I didn't vote at all in the late eighties and throughout the nineties. I was a traveler then and spent a lot of my time away from the United States. It wasn't the difficulty of voting while not having a fixed address that kept me from the polls, and it wasn't lack of intersect in the issues of the day. I just chose to stay an outsider. I even referred to myself as a citizen of the world. American citizenship came after that in priority.
Diogenes of Sinope claimed world citizenship. It's believed he was the first to coin the term cosmopolitan ( which literally means world citizen) and apply it to himself in the 5th century BCE. Diogenes has long been a hero of mine, and a teacher. Whether he inspired my claim to cosmopolitan status I don't remember. It may have just been a reluctance to claim New Jersey as my home. It may have been simple arrogance. Maybe I just hoped to remain aloof and untainted by the unseemly spectacle of political mud slinging. I'm pure no more.
This presidential election is a singular moment in our nation's political history. The election of 1860, with the country at the brink of dissolution, may have been a more fateful election, but I doubt we've ever faced an election as ludicrous or tasteless as this one. We can blame that on a just one candidate. Hillary, for all her flaws, has not disgraced herself in this campaign, or elsewhere in her life quite like Donald Trump manages to do on a daily basis. Many of his critics like to point out that Trump gained his fame as a reality t.v. star. That's true, but I don't see how that alone excludes him from high office. I think I could live with the Donald Trump character from the Apprentice as president. The Trump we've seen in this campaign instead has acted more like someone you'd see on the Jerry Springer show. In tonight's debate I'm waiting for the moment he tears off his shirt and shouts "You want this, Hillary?".
According to the Washington Post, Americans are feeling considerable stress over this election. They cite a survey from the American Psychological association where 52% of adults admit feeling somewhat to highly stressed by the presidential race. Those reporting the highest levels of stress are newer voters ( Millennials) and older voters. Michelle Obama in a recent speech said that hearing Trumps remarks about women from the leaked Access Hollywood video " had shaken me to my very core, in a way that I could not have predicted". That sounds like election stress to me.
If this election is getting to you I have a suggestion. Wait for your ballot to arrive,fill it out the best you can, then drop it off in a mail box on your way out of town for the remainder of the election. It's off season anyway. There's nothing worth staying for if you don't have kids in school. Head for the desert. Get on a mountain bike. Clip on to a belay rope. Pull on a pair of hiking boots. Whatever you do stay away from the television. Stay away from radio. Stay away from social media. There is so much going on outside of the narrow world of politics. There is the Milky Way swirling across the night sky. Planets circle round your head. The moon rises and descends, eclipsing any stars that stray across its path. Daylight is worth hanging around for too, and the Sun doesn't give a damn about Donald Trump either.
When holy men in ancient times grew weary of the hurly burly they grabbed a staff and a robe and headed straight for the desert. Maybe they'd meet a burning bush, or hear God whisper something meaningful into their ear. Maybe nothing at all would happen. At the very least the desert guaranteed silence. There was the sound of blowing wind in the afternoon , and at night, the distant howl of jackels . Revelations only come in silence. Silence has a power to restore and feed the soul.
Anyhow, don't be caught thinking that this election will bring disaster on our heads. Trump will not win. When Clinton wins she will not single handedly dismantle the last vestiges of our constitutional republican system and replace them with some good ideas she got from studying Kim Il Sung or Saul Alinsky. That's not her inclination. Even if it were ,a president alone does not have that much power. A president Trump would have even less. He has alienated himself from his own party and he's unlikely to find any allies from across the aisle. If worst comes to worst, there's always the desert.
Diogenes of Sinope claimed world citizenship. It's believed he was the first to coin the term cosmopolitan ( which literally means world citizen) and apply it to himself in the 5th century BCE. Diogenes has long been a hero of mine, and a teacher. Whether he inspired my claim to cosmopolitan status I don't remember. It may have just been a reluctance to claim New Jersey as my home. It may have been simple arrogance. Maybe I just hoped to remain aloof and untainted by the unseemly spectacle of political mud slinging. I'm pure no more.
This presidential election is a singular moment in our nation's political history. The election of 1860, with the country at the brink of dissolution, may have been a more fateful election, but I doubt we've ever faced an election as ludicrous or tasteless as this one. We can blame that on a just one candidate. Hillary, for all her flaws, has not disgraced herself in this campaign, or elsewhere in her life quite like Donald Trump manages to do on a daily basis. Many of his critics like to point out that Trump gained his fame as a reality t.v. star. That's true, but I don't see how that alone excludes him from high office. I think I could live with the Donald Trump character from the Apprentice as president. The Trump we've seen in this campaign instead has acted more like someone you'd see on the Jerry Springer show. In tonight's debate I'm waiting for the moment he tears off his shirt and shouts "You want this, Hillary?".
According to the Washington Post, Americans are feeling considerable stress over this election. They cite a survey from the American Psychological association where 52% of adults admit feeling somewhat to highly stressed by the presidential race. Those reporting the highest levels of stress are newer voters ( Millennials) and older voters. Michelle Obama in a recent speech said that hearing Trumps remarks about women from the leaked Access Hollywood video " had shaken me to my very core, in a way that I could not have predicted". That sounds like election stress to me.
If this election is getting to you I have a suggestion. Wait for your ballot to arrive,fill it out the best you can, then drop it off in a mail box on your way out of town for the remainder of the election. It's off season anyway. There's nothing worth staying for if you don't have kids in school. Head for the desert. Get on a mountain bike. Clip on to a belay rope. Pull on a pair of hiking boots. Whatever you do stay away from the television. Stay away from radio. Stay away from social media. There is so much going on outside of the narrow world of politics. There is the Milky Way swirling across the night sky. Planets circle round your head. The moon rises and descends, eclipsing any stars that stray across its path. Daylight is worth hanging around for too, and the Sun doesn't give a damn about Donald Trump either.
When holy men in ancient times grew weary of the hurly burly they grabbed a staff and a robe and headed straight for the desert. Maybe they'd meet a burning bush, or hear God whisper something meaningful into their ear. Maybe nothing at all would happen. At the very least the desert guaranteed silence. There was the sound of blowing wind in the afternoon , and at night, the distant howl of jackels . Revelations only come in silence. Silence has a power to restore and feed the soul.
Anyhow, don't be caught thinking that this election will bring disaster on our heads. Trump will not win. When Clinton wins she will not single handedly dismantle the last vestiges of our constitutional republican system and replace them with some good ideas she got from studying Kim Il Sung or Saul Alinsky. That's not her inclination. Even if it were ,a president alone does not have that much power. A president Trump would have even less. He has alienated himself from his own party and he's unlikely to find any allies from across the aisle. If worst comes to worst, there's always the desert.
You read it wrong too David. How long will it be before Trump does something impeachable, or has he already?
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