Here I sit, in the opening hour of 2018, hoping that this year is better than the last. 2017 wasn’t a total loss, but it was close. Pam I made our first visit to Wisconsin since our son’s, David’s, marriage in 2010. We had a wonderful time spending a long weekend in Madison, visiting with him and his family as well as with longtime friends.
In addition, I returned to Rocky Mount, NC for the 50th homecoming of the NC Wesleyan College class of 1967. Unfortunately, I was the only member of the Class of ’67 who was there. I doubt seriously if I’ll ever make another trek back to Rocky Mount.
However, the biggest disappointment of the year was having to endure the presidency of Donald Trump. In many ways, this was the saddest year of my life. For starters, I was so put off by his election that I absolutely refused to honor him by watching the inauguration. Instead, I took in a movie, “The Accountant”, a movie wherein Ben Affeck was a CPA who had a night job as a hit man—kinda like a TV reality star who has a night job as the leader of the Free World.
At first, I was willing to give Trump the benefit of the doubt, but as the year wore along, I realized that having him as President is the worst scenario I could have imagined. His rhetoric in opposition to and the baiting of Kim Jung Un of North Korea was something that concerned me. I am not too thrilled with the prospect of having Mike Pence as president but, after due consideration, I came to the determination that having a homophobic Bible thumper sitting in the Oval Office was much better than having a crotch grabbing narcissist with his finger on the button was much more preferable. Trump’s actions clearly demonstrate a willingness to overstep his builds as President and abuse his powers as the Chief Executive.
For one, he wanted to pardon AZ Sheriff Joe Arpayo who had been convicted under AZ law of contempt of court in his arrest and treatment of prisoners in Phoenix. In addition, his overturning executive orders issued by his predecessor, Barack Obama—orders meant to serve and improve the lives of Americans—have given me great concern.
Trump is nothing more than a narcissist who wants only for things to go his way and, if they don’t, the hell with the rest of you… I have never been so bitterly opposed to a president as I am opposed to Donald Trump. I hated LBJ because he make me fight in a must unjust and illegal war. I despised Nixon because of his overstepping his bounds of the presidency (“If the President does it, it’s not illegal.”), but I have to admit that , at first, I didn’t think he should resign because of the precedent it would set. However, I finally changed my time. Trump, on the other hand, is in a category all by himself.
Trump's use of power and his cavalier attitude toward the office he holds is most repugnant to me and, the sooner we are rid of, as John Dean called it, “this cancer on the Presidency”, the better off we’ll all be.
