What Trump, Covid, and a fraught election have taught us this year
When a nation fights to preserve what is precious, as we just have, it learns what matters most.
By Frank Figliuzzi
In a year that has thrust thousands of people into therapy, strained and snapped personal relationships over bitterly bifurcated politics, claimed 260,000 American lives in a vicious pandemic, plummeted 1 in 4 Americans into joblessness or poverty wages, and exposed gaping holes in our democratic processes, expressing gratitude during the holidays may feel like a bridge too far.
But give thanks we should. Because a nation comes to more greatly appreciate that which it has lost or almost lost. And when a nation fights to preserve what is precious, as we just have, it learns what matters most — things like freedom, faith, and facts — and embraces individuals who help to defend those things. By that measure, we have much for which to be thankful.
Our national security was challenged by adversaries foreign and domestic — and it held. Our free and fair election process was pummeled — but prevailed. Science and facts were vilified —but will rise victorious. And our faith, in ourselves and our institutions, was questioned — yet it shows signs of overcoming.
Freedom, faith, and facts persisted — not mysteriously or magically, nor by overwhelming margins. Rather, those enduring values remain because of the might and determination of the collective conscience of Americans, and because of specific people who came to embody our representative will. For that, we should be thankful.
In this year, and the years throughout President Donald Trump’s tenure, our freedom, expressed in our uniquely American form of democracy and rule of law, faced unprecedented challenges. The Trump administration flagrantly flouted congressional oversight, and a special counsel investigation previously found at least 10 incidences where the president obstructed justice.
Foreign adversaries attempted to interfere, as they did in 2016, with the 2020 election, but were decidedly defeated by professionals dedicated to preserving our process. Election officials, from both the GOP, the Democratic Party, as well as from neither party, held firm in their oath to uphold the laws of their states. In places like Pennsylvania, Michigan, Arizona, Nevada, and Georgia, poll workers and election officials, including those secretaries of state and judges in those states, did the right thing — even in the face of death threats. For this preservation of our free society, we should be grateful.
READ MORE: What Trump, Covid, and a fraught election have taught us this year
https://www.msnbc.com/opinion/what-trump-c...
Posted By: Dea. Ron Gray Sr.
Saturday, November 28th 2020 at 12:36AM
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