When I first arrived in Manhattan through Port Authority, the biggest worry was making certain no one snatched your suitcase, but that was before consensual oral in the Oval and 9/11 were used as weapons of mass destruction by Compassionate Conservatives to launch endless war.
It's not just our Southern anchor and religious pillar, it's how leaders lobbying for divisive politics, Trickle-down economics and church & state combos, manipulate our love of country into fear of differences, to divide Out of Many, One, and conquer Gettysburg Address intent.
Only we who award the reins of power have the power to rein in leaders who inspire an increasing chasm between left & right, young & old, rich & poor, Obamacare & careless Trump -- all while elevating the wall between the educated and deserted.
So why is it, GOP leaders, religious conservatives, and many Alabama women, see only the speck of sawdust in the eyes of Moore/Trump accusers, but pay no attention to the gender-insulting plank of sexual offenders -- choosing instead, to penalize targets of bullying and abuse: women, girls, LGBTQ citizens, men and boys?
We can emulate inept &/or corrupt leaders, or insist bankers stop financially raping aspirants to higher education. We can tune in to those who espouse fake news, while projecting a lack of fair and balance on redundant and imperfect pros, or we can disavow risking our freedom to think, by derailing Pied Pipers, willing to say and do anything to distract us from the differences between Bannon power fantasies and the realities of life in both the middle class and Middle East.
As nation and people, we again face another Y in the road and must choose, for what shall it profit We the People, if Republicans shall gain the Evangelical vote, and lose our Justice for All soul.
We've lost our balance: California Hell fires largely ignored by Washington -- The Silence Breakers of #MeToo inflamed by men akin to both America's 45th and his Roy penis extension -- and good men rudely awakened to, enlightenment: off-color jokes, suggestive coupling comments, groping gesticulations -- even some flirtations -- have damaged lives.
If we elect a child molester to consolidate political power, isn't it easy to pardon colluding with a foreign power and rekindling Moore's good ol' days?
Perhaps, The Mortal Storm, shouldn't have made my list of movies to watch during, 'tis the season to be jolly. However, revisiting the 1940 film starring Margaret Sullavan (who overdosed in 1960), James (before becoming Jimmy and Brigadier General) Stewart, pre-Father Knows Best Robert Young and the Wizard himself, Frank Morgan, reminded me, we didn't know, failed as an excuse, seventy-two years ago.
Are support our troops, love thy neighbor as thyself and our thoughts and prayers meaningless cliches or calls to create heaven on earth, with climate justice and gender equality?
If America chooses to follow leaders willing to sacrifice truth for the exhilaration of personal gain, trusting homeland security to our historical tendency to hero worship, doesn't our very identity become a welcome mat for blaming the victims?
It's not just innocent until proven guilty, it's the repression of healthy romantic intimacy creating the rapists of human decency.
It's not just powerful men abusing power and women. It's those armed with the power to vote, denying domestic terrorism, while doing the bidding of gun-violence provocateurs, phony patriots and religious extremists.
It's, we the marketed by political spin, who've succumbed to a rape culture, enticing us to ignore the domestic violence of Bullies and Friends.
Perhaps, a comedian's farewell to Congress, is the wisdom needed, to avoid bequeathing the height of irony and depth of hypocrisy to our children -- especially, our female children.
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