DISRUPTION- disturbance or problems which interrupt an event, activity, process OR 7 YEARS!

In 2015, Donald Trump announced his intention to run for the Republican presidential nomination. That feels like a lifetime ago. Hillary Clinton was his opponent and the first female to ever run for president of the USA.

The drama was high and so was the confidence of the Democratic Party. It was the shock heard ’round the world when it was Mr. Trump who won and was elected POTUS in 2016 and not Hillary.

But voting is how we do it in this country. It’s referred to as the great experiment in democracy and it’s always worked…until now.

The first three years of the Trump presidency, from 2017 to 2020, changed our world as we’d always known it. Emotions ran deep and high. We fought, we argued, we lost family members, work peers, neighbors and friends. It was day to day, it never stopped and we all had our opinions.
We needed to listen but…..we didn’t. We needed to compromise but…..we didn’t.The ugliness escalated and we all felt it.

And then came 2020, another election year …and COVID. We still lost family members, work peers, neighbors and friends. COVID took them. Instead of all of us working together to overcome this invisible monster, we fought some more.To mask or not mask.To vaccinate or not vaccinate. To believe the medical society or not. Remember?

However, even with COVID all around us, we voted and elected a new president. There was elation and anger, we were still fighting. We were still name calling, hating and sadly, threatening violence.

And then came January 6th. If you weren’t watching at the moment it was happening, you’ve certainly seen it for what probably feels like hundreds of times since…..the violent uprising, the insurrection. What was happening to our country? We watched in horror as a mob of out-of-control, enraged Americans, pushed past and overcame the capitol police. They sprayed the officers who were trying to hold them back with chemicals. We saw the face and heard the screams of pain from an officer whose head was being squeezed in a door. Many of these violent lunatics were wearing masks and disguises, some were carrying guns and others were climbing the walls of our capitol building like ugly giant termites. They smashed their way through windows and doors, stormed inside and we watched adult people acting worse untamed wild animals.

Inside, our congress people were hiding, lying on the floors between their seats, petrified that they were about to be killed. The wild mob broke into the offices of some of our leaders, threatening to hang our vice president. People died from that horrible incident. We saw a woman drop to the floor dead after being shot. We sat stunned as we watched and waited. Surely help was on the way to put an end to the madness. But it didn’t come for hours. And that’s how it’s been since; horrible, mean, heartless things happening and being said and written about so many people. It’s become so ordinary now that it’s expected and sadly, even accepted.

Turn the page for a moment, same bad book, different chapter, MASS KILLINGS. Crazed maniacs with weapons of war, pulverizing our school children. Their parents having to identify their ravaged bodies by their shoes.

Same bad book, another bad chapter. This one is on WAR. A terrible, terrible war. We watch on TV as Ukraine, for nine months, has tried to protect it’s people and country, and we watch people being killed by the thousands from both Ukraine and Russia. Sons, husbands, fathers, daughters, wives, mothers and children slaughtered. Cities full of beautiful buildings destroyed. Hopefully, Ukraine will prevail, Russia will retreat and it will come to an end but…neither side wins, EVERYBODY looses.

And here we are in the present, just winding up another election, this one the most nerve-racking midterm ever. This one didn’t turn out as most expected, but WAIT…..all seems quiet on the homefront. Most who have lost their battles have conceded. Could this be true? Could it really be happening? Are we possibly running out of hate and anger? Are we going to try to come together?

I hear people everyday saying they want to go back to the way it used to be. For me, I’m good with going forward. Going back wouldn’t be so good for everyone, but damn it…..I WANT MY LIFE BACK and I want you to have your life back too.

I wanna wake up in the morning and not think about politics and tweets.

I wanna be able to talk with my neighbors and not wonder or care who they voted for.

I wanna smile at strangers in the grocery store and get smiles back.

I wanna feel that ALL politicians, no matter what their political party, are trying to help solve our problems so we can all enjoy being alive in this beautiful country of ours.

I wanna extend a hand to a stranger and not be afraid.

I wanna go out for pizza and beers and not hear any political rumblings in the entire place, just lots of laughter.

I want my country back.

And I want our elected people to DO THEIR JOBS of finding solutions for our problems, making life better for all of us.

Solutions so we don’t have to be afraid that each time we leave our homes an armed terrorist is waiting to end our lives.

Solutions for the homeless camped out on the streets.

Solutions for people on street corners begging.

Solutions for people who have to live in their cars and children who go to bed at night hungry, cold and scared.

Solutions for people who have nothing but the clothes on their backs and walked hundreds of miles trying to get their children and themselves to safety and into this great country they’ve always heard about; the country with the magnificent statue of the lady who stands tall looking out at the port, holding a torch and beckoning them forward.

I suppose the 2024 chaos is about to begin. I don’t wanna turn on the TV and see political ads.
I don’t wanna watch ADULTS acting like idiots belittling each other. It makes them all look like jerks. Why can’t they just tell us what they want to do for us and our country and then zip it? We don’t need to hear the garbage they want to dump on us about their opponents. We can figure that out ourselves.

So, maybe we won’t turn on the TV. Maybe listening to CD’s, reading, working puzzles together, watching movies, playing board games, taking walks, visiting with friends and dancing in the kitchen will fill these next two years because, I’M TIRED OF THE DISRUPTIONS, and I’m wondering…..ARE YOU?