Sunday, April 22, 2018

Good People Don't Defend a Bad Man

I read an article this morning that struck me to the core. It says what I have been thinking for over a (very long) year. But, even having a blog and the available platform to express myself, I refrained because I was afraid that I wouldn't be able to articulate what I wanted to say.

But this article by writer and book author John Pavlovitz really says it all in very few words. He cuts to the chase and shoots the fox that has stolen into the henhouse, using his keyboard and his insight as his only weapons.

I'm not going to add anything to what he wrote. I'm simply reprinting the article from Jon Pavlovitz.

Good People Don’t Defend A Bad Man


At times in this life it can be a challenge to figure out who the bad people are, but sometimes they help you.

Sometimes they do the work for you.

Sometimes with their every vulgar, bitter word from their mouth, they testify to their personal malignancy and they make it easy to identify them.

Generally speaking, there are things that good people do and things good people don’t do.

Good people don’t refer to entire countries as “shitholes”—most notably countries that have given birth to our very humanity; ones that for hundreds of years have been colonized and poached and mined of their riches by powerful white men; countries whose people have been enslaved and sold and forced to come and build your country. 

Good people by any measurement we might use—simply don’t say such things.
Of course good people also don’t say they could grab women by the genitalia, either.
 
They don’t defend racists and nazis and call them “fine people,” days after murdering a young girl and terrorizing an American city.
 

They don’t brag about their penis size during debates, or suggest protestors at campaign rallies should be roughed up, or crack jokes about captured war heroes, or make fun of the physically disabled.
 

They don’t.

Good people don’t tweet anti-Muslim rhetoric in the moments immediately following a bombing in order to bolster a position.
 
They don’t leave American territories filled with brown skinned people without power for months upon months, after publicly ridiculing their public servants and questioning their people’s resolve.
 
They don’t erase protections for the water and the air, for the elderly, the terminally ill, the LGBTQ.
 
They don’t take away healthcare from the sick and the poor without an alternative.
 

They don’t gouge the working poor and shelter the wealthy.
 

They don’t abuse their unrivaled platform to Twitter-bait world leaders and to taunt private citizens.
 
Good people don’t prey upon the vulnerable, they don’t leverage their power to bully dissenters, and they don’t campaign for sexual predators.

But this President is not a good human being, and there’s simply no way around this truth.

He is the ugliest personification of the Ugly American, which is why, as long as he is here and as long as he represents this nation, we will be a fractured mess and a global embarrassment. He will be the ever lowering bar of our legacy in the world.


And what is painfully obvious in these moments, isn’t simply that the person alleging to lead this country is a terrible human being—it is that anyone left still defending him, applauding him, justifying him, amening him, probably is too.

At this point, the only reason left to support this President, is that he reflects your hateful heart; he shares your contempt of people of color, your hostility toward outsiders, your ignorant bigotry, your feeling of supremacy.

A white President calling countries filled with people of color shitholes, is so far beyond the pale, so beneath decency, and so blatantly racist that it shouldn’t merit conversation. It should be universally condemned. Humanity should be in agreement in abhorring it.

And yet today (like so many other seemingly rock bottom days in the past twelve months) they will be out there: white people claiming to be good people and Christian people, who will make excuses for him or debate his motives or diminish the damage.

They will dig their heels in to explain away or to defend, what at the end of the day is simply a bad human being saying the things that bad human beings say because their hearts harbor very bad things.

No, good people don’t call countries filled with beautiful, creative, loving men and women shitholes or do most of the horrible things he does.

And good people don’t defend people who do.

You’re going to have to make a choice here.

January 12 / John Pavlovitz
 Now, go make something beautiful!
¸.•´
¸.•*´¨) ¸.•*´¨)(¸.•´
(¸.•´♥ Tristan ♥

you can click on the image below to purchase John's book
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/a-bigger-table-john-pavlovitz/1125946596?ean=9780664262679#/

  

 

7 comments:

Jeanie said...

THAT is a fabulous article. You don't need to add a thing. I couldn't agree more.

Robbie said...

What a great article and words I wouldn't have been able to articulate! Thank you so much for sharing!

Bonnie Schulte said...

Well..what a can of worms you have opened..I voted for Trump, not because I am IGNORANT and not because I am HATEFUL. Your words of hate, to me, are saying everybody who thinks different than you do, are not good people and perhaps you think I a deplorable. That is your choice. But, please, you do not know me, and I don't have to respect your views, but I will not share hate on any site. I beg to differ with you...I am a GOOD Catholic, my three adult Christian sons are great smart young men, and my youngest son served our country in the Marine Corp. He has been to a "shithole" of a country. That is NOT saying the people living there are any less than you or me. It is the horrible conditions they are forced to live in. It just is saying me or you, would probably, well not probably for sure, never would want to live in a place other than OUR America. The America that Trump wants for ever one of us, and to be proud of. I am proud of Trump, doing his BEST, against the media and people like yourself, who I believe don't have all the facts correct. That is just my opinion, and I am quite sure you will delete this message, rather than keep it on your site, for others to see. Again, that is your right. But please..do not group any of us, Trump voters, into a basket of ignorant people, as did Hillary. You see where hate got her...

Janet Ghio said...

Love John Pavlovitz! His articles resonate with me.

Tristan Robin said...

No, I won't delete your comment. I think it's important that it remain so that others can read it.
You obviously didn't read the article with any kind of open mind attempting to understand what was written.
You have attacked an article because it is a negative observation of our President's words and actions. Yet, in doing so, you have not refuted or rejected one single word of it. It just makes you angry. Indeed, it's that kind of person that the article has spoken to so well.
As it states: "And good people don’t defend people who do (bad things).
You’re going to have to make a choice here."
I don't hate you - I don't hate anybody. And, I might add, this is the FIRST political post I've made on MY blog in almost 15 years of blogging. I feel that strongly about this issue. I knew ahead of time that I would make some people uncomfortable. But, as I've been uncomfortable for over a year, and my blog is, in a way, my home, I decided to use my home as a very small platform to voice my opinions.
But, no, I won't silence your opinion and delete your post.

Bonnie Schulte said...

Thank you so much for your reply, I do appreciate it.

DIYDesignStudio said...

Tristan, thank you for this wonderful article. I have said, LONG before the horrid person took office, that he was a street thug who only thinks of what he can gain for himself. His disdain for the handicapped, females, students (all of whome he neglects to realize can vote) shows a personality that is not for good Americans. We lead by example nad show love and kindness. I cannot wait until this horrid scourge has ended. THE ONLY REASON HILLARY LOST was due to the Comey comments, a week before the election, found to be untrue.