Dear Dad – Ramblings of a Sane but Angry Mind

2/18/2017

Dear Dad,

After our last phone conversation this has been weighing on my heart. It was no secret that we were on opposite sides during this past election.  You asking me to just not vote pretty much clarified that.

We have always had good conversations about politics and I will miss them.  I think the difference now is that there is no middle ground.  I’m truly heartbroken that you are so vehemently supporting the current president and his regime.  You are a smart man and this confuses me that you have fallen into the trap of only believing what is being fed to you via the Republican channels.  It also disheartens me that you are sticking to your candidate merely because he is a “Republican.”   I’ve always said that the Republicans could run Satan himself and they would still vote for him.  Funny (not so funny) thing is, that’s exactly what just happened and now this country is literally stuck with him for 4 years, hopefully less.

I hope that you haven’t stopped reading by now.  I have much more that I want to say.  Please read this whole letter and the articles I am attaching.  You may not think about things like this because you are 80 years old but everything that is happening right now in this country is and will in the future, for many, many years, affect not only me, but your 3 grandchildren and your 3 great-grandchildren as well as any kids they may have in the future.

Let’s start with me….While I realize that you and Mom have prayed daily for 23+ years that God will heal me from being gay, the fact is that I am and my rights and freedoms are being seriously threatened by the president and vice-president.  If they get their way, I can be denied employment, insurance and the mere right to be held as an equal citizen.  If the new Labor Secretary gets his way, I will no longer be guaranteed at least minimum wage at any job I may have.  I will not be guaranteed to be compensated at a higher rate for time worked over 40 hours a week.  Employee safety will shortly fall under the ax as I’m sure OSHA is another department that he wants to do away with.

Another thing that will affect me greatly (as well as the mere freedom of the country) is the current assault on free speech.  If you’ll remember, I’ve been writing editorials since I was 13.  That’s 40 years of saying exactly what I think with no fear of any repercussions.  The First Amendment is first because the founders of this country felt the freedom of speech and press to be of utmost importance to a free and democratic country.   For 4 weeks now, EVERY TIME I write something political, EVERY TIME, I wonder if I’ve made the watch list yet.  EVERY TIME I write something that is questioning or calling out the stupidity that is going on in Washington, I wait to be censored.  Every Facebook post I make, every Tweet I send, every contribution to the internet.  I sometimes have to write in innuendos, thinking specifically about how I can twist the truth of what I was really saying if I’m ever questioned.  EVERY TIME, I WAIT TO BE CENSORED and ARRESTED.  Even now as I write this, I find my brow furrowed and I’m tense just thinking about it.  And since I am sending this via email, it too will be possibly what puts me on the watch list.  NEVER have I EVER felt this way and I shouldn’t have to be feeling it now.  Freedom of speech and the press is a fundamental right in the U. S.  Or rather, it was until a month ago.

You mentioned Social Security the other day, the day that I told you we could no longer talk about politics.  I know that you and Mom don’t depend on it but I’m sure you don’t mind getting that money each month.  I won’t have to depend on it either, but it will definitely make my life better once I start drawing it.  Maybe you have forgotten that one of your granddaughters is getting money now that hopefully will make her future better since her father passed at such an early age.  Maybe you have forgotten that probably most of those you so graciously take Meals on Wheels to several days a week exist on Social Security.  And yet you have to provide them with a meal several days a week or they will probably do without food.  When’s the last time you did without a meal?  Uhm, I’m going with never.

Let’s expand a little bit.  Think back to all those years you were a farmer.  Think to all those summers that the only way our cotton got harvested was because of migrant farm workers toiling in our fields from sunrise to sunset in the 100°+ West Texas summer days. Think about how all that cotton that made our gins successful got harvested.  I’ll insert the real word here, migrant = illegal.  And do you really think that the 2 families that helped run our farm and cattle feedlot were legal?  Think again.

The current administration, if they get their way, will kill the farmers.  This is the man you continue to support.  These people that he is destroying are where WE came from.  US, Dad, our heritage.

I remember going out and changing water in our fields with you.  This is still how farms in West Texas are watered.  The water basin has been in danger in this part of the state for decades but has somehow managed to survive.  I will forecast that is will cease to exist within my lifetime if the de-regulations that the president wants are allowed.

I now want you to think back to your grandfather.  He was born in Germany.  He was brought her by his parents when they immigrated here.  We are descendants of immigrants.  Although they left Germany many years prior to Hitler’s rise, I remember you telling me that one of our male relatives seldom spoke in public during WWII because people heard his German accent and assumed he was a Nazi.  Does any of this sound familiar with the current way that immigrants are being treated by this current administration?  It sounds scarily identical to me.  And I for one refuse to assist in the re-perpetuation of this despicable treatment of anyone in this country.

Now, I want you to think about Rosie and Buddy.  They were like family to us.  They came into our house every week.  She cooked for us and cleaned up after us and babysat and helped raise your three children.  He would bring me red hots almost every week when he came to eat lunch with his wife.  He knew those were my favorite.   You lived through the horrors of desegregation in this country.  Your oldest daughter, ME, remembers the “colored” water fountain at Sears.  I was waiting for colored water to come out because the concept of anyone feeling that black people were lesser was foreign to me.  I remember the “colored” school in our little town.  Again, someone felt that black people couldn’t learn in the same buildings as us white kids.  I’ve listened my whole life as you’ve used your made up word, the bastardization of the “N” word that you somehow feel is acceptable.  I’ve cringed every time I’ve heard you say it.  Why am I bringing this up?  Because the man that you helped elect to the presidency has ignited racial discrimination and the acceptance of groups such as the KKK by shouting “Make America Great Again.”  He has elevated a man, who hates minorities and non-Christians with a Hitleresque passion, to be his right-hand man.  To have a position in this government that doesn’t even exist.  To have the big chair at the table, to control the president’s every thought as well as to be the real finger on the nuclear button.  If you enjoyed the segregation of the 1950’s and 1960’s, sit back and watch because at this rate, there will be bodies swinging from the trees again.

Your 3 great-grandchildren will soon begin to see their educations decline due to the recent appointment of DeVos as Secretary of Education.  Not only is the fact that she is so “under” qualified that she can’t even spell correctly, she BOUGHT that position with millions and millions of dollars in campaign contributions.  THAT is NOT how this whole democracy thing is supposed to work!  I hope that somehow, these 3 kids can be successful despite the turn that education will quickly make, especially since they will need jobs that make them a lot of money since they will not have Social Security to assist them when they get old.

Dad, I know that parts of this are snippy and that I sound angry.  That’s because I AM!  I do not understand how anyone, much less you, my own father, an intelligent person who loves his family, can continue to support the current president or anything that he is doing.  It literally hurts me.  I have friends who I will no longer speak to because of their support for him.  Lifelong friends. I know couples who have divorced over this election. I know people who have cut off contact with their families because of their continued support of him.  I have been able to pretend like you didn’t really vote for him and that you really don’t condone his actions because we live so far apart.  But I want you to know that your adamant clinging to the Republican Party just because of the party is wrong.  I really don’t believe that the values that this current administration is espousing are your values but the mere fact that you are still supporting them based (hopefully) on just the fact that it is the almighty Republican Party, is sickening.

This is not the typical political non-sense that is usually involved in an election.  We cannot just say “It’ll be over in 4 years and then we can fix it.”  People are losing their civil rights, children are losing their education, seniors are losing their social security money, the environment is losing due to deregulation.  WE ARE ALL LOSING.  And at this rate, we will all be involved in at least one war, here, on U.S. soil, that many will not survive.  And that is all dependent on the size of the nuclear bomb that China or Russia or (insert any country name here that he’s already pissed off) decides to launch.

I’ve attached a few other articles that I want you to read.  These are from reputable sources and are not “fake news” as the president would call them.  And by the way, he keeps saying that about every single news story that is unflattering to him.  He’s coming at freedom of the press with a sledge hammer!

Dad, this current state of government is not just something happening “over there.”  It is personal to every one of us.  It is personal to me, your daughter.  Your very out-spoken, politically active, intelligent daughter, who enjoys her civil rights and freedoms very much.  It is personal to ME!

I don’t expect you to begin to support the overthrow of our current government after reading this but I would hope that you will no longer be able to support the president and his regime.

Love,

Julie