I remember my dad often saying, "Quit your belly-aching" when my complaints got to him. Yes, I admit I have a pessimistic streak. Now as I hear Trumpites doing this, I've decided not to stoop to their level. My son said it well a couple of days ago:
"It's about character, Mom. Now I can teach my students that character does matter after all. It's about not being vindictive, but about trying to promote healing in a fractured nation."
I'm not sure it will work, but it shows that the spirit of Abraham Lincoln still lives in some hearts. (See another of my blogs for thoughts on the man I consider to be our Best President Ever.) I often wonder if we would be this bad off if Lincoln hadn't been assassinated. Perhaps the reconstruction of the South would have gone better for all people.
It's very ironic to me when I realize Lincoln was a Republican. It was Southern Democrats who instituted Jim Crow laws and segregation. I know it firsthand for I was born in southern Arkansas in the early 1950s. I saw it with my own eyes. When I was eleven, we moved to northern Illinois, where there was supposedly no segregation, but it was there, too-- if 'unofficially.'
The Southern Democrats came over to the GOP when Reagan was elected, but instead of becoming Republican, they drew the Republican Party into being Southern Democrats. I think we're reaping the harvest of this today. It's especially sad to see how far the GOP has fallen in the past four years--losing its soul in a Faustian deal with the Devil.
There may be a chance for healing, but the wounds are very deep, and by refusing to concede, Trump (in my opinion) is throwing salt on those wounds. He's apparently forgotten that we're still a democracy (or at least a semblance of one) and the people have spoken.
I'm reminded of a story in the Bible book of Daniel, when mysterious handwriting appeared on the palace wall in Babylon. No one could read this supernatural message, so Daniel had to interpret what it meant: "Your regime has been measured in the balance and found wanting." This signaled the end of the Babylonian Empire, at that time the most powerful the world had ever seen.
Several empires have risen and fallen since then--the Persians, Greeks, Romans, and more. I pray that we're not next. But only God knows, because He's still in charge.
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