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The True Citizen, Wednesday, March 3, 2021 — Page 5
Michael N. Searles
A CONUNDRUM WRAPPED IN A PUZZLE
A conundrum is defined as
a confusing and difficult prob
lem or question. Life presents
many difficult problems and
questions, but some seem to
be especially troubling. These
are issues that you return to
in your mind over and over
again. The overriding ques
tion for some is “Why and how
has former President Donald
Trump kept the loyalty of so
many Americans?” The argu
ments listed in the December
2, 2020, True Citizen article,
“An Unanswered Question”
included twenty-six reasons
and arguments that challenged
the fitness of Donald Trump for
the highest office. Yet some
readers found those arguments
less than persuasive.
Since December 2, 2020,
even more issues have been
placed before the American
people. There is a time when
reason is abandoned. A for
mer QAnon follower recently
shared how she was drawn into
believing things she earlier
never would have accepted.
Conspiratorial notions that
ranged from those in govern
ment seeking to deprive the
American people of their rights
to prominent people eating and
drinking the blood of children
became accepted thought. The
woman making these state
ments said it was a seductive
process that led her into believ
ing wild and irrational ideas.
The majority of Trump sup
porters are not members of
QAnon and do not believe
the strange things cited by the
former QAnon member. Their
belief in Donald Trump is a co
nundrum that has persisted in
spite of 500,000 CCOVID-19
deaths, the storming of the
Capitol, and the former Presi
dent’s refusal to acknowledge
his loss at the ballot box. Rea
son has not prompted his most
ardent followers to reevaluate
their position nor abandon him.
Scholars from the Univer
sity of California, Berkeley
have evaluated the Trump
phenomenon and drawn sev
eral conclusions. They found
that a complex interplay of
economic, cultural and ra
cial factors have resulted in a
fierce, almost cult-like loyalty.
Prolonged economic insecurity
has inspired deep anger among
working and middle class vot
ers to embrace Trump as a chal
lenger of the American status
quo. Even when his language
was crude and inappropriate,
Trump was seen as shaking up
the system. Culturally, Trump
presented himself as a friend of
the Common Man who alone
could make America Great
Again.
Racially, the loss of status
especially among white middle
class and working class Ameri
cans opened a door to Black,
Latinx, Asian, and immigrant
resentment. There also was a
concern that minority progress
came at the expense of white
people.
With the onslaught of COV-
ID-19, President Trump never
missed a chance to label it as,
“the China-vims or the Wuhan
Virus.” Pent up frustrations
left the Asian community,
especially Chinese and South
Asians, susceptible to attack.
Nationwide more than 2,500
reports of anti-Asian hate in
cidents related to COVID-19
occurred between March and
September 2020. The United
States has long been recog
nized as a country white men
built with everyone else play
ing a supporting role. America
can no longer be described in
this manner. Many people of
color have taken center stage as
top scientists, medical experts,
political leaders, television
personalities, sports icons, and
entertainers. It is estimated that
there are more than 247,000
doctors with medical degrees
from foreign countries prac
ticing in the United States,
making up slightly more than
one-quarter of all doctors.
Donald Tmmp built a Fan
tasy Island where Americans
could live and prosper without
outsiders (Immigrants or Mi
norities) in the picture. In this
Virtual World, Eisenhower is
President, everyone watches
I Love Lucy, and the Middle
Class is riding high. While
the so-called “good old days”
may be over for good, many
Americans believe the “best is
yet to come.”
Diana Royal
HOME
(Reprinted from June 2017.)
The dirt road was endless,
especially crammed into the
backseat of Daddy’s blue Su
zuki Samurai. Back then, on
those tedious trips to Girard,
I was convinced I had long
legs, my knees just a few
inches shy of serving as a chin
rest. On most journeys, in the
sweltering summer heat, River
Road was what Daddy called a
“washboard”; the ruts caused a
steady, uncomfortable bounce
as the tires slowly crunched
over the sand. We’d make
noises to be funny, a traveling
band whose harmonies sound
ed like kids talking into a fan,
our tempo trudging through the
tracks of those before us.
If anyone’d asked me then,
I’d have said Girard was a
good three-hour drive from
our home in Hephzibah. It took
forever to get to our destina
tion, a plot of property simply
known as “the land.” Once the
pavement bled into dirt, we
were allowed to take off our
seat belts. I loved the way the
trees always seemed to bend
across the pathway, creating a
tunnel with their barked arms
and leafy wardrobe.
The land was where we went
camping - cheap hotdogs, cans
of beans and a cast iron skillet
in tow. And marshmallows. We
had an old wooden building
resembling something straight
out of a 1980s horror film,
but it was stocked with bunk
beds, and we felt safer sleeping
inside the creepy shelter when
the coyotes went to howling.
There was even a bathroom
- a deep hole carved through
the dirt, topped with a toilet
seat and encased within three
walls fashioned from an old tin
roof. My friend Sally and I tore
those walls down when a bat
squeaked up from below dur
ing an attempted potty break.
Daddy still laughs about
that day.
We talked, nonstop, dur
ing our camping adventures.
We told ghost stories around
a small fire and complained,
minimally, about the smell
and residue left behind from
bug spray.
Just the other day, I saw this
question posed somewhere: If
you had to define what home
is to you, would it be a person
or a place?
The land immediately came
to mind, and I got to thinking,
what, really, is the definition of
home to begin with? Of course
home in the obvious sense is
where we reside; it’s where
we eat, sleep and feel most
comfortable letting our hair
down. It’s where we raise our
children, listen to music while
washing dishes, gather around
the table to eat a special meal or
celebrate a birthday. It’s where
people come to grieve with
us when one of the bedrooms
becomes permanently vacant.
But take down the walls.
Demolish the bricks and the
plywood. Throw out the tile
and those granite counter-
tops that were worth the extra
money. Our foundation is not
altered because home is inter
nal. We can make our physical
home pretty, and Lord knows
I love doorknobs and pillows,
but I cherish having heard my
daughter say “bah” a million
times more than I do the actual
ball she was looking at when
she said it. Home is neither a
particular person nor place just
as much as it is every person
and place. Home, essentially,
is what makes us who we are;
it’s mobile and lives within
our hearts and we decorate it
every single day without even
realizing it most of the time.
Our family property per
fectly defines my personal
home, not because of what it
is but because of what it rep
resents. Memories hang like
the moss from the trees. The
landscape has changed over
the years: we’ve added a pond
and the driveway now sidles
up beside a cow pasture. It’s a
place where the past, the pres
ent and what’s unknown live in
unison. A place that’s as calm
and refreshing as the air that
surrounds it. A place inside
myself that pictures never do
justice. A place of stories and
moments with loved ones that
will outlive us all. A place that
always stays the same yet con
tinues to be cultivated. Home.
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