To the editor:
At 72 years of age, I have gained some personal clarity and offer it to you with the hope that it will help you traverse this time of crisis, self-imposed by our president and those who voted for him.
The self-centered, who seek more money and power than others, may temporarily damage our communal trust and commitment to social progress, but they will ultimately not win.
We will all win the human race by continuing to build community and by coming to our finish line having looped back many times to listen to and walk with others—often the vulnerable—as they strive to fulfill their dreams.
We fulfill our dreams and make meaning in life by envisioning and then co-creating beauty, truth, goodness, and justice. This is how we push back against entropy.
The self-centered amongst us dream of making meaning by acquiring excessive money and power, releasing the ‘evil gifts’ of Pandora’s Box. We are reminded of Homer’s “Iliad”: “evil gifts will be pointed at by the finger of scorn, the hand of famine will pursue him to the ends of the world, and he will go up and down the face of the earth, respected neither by gods nor men.” Such is already the emerging fate of our president.
As protest and scorn begin to push back against the MAGA movement, my hopes are threefold: 1) that we will find ways to ‘walk with’ the vulnerable MAGA voters who are beginning to realize that they were manipulated; 2) that we will continue to cherish and build our local community of inclusivity; and 3) that new political leadership will emerge to help restore our national communal trust and commitment to worldwide social progress.
Such are the hopes that I will continue to hold dear.
Virgil Stucker
Monterey
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