The New Protest...

The world is a mess.  The United States is anything but united.  We are a country being torn apart sound bite after sound bite.  I now feel conflicted every time our national anthem plays.  As a military brat and then married to someone in our military, I have always felt patriotic, always felt like I was proud to be an American.  I haven’t always agreed with whomever was in power at the moment but I was never ashamed of who was in office.  Until now.  

It is like we have been infected with a disease that only half of us are afflicted by...50% of our population believes the lies, manipulations, gaslighting and disgusting displays of humanity that are proliferating under his rule.  

I love this country but I no longer feel like I belong here.  This is not the land of sweet liberty.  This is a place where goons are hired to run cars into its own citizens because they happen to be Hispanic.  This is a place where the national guard is being sent into cities allegedly under siege that are nothing of the sort.  The only disruption that is going on, is him and all of his delusional, maniacal bullshit.

It is a dark and embarrassing time to be an American.  While traveling abroad earlier this year, explaining where I was from required an apology or explanation...and everyone, and I do mean everyone I met, in three different countries, thought our leadership was absolutely laughable.  The world, at least the part I met, pitied us.  And that was back in March before we came this bizzaro world we are today.

But there is a bright spot.  Thank God for Portland.  They have met the absurd with the absurd and have created a bright spot in a sea of darkness for me.   The man in the frog costume has single handedly changed the way I view this whole situation.  He has met hate, discord, fear mongering with lightness, ridiculousness and a peaceful abiding that this world very desperately needs now.

We live in uncertain times, led by a man that is completely insane.  If anyone else in our society acted the way our president is acting, we would lock them up, have them held on a 72 hour hold.  But this country, we gave him access to the codes.  WTF????

A man that sends the national guard into cities alleging they are under siege, only to find people calmly protesting wearing a frog costume.  And this one man’s act of defiant rebellion, has sparked a costumed protest of a higher order.  We did not meet calamity with calamity.  No, Portland gave us a new way to view our country and what is going on...it is like Portland created a giant, neon arrow pointing out all of the lies, manipulation and scheming to turn us agains each other.  My God, thank you Portland.

Today hundreds of thousands will take to the streets in droves of people to protest Trump and his henchmen.  I hope his followers will see that so long as they spout his rhetoric, he wins.  A country divided by half truths and outright lies is not leadership it is totalitarian rule.  Trump has the Nazi playbook and he was using it quite effectively...until one man in a frog costume changed it all.

I love that I am from a land where humor and a firm commitment to meet audacity with audacity reigns.  To level up the issue and get it front and center.  What is happening here in this country is unethical, unjust and a travesty.  We were once a great nation, full of issues and problems, always.  Any society has the same issues.  And now the tide has been turned by one man who was unafraid to walk right up to the other citizens donned in riot gear and point out the absurdity of this whole endeavor.  We are not fighting against each other.  We are being weaponized by our own prejudices and bigotry and misunderstanding.

It has been said that if you can laugh at something it loses its power over you.  And that one man in a frog suit has helped me to stop the narrative that we are doomed, we are not.  We are united in our disgust at what is happening here and we will not stand for it.  We will, today, attire ourselves in ridiculous costumes that protect our identities and underscore the absurdity that is Trump.  He is not a leader, he is deranged and set on turning us against ourselves.  And he is using our own human frailties to do it.  

We all bleed.

We all hurt.

We all fear.

We all die.

We all live.

We all work.

We all love.

We all deserve better.

No Kings.  No Trump.  Let’s take back our country, and for the love of all that is holy let the frog man lead the way away from tyranny and cruelty and greed toward a happier, more peaceful land that once belonged to all.

Long Live The Portland Frogman.  Let it begin with him.