Reaching out to the States trumps avoiding them
My wife and I usually spend November in Florida, but this year she doesn’t want to go. She claims that with the Islamophobia, anti-immigrant rhetoric, gun culture and “the Trump thing” she no longer can, in conscience, support their economy. She’s not worried about safety; she just feels it’s “not right” to encourage a country so ethically bankrupt. I want to go and believe that nothing we do makes any difference. Thoughts?
I have sympathy for your wife’s position. My partner and I are hav- ing similar discussions and we have a son who hasn’t been in the States for years because he doesn’t want to support their “corrupt” social system. So I get what your wife is saying, but I (mildly) disagree. Remember: a huge number of Americans, likely the majority, are no more racist, xenophobic or homophobic than most Canadians. The idiot who left a pig’s head outside a mosque was, after all, in Quebec City, not Cleveland. And Donald Trump will never be POTUS; although it’s alarming that about 40 per cent of Americans endorse his demagoguery, 60 per cent reject it.
It’s also important to understand that among those who support Trump and spout off about immigration and religious issues, there are many who are just generally angry — angry about a busted political system, angry that they have no jobs, no home and no hope for a better future. And angry people don’t always think straight. Angry people look for someone to blame, even when that reproach is irrational. I’ve many times watched families of dying folk lash out ferociously at the very doctors and nurses who are trying to save their loved ones; that, sadly, is just how anger works. It strikes out recklessly, thoughtlessly, hopelessly — and there’s a lot of that going on south of the border right now. So what are friends to do? One option is to hive off in our comfortable Canadian cocoon until the political storm blows over. And that’s likely easiest; despite the occasional ugly incident, we have things pretty good up here in Canada and gazing smugly over the fence at dysfunctional neighbours while they yell at each other, fire shots and generally act like buffoons — well, that feels just fine. Florida is warm in November, but nothing melts the heart more than a dose of moral superiority.
But another option, perhaps less comfortable but more constructive, is to continue old conversations and develop new ones with our neighbours to the south. You don’t have to be a scholar of history to understand that, in the long, slow evolution of relationships between neighbours, more harm has been done by isolation than by interaction. And Amer- icans are our neighbours; they’re not going anywhere, regardless of what happens in the election.
Talking with people is always better than talking about them. Visiting is always better than staying home. Accompanying people is better than abandoning them.
Yes, Mr. Trump, bridges are better than walls, and gates better than fences. If we all start staying home, separating ourselves from our global neighbours just because we’re “morally superior” we accomplish what the Donald can never do — we build his damned wall for him.
Besides, where are you going to go to escape political turmoil? Great Britain? Send your questions to star.ethics@yahoo.ca