By Carol Lucas
Today, I am relinquishing my column space to a letter I received from a woman who visited our area recently – Val Cabell of Vermillion, Ohio. It is so well-written and right to the point that I feel compelled to share. I’ll see you next week.
An orange colored fireball is rolling with great speed across this nation and even around the globe. It is out of control.
It has nothing to do with the world’s changing climate. This is no actual weather-related event but something caused by man; it’s human driven, deceptive and destructively beguiling.
It is intruding into all of our lives from the delusional and dark realm of megalomania. Unwelcome and uninvited. Its fuel, “Adderall.” Yes, Adderall, a drug! Yes, this pernicious president is on it and has been for years. How many of you knew this?
So now what do we see as the fireball keeps on rollin’ … With his posse of violent and terrifying men newly released from prison, who will do anything for their cult leader, a man so vainly puffed up by any crowd and by his own immoral fleshy mind, we wait as we stare downward.
And with his wing-men at his side pumping him up, we are subjected to living under a government that is beyond authoritarian. Huge numbers of people are displaced, many with no longer protected status; people may simply disappear once winter breaks and the posse is on the loose again. Most of us are shaking our heads daily in disbelief at the people in charge of governing this country. At the same time, huge amounts of money are being moved around.
This week we were informed (again) that:
MAGA stands for Make America Great Again. Well, I think it has been great, very great.
MIGA stands for: Make India Great Again. Well, that’s a new one but I believe India has been great, very great.
Wait for it….dare they suggest “MEGA?” … They did!
Actually, MEGA stands for megalomania, a mental disorder. “Someone who has an unnaturally strong wish for power and control or thinks they are much more powerful than they really are.”
History reminds us of other megalomaniacs: Alexander the Great. Died 323 BC. Genghis Khan. Died 1227 AD. Napoleon Bonaparte. Died 1821 AD. Adolf Hitler. Died 1945 AD.
This year is 2025, shouldn’t we have learned from history and now be enjoying our lives to the fullest, free from fear; are we not at the zenith of our civilization? God help us.
Recently it has been reported that many people said: “For God’s sake! Dont let this megalomaniac become President!” We did.
He is wicked. Some say he is evil. He is unhinged and hell bent on dismantling Democracy under the wilful guise of contrived distraction.
Here are just some of the president’s outlandish ideas:
“We will change the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America.”
Say what?
“Let’s take Greenland, OK, maybe not.
“How about Panama, well, keep trying.
“The Gaza! We”ll take Gaza and completely rebuild it to show the world; in fact it will be for the world’s people,(except for the Palestinians).
“OK, well I believe we can take Canada; it’s right next door, they have no military, can’t survive without us, and the people there have not been very nice to us. Wayne Gretzky, he’s OK, and I like ice hockey. It should become the 51st state.”
In fact and in truth, Canadians now are more unified than ever. They say flags of the red maple leaf are flying off the shelves from coast to coast to coast.
These are preposterous ideas and hurtful insults causing long-term damage thrown at the nicest, friendliest neighbo(u)r to the North — absolutely unconscionable! It’s insane. Well, since we have earlier revealed another form of mental illness, let’s add to the list with descriptive words for insane: “In a state of mind which prevents normal perception, behaviour, or social interaction, seriously mentally ill.”
My husband, the epitome of a perfect American gentleman, kind, generous and also brilliant, has no answer. I have no answer. But we both believe in the ultimate and powerful source of praying to the God of the Universe. Is He the only one now who can help us? Hopefully, but I don’t know. There is power in prayer. Please let’s all try it.
If former President Jimmy Carter, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, was still alive and was ready to welcome strangers at his home as he often did, I would head to Georgia and knock on his front door, expect to be greeted by him and ask him, ” Mr. President Sir, what would you do?”
Carter taught us: “The bond of our common humanity is stronger than the divisiveness of our fears and our prejudices.” He was a true man of faith and goodness. He made people’s lives better around the world. He was “presidential.”
People looked fondly on him and fondly toward America. President Carter said with that smile of trusting hope and the promise of certainty shining through his sparkling blue eyes: ” I have one life and one chance to make it count for something.”
“My faith demands that I do whatever I can, wherever I am, whenever I can, for as long as I can, with whatever I have to make a difference.”
I wish he was still with us. President Carter is the complete antithesis of this bully in office today. The timing of his recent death in January, he was over 100 years old, was no mere coincidence. Perhaps he ordained it to occur just prior to this new administration.
Cleveland Clinic this past week has been asking its patients, many of whom are reporting depression from watching the state of affairs in their own country, if they are feeling depressed and then, advising their patients, particularly vulnerable seniors who have lived through so many decades of uncertain times but never anything like this, to take time away from the news broadcasts for their better health. And in that time, seek peace and solace from anything that strengthens them.
I want to wake up completely refreshed each morning but I do not. For the last many many weeks, after numerous nights of disturbed sleep and disturbing thoughts from each separate day’s events, I brace myself for the dawn’s early light and then … conclude it was not just a strange nightmare; it was not a bizarre and sickening scenario; surely this was not the time I was living in, but a time far hence that could never happen, to me, to our country, to our good and kind, humble neighbors of the North.
Surely to God this is the time for people of good will and sound reason to reach for higher ground together all across the country; indeed across the whole continent of North America. Let Right be Done.
Carol Lucas is a retired high school teacher and a Lady’s Island resident. She is the author of the recently published “A Breath Away: One Woman’s Journey Through Widowhood.”
