The Pit in My Teeth
Life’s a bowl of cherries and Erma Bombeck wondered if that’s so, why did she alwasys find herself in the pits. I would change that a bit (pun intended) by asking, if life’s a bowl of cherries, why do I always have the pit in my teeth? Or maybe you like a more Forrest Gump approach. Life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you’re gonna get stuck in your teeth. I can play these games with myself and words all day long.
But what I really have to do is what we all have to do every day without fail. I need to bear down and get the tough task at hand wrestled to the mat. I am reminded of the recent story about the the UNC student, Riley Howell who charged the armed gunman going on a shooting spree on campus and took two bullets to the body, but kept on going and finally tackled the shooter forcefully to the ground just as he took a third shot to the brain. Riley is the model of righteous determination with total disregard for self. He is what heros are made of and what we all hope we have in ourselves at our own moments of truth.
We are all at a moment of truth in this nation. Between gun violence, obsequiousness to the NRA, Presidential disregard for the rule of law, Congressional complicity with Presidential lawlessness, disregard for the environment and biodiversity and countless other acts of random violence to the civil and healthy life of the planet, it is hard to deny that we are at an inflection point. The question is, when we are confronted with the metaphorical gunman’s gun barrel, what do we do?
I am thoroughly convinced that many in the Republican ranks will regret and maybe even disavow their support for Trump at some point. He is the exact sort of leader that people distance themselves from whenever he loses the ability to harm them for their disloyalty. When I see him, I see a man who people will spend time explaining and justifying why they stood by him and those rationalizations will always be accompanied with explanations about the inferior alternatives and the difficult moment in history we faced which is hard to understand unless you were there. I see a Mussolini figure who gets strung up and abused by people who’s lives were ruined by the man. Mussolini’s accompanying mistress (the woman who fled Milan for Switzerland with him) was given the same treatment, both bodies hanging upside down in the public square. I will not suggest that is justice, but rather that it is a warning for those who think there are only the contemporaneous consequences of disloyalty to be concerned about. History does not treat deposed autocrats or their collaborators well.
I was surprised to learn that Trump’s most critical supporter, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, has an approval rating of only 33% in his home state of Kentucky. That is surprising for a state which is heavily pro-Trump, but it speaks to the view that sometimes followers are far less admired than leaders, even bad leaders. Nasty followers might actually be more demonizable by people because they are viewed as henchmen and opportunists.
The determination of those of us who see the current state of play as unacceptable may make the difference. The bit is cleary in our teeth over this situation. We are mostly in the pro-impeachment camp. And yes, life is not currently a bowl of cherries and I feel like we are in the pits and that those pits are getting in between my teeth and the bit. Ever get a sesame seed or a corn kernel husk in your back teeth? Then try putting your teeth on a bit over that. Not pleasant in the least. That is how many of us feel at this stage of the Trump drama.
Yes, I bask in the certainty that things will eventually go back to “normal” and that all will be well again, but I am outraged that this tin-pot dictator with a 400-word vocabulary and an arrogance to rival the ages can steal our national consciousness and tarnish our global image in a way unseen in 250 years. This is a nasty business that will get nastier before it gets better. Every day brings new lows for this presidency. For a while we were boldly comparing it to the Nixonian era, but now we are through that and most presidential scholars are back to the use of the word unprecedented when referring to his bold and audacious moves, focused entirely on self-preservation and re-election for self-preservation.
I wish there were a way to rush this gunman and end this hold-up of our nation with one bold move. I’m unclear if I am man enough to do that, but I sure wish the choice existed. I am, of course, speaking metaphorically since I am not one to suggest violence to combat violence. What I do know is that all of my elected representatives need to hear from all of us that they had better be thinking about impeachment because the Republicans and Trump themselves are forcing our hands on that front. I know they feel it is a winning strategy for them and I have heard all the political rationales for why the Democrats should not be doing it, but none of them compares to the imperative I feel to stand up to the gunman.
Heroism is considered by many to be foolish. I am sure many people feel that Riley Howell wasted his life. But I prefer to think of what Riley’s own loving parents said of the act, that he died “headlong and helpful” and that they were not upset that he did what he had to do to take on the gunman. There is a lesson in that for all of us. Life should be lived headlong and helpfully. Bravo, Riley.