Translating a World on the Edge

I grew up in a time and place of manners and civility. By the time I was six, I had been taught on which side of the plate to set the fork, and that respect for the people around our table was required. Twice a year, at Easter and Christmas, I helped to polish the silver until it shined, then wash the fine china until I could see my face in it. These were days of significance and celebration when guests were invited and honored.

Often, there were guests I did not like, even guests whose views on religion and politics I knew my parents were not fond of. Yet, my parents treated them cordially, and I was to treat them cordially, too. To treat them otherwise, my mother said, would be a blot on our house and our family, and we would only be hurting ourselves. But isn’t that sort of unmannerly behavior happening today at America’s table?

America is never wholly herself unless she is engaged in high moral principle. We as a people have such a purpose today. It is to make kinder the face of the nation and gentler the face of the world.
–George H.W. Bush

Soon, we will be celebrating Christmas, the birth of Jesus Christ, an event which began Christianity, a religion of love, selflessness, and sacrifice. It is the religion which framed our American Constitution and The Bill of Rights, which was to limit the power of the government and provide the specific freedoms we enjoy today. And yet, some have forgotten, or choose to deny, that America’s foundation was built upon Christian principles. Un-Christian political back-biting, outright lies, vicious rudeness and incivility, and most of all selfishness, permeate news channels and social media with the specific intent of undermining the highest office in the United States of America.

Shouldn’t our leaders be working FOR a better America out of genuine love for their country, and NOT FOR themselves out of selfish agendas? The American table of honesty, civility, and genuine manners–our Fine China–is being broken to pieces for only one reason: America elected President Donald Trump and the opposing political party cannot live with it.

The American people overwhelmingly elected a president to carry out their desire for change. To restore America to its greatness. To make America safe again. To build our military and take care of them. To command respect for the USA from countries who seemed to have lost it. To revere life from conception to death. To make FAIR trade with those countries, not UNFAIR trade. The election of Donald Trump was of great significance–except to some politicians who began their childish protest by not even attending his inauguration– I didn’t get my way, so I’m not going to play— thereby snubbing the majority who voted for him, people they are supposed to serve. Going forward, they attempt to crush every effort of President Trump to better the nation by getting rid of agendas that DID NOT help America, but only hurt her. Theirs is the height of incivility and disrespect. They are not only embarrassing themselves at America’s table, but hurting our country in the worst of ways.

Because the train has left the station, Donald Trump IS our President, whether we voted for him, or not; whether we like him, or not. And the Office of the President should be respected. Even a mindful six year-old can see that. The Democrat party’s snubbing of their Republican brothers and sisters who sit beside them at America’s table is an unwise blot on America. And it will bring us down, not only as a country, but as good people as well. In this holy time of year, as a people and as a country, can’t we go back to our foundations to find our true purpose in the high moral principles historically set for us?

We don’t live alone. We are members of one body. We are responsible for each other. And I tell you that the time will soon come when if men will not learn that lesson, then they will be taught it in fire and blood and anguish. ― J.B. Priestley, An Inspector Calls