After You-Know-Who Is Gone...

"I will no longer acknowledge that the man even existed.  I will not let him ruin even one minute of my day.   He will, hopefully, disappear into the dust bin of history.  I feel that if we never read about his foolishness, speak of his atrocities, dwell on his stupidity, that we, as a nation, will heal and take every ounce of his power away.  I pray that I'll have the strength to ask, "who was that?" when his name is spoken."

Those words came to me from a longtime friend of mine.  I could come up with no better words and I believe she speaks for the majority of Americans.  We are about to exit that long and torturous four years of his unprecedented corruption.  So, let's celebrate the dawning of a new day.  No one promises it will be warm and comfy sailing, but, for today at least, it will be a promise of hope - and a time to forget the past!

There are urgent changes that must happen or we will lose our democracy, and there are lesser changes that will simply make our lives better.  Both of these cannot happen unless we become more involved in the careful nurturing of our government. Americans must realize that the past four-year- nightmare could only have happened when they were not paying attention.

Paramount to regaining a firm grasp on the reins will be bringing the American Dream back to a normalcy.  When we don't stand for something, we will fall for anything.   A few items on my "hope list" for 2021 are as follows:

Bring truth back into fashion.  Lies are contagious and soon become the political norm. (This is my greatest wish!)

Chose experience over cronyism when nominating top-level people.  Paying off donors who are unqualified for cabinet-level jobs is absurd. 

Nepotism has always been taboo, in both private and political landscapes.  There have always been violators, but it is still a wrong way to lead.

Allowing people to spread hate against our American values and  march against our democracy in a destructive manner is the most sinister evil a leader can allow to happen. A leader must never turn a blind eye from the hate these people spread.  It must be addressed and handled within our rule of law.

Rewarding our adversaries and bullying our allies is never the way we conduct our foreign affairs.  

Renew our conflict of interest issues with leaders before we allow them to take office.  We must always know if our leader will be compromised by a foreign nation.

 

You must have other hopes for our next administration.  Don't keep them to yourselves.  Get involved this time!