The ongoing January 6 commission investigating the crimes committed by Donald Trump and his band of seditionists is revealing evidence that is difficult to process, let alone comprehend. I lived through the scandal of Watergate and its eventual outcome being the resignation from office of President Richard Nixon. He had refused to resign until, one Saturday night, a number of influential Republicans in Congress met with him and gave him an ultimatum. He resigned the following Monday.
Sadly, Vice-President turned POTUS Gerald Ford did the unthinkable – he pardoned Nixon. Nixon had led the coverup of all that had occurred during the 1972 election cycle where GOP operatives broke into the headquarters of the Democratic National Committee. It wasn’t the break-in that was his downfall; it was his never-ending lies and attempts to erase everything, even 18 minutes of audio recording in the White House. He, like Trump, was blinded by his desire to remain in power.
Not holding Richard Nixon accountable made the crimes of Donald Trump inevitable.
Fast forward to 2022…and we have not only Trump attempting to obfuscate the truth, but his accomplices, many of whom are elected members of the House and the Senate, still clinging to the sinking Trump ship. They are counting on support from the populace that has, for the past 7 years, looked past every ghastly comment made by Trump and the ignorance he exhibits each time he opens his mouth. It’s like they can relate to him. Like he’s one of them.
As we reflect on what the first six months of 2022 have uncovered, it made me wonder…
What will it take for them to grasp that he would throw them under any bus, Mack truck, Amtrak train he can commandeer? He continues to grift them for money to pay his legal fees. What other billionaire needs to ask people for money?
What will it take for the media to stop giving him a platform from which to spew his lies about the 2020 election and foment hatred among our fellow citizens?
What will it take for real leaders in Congress to begin the process of expelling their colleagues who sought to stop the peaceful transition from Trump to Biden?
What will it take for Black, Brown, Asian, LGBTQ…and some awakened White people to disavow the hatred that the Republican Party is fomenting, in order to remain in power?
What will it take for Black folks to KNOW that their votes matter in the day-to-day construct of their lives and the lives of the people that they love? Sitting out an election cycle that is not electing a President can be the spark that ignites a fire that consumes everything we take for granted as U.S. citizens. Look back to the mid-term elections in 2010 to see what I mean. Today’s wildfire in Washington, and the crazies it has spawned, was begun with that election. Think Tea Party.
What will it take for people living in “Red” states to realize that their children deserve a better life, which is not possible with the current GOP leadership? Their children deserve affordable rent, healthcare, child care, tuition-free college, etc.? That will never be available from those whom they elect, whose allegiances are only to the weapons of mass-murder lobby and ever-greedy capitalists.
What will it take for We The People to grasp that the Founding Fathers were seeking freedom from oppression by the King of England and had no desire to frame a life, nor a society, where women or Africans would ever have a voice in own their existences on these shores? I hope you can see the irony in that.
What will it take to indict, convict and imprison Donald J. Trump? Anything less than this will, if history is our witness, bring forth someone worse than Nixon and Trump. It is time to hold wealthy, White men accountable for their crimes.
We stand on the precipice of a cliff from which we will either plunge into an abyss we have no idea how to recover from, or we can push upward with true love and compassion, honoring our differences and varied gifts, endowed by the Creator, and build a Nation that welcomes everyone as equals.
The Choice, should we undertake it, is Ours.
What Will It Take?
The Traveler Weekly 