Not My President?

 Car Rider Duty, Friday Afternoon

 

Me: Well, hey! I haven’t seen you in awhile!

Grandmother who has a Bible sitting on her dashboard: Yeh. She’s been riding the bus.

Me: I thought she must be riding the bus.

Grandmother: She should have been riding the bus all along. With gas at $4 a gallon.

Me: Yeh. Gas IS expensive these days.

Grandmother: Yeh. Thanks to ya’ll’s President.

Me: (Momentarily confused)

Grandmother: He sure ain’t my President. I can tell you that.

Me: (Silent) *Then the student gets to the car and I wish her a happy weekend.*

 

…

 

That conversation shook me.

 

It upset me.

   

It disheartened me.                      

 

Regardless of whether we agree with a President’s political views and actions, we are still citizens of the United States, and many of us—especially those of us who are white, and she was white—live in privilege because of that fact every day.

 

True. I may wholeheartedly disagree with a President. I may think his (and I must use “his” here because we haven’t yet moved forward enough to be able to include a “her” option) views, actions, and policies very bad and very wrong, but he is still the President. And the President, for better or worse, is the visible leader of the nation that affords us our rights and freedoms.

 

We’re supposed to be “one nation, under God, indivisible” and yet all I see and hear is division. And evidently, there is a vast group of people who don’t even consider it one nation. Not if “he sure ain’t my President.”

 

We’ve lost all decency in argument. All tact in disagreement. All respect in respect. All common in courtesy. And we have landed on sharply opposite sides of belief.  It’s us against them. Men against women. Black against white. Rich against poor. Conservative Christian against all others. Nation against nation.

 

And it’s upsetting.

 

It’s disheartening.

 

And it leaves me feeling very sad.

 

God. Help. Please. We’re in a mess. People are hurting. And your name is being used to justify the hurt. My heart aches. My spirit aches. We are moving backwards. Hate and division are not of You. Ignorance and lies are not of You. And yet our reality is filled with hate, division, ignorance, and lies. Help us to rise above. Help us to find Your true, prophetic voice. Help us to stay the course, even when it’s hard, and even when we don’t agree with a President, or Congress, or Pastor, or Parents, or Past, or anyone and anything else. Help us to move forward, into a better tomorrow, where all are welcome at the table—even those we don’t like. Amen.