from the pharmaceutical industry.   It certainly will do nothing to make life more affordable for the everyday person.  I find myself wondering how this development is feeling to Moms with kids, the group I most relate to.

Russ showed me a post this week that cited all the incredible accomplishments of Trump in the first week.  It was mind boggling that some would frame these things as progress and our Canadian neighbors would see fit to share it.  One of the things was that he had “moved to take control of Greenland and the Panama Canal.”   When you move to take control of another country it is about war.   For what reason would any country lay down and give up and hand over their sovereignty to Donald Trump, his administration and the U.S.?  I know nothing about military strategy but my guts tell me that a concerted effort by the US to take over Greenland means a new war.  Who wants to be in the middle of a war?  How can this be deemed progress?  Later on in that same post it was celebrated that Trump had “secured one trillion dollars of Saudi Arabian support for the United States.”    My first reaction was, “as if they will provide support without strings attached.”  But I thought I should see what the details actually were.  When I looked up what had been asked and promised it is that 800 billion dollars will be invested over four years.  That doesn’t sound quite as iffy, investment sounds better than what seemed like a donation.  But seriously, if it takes wangling  by Trump to get that “support”, what is Saudi Arabia getting out of it?  What strings are attached?  What are the American people handing over without knowing it?  In my mind neither of these things are items to brag about, not if you value peace and have trust in the power of the USA to forge their way without indebtedness to a foreign nation. 

I got into a bit of a testy conversation about Trump this week, it had me asking, “what would Trump have to do to cause you to withdraw your support for him?”   The thinking behind my question was that “surely you have a line that you draw somewhere, not everything is acceptable.”  Perhaps I am intolerant but my line was crossed back in the early days when he showed himself to be someone who lies.  “They’re eating the cats, they’re eating the dogs” is a recent example but it is not hard to find a multitude of stories of people who were cheated by him and fact checkers from his first presidential term note more than 30,000 of his lies are in the public record.  I think about it like this, in our homes when people lie to one another it destablilizes trust.  When trust is reduced we hesitate to take risks with one another, like we don’t share with one another what makes us vulnerable.  When we don’t take relational risks we can’t strengthen bonds and nourish the roots of our relationships.  With fragile bonds and shallow roots our relationships can’t do for us what we need them to do, we suffer and our society with it.  So I have resisted Trump.   I can’t stand the thought that lying has been normalized.   There is more that I am very troubled by but that’s enough for now.

It seems time to make as clear a statement as I can, about what I am thinking and why.  I want it to be my own words, not a sassy meme.  I want to make it entirely clear that if you are worried about how life is going to be over the next four years I am too.  I also want to say that it is my intention to walk lockstep with Jesus, more now than ever.   In the midst of the confusion of conflicting values and priorities, with mixed messages and double standards everywhere, I will be holding myself to his example.  He looked at people with eyes of compassion and mercy, he readily saw and spoke to the abuse of power, he affirmed the humanity and the worth of all he met.  And there is more.  So much more.  His way is my hope.