Are We Really Having This Conversation?

March 30, 2017

Was sitting in a local coffeehouse this morning, selling off one of my unused guitars to a fellow baby-boomer, when the conversation turned to the Donald. (He brought up the topic; I try to avoid public Trump discussions with people I don’t know for fear of creating an ugly public display.)

The gentleman took particular issue with Trump’s latest act of nepotism: hiring daughter Ivanka. I, of course, agreed with his reasoning. While the hire may have been technically legal because of a loophole that overlooks advisor positions, it certainly violated the spirit of the law. Why would job title override the actual working relationship?

He went on to say, “Well, maybe it’s for the best; I’d rather have her advising daddy than that asshole Bannon.”

I had to agree.

But, after the briefest of pauses we both blurted out, “I can’t believe we’re having this conversation.”

Yeah, nepotism is better than Nazism. I guess… but why are these our only choices?

They’re not.

The president’s relatives and white supremacists don’t belong in the White House inner circle. Period. The conversation need go no further than that. Both are wrong; one does not cancel out the other.

In the one-hundred-forty-two days since the election, absurd conversations have become common. The republic needs to remember, this is not normal.

In Peace and Justice,
osv

PS-
Even though you can’t expect to defeat the absurdity of
the world, you must make the attempt. That’s morality,
that’s religion, that’s art, that’s life.
– Phil Ochs