WHY I DON’T PULL PUNCHES ON SOCIAL MEDIA

I AM PROUD TO SHARE MY ADVOCACY FOR EQUITY, MY SHAMING OF BIGOTRY, WITH ALL – REGARDLESS OF THE CONSEQUENCES

"Republicans buy shoes too.”  That was Michael Jordan’s famous reported response to why he didn’t use his immense influence, talent, stardom and wealth to speak up for progressive causes or speaking out against policies and politicians that continue to hurt marginalized people.

MJ, famous for years for being apolitical, has a right to do whatever he wants to. Years after retiring, he broke his silence and condemned the deaths of African Americans at the hands of law enforcement.  If had his bank account, I would not have waited so long to be fearless in calling out discrimination both overt and subtle -- damn the celebrity, fame, adulation and shoe contracts.

Actually, I’m pretty sure Jordan’s sofa change is worth much more than my accumulated net worth from 55 years on this planet.  And I take discrimination and inequity to task almost daily…on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, this blog and in nationally-published essays.

Most often, I take on policy and design that continues to enslave people with disabilities in poverty, underemployment, unemployment, substandard housing and worse.

I also have no trouble calling out local, state and federal officials for any act that is corrupt, hateful, arrogant, abusive or unethical.

More than a dozen friends have quietly, privately told me to knock it off. That I have probably offended a potential client or killed the chance for repeat business from a client who loves bullying, bigoted politicians and “leaders.”

They tell me I can ill-afford to rail against paving over park land, sweetheart deals to billionaires, bigoted/biased policies, demagoguery and other things infecting government on all levels.

Acquaintances have pleaded with me to take down posts that outline why Donald Trump is a white supremacist, a liar, a crook, a cheat, a person who mocks people with disabilities and plots to take away what little access to health care and social safety net that remains for them.

Maybe I’m a fool. But I’m a fool who sleeps soundly. A fool that will leave this world with his good name.

I am trained as a journalist. My DNA screams to me to shine a light on evil, corruption, hatred, racism, sexism, homophobia.

People are willing to think whatever they want, vote for whatever authoritarian, destroying of democracy that appeals to them.

But if they cannot work with me because I believe in social justice, in affordable housing, in a vast safety net, in equity in planning, transit, parks, infrastructure and mobility for all – then that’s their problem.

My work arrangements are like mini marriages. We have each other’s back. We can confide in each other. Trust, honesty and decency are treasured.

It is our duty, as Americans, to fight for equality. To shame elected and appointed officials who spew hatred and damage lives.

I honor that duty with most every word that comes out of my mouth, with virtually each word I type on my keyboard.

If that renders all my experience, talent, creativity and collaborative spirit void, then so be it.

Guess I’ll never have the wealth of Air Jordan. Guess we’ll have to get by with one small house, flying coach and investing wisely.

I cannot, will not, compromise my values for the dollar.

 

FLAWED LOGIC

FROM A SUPPORTER OF A DEEPLY FLAWED PRESIDENT

I wrote last weekend about my challenging an acquaintance to explain if he regretted voting for Trump.

I usually don't do these kinds of things.

I'm not a "I told you so," scorekeeping, gotcha kinda guy.

But I am watching an insane person and his right wing sycophants destroying good things that took decades to build in the nation I have lived in for more than half a century.

They big ah-ha ammunition my former friend came up with.

That he did us all a big favor because Trump, while a little Twitter rant addicted and not quite a statesman, is not Hillary Clinton.

That's it.

Pure and simple.

She would have been the devil.

And that's all my acquaintance needed to tell me.

Like I would smack my hand upside my head and totally get it.

That's right, it is perfectly logical to prop up Trump's rating by creating a mythological narrative for what the Hillary Clinton presidency would be like.

What a mind meld miracle, I thought.

This puts a whole new light on everything.

Fire the Dolphins coach because he had a cocaine addict right hand man on his coaching staff.

Hell no, if it been the coach behind door #2, the assistant coach would have been a mad sniper picking off people from the top of a college tower....so by this new Trumpian tribal logic, the bad guy is the good guy...simply because a presumed, never to play out in reality, path taken by the runner up would most certainly be much, much worse than the reality being crapped out by Trump today.

Wow, who knew this bit of mind trickery would work out so air tight logically.

In this mode, my former friend, who is Jewish, should build a monument to Hitler.

(are you crazy Steve, I hear you asking?  are you a neo Nazi nutcase?)

Nope, I say.

I'm simply applying the new -- Trump is good for America because Hillary would have been the Devil -- logic to world history.

You see, Hitler and his Nazis that killed and tortured -- Jews, disabled people, gay people, mentally ill people, etc -- did everybody a big favor.

The other potential leader of Nazi Germany, hiding behind door #2, would have slaughtered 60 million.

So by comparison, we should rewrite the history books and crown Hitler the king of humanitarians of the first half of the 20th century.

But why stop there.

If the Trump supporter logic is spot-on, then we need to do a whole lot of re-framing of history, simply because the Hillary of the time....clearly would have been much worse if they grasped the reins of power.

Jerry Sandusky?  Swing open the prison doors and let him run a Boy Scout Troop.  Yeah, he used his power to rape, molest and destroy little boys put in his care....but hey, the runner up "Hillary" coach behind door #2 would have victimized 10 times more boys than Sandusky.

Sandusky, in an exemplary showing of restraint, only robbed the innocence of a dozen or so.   Better build a statue of him on the Penn State campus -- because he saved more than 100 boys from falling prey to that Door #2 predator that he admirably took the place of.

There's more.

John Wayne Gacy.  A monster. The Trump school of faulty logic thinks not.

He strangled his sex torture victims before stowing them under his house.

The evil, "Hillary" hiding behind Door #2 clown-cloaked killer would have buried the boys alive.

See, by comparison, Gacy's damn near a stand up guy.

I mean, when you find out someone's kidnapped, raped, tortured, killed and buried your son.....wouldn't you feel so much better knowing that the bizarro world, Hillary-esque, lying in wait behind door #2 predator didn't get the chance to do terrible things to your boy before burying him alive.

See, Trump supports aren't crazy.

It all makes perfect. Sense.

Just trot out some insane, never will be realized terror scenario of what Evil Hillary (and is she so evil because she's progressive, or because she's a woman.  We all know their role is to take a grab by the P---y, not to perpetuate the old white male indignity of first living under and African American president, then living under a woman in the White House) and Trump looks like the second coming.

Yep, that's it.

I know see the light of day.

In fact, I'm going to catch the next flight to Ohio to thank the insane, cruel, hateful boss that treated my wife like dirt when she was working her tail off in one of her first jobs out of school.

Why, under the prism of this new Trump supporter enlightenment, I now see that the boss was a stand up person.  A true mentor and humanitarian.

I mean, they didn't toss my wife out of her wheelchair.

They didn't toss acid in her eyes.

But surely, the #2 candidate, the monster who they were blocking because they got the job, would have beaten my wife to death and hidden here where I could never find her.

Yep, sure hope that old Bastard is still alive.

Gotta fly up and thank them for being an a-hole, yes, but not nearly as bad as the Hillary that could have wrecked everything, if given the chance.