We all be different now that Trump is to be our 45th President of these United States of America. I feel like I did when 9-11 happened. I was working four blocks away from ground zero. I watched as it happened. I felt so horrified, helpless, and unable to do anything to stop those planes from crashing into the towers, but I wanted to stop it. I wanted it to be a movie or a made-for-television movie that I could turn off at will. But it wasn’t a movie; it was real. Over three thousand souls died that day in New York City. The next day, 9-12, I felt sad, hopeless, and depressed as I tried to call friends and relatives to see if they were okay while they did the same to me. I wondered what would happen next to our country. What would happen next to the City?
Years ago, my car was broken into for the first time. I was in shock. At first, I couldn’t believe I had anything in my car that somebody could want badly enough to break out a window. Immediately, I felt shock, then I was stunned, and finally, I was hurt somebody would damage my car just to thief my tunes. The next day, I felt a little paranoid as I moved my car for New York’s infamous alternate-side-of-the-street parking. I wondered if somebody was watching me, waiting for me to make a mistake so they could break in again and steal something else. I started looking around for the culprits. I studied every strange somebody driving around and anybody hanging around the parked cars in my neighborhood. I wondered if it was him, the guy leaning on the fire hydrant. Was he the radio thief? Or was it her, the woman sitting on the park bench watching everything? Maybe it was the guy sipping beer from a bag.
Two days later, I paid for new window glass with my rent money. My car insurance didn’t include glass replacement. Now I was angry. I needed to blame somebody. I didn’t care who did the crime. I wanted somebody to do the time for the crime. Anybody would do to blame for the crime.
A few days ago, I watched President-elect Trump stutter-step through his first press conference. He sat next to current US President Obama, a man he (the Donald) claimed for nearly five years of his presidency wasn’t even an American citizen. I also watched President Obama graciously compliment President-elect Trump. I looked at their body language. Obama’s posture was very open as he relaxed against the back of his chair. Obama mentioned the joint meeting between him and Trump took longer than he expected. Trump’s back looked hunched down and he had his hands hanging between his legs. Trump’s posture reminded me of the way some folks sit when they are trying to get little and disappear into thin air. Trump mentioned something about discussing some good things and some not-so-good things.
I figured the briefing meeting took longer than Obama expected because Trump doesn’t have a long attention span and is not a critical or analytical thinker. Twitter criteria suits a minimalist thinker like Trump. I would venture to say 140 characters is almost too much space for him to fill. I just wonder how much Twitter is in a US president’s world. To my knowledge, neither domestic nor foreign policies are written in Twitter-speak. I don’t believe Senate or House bills use that kind of language either.
I’ll end my rant by asking, How do you re-train a seventy-year-old?
Thanks for reading this.
BL Wilson
