Standing on the Precipice

So, the United States has elected a man who has a documented history of sexual assault, a con artist who earlier this week had to pay out $25 million to those he had defrauded in his phony university, who cheats those to whom he contracts business, who mocks the disabled, who has ties to Russian interests and has almost certainly benefitted from Kremlin interference in the U.S. election, who would ban an entire religion from entering our country, who will use his office as President to make money off his business interests, who is placing his family into prominent roles in the United States in an unprecedented display of nepotism, who defames entire ethnic groups, who refuses to disavow the use of nuclear weapons, who displays an unstable temperament and an inability to even handle basic criticisms, who advocates illegal torture of prisoners, who has demonstrated virtually no knowledge of crucial issues and has constantly lied in most of his public statements, and who has never shown an ounce of kindness or decency in his public life. 

This is the person to whom we have granted custodianship of our government and who will take over power today.

A few points.  To those who voted for Donald Trump: the next four years rest on your shoulders.  You have created this, you own this, you are responsible for this. The rest of us do not wish to hear about how Trump has violated your trust when things go badly.  The signs of untrustworthiness and dishonesty were plain to see, so you can't tell us later you were shocked by what has transpired.

To those of you who didn't bother to vote at all:  the next four years rest on your shoulders too.  Apathy is no excuse, nor can you say you didn't have any good choices.  Abdicating your responsibility is a choice and it is a choice that enabled the coming storm.

To those of you who, like me, are dismayed by what has happened: the next four years also rest on our shoulders.  We must not hide, overwhelmed by our depression.  We must not give up.  We must raise our voices, take action, and support the right and the good.  If we surreneder now, then we too are responsible for what comes.  Only a miniscule number of Germans resisted in the 1930s and evil prevailed.  If we do not stand up for what we believe, then we become enablers of evil as surely as those who support it actively.  Giving up is something we must never do, even if our odds of success seem daunting.  We must move forward with purpose and resolve no matter what, for that is what people who support the cause of justice always do.

We are standing on the precipice. When we look over the edge and contemplate the abyss our stomachs churn with fear and horror.  Even so, we must keep our eyes wide open and work to defend the higher ground with all our heart and all our might.

Our nation's metaphorical position at the moment