OPINION: Feeling disoriented in an upside down world

I think about where Christ would be if He was walking the earth today, in the midst of all this division.

I feel like He would be where He always was during His time on earth, and that’s with the unloved, the unwanted, the widows and the orphans, the addicted, the sick, the lonely and yes, the refugees who are homeless due to circumstances beyond their control.

And I think of the walls going up at breakneck speed, both figuratively and literally, and I wonder, what would Jesus do?

For me, there’s no dancing around this anymore.

I lit a candle against the darkness in November, but sometimes there needs to be a fire.

I feel as though I am watching the country I love rapidly becoming some place I do not recognize, where “down” is up and “up” is down.

I think of Jubilee Partners in Comer, as Zach Mitcham and Mike Buffington wrote about last week. It’s a place that I have visited a number of times to do feature stories on the refugees who find solace and a new start there. I have met some extraordinary individuals – from the ones who care for these people, frightened and alone in a new country, to the refugees themselves. I have met humble people of good character who were put in circumstances over which they had no control. With the help of the people of Jubilee and the Madison County community, they have been given hope and a future. And that’s the way it should be.

Time and circumstance are the only things that separate us from those who live in hellish circumstances not of their own making. If we think it can’t happen to us, we are foolish indeed.

We have some of the best of what this world has to offer here in this country and we cannot let fear change who we are and what we stand for.

To whom much is given, much is required. Even though life can often be a struggle, I try always to remember that compared to most of the rest of the world, most of us live in luxury.

And think of it this way – uncertainty is all around us. You have only to read the crime reports in this newspaper every week to see that. We face far more of a threat from our fellow citizens than we do from those from someplace else. I have thought that it’s a wonder we don’t have “a killing a week,” so prevalent is the violence that happens around us every day.

It already seems to me as if this man who commandeered a political party for his own purposes and took over our country has been president for years. Everything is splash and dash. Like I’ve written before, he shoots from the hip with little forethought or regard of the fallout or concern about the myriad of unintended consequences that follow.

It’s about the show, not about the substance.

It’s like watching an extended version of The Apprentice, with much higher stakes. He has yet to realize that he’s not just hurling insults and having fun to boost ratings – he is the president of the United States and his words and tweets can produce grave consequences.

Do we have problems? Oh yes, we do. But building walls and drawing inward won’t help us solve them.

We’re not a nation that cowers down to fear – we are a nation of people that stand up for what’s right. It’s time to remember that.

The time may well come again when we will need our friends, our allies, to stand with us in solidarity as they did after 9/11, sharing our grief, joining us in our efforts to combat the barbarians who took so many lives. And there were people of many races, colors and faiths (including Muslims) who died that awful day.

Yet we seem to have forgotten all that too.

You can bet on this — nobody is happier about recent events than ISIS and other Jihadi groups who seek to do us harm. They’ve wanted to justify their barbaric acts as a holy war. Now they can feel justified and watch as their ranks increase.

Hundreds of national security professionals who have made our country’s safety their life’s work have pointed this out, to no avail.

And as sure as I am writing this, if another attack happens on American soil, the president will pass the blame to the judicial system (as he’s already indicated in several of his many tweets), and of course to the media, regardless of whether the perpetrator(s) are “homegrown” or from somewhere else. The details won’t matter at all.

All throughout that awful campaign, every time he did or said something outrageous that would have made any other candidate unacceptable in any way to anyone, all I heard was “but Hillary.” Anything was better than Hillary. Hold your nose and it’ll all be OK.

Well she wasn’t my pick either, but she’s gone now and we are left with this.

Criticism or resistance of any kind demands disparagement. Stand against him and you will be ridiculed and raged against, flogged publically and repeatedly in 120 characters. No perceived “enemy” is too big, or too small, to receive his wrath.

It’s quite the show, but I wish I could change the channel.

Most people don’t get motivated to action until something happens that affects them directly, it’s human nature. We don’t generally see what’s beyond the end of our driveways.

I am trying not to be that kind of person.

So consider me part of the resistance against this new normal of tweets and drama, hate and fear.

I am certainly not a political vigilante, I have never been one to even write about politics, but this goes way beyond the political sphere. I believe this to be one of those occasions that define us.

It is hard to stand against the tide of public opinion that you have to live with every day, so hard to take the inevitable fallout that comes with it, but I want to look in the mirror and know that I was true to what I know to be right, even when it costs me — especially when it costs me.

So I will voice my opinion without fear and find other means to peacefully protest what I feel to be wrong.

I will also stay vigilant and informed, continuing to read everything from many different sources and sides of the issues. When we limit ourselves to one source of information, we limit our knowledge and our ability to make sound judgments based on documentable facts, instead of “alternative” ones.

And I intend to keep reaching out my hand, especially to those who are afraid. They need to know that they are not alone.

Margie Richards is a reporter and office manager for The Madison County Journal.