This morning I got a notice about an incident in Atlanta where a server at a local restaurant treated the guest badly and was not tipped. The guests were black women and the server was a homosexual male. It is funny to look at the different versions of what played out. It turns out that the women did not tip the server and he in turn gave his partner the receipt who went on to track down the women and send them a series of harassing messages as well as post their slight on social media. The day after the incident that happened three weeks ago, the owner of the restaurant came in on his day off to personally fire the server, ban him from the restaurant, and issue the guest a gift certificate. Problem solved? Well yes, but I just heard about this incident this morning so what does that mean? That means that people are still trying to push this narrative and are still very mad about an issue that was addressed and remedied. People are still calling for the boycott of this particular restaurant...three weeks after the incident.
John McCain made a scarred return to the floor of the Senate to vote to move the Republican Health Care Bill forward. He delivered a stirring speech about the responsibilities of the Senate and the imperative that we move forward, Cue the anger.
Many people were angry that he was even able to speak about these issues. People brought up the fact that he would not be there making that speech but for having great health care himself. McCain's speech was largely self effacing and looked at the fact that he was guilty of engaging in purely partisan hackery himself, but above all it was time to get on to doing what the people sent them there to do. And then he went and voted for the bill to move forward.
Regardless of what happened next, the speech was rousing and spoke to a lot of the issues that are holding up so many issues in our country. Aside from that, there was really nothing in the speech that contradicted him then going to vote to put the Republican's bill or lack thereof to a vote and amendment. He even said he would not vote for the bill as it was and later, he didn't (he voted no in spectacular fashion, but...) The backlash from the left was swift.
What we are seeing is a need or want to be outraged and angry. Looking at the things that have happened in the last week could give you an anger overdose. Trump is trying to ban transgender people from the military. He is trying to fire the Attorney General or maybe not. He is trying to fire the independent counsel or maybe not. More young black people are getting shot and or harassed by the police (even as I am writing this, a notice appeared in my feed telling me that Trump endorsed police brutality in a speech). Women are getting discriminated against and on and on and on.
I wonder about the things that are showing up in my Facebook feed along with a message that says essentially "like" this if this post makes you angry. Are these the things that I bring on myself based on what I look for and at?
More than that, what are we supposed to do with all of this anger? Let's take a moment to look at what we are seeing even from the White House and the new communications director. Anthony Scaramucci apparently called Ryan Lizza at the New Yorker just to complain about how hard his new job is and how everyone is out to get him... Oh and how everyone ELSE is paranoid.
Apparently, he hates Reince Priebus. Reince hates him. They both hate Steve Bannon and he hates them both.
Are we not playing into his hands? Note in his recent speeches he is talking a great deal about what the media will say when he makes a comment, signaling that he knows that what is about to come out of his mouth is going to be divisive. During one of his recent speeches, he said "he could be on Mt. Rushmore." I doubt it will ever happen but what was most telling was what he said before that. He made it a point to say that the media would skew his words. He is at times leaving his language intentionally vague and annoying so that people will pick it apart and find something to get mad about.
He will say something angry and hateful and immediately his army of surrogates go out to tell liberals that we did not hear what we heard so not to get up in arms about it and that same army of surrogates will go out to tell conservatives that they heard EXACTLY what he said and that we liberals just don't get it.
Hate is starting to be profitable, too. As soon as Trump banned transgender people from serving, there was a race to get to Youtube. Tomi Lahren could not even wait to get to any kind of studio so she appears to have posted a video from her car about how the military is not a social experiment. I might note how she posted this from the safety of her car while transgender people are knee deep in sand and dodging bullets and IED's wondering if their country even wants them there as we speak. How do I know she posted this video? Rest assured it is not because I am a Tomi Lahren fan, but because someone I know posted a video from someone who posted a video rebuttal to her.
And then comes the posts and reposts. "So and so shuts down so and so on Twitter" or "So and so just responded to so and so and the the response was epic!"
Over and over and over and over again. I find myself in a constant state of anger over something but I also find myself wondering what we are going to do about it for the next three years. Impeachment may be coming, but not for some time. We have some victories coming but when all is said and done, what good is all this anger doing? Do I have the energy and the adrenaline?
Oh, and by the way... Reince Priebus just resigned...was fired...at 5:00 p.m. on a Friday... *sigh*
And Anthony Scaramucci's wife filed for divorce....*sigh*
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