Brighton 🇬🇧 ➡️ Portland, OR 🇺🇸 // 👨👩👧👦 // 👷🏻 & 👨💻 // 🌿 💪🏼 🚶🏻♂️ // ❤️
I love a good discussion, and these are typically fuelled by personal opinions
A significant majority of Americans agree that the current political system is not serving them well. Common refrains are that Congress is always at a deadlock, they’re having to choose between two far-from-ideal choices, that third-party candidates “spoil” the vote, and that their vote doesn’t matter.
You can hardly blame them. There’s a lot of truth to that, and in large part, our current first-past-the-post voting system, where whoever gets the most votes wins, is to blame.
Since Wednesday’s atrocious attack on the US Capitol, there have been mounting calls for Trump’s resignation/impeachment/removal from office and while I certainly think that Trump is unfit to be President (and this was true long before Wednesday), the people and companies now seeking to distance themselves from him are worse than those who continue to stand by him.
At this point, there are just 12 days left of Trump’s presidency and while Wednesday’s events are undoubtedly heinous, there have been myriad times and reasons prior to this siege to have said “enough in enough”.
Those who never before stood up to Trump or called him out, but are now doing so, are simply taking the coward’s way out of jumping on to a life raft while the Trump ship takes on more water than it can sustain.
The piece of art above helped me to have a clearer mind on where I stand with respect to Donald Trump and how it should shape my activism.
At the heart of everything, I believe in individuals’ right to have their opinions and I indeed I appreciate having good discussions on any number of topics with people who have different points of view than me.
However, in certain situations, you just have to draw a line. This is one of those situations. It’s not just that I disagree with Donald Trump and his supporters on so many issues. It’s that he’s objectively a terrible human being, who puts his own interests above those of others, while turning a blind eye to the damage that his racist, sexist, self-centered remarks and actions have.
It is sad that upon hearing the news of the death of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, it didn’t take but 3 seconds for me to start considering and dreading the political implications rather than being able to mourn her loss.
It’s a great shame because she was a truly memorable and remarkable justice who left a true legacy in her wake. Women and minorities were afforded much greater protection under the law thanks to her. I spent the weekend remembering her, watching RBG and reading up on her life’s work.
I’ve been posting a lot less here in the last few years. When I look back at when I was posting here the most between 2014 & 2016, I was posting about all sorts of stuff with some regularity.
These days, I’m a busier guy for sure. That’s definitely playing a part. However, I’ve also been hesitant to post about some things which I definitely wasn’t shy to post about 5 years ago. It’s not that I have less to say because God only knows there’s been so much to talk about in just this year alone. There’s a lot on my mind and maybe I’ll get back into the habit of posting again because I find the writing cathartic.
I’m introducing a new law for short cars which I think will receive overwhelming support from the public. Here it is:
All vehicles shall park such that the end of their vehicle is aligned with roadside end of a parking space rather than the wall/sidewalk end.
Why might you ask? Well, I was just bitten again by this situation – a situation I’m sure you’re all very familiar with. You’re driving around the car park looking for a space and 10 spaces in front of you, you see an open space, so you commit, line up, turn in before slamming on the brakes because you realise there’s a teeny tiny car or a motorbike parked there.
All cars are now required to park such that their car is visible from the driving lane to avoid these infuriating incidences.
Preface: I’m keenly aware that as someone who has no voting rights in the USA, my words carry little weight, however, I’m also raising children (most notably, a daughter) in this environment, so I’m exercising my voice on behalf of my children who will one day have the ability to shape the world in which they live.
I’ve very much come to terms with the fact that Trump will be the next President. It’s done and I accept that.
What is much harder to come to terms with is the fact that people think this town jester who:
is someone that a (near) majority of the people consider to be fit to serve in the highest office in the USA. It’s an absolute mockery.
I typically try to stay out of political discussions, mostly because the opportunity for meaningful, thought-provoking and intelligent discussion has all but evaporated these days and because as a British citizen, I am little more than a bystander in American politics.
On a broader note, I saw this video this morning of a speech that President Obama made, where he criticised the GOP for creating an environment in which Donald Trump could succeed, abandoning him at the eleventh hour because openly bragging about sexual assault is apparently one step too far, and then trying to benefit politically from ditching him.
He brings to light the fact that the GOP has promoted, fostered and cultivated such extreme and disparate positions that there is simply no unity in the party anymore. Donald Trump is the prime example of this, saying what his brain tells him to and then recanting, flip-flopping and swerving in response to popular consensus, rather than stating his honest views and sticking by them.
Yesterday, the UK held an historic referendum in which it decided whether to remain in the European Union which it joined in 1973 or leave it altogether (Brexit).
Early this morning despite a tight race, the result was declared in favour of leaving the EU. I was very much in favour of remaining in the EU. I’m not very good at coherently collecting my thoughts into a single unified article, so here’s some thoughts I have on the whole matter:
Obviously the events of Saturday night were horrific and devastating.
But what do we do with all of that? We might be quick to offer “thoughts and prayers” to those involved, or to comment on how tragic, scary and senseless it all is.
However in a week, America will get bored of hearing about it and our drive to do something about it will have all but vanished.
I think people resort to offering “thoughts and prayers” out of a numbness and an acceptance that “this is just what happens here. It’s bound to happen and there’s no way to solve it.”
