What Kind of an Example Do We Set When We Force Our Kids to Endure This President?
What is so wrong with our country that the people can't recognize his complete lack of integrity?
I take my duties as a father seriously.
I work hard. I gave up drinking a few years ago. I obey the law. I try to set a good example.
I try to model accountability. I try to model common decency.
I tell my kids that they should study hard and be kind and compassionate and follow the rules.
Then the president comes on the television and starts bragging about his various sexual assaults. He insults our allies. He insults everybody. He says terrible things and then claims he was joking or exaggerating.
As if that makes it all okay.
He never says he was lying. He can't even be honest about that.
The president issues unlawful orders and whines when judges tell him to stop. Then he fails to comply. They'd call that contempt of court if it were you or I.
The president insults people and mocks them. He suggests wife swapping and smirks. He makes gross body noises and crude gesticulations. He's awful. I don't want my kids to have to look at him.
How the hell can anyone succeed as a parent in this day and age when such a loathsome man so devoid of integrity is allowed to strut upon the stage?
How do I tell my kids, “It's important to know the rules and obey.”
When the president himself disrespects any rule that gets in his way.
How?
“Dad, it kind of seems like the laws are just a joke.”
“Don't fall into that trap.”
“But the president breaks the law all the time.”
“Yeah, and nothing happens, I know. But of all his lies, that one might be the most deceitful by design.”
“Why?”
“Because when he breaks laws there are no consequences. But if you break laws, you'll die. Do you get it yet? You'll die. This example you're seeing over and over and over again is a lie. He's trying to trick you into being like him so he can order the gestapo to make you comply. You've got to understand this if you want to stay alive.”
Then their faces go white and they say, “Well, what can we do?”
And I say, “Honestly? Not a damn thing. You have to say, 'please.' You have to say, 'Thank you.' You have to do the opposite of him. You have to study hard and learn. You have to make yourself indispensable. Because no matter whether or not a tyrant is in charge, they'll still need experts who can do the jobs that are technical. They won't shoot you if they see you in a lab coat because they know you can answer the problems they know nothing about.”
“But daddy that's sad. I want to dedicate myself to the cultivation of kindness and the creation of beautiful things.”
“Yeah, well human life means nothing these days. Keep the flickering flame of compassion alive in your heart, but stay alive yourself. Learn engineering. Learn math. Learn science. Never listen to their praise because they just want to push you into compliance. They'll tell you to smile and be beautiful as if you have nothing else to give. You have more. You must always remember you have more.”
It's hard to convince your kids of the importance of the sacrifices you have to make to succeed when a reckless, con artist, liar, loser, disrespectful, asshole gets all the praise.
He doesn't deserve it.
Truth deserves praise. Integrity deserves praise. Selflessness deserves praise. People who model accountability deserve it.
Not lawless, patriarchal asshats who have never had to work for a living. Not jerks with mounds of treasure that have either been handed to them or stolen. Not them. They do not deserve our attention much less our thanks.
They deserve our derision.
These are awful people.
How is it that we live in a country that can't recognize basic integrity? How hard is it to recognize? Is evil so woven into the fabric of our identity?
This is a nation that was founded on genocide and slavery.
This land is the birthplace of white supremacy! We can't even denounce it because the white folk say it infringes on their sense of serenity.
They don't want to recognize the history that makes them feel dead inside. They twice don't want to provide reparations for the crimes that put so many advantages on their side.
“We don't want to talk about that. That was a long time ago. Let's move on. That trail's gone cold.”
Then they shift like a dragon sleeping upon a mound of stolen gold.
My children deserve better than this example. I'm not going to raise them to be assholes. I don't care if only assholes get elected president.
If that's the glass ceiling, then they're not breaking it.
After this last president, the office looks like a toilet bowl. This latest guy has stained the legacy not just for himself, but for all those who came before.
I think we should start defacing them. Pick up a marker and erase the face of tyrants that held human beings as property. Chip their stone images off the sacred mountains.
Let's be done with them all.
My children deserve a model of decency.
They deserve a model of integrity.
They deserve a model of accountability.
They won't get it from our president.
But you're damn right they're going to see a model of it in me.
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"Well, kids, Mr. Trump is addicted to Diet Coke and fast food- too much of that turns you into a politician with no morals who thinks no national or international law applies to him. You don't want to be like that, do you?"
Unlike you, many(some) parents are part of the cult.
You know they teach them opposite of what you and many more GOOD parents teach. There is also the possibility the Children don’t share the same views. On both sides.