There are a lot of people in our country who absolutely despise our current President, just as much as there are still a lot of people in our country who absolutely love our current President. While I’m not on either side of this coin, and truly do my best to live neutrally surrounding this ongoing heated debate, I do struggle with all the negativity out there constantly directed at him. It seems as if every conversation that comes up around me is always about something that was said recently by him that has caused another great uproar. Because of all this negativity, I tried my best recently to shift the focus away from it by asking a purely hypothetical question in my blog. My question was if you woke up suddenly one day and found yourself in our current President’s body, as in Disney’s Freaky Friday movie, and had one day to live as him, what would you do to inspire our country through this ongoing pandemic.
My sincere honest desire in asking this question was to create some positive discussion surrounding what people might do differently. But sadly, the majority of the responses I received ended up being just as negative, although I’m quite sure some of the actions suggested probably would indeed inspire those who are filled with anger, resentment, and frustration towards him. Actions that included a number of ways they’d kill themselves or disappear or resign, some of which involved the deletion of their twitter account as well. What I found quite interesting though is that there was one person overall who actually did leave a fully positive comment by saying they’d do what they could to offer hope and show empathy. I was thankful for that comment, because it’s exactly what I’d do if somehow this purely hypothetical situation ever happened to me. Because while taking my life as the President or running away or resigning might inspire one set of people who despise our current President, it won’t with the other set who continue to support him, thus leaving our country in the same divided boat.
Look, while I’m not well versed in politics, which most know about me, I personally wouldn’t find it inspirational during this pandemic to see our current President take their life or run away or even resign. Just as much as I wouldn’t find it inspirational if our current President was assassinated either, which I’ve often heard people wishing for, because I respect all lives, including his, as I believe everyone, including him, has some good in them somewhere.
I’m sure there are some who might argue this point with me incessantly when it comes to him, but here’s how I see it. If you took a snapshot of me about a decade ago on backwards, one might argue there was nothing within me that was good or worth saving, as I constantly made decisions that were solely based upon ego and self, something that so many continue to say about him. But deep down within me there was good and there was a person worthy of redemption. It may have been grossly hidden, but it was there.
So, that’s why I won’t condemn our current President, because I’ll condemn myself in the process, being that I’ve hurt many people myself in my life through totally selfish actions. So I can’t point any negative finger at him, nor wish to participate in any negative discussions surrounding him, because I’m just as guilty. This is exactly why my answer to this question from the other day would NEVER be to take my life or run away or resign or do anything of the sort.
So, what would I do then if I woke up in the body of our current President and only had one day to try to inspire our nation through this pandemic? Well, my best answer without really knowing politics, and with knowing that any decision I made on any policy level would probably still create two factions, one for and one against, would simply be to tell the world that I’m truly sad for all the lives being lost in this pandemic. I’d then visit and call as many families as I could in a single day who’ve lost someone from this virus, and I’d show each of them as much empathy, love, and support in their time of grief as I could.
Nevertheless, all the answers I received to this hypothetical question made me realize one thing. I personally have no business complaining about our current President because I’m not better than him, or anyone else for that matter, nor do I believe I could do the job of him any better either, as I’m quite sure my actions would only polarize people, just like I already seem to do so much through my daily blog writing. That’s why the only viable answer I can give here is exactly what the one reader suggested, and that’s to offer some form of hope and empathy, which in a nutshell, means showing love, something that really needs to begin with all of us, and something that negativity towards our President will never accomplish…
Peace, love, light, and joy,
Andrew Arthur Dawson
