We Americans are fiddling while Rome burns. There is a very large fire on the horizon and few of us seem to be concerned about it.
Unlike most politicians, Sens. Bob Corker, Jeff Flake and John McCain have at least had the integrity not to remain mute about this fire that President Trump has fanned playing his adolescent game of “chicken” with North Korea. The silence of other politicians and of “we the people” makes us complicit in the possible destruction of our country — perhaps most life on the planet, perhaps even the planet itself. It is time to pull our heads out of the muck of distractions, “entertainment,” and falsehoods that prevail and face the existential threat posed by President Trump’s continuation in office.
It only takes one successful detonation of a high altitude nuclear device over North America to create an electromagnetic pulse of such degree as to paralyze the United States and ultimately bring about the deaths of most of us — 90 percent according to some estimates — from lack of access to food and water, near total energy and communications failures, disabled transportation, radiation, etc. Cockroaches no doubt would thrive.
Despite what a President Pence might do to additionally dismantle hard-won rights and remaining environmental protections—all meaningless if humanity is eradicated—it seems less likely that Pence would propel us into a nuclear exchange with North Korea. With Trump, the danger of nuclear warfare is front and center. Everything else is secondary.
This is not a time for business as usual. If our country were a single organism—and in a sense it is—it would be in the critical-care ward, considered to be in acute failure (suicide attempt).
Congressional representatives are not listening to the many pleas to do something. Letters to Sen. Orrin Hatch receive a namby-pamby, self-congratulatory, stock response lacking any relevance to the issues raised.
Unfortunately we the people have no power to impeach or recall federal senators and representatives. We can vote them out, but the 2018 elections may come too late. Action is needed now. Complacency is the handmaiden of extinction.
Representatives should be inundated with demands for Trump’s removal; it is up to Congress to figure out the how. Sheer volume of mail and phone calls, marches, sit-ins and other strategies we have yet to think of may speak louder than reason alone.
Are we the people willing to be collateral damage in Trump’s game? Refusing to see what is happening does not make us patriotic. Nor is patriotism defined by silence and passivity in the face of danger. If we are not doing something to agitate for President Trump’s removal from office, then we may indeed be complicit in our downfall. (Does the history of Hitler’s Germany come to mind? It should.)
Don’t wait for others to take action. Some people would rather be dead than admit to being wrong or change a belief.
On the other hand, as a species maybe we humans aren’t worthy of being “saved.” If you think we are worthy don’t be complicit in our demise.
Bonnie Mangold, Teasdale, retired from the Utah Symphony a decade ago after 38 years in the cello section, having joined the Symphony when Maestro Abravanel was at the helm. She is now living in south-central Utah where she writes, teaches and still performs with her pianist sister in nearby Colorado. Bonnie recently published the book Journey Into the Heart of Music: Going Beyond the Notes to Sing Your Song. Currently she is working on a manual for citizen activists: The Reluctant Advocate.