Walls

 

"When a foreigner resides among you in your land, do not mistreat them. The foreigner residing among you must be treated as your native-born. Love them as yourself, for you were foreigners in Egypt." ~Leviticus 19: 33-34

You have to do some fancy footwork to make that mean "Build a wall to keep those filthy drug-addicted disease-ridden foreigners out."

But I've seen pictures of Donald Trump holding a bible (albeit upside-down) and Joe Biden makes a point of going to mass every Sunday, so I guess there's a way. 

Not/But

"For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places."  ~Ephesians 6:12

Disconnected

"We seem to have lost the sense that we can freely and happily extend ourselves for others. In modeling our social institutions on business principles, we have become very disconnected from our own noble heart."  ~Ogyen Trinley Dorje (source)

Who made who?

Excerpted from Maureen Dowd's  column in The New York Times, Sunday July 8, 2018:

Trump has certainly made political discourse more crude and belligerent. But is he making the whole country meaner, coarser, and less empathetic? Or was the pump primed for a political figure like him because the internet had already made America meaner, coarser and less empathetic?

Putting the blame on The Internet would seem to imply that we were always a vicious, self-centered people just waiting for the means to unleash our vitriol on the world.

I don't believe that.

I don't know what changed.

And I don't know how to change it back.

The wretched refuse

Donald Trump supporters are not idiots.

When someone buys a lottery ticket, it's not because they don't understand math. They know. But life has beaten them down so badly that they believe a long-shot is their only shot.

Trump's supporters have seen their good-paying Union jobs replaced with low-paying McJobs. In America, less money doesn't just mean downsizing from a Lexus to a Kia- it means you've lost your power, your status, and respect.

Trump is telling them he can get those things back for them. He can't. Win or lose in November, he can't.

But his supporters aren't going away. Until a charismatic leader emerges and gives them a real, viable path to regain that which they have lost, they are going to be out there, grasping at straws; refugees in their own country.