Tuesday, February 05, 2019

Wearing my Pollyanna shoes




I asked my daughter this morning what came to her mind if I said Pollyanna, and she said nothing. So I hope some of you know that Pollyanna was an 1814 novel that featured a young girl with an eternally optimistic outlook on life. Boring in literature but not, I find, a bad way to look at life. I am Pollyanna.

And as I follow Facebook and other sources on the internet, I am encouraged about the world. We hear so much gloom and doom, and admittedly there is much dark to worry and moan over. The separation of children from their parents and now the word that it would be too much trouble to reunite them—I hope that ends up in Nuremburg someday, with the orange squatting president as the lead defendant. The ongoing foolishness of a wall that nobody wants that will do no good, cost a fortune, and destroy the environment. And the destruction of our environment on so many fronts. The greed and corruption that seems pervasive throughout the current administration—why in heaven’s name, I wonder, would anyone want to attach themselves to that? And why, oh why, do so many still seem to fawn over this man who is without a doubt corrupt and most likely a trator?

But the tide is changing. I see encouraging signs. Republican officials are pulling away from trump—a Senate amendment, which seems likely to pass if it hasn’t already, will condemn his withdrawal from Syria; several Senate Republicans have come out against the prospect of declaring the southern border wall a national emergency. The worst racist members of Congress have been ostracized and relegated to the sidelines, where they have no voice in government. The southern district of New York has demanded documents from trump’s inaugural committee, and it seems likely that his tax returns will also be unlocked.

Yes, we have miles to go, but these are encouraging signs, things we didn’t see a year ago It seems the universe that he thought he controlled is caving in on trump, and he’s fairly helpless. Karma is beginning its long slow climb to right the universe again.

A friend said to me tonight it’s amazing how rapidly trump was able to undo what it took years to put in place, and that is unfortunately true. But the American people are speaking, and I have faith in their collective voice. Today the buzz is about how many trump supporters are gobsmacked by their higher income tax bills and/or reduced refunds. The so-called president’s popularity is at a historic low. The tangled mess is unwinding.

I’m encouraged on another front. Across the world, people, communities, and countries are taking extraordinary measures to stop climate change and save the environment. They are planting trees—not just a few trees but whole forests, developing alternatives to single-use plastics, finding new methods of filtering water and growing crops in desert countries, developing non-toxic fuel alternatives. The numbers of countries who are partially or wholly dependent on solar power is astounding. I wish I’d kept a list of the projects that impressed me, for they are numerous and innovative. So while we hear all those prophets about the doomsday clock ticking, I am encouraged by the global effort to stop that clock. I only wish my country could do more, but I look to a hopeful future.

Be of good cheer, my friends. I really do think the future can be bright.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

As I stated many times on this blog. We are NOT separating families. We process these families who have ILLEGALLY entered the United States and then proceed to release them to a neighborhood near you.
The reason families are not re-united is because believe it or not they gave us bogus addresses when we processed them. It may also be hard to believe that they never show up to their immigration hearing; therefore "disappearing".
Nuremberg was a trial of Nazis who killed 1000000 million people. The United States allows 30000 illegal immigrants per month enter the United States (again illegally), while waiting to be processed they are provided with hot meals, formula, diapers and free medical care. We are not Nazis or I'm a sadistic guard. We treat these people better than they are treated in their own countries.

judyalter said...

You need to distinguish between legal asylum seekers who enter at the port of entry (international law sanctions this) and illegals who sneak across the border--the numbers on the latter have consistently dropped in recent years. And both groups had children forcibly taken from them and imprisoned in substandard conditions. I would welcome them in a neighborhood near me.
The reason they are not reunited with their children is that our government had no system and kept no records; they apparently placed children in adoptive homes without legal authority. They deported parents leaving children behind.
And just how do you expect an asylum seeker to give a legal address? For heaven's sake--they've fled their homeland. They have no legal address. We may treat them better than in their homeland but that's saying damn little. Much of it was still inhumane.

Anonymous said...

Mrs. Alter I'm not spewing off opinions. What I tell you are facts. I'm not hiding anything nor is my intention to change your mind.
The address issue: they have relatives here, thats the address they provide us, most of the time is bogus.
Like I said, it's not my intent to either change your mind or fabricate lies. I just do it so perhaps some will be expose to some facts that they may have not heard before. I live this everyday and have lived it through the Clinton, Bush, Obama and now Trump administration, zero has changed.
30000 come across illegally seeking asylum, why wait when you can just cross illegally and be on your way in three days.
No children have been taken from anyone, again I'm here in the front lines of this mess, again no one single person has left here without their child/children.
We do not imprisone children, they are here for about three days, that's how long it takes to process family units, we are overwhelmed, this is the best we can do.

judyalter said...

In the interest of fairness and openness I wish you had the courage to sign your name. I respect your knowledge that immigrants give fake names for relatives--they don't want to be the cause of those relatives being deported in our national haste to punish. I do question your numbers of illegals--not at all what I see. And from all I read parents were often tricked into letting children be taken, promised they would return promptly,and then never saw them again. If you are who I think you are, would you want your sons treated that way? I will agree that the whole things is a mess. If no parents have left your location without their children, how do you account for the high number of children not abandoned, the children and parents reunited from separate ends of the country? I respect your interpretation, but I suspect you're not seeing what goes on all along the border.