A Virtual Church

Letter to the man in the truck

Yesterday

Last week we were leaving our regular grocery store. We were in the lane with the right of way across the parking lot. Tom had to slam on brakes as a young man to our right barreled through a stop sign, gave us the middle finger and yelled, “F*** You” as he sped by. This is where we are in America.

Incivility, disregard for rules and law and crude behaviors mimic the crudeness of Donald Trump. Recently, he was being interviewed by Kristen Welker, who asked him a question he didn’t want to answer. He huffed and puffed as he took his microphone off and told Welker, “We are done here. You ask nasty questions.”

This is not new behavior for Donald Trump. When people ask him uncomfortable questions, he behaves like a victim, gets angry, offers a demeaning smear and stomps off. He is a fragile man.

Uncomfortable truths get one criticized and even fired. Stephen Colbert and Scott Pelley bear witness to that.

Donald is a spoiled brat. He behaves like a two-year-old who has just been told to sit down and use an inside voice.

His lack of self-control has given license to anyone who tends toward grievance and rage. A whole swath of America sees Trump’s behaviors and emulates them in everyday life. Cruelty is on the rise. Incivility is lost. People call it exercising first amendment rights, but the behavior we are seeing today is far more than that.

People are ugly to one another. They abuse the environment and each other. We have lost far more than we have gained in stock market returns and jobs numbers. When we have lost our humanity, we are barely more than jungle animals.

As the young man sped by – unashamedly - I thought of Kathy Bates in Fried Green Tomatoes. Two smart aleck boys nearly ran over her. As they got out of the car, she said, “go ahead, run over me. I have good lawyers and really great insurance.”

The word that came to me was come-uppance. This young man needs to be taken down a peg or two. Arrogance and unruly behavior are not attractive in any circumstances. You may say Trump gets away with it, but incivility and rudeness are showing him to be a complete loser.

Now Trump has built a wrestling cage on the lawn of the White House to celebrate his 80^th birthday. He keeps trying to sell his big beautiful ballroom. There is no room for serious thought in his brain.

Who on earth even wants to be near him? Proximity to power has less and less value when you sell your soul to get it.

The few who hang on are well known to us. Mike Johnson, and other sycophants in the Congress must think there is still value in supporting him. They don’t want to be guardrails on his decisions, making them complicit.

Trump is not well, mentally or physically. He is obese, sleepy on the job, an insomniac who has nothing better to do than tweet 24/7. We have a real mess on our hands.

Congress has no appetite for the 25^th Amendment. There are no guarantees Trump will not work to queer the mid-terms. There is a real possibility that he will not leave office at all.

We are careening toward autocracy. The young man in the white pickup is a sign of increasing lawlessness to come. Tom’s closing statement on NCSpin is a good word for today – “Stay informed, and watch out for the spin.”

We have little choice but to keep on keeping on. Speak into the lies and ugliness. It gets easier the more we do it.

Lib Campbell is a retired Methodist pastor, retreat leader, columnist and host of the blogsite www.avirtualchurch.com. She can be contacted at libcam05@gmail.com 

 

 

 

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