Have You No Shame?”
In the 2020 presidential election 74,223,030 citizens voted to re-elect Donald Trump. Have you no shame?
Do you recognize these words? “trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient, cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean, and reverent”? They are from the Boy Scout Motto. How about honor, shame, truthfulness, empathy, compassion, respect, admiration, pride, honest, faithful, and considerate? When I was growing up in the fifties and sixties, these were the values we were taught for ourselves and our country. In 1980, Ronald Reagan referred to the US as “America is a shining city upon a hill whose beacon light guides freedom-loving people everywhere.” We maintained and lived by those values that the rest of the world admired and emulated for a couple of more decades. I still do. Do you?
For several reasons, the US gradually began to lose its luster. Part of it was that some of the luster was fool’s gold. When we were growing up, our schoolbooks conveniently overlooked or avoided deeply examining our less honorable behaviors like slavery, our treatment of Native Americans, Japanese internment camps, segregation, social injustice, and other less than admirable behaviors. In other words, we had skeletons in our closet that we did not confront — partially because up until Trump, we had the sense to be ashamed of them.
Under Trump, the Republicans have lost their sense of shame. They have swung so far away from our traditional values that they defended Trump when he called racists and neo-Nazis “good people” when they attacked peaceful protesters in Charlottesville. They turned a blind eye to Trump’s ‘Babies In Cages” immigration policies. As I write this, the Republicans are actively enabling Trump as he seeks to destroy America’s free and fair elections. You cannot believe that the elections were not fair. Trump’s own sycophant minions have taken dozens of attempts to court and been rebuffed and dismissed every time as baseless and without any evidence to support them. What is wrong with you? How much disgraceful behavior will you tolerate? What are you waiting for? How much is too much?
We are rapidly approaching 300,000 deaths in the US from COVID-19 and losing about 3,000 Americans a day to the pandemic. Ask yourself , “Why?” You have heard the numbers. During this pandemic, people in the United States are dying at rates unparalleled elsewhere in the world. We proudly brag that we have the best doctors, scientists, and medical facilities in the world. Then why are a disproportionate number of Americans dying? You know but refuse to accept the answer. It is because Donald Trump, for selfish political reasons thought that denying there was a real problem would help him get reelected.
Wearing masks, social distancing, and personal hygiene are not part of a radical deep-state conspiracy to turn citizens into sheep. They are proven practices that fight the spread of the virus and save lives. If I accept that Trump is a selfish narcissist, they I can understand why he is preaching his message against the science. But, what about the rest of you Republicans? Why are you willing to risk your lives and the lives of people around you just to demonstrate your belief in and support for Trump? I understand the court appointments and the tax breaks for some of you feel good. But at what cost? Have you no shame?
I served in the military and fought for this country. Many of my friends and USNA classmates’ names are etched on that granite Vietnam Memorial in DC. The lyrics of Lee Greenwood’s song Proud to be an American have real meaning to me.
And I’m proud to be an American
Where at least I know I’m free
And I won’t forget the men who died
Who gave that right to me
And I’d gladly stand up next to you
And defend Her still today
’Cause there ain’t no doubt
I love this land
God Bless the U.S.A.
But there is a problem. I am not proud of the America that is allowing Trump to destroy the values that made us great. In case you have forgotten them, listen to them, and behave like you believe them. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0_p7eW5BUpA
President-elect Biden says he wants to restore our national unity and values. Regardless of the other things he says or does, support that effort. We will all be better off if we go back to living the values that made us great to begin with. Make America Great Again has a bitter bite to it in Trump’s perverse implementation of the idea. Let’s restore the values that made America great for so many years. I think it must begin by restoring a national sense of shame for some of our recent behaviors.
I have shame and it doesn’t feel good, so I have decided to try to do something about it. I wrote a book titled Fight Poverty — Not the Poor (https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/fight-poverty-not-the-poor-allan-c-jones/1144062370) that identifies and explains the many issues related to poverty. I invte youy to read it and get involved with our efforts to eliminate poerty.
