Sorry. No Jokes.

The images and descriptions are so visceral I don't see how anyone could react to them with anything other than horror, disgust, and tears.

I'm talking about the daily onslaught from the media of images and sound bites from all the trouble spots in the world and from all the trouble spots in Donald Trump's mind.  There is almost nothing else to look at, to think about, and I'm wondering how it is possible that our country is so divided that two people, one liberal and the other conservative, could look at the same phenomena and come away with two completely opposed opinions.

Let's start with something easy.  Do you suppose that Trump supporters looked at everything Obama and the Democratic coalition did with the same horror that I look at everything Trump and his minions do?  For instance, I love Governor Polis.  I love his daily Facebook messages.  I love how quickly he has moved.  When I think about free full day kindergarten I almost want to cry because it has been so long coming.  My education convinces me that full day kindergarten will be a boon, not only to parents who don't have to fork over tuition payments anymore, but to the entire state.  The money we will have to spend will be paid back tenfold.  But does a hard core Republican look at free kindergarten as some kind of harbinger of the end of the world.  Will it just start our state down the slippery slope to financial ruin?  Does that hard core Republican ever take into consideration the welfare of Colorado's children?

I saw a report on TV this morning about our country's new policy of keeping immigrants in Mexico as they wait to see if they can enter our country.  The report cited statistics showing the increased danger many of those immigrants face because of this policy.  And, of course, the TV showed grainy images of the living conditions those immigrants have to face.

I look on that situation with a combination of horror and shame.  I can't believe our country is treating people like that.  Does a Trump supporter (Wait.  Cross that out.  I'm going to stop using the phrase Trump supporter and just start using Republican instead.  If anyone can still call themselves a Republican after the last three years, they are complicit in Trump's systematic destruction of the country.).  Does a Republican look at that same situation at the border with pride and satisfaction?  Do they insist that it is about time we kept people from shithole countries out?  I can't fathom that reaction and I guess Republicans can't fathom mine.

On the same TV station there was a report from Syria.  A Turkish bomb exploded nearby, killing several civilians and injuring others.  One of those injured was a little girl with a bandage around her head and wounds all over her body.  Her mother explained to the reporter what had happened and the little girl tried to put her hands over her ears so she couldn't hear.  She didn't want to relive her nightmare and she started weeping and reaching for her mom.  She kept asking why.

I was overcome.  Is it possible that a Republican could look at that clip and take pride in our abandonment of the Kurds?  Would they be proud of Trump for having the "courage" to pull us out of this endless war in the mideast?  Would they just ignore the human toll Trump's pull out has caused and continues to cause?

There was yet another article about Greta Thunberg talking to a state legislature.  Whenever I think about her, I get happy.  I know what passionate teenagers can accomplish.  I think they are the only people who can lead us out of this morass we find ourselves in.  When a Republican looks at Greta does he just revert to Fox speaking points?  Does he/she see a kid who is mentally ill?  Are Republicans convinced that her crusade is all part of the Deep State's liberal plan to ruin the world?  Did Al Gore put her up to this?

I read an article yesterday in The New Yorker about black women fighting against anti-abortion forces in the South.  I came across some startling facts.  For instance, in Georgia prisons regularly shackle pregnant women during childbirth.  The state legislature actually debated the practice.  When I read that I am yet again horrified.  When a Republican reads that, does he or she believe shackling women (read: black women) during child birth is a good idea?  After all, we don't want them escaping, trailing their placenta behind them.  How is it possible that there could be two opinions about this practice?

In South Carolina in 1995, the state added regulations that required all clinics practicing second trimester abortions meet the same design and construction standards as "ambulatory surgical facilities."  The result:  More than half of the South Carolina women seeking abortions had to leave the state.  I look at those regulations as an obvious attempt to circumvent Roe v. Wade.  Do Republicans really see the added regulations as an honest attempt by the legislature to insure the good health of those seeking abortions?

TRAP (Targeted Regulation of Abortion Providers) laws have been passed by Republican controlled state legislatures to subvert Roe v. Wade.  As a result, in Alabama, there are only three clinics in the entire state, down from twenty in 1992.  Now, I don't much like the idea of abortion.  But I like the idea of taking away choice from women even less.  Do Republicans look at this same situation and praise Donald Trump for reinstalling Christian values to mainstream America?  Please.

One more example.  A woman called up the two black crusading women and told them that she was in her early twenties, with two children, on Medicaid, unemployed, and eight weeks pregnant.  Her abortion would cost 600 bucks and she only had 200.  The abortion was scheduled for the next day and she was contemplating hocking her wedding ring.  They told her to "hold on to that."  They would figure it out before it got to that point.

When a Republican sees this pregnant woman's plight, does he/she see a threat to our country?  Does he/she just casually think that it was her fault?  She shouldn't be so irresponsible as to get pregnant again?  Does he think that it serves her right?

That's why I've been so depressed of late.  I don't want to believe that we are that far apart, all evidence to the contrary.

Sorry there weren't any jokes in this.