I have been in Wisconsin attending a memorial service and spent time catching up with family and friends. The aunt that passed away had lived a full life so it was more like a celebration than anything else. It is still cold in Wisconsin this time of year with only a high of 25 degrees and when you are use to the 80s,  25 is cold. A few snowflakes are in the air and I am glad that I will be driving South in a couple of days.

I found that conversations in gatherings like that are different than they were in years past. I had a relative that I really like pull me aside to tell me that she really loved my blog which I really appreciated. What I found interesting was that today is so polarizing that what I write about couldn’t be discussed as openly as it could have been in years past. Politics have been such a polarizing issue that entire families can’t discuss it without fights breaking out. I did not hear Trump’s name once. I didn’t hear DeSantis’s name mentioned at all. I didn’t hear Biden’s name mentioned once. I did ask a member of Tony Evers’ Administration how things were going in Madison and he was very positive a upbeat about the surplus they have and how they were moving forward but that was the extent of my politics. The fact that everyone is so far apart is what is so shocking.  Today everything is about politics whether it is train wrecks in Ohio or Climate Change and Hurricanes in Florida. Facts used to be facts that could be discussed to understand them better. Today we don’t have just facts , we also have alternate facts that are meant to divide us. What has caused this? In my opinion, Fox News!

It sounds like Trump is going to be arrested by the City of New York for the hush money that he paid illegally to Stormy Daniels for the alleged affair that they had. On Fox & Friends was the Manhattan DA: “How many Black lives have you sacrificed under a higher crime city with increased murder rates to devote a limited number of resources to the priority of pursuing a weak case against Donald Trump”. I look at that statement and go HUH? What does this mean? Does it mean that they shouldn’t have investigated Trump even though you believe that Trump broke the law but you should be arresting black criminals instead? If they pursue a rich white guy for committing a non violent crime you are sacrificing Black lives? Think about that folks. A Grand Jury believes that Donald Trump has committed a crime but Fox News says that that Manhattan DA is sacrificing Black lives. Why is it just Black lives that they are sacrificing and not White lives? White people live in New York too don’t they? Fox News is playing the Race Card to try and insinuate that they should have never investigated Trump even though a Grand Jury thinks that there is enough evidence that Trump broke the law. I just can’t believe what is going on in this country were people think that if you investigate rich white guys you are sacrificing Black lives as an excuse for not prosecuting the Rich White lawbreakers. Whether Trump gets arrested or not for paying off a porn star has absolutely nothing to do about race but yet the race card is interjected into the conversation anyway. If you are looking at one of the reasons we are so divided you don’t have to look too much farther than this.

We have Mike Pence saying the Trump shouldn’t be prosecuted because there is a crime wave in New York City. He blames the Manhattan DA and the Radical Left for wanting to prosecute Trump. You will remember that Trump justified the insurrectionist chanting hang Mike Pence because he wouldn’t do his unconstitutional bidding. Yes, what Trump wanted Pence to do was unconstitutional. Pence would not break the law for Trump that day but he still thinks that Trump should be able to break the law. He thinks that the Manhattan DA should be concentrating on other criminals. I, of course, think just the opposite. If you aren’t going to go after the rich guy then our laws have no meaning but to oppress the little guy. This is just the tip of the iceberg for indictments of Trump. I think you will see Georgia next and then the Department of Justice may get in on the act too. Pence said that Trump will be judged by history. I think historians will consider Trump’s crimes as crimes against our nation. I think that history will write about a weak and corrupt judicial system if we do not hold Trump accountable.

Trump is calling for protests which I think he hopes will lead to violence. This is like a repeat of the insurrection. He was not man enough to face the fact that he lost the election and called on others to fight for him. He is not man enough to face these charges head on in a court of law so he is again asking others to fight for him. We have a legal system in this country. If he is innocent then he is supposed to be found that way by a judge and a jury. If he is found guilty then he should suffer the consequences that anyone else would have to suffer. If you are telling me that the system is broken then is it no more broken for Trump than it is for everyone else. I am one of those people that believed that Trump was a criminal before he became President and that he never stopped being that criminal. I am a believer that Trump was a criminal when he was a Democrat and that did not change when he became a Republican. I am a believer that this is not a Republican or Democrat thing. This is a criminal thing and that his party affiliation didn’t matter. Too many people voted for a criminal and instead of facing the truth, they get mad and say that it is dirty politics. That is another way that families and a nation get divided.

Being back in Wisconsin does give me a chance to have conversations with my oldest son. We can have pretty open conversation about things like race and Trump. I have of course seen a lot more history than he has but he does at times make me think and rethink some of my positions. I know that I tend to think a lot of White people as Racist. He tends to believe that there are many fewer Racists than I think. I hope he is right. Maybe I am too jaded living in Florida. Too much of the news in Florida is what I would consider Racist or Hate news. We have a governor that really wants to whitewash history even how Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on the bus in Montgomery,  Alabama. With his Stop W.O.K.E. it bans lessons that teach whether someone is privileged or oppressed is determined by their race, color, sex, or national origin. You also can’t teach any lesson that could make someone feel guilty for the bad things someone of their race did.  That basically ends talking about what really happened about Rosa Parks and the bus boycott. It pretty ends all of the teaching of the Civil Rights Struggle and in reality it could ban all teaching of slavery. To take it a step farther because is deals with sex and oppression it could lead to the end of studying about Women’s suffrage. You see and read about racism and oppression every day in Florida.  

How do you change things. You have to be able to talk about them but let’s face it some issues there is very little room to compromise. How do you compromise  on the bigotry that is still all around us? I don’t know about you but I just can’t. The result is that we stop talking about it. We stop talking about it because we in some cases we are afraid to know how bigoted some of our friends and family are. We are afraid that there are friends and family will really give us a hard time for what you stand for so we just don’t talk about is. Instead we compromise for those family Thanksgivings and Christmas’s and don’t talk about it. The problem is that nothing changes.  I remember growing up in Wisconsin back in the 60s and one group that took racism and bigotry head on was the Church. In Florida there is almost a Church on every corner but I don’t see or hear anything from them anymore.