Stuart's Thoughts 10/2/2017

ALARMING SURGE IN DISRESPECT AND HATRED

The tragic and alarming event that just took place in Las Vegas provided the final push for me to write about this topic.  I don’t know if others have noticed but to me there has been a highly noticeable uptick in disrespect and hatred in many segments of our society.  Perhaps that played some role in causing the mass murderer to carry out his horrible plan of action.  Maybe he was totally soured on all of humanity as well as being disappointed and extremely pessimistic about his own life.  It’s truly ironic that a person who has apparently been successful in becoming a multimillionaire would sink to that position.  I guess we’ll never know for sure what motivated him to plan and carry out such a heinous and horrible crime. 

 
The disrespect and hatred I speak of is displayed vividly internationally by terrorist groups, especially ISIS, and rogue nations and it's leaders like North Korea’s Kim Jong-un and Syria’s Bashar al-Assad.  Closer to home, all one needs to do to see this vitriol is to observe the U.S. political scene and, in particular, the news media.  They appear to be like vampires or vultures circling around just waiting for the next opportunity to feed on blood or dying meat.  I’ve never before seen the extent of bias coming from both the right and the left.  Our new President, Donald Trump, has certainly provided them with free ammunition for them to come after him and they’ve taken full advantage and then some.  Right out of the box the Democrats announced that they planned to totally block everything Donald Trump wanted to accomplish.  They would in no way cooperate with him and criticize his every mood in a major push to drive him from office as soon as possible.  In short, they wanted him to fail and do so as quickly as possible.  To be honest, I believe the Republicans wanted the same result and the news media went into a perpetual feeding frenzy.  In the prior administration, some Republicans as well as a well known commentator wished the same fate for Barack Obama.  The current situation is that the entire Washington Establishment, i.e., both parties of career politicians and the main-stream news media do not like the idea of an outsider horning in on their private, citizen funded, perpetual banquet.  Career politicians want to maintain a status quo where they can enjoy a long career in Washington allowing them to accumulate as large a stash of wealth and power as they can grab.  Thus, their overriding goal and interest once they make it to Washington is winning the next election.  A recently elected member of congress confessed that this is where 90% of their effort is directed.  An outsider coming in could upset their golden applecart.

In my opinion, this applecart needs to be upset in order to get government back on the right course.  Unfortunately, Donald Trump does not appear to recognize that strong, respectful and goal oriented leadership is what is needed rather than constant stirring of a caldron of disrespect and division.  I’ve always respected Evan Bayh, former Governor of Indiana and former U.S. Democrat senator who resigned from the senate becoming disgusted with the increased partisanship and disrespect among its members that he had observed.  In a recent interview, he expressed a longing for past times in the congress when people actually liked each other in spite of political differences and could eventually come together to reach mutually agreeable solutions to the nation's problems.

While in many ways, our society has come together to become more considerate and respectful yet in other ways a tidal wave of disrespect and hatred (yes hatred) has emerged.  I can’t say what has caused this and I’m not sure anyone can either.  Is it just the emerging pattern destined by human frailty?  We all need to take a deep breath and re-introduce civility into our daily discourse and actions.