President Trump has obstructed and worked against good government for more than four years. His foul, self-serving, ignorant, irresponsible sloth has interrupted the good work possible and created countless extra work for public leaders and citizens. This extra work has halted our ability to give our full attention to the good work possible. He has been a complete time-suck--a dangerous waste of time, money, energy, promise and potential.
As we consider the wall that Trump activity created when it comes to forwarding positive policies, laws, and initiatives, we have to ask ourselves, do we contribute to the greater good or are we, like Trump, an obstruction to the positivity that's possible.
As I think about my own work today--I am thinking about how I might streamline my efforts in ways that move towards promise and potential rather than obstructing the good possible. What can I do?
As I think about this, I like to work out from self to the greater world.
Self
Essentially it's critical to have a positive, simple routine that keeps me as healthy, positive, and capable as possible.
Family
Taking time to think deeply about who my family members are, what they need, and what I can do to support them is important. Making time each week to reach out and ask, what do you need and what can I do is a first step, and then working to support their needs as I can.
Community
Clearly, I have some work to do to ready for my next investment in the community--mostly there's lots of reading and study to do as I prepare for this role. Hopefully, we won't have to worry a lot about the Trump team oppression and threats, and can move more fully into our own pursuits to do our part with intelligence, commitment, and care. Joe Biden has started his work with good leadership and a strong, diverse team--this is good, and also enables everyone to do their part well.
State and Nation
Fortunately at the state level, we have many, many great leaders in Massachusetts. I follow them on social media to stay abreast of their efforts. I contact them when I think it's important, and I support their strong leadership as I can. At the national level, we will also have terrific leadership going forward, and rather than be passive, I intend to keep abreast of the work that is going on, and use my vote and voice to support what I believe are efforts that empower and enrich our nation's people, lands, resources, and potential.
World
There is great work to do to better the conditions for living the world over--we have to take this seriously as we are a closely connected people all over the world. It is very important to think about how wealthy individuals and corporations work with the world's people--we must have regulations that ensure that no individual, organization, or corporation works in ways that makes the world's people suffer. For example, not to long ago, I read a very sad story about the fact that Nestle was using the clean water from a Mexican community while the poor community members were relegated to buying water because their water sources were polluted. This is the kind of corporate greed that creates illness, poverty, anger, injustice, and divide. In many ways, we can improve the conditions of living of people throughout the Globe by regulating the ways that we work with the world's people and eliminating the ways we prey on the world's people. Another example is that many of the products we buy that are very cheap are the result of slave-like work conditions in other parts of the world--we need to commit to fair and just labor practices across the Globe. There's lots to think about, and we'll be smart as a people if we begin working with countries around the world to lift up humane working and living conditions. It's possible that we could sway some of our military dollars and efforts towards humanitarian efforts because when people are happy and healthy they are less likely to war on each other. Of course, most wars are promoted by a few elites, not ordinary people, so we have to keep the power of elites in check.
There's much we can do, and all of us have unique capacity to make promising change to contribute to the good. A Trump-less government will open a window to greater opportunity and contribution in this regard.