How Trump & Clinton Broke America

I can’t decide if my headline is real or if it is linkbait any more than I can determine if this election is real or part of some wacky dream.

Can’t decide how to explain to my children how crazy this election is and that when I say I have never seen its like before it is not something I smile about.

They can’t really see two candidates who believe the way to win the election is to hit below the belt and to sling mud as if the person who does it best, hardest and longest is the winner.

Maybe I am just naive or trying to be pollyannaish to say it is not as bad as it looks and that our system of checks and balances will help to right the ship.

Maybe I ought to just jump in my magic Cadillac and sell off to Lothlorien.

This Is Not What Sherman Meant

Maybe I am living in lollipop land and I am the one who is confused.

Maybe I need to teach my children to fear everyone else and to strike first because if they don’t the other guy is going to get one over on them.

Nah, I can’t do that, can’t accept it and I won’t.

I have worked hard to make sure they are kids of character and integrity. Worked hard to make sure they understand they are someone special and that their self-esteem isn’t tied up in what others say or think.

We have spent lots of time trying to talk and understand the world is not always a simple place and that there are contradictions people can live with.

I don’t believe in safe spaces and microaggressions and I think the conversations about privilege are a tool many use to silence real discussion.

Sometimes we have to tear off the scabs and have real discussions with people about things that are hard, raw and painful but you don’t get beyond if you never leave the edge of the pool.

They know we need to treat others as we want to be treated and yet what do we see from our candidates but a William Sherman like approach to war.

War is the remedy that our enemies have chosen, and I say let us give them all they want.

I am very hawkish and if we are talking about real war, well I agree with Sherman. When you fight you fight to win but this is an election and not war.

We All Deserve Better

I am not going to give a 1,000 words to ranting about the election or how disappointed I am because if my FB feed is accurate it doesn’t matter.

Clinton supporters are convinced she won the debate and Trump supporters are convinced he won.

Haven’t seen anything about it being a draw or heard much from the middle ground, unless you consider the third party people to occupy that particular place.

It disappoints me not because we can do better but because we deserve better.

Our children deserve to see something more than we have shown them.

I don’t know about you, but the way things currently operate I wouldn’t want my kids to run for president.

Wouldn’t want them to undertake a venture where their lives are torn apart and dissected so that every stupid comment, foolish mistake and or misstep is used to make them look like fools.

There is no room for error here, we keep asking for perfection.

It disappoints me.

There is another way and we can do better.

I am not giving up and I don’t believe the country is one the verge of disintegrating the way some others do because we are a long way from that

But it is time to move from possibility and opportunity and do something more.

We deserve it and we need it.

• Saved: Children