This Thanksgiving season, let’s get back on the right track: Seek peace, and the truth | Opinion

In a season when we, as Americans, should be thankful for our blessings, it seems that instead of being thankful, too many of us are in an angry, fighting, and killing mode. That goes for our politicians as well as our everyday citizens.

We often call on our elected officials to “do something” about the gun violence that is destroying our neighborhoods. And our nation. But how can they show us the way to peace, when some of them are resorting to name-calling, bullying, and even offering to settle their differences with a fistfight?

According to a recent story in The Miami Herald, at a congressional hearing last Tuesday, Sen. Markwayne Mullin, R-Okla., challenged Sean O’Brien, the president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, to settle their longstanding difference in a fistfight.

“This is the time, this is the place,” Mullin reportedly told O’Brien after reading a series of critical tweets that O’Brien had sent about him. “… we can be two consenting adults. We can finish it here.” This incident didn’t happen overseas somewhere. It happened right here, in the United States of America, in our nation’s Capital. How sad is that?

I don’t know about you, but there seems to be a dark cloud hovering over the greatest country in the world. How can we lead the rest of the world, or even our own people, if the very core of those who lead us seems to be corrupt?

Just recently in a speech before a New Hampshire audience former President Donald Trump mocked former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, one of his presidential opponents by saying, “… don’t call him a fat pig…”.

Trump also referred to all his opponents as “vermin” in a Claremont, N.H speech, pledging to “… root out the communists, Marxists, fascists and the radical left thugs that live like vermin within the confines of our country that lie and steal and cheat on elections.”

Without calling him any names, sounds to me like Trump is describing himself in his quote. Yet, with all the filth that comes from his mouth, Trump still seems to be leading in the polls, which makes me question the morals of many of the people in our nation.

The story also quoted historian Ruth Ben-Ghiat of New York University as saying in an email to The Washington Post: “… calling people ‘vermin’ was used effectively by Hitler and Mussolini to dehumanize people and encourage their followers to engage in violence.”

It is scary to think that so many people think Trump is a “good “man. It is also scary to think that people that I see every day; people who also do good deeds for other people, don’t see the dark side of Trump, and are going along with him in all that he does.

These same people look the other way when Trump goes on an ugly rampage. They don’t seem to know, or care that only days after he became president, there was an increase in racial violence and hate crimes.

According to the Southern Poverty Center, ten days after Trump was elected, 867 cases of hateful harassment or intimidation was reported to the center. The report seems to be aligned with the agreement that the 2016 election coincided with an increase in hate crimes, including by those purporting to be supporters of Trump.

If voters align themselves with a name-calling, dis-respecter of women, truth-hating man, who never has accepted the fact that he lost the presidential election fair and square, and choose to elect the same man to occupy the White House again as the leader of our great (so far) nation, what is to become of us? How will we ever again, be able to tell our children that truth always wins? How will we convince our children to believe us? And why should they?

My friends, as we prepare to gather around the Thanksgiving table this week, each of us needs to look deep down inside our own soul. We must stand up for truth and do what’s right. We must remember our history and the history of the world. We are an intelligent nation of people. We know that if we don’t remember the dark times of our history it is destined to be repeated.

I was a child during World War II. But I grew up hearing stories from my uncles who served in the war, about how Hitler sent millions of Jewish people, and all who he thought were not perfect – including the mentally and physically challenged, and some who even look like me, to the gas chambers. We cannot, no we must not, forget that history. If we forget, I fear that we are headed for destruction. But while we seem to be rolling downhill at a frightening speed, it is not too late to put on the brakes.

This Thanksgiving, let us get back on the right track. The Holy Bible tells us to “… seek peace and pursue it.“ We can do this.

Miami Oratorio Society concert

The first Christmas concert of the 50th season of the Miami Oratorio Society will be held at 5 p.m. on Dec. 3, at Holy Family Episcopal Church, 18501 NW Seventh Ave. in Miami Gardens.

The program will include Vivaldi’s “Gloria” and the Christmas portion of Handel’s “Messiah”. The program will end with the traditional and much-loved Christmas Carol Sing-along.

The musical group is directed by Andrew Anderson. Soloists are, Catherine Magarino, soprano; Leah Torres, mezzo soprano; Andres Lasaga, tenor, and Tom Ball, Bass.

Tickets are $25 advance for adults ($30 each at the door) and $15 each for children ages 10 and up, sand are available at www.miamioratorio.org, or by calling 305-610-0500.

Bea Hines can be reached at bea.hines@gmail.com