January 13, 2021
11 min readJan 13, 2021
January 13, 2021
Today the Congressmen in the United States House of Representatives are debating the Impeachment of Donald J. Trump, current president of the United States. I have been awake since 7 A.M. and my thoughts have been consumed with the current state of our Nation. I have been dealing with feelings of depression, feelings of disgust and disheartening disillusionment. It is a raw wound that feels as if it will fester, and I am saddened by the loss of life and sanity that is occurring all around this nation.
Violent, armed protests are being planned and coordinated by bad-actors, domestic terrorists who want nothing more than a bloody insurrection and the ability to demand that the personality they like is instilled into office as a dictator. Donald Trump still continues to deny that his words inflamed the crowd into an unruly mob, that his inability to accept that the American people – in majority - decided that we prefer a different individual in office. This Cult of personality is destroying America. It is rending us to our very foundation. Friends, family members, neighbors who have lived and worked side by side their entire lives are now balanced on the precipice of a civil war illegally incited by a deranged and power hungry individual. We seem to be letting emotions prevail instead of logic, reason, decency, dignity and common sense. The desire to stoke the flames of rebellion is understandable and even necessary in regimes that silence and oppress its people. That so many in America believe that they are living in a time and place where revolt is necessary is both deeply disheartening and deeply troubling.
In a time when we need unity the most - when we need reason and understanding to prevail and help guide us through the current crisis of a global pandemic that has already killed nearly 2 million people globally - instead there is massive civil unrest alongside people dying daily by the thousands in hospitals too overcrowded and medical staff too overburdened to successfully deal with every emergency case that comes to the fore. No longer do we have the peace necessary to move forward in the fight against an invisible enemy that is slaughtering not just Americans but all humans. People are dying at a rate of over 13,000 a day globally. In the time that it took me to write this, thousands of people died due to a disease that we are unprepared to deal with. Yet we battle over the personality that should be running the country. We let hatred of another's beliefs and ideals stoke us into arguments, altercations and declarations of war, and all of this makes a din so loud that it becomes impossible to focus on the task of saving lives. Instead, we must continue to be inundated and rent apart by a popularity contest that will leave us worse off than we are today.
These actions that have been perpetrated on the American people are unlawful, immoral, unconscionable and must be regarded by the American people as an attack on all liberty everywhere. There are people that will argue that the election was stolen while ignoring that every court of the land that has heard arguments attesting this have found that the election was a free, fair and secure election. That the enfranchisement of so many more American voices can cause this kind of disruption to the daily function of a normal government leaves me aghast at the ability of the American people to ignore truth in favor of politics, prestige and
emotion. This ignorance of truth is a chosen and curated action by our fellow Americans. Following blindly the words of a traitorous President has led millions of us into war against ourselves, and rationality appears to be breaking down.
Living in south Georgia, I don't often get to hear the voice of reason interspersed with the arguments that resound like an echo chamber for those that have been conned by this man. Seldom do I get to talk to people that don't either walk away from a rational discussion or attempt to turn it into a hateful, heated debate. It is a feeling of psychological oppression. It has become rote for me to go to work, then come home and sleep because I fear speaking out. I fear my voice will cause people in my town who wrongly buy into the idea that this civil war is a necessary thing will bring harm to my wife and children. I live in fear that my political views will cause my wife to lose her position because the vast majority of people that live in this tiny community are supporters of Donald Trump, and 'winning at any cost' is the core tenet of his cult of personality. I struggle against a terror that we will be ostracized or attacked by the community I have lived in since the day of my birth. I was born in this small town and, except for a few brief years when I lived one town over, have lived all of my life. Who hears my voice? Who feels the anxiety and fear that I feel? Will my black son have to worry about being accosted due to the color of his skin /and/ my political opinion? Will my other kids (all white) have to deal with the pain of losing friendships because the students they attend school with parrot and echo invalid talking points that their parents espouse instead of listening to rational debate and determining their own opinion? Will, God forbid, my wife have to deal with a lunatic individual or mob attacking the school she works at during a plague because it's rumored that democrats are allowed to teach our young in schools?
Will it come to that point? CAN it come to that point in America? Part of me, a large part, is so scared that the answer is 'Yes'. That we will allow our passions to override our sense. That we will allow people to refute the evidence the courts of the land have provided and attempt a coup the likes of which have never been performed in American society. Will these majestic shores that have
been a shining beacon of hope to so many for so long, will it crumble and devolve into the arguments of a nation that equate to a brawl over a beauty pageant? Is America /so/ inured to pageantry and the lure of the elite that we will allow these few deranged individuals with too much power to send us into the darkness of civil war with the possibility of becoming yet another despotic nation ruled by a tyrannical few who seek to oppress any who speak against them? I fear that answer may be 'Yes'.
Should Donald Trump be impeached? I think so. As a loyal and patriotic American citizen who believes that all lives matter, even the Black and Blue and Brown ones, that all citizens have a civic duty to vote their conscience, that we have a duty to each other as Americans to only empower people that have the good of our Nation at heart in positions of leadership over this fragile democracy...I believe that it is immoral to continue to pay stipend and benefits to an individual in the employ of the administration of this county when that individual incited riotous violence on the very literal seats of the democracy we (and so many others worldwide) hold so dear. Gallows were erected at our capitol, for Christ's sweet sake. This is not the actions of a Christian ideal, let alone an American one. The Gallows of war must be permanently dismantled on American soil if we are to succeed as a nation. The cries for the execution of heads of state and the incitement of the Rule of the Sword must be silenced by all right-thinking citizens. We must atone for the violence in the capitol as a nation, but to atone for any sin, first we must, MUST admit that sin and repent from it, repudiate it entirely. We must, as a people, turn away and shun those that would continue to incite and inflame civil war and any other violence on the body public, and we must do it now. When you sever a limb, you do not sit and ponder whether the saw was at fault. You do everything you can to stop the hemorrhaging and deal with the damage.
If the cause of the damage is faulty equipment, you decommission and replace that equipment - you don't continue to use it in the hopes that it will just magically fix itself. You don't ignore the blood streaming down the walls in an effort to forget the damage in the hopes that your body may just miraculously rejoin and become whole and unified again. Neither can this country deny the truth of the incitement of war upon itself by the leader of one branch of government whom - it is being reported by aides and appointees (the ones who have not resigned
in disgrace) - is treating all this joyfully and holds no remorse for his part in this disgraceful action against his own country. Allowing a despot who shows repentance for his actions to continue to serve in office is not how nations are unified. Showing no solidarity with those that did and nearly did lose their lives in this heinous attack on American democracy and the trauma they will have to deal with for the rest of their lives is typical of this President, and that he continues to show zero remorse for the actions of his supporters at his command makes it seem self-evident the President Trump should step down. Lacking a man of
decency with either the willingness or capability to depart the public eye so the nation can move forward from this in peace with a heart towards seeking reunification, it is incumbent upon the people of this nation to stand up and speak in no uncertain terms that we will not tolerate a destructively divisive individual bent on seeking personal power and prestige living off the sweat of the American people.
Most disturbing are the number of individuals in our security forces, police, fire, EMS, veterans, and active military members who are supporting this action and calling for further violence. A segment of people that are daily exposed to the depravities and shortcomings of the American systems of justice, healthcare, defense and social services. That this nation has failed these people is starkly evident by their willingness to participate in something that many of them are required to swear oaths to defend against. 'Do No Harm', 'Protect and Serve', 'Defend the Constitution of the United states from threats both foreign and Domestic', these oaths have become meaningless in the voice of the angry mob. This is disillusionment in its raw, unvarnished state. These people have seen inequities in this system for so long that are so bad, they believe they must break their own oaths to themselves and their fellow Americans to install a tinpot dictator to see the change they so desperately desire. These same individuals who would have demanded impeachment of any other sitting president who called other Tyrants and Dictators 'Admirable', and heaped praises upon them...they have become resoundingly silent in opposition to a man who not only has courted tyrants abroad, but has actively and violently encouraged terror and tyranny at home with his false words of hate and division.
Lies taste good to these people because they know they've been lied to for so long, what is one more lie that gives them license to act upon the anger and hurt they feel? These people who are being incited into terrorist ideals are the very ones who shout out against these same terrorist ideals in Muslim countries. This makes their argument inanely become 'Terrorism is bad when its a Muslim doing it'. Make no mistake either: This is terrorism. The will of the few to use strength of arms and threats of violence and unrest to make others listen and obey them is terrorism. Call it bullying, call it civil unrest, call it a disagreement and you give credence to these terrorists ideals. Cover for them and say of a man that is known to delight in this anarchy: 'President Trump didn't mean for it to get out of hand, he's a good man', you give aid and succor to these terrorists. Separating out the ideologies of a party that has espoused the lies and violent whims of an aspiring dictator and letting any leaders escape justice and continue to threaten American ideals by covering for power hungry monarchs in training is giving support to the feeding and growth of this terrorism. Our lack of willingness to point to these people and say 'You are wrong' is the shove that we await to push us over the
brink into tyranny and despotism. So many lives are in the balance right now. We are at war with an invisible invader while we war on ourselves. These are the facts, they are undeniable, and if any that attempt to, they invite destruction not only on themselves, but their households, their communities and their nation.
I do not know where we go from here as a nation. Our world is rapidly dying, our people are killing each other, and it seems that hope may be lost. The only hope I can hold to now is my belief that Christ is my redeemer and my salvation. That he would not condone or encourage people to seek worldly power, that he would not encourage violence nor endorse incitement of insurrection and destruction, but that he would council peace and love, that he would counsel that these things will one day be burned up as chaff in the fire, that when we come to the end of it and look back at our legacy, we will either see one of hope and healing in our past, or
one of bloodshed and strife. Justice must be served. People must deal with the consequences of their words and actions - Freedom of Speech is never free - you must defend it and uphold the consequences of attempting to diminish it. The American people spoke in November, and again after the terrorist attack on our Capitol: Donald Trump is not to helm this country. Now, we wait to see if that mandate will followed by the people we have elected to do so. Will Donald Trump be impeached? Probably. Will it cause further division in this country? Undoubtedly. Is it necessary? After much soul searching and thought, I feel that it is necessary. This is the crucible in which this country will be remolded and reforged. What it is formed into is up to us, and I fear that outcome to still be in question. For those still angered over Mr. Trump's loss, I urge you to reconsider your determination to overthrow a just and fair election. I urge you instead to become more active in the daily administration of your own communities, localities and states. Become active in making a positive change for those people that are being hurt and disenfranchised by an unwieldy system that undeniably isn't perfect and needs work, but is still also undeniably better than the enslavement and darkness of tyranny that this President crows so often for. Remember, if you are against anti-fascists, that gives credence to those that are pro-fascists. Remember too, when you see the atrocities ongoing and say nothing, when you finally do disagree with these beasts of violence and depravity, you then will look around and realize that you have no support against them coming for your freedoms or your life. Then will you regret your silence, and there will be no one to lament the injustice done to you.
DJC