Why Hillary Outclassed Trump!

After watching the first of the 2016 Presidential debates, I rejoiced at Hillary Clinton’s thunderous win and wiped away tears that escaped after years of pent up emotion waiting for America’s first female Presidential candidate to take the stage and debate her opponent; a feat I was not sure would ever happen in my lifetime. Secretary Clinton was composed, Presidential, filled with factual information and had a clear, concise plan for America’s future. She was able to address all the questions presented while giving answers relevant to every American citizen; rich, poor, male, female, all races and all faiths.

Her challenger, Donald Trump, on the other hand, babbled on endlessly, was consistently incoherent and off topic, and unable to answer the questions posed by the moderator. Mainly because he could not stay focused on any one topic or issue for more than a few seconds. He was rude, arrogant, interrupted Mrs. Clinton relentlessly, all while huffing and puffing like he was running a marathon. And then there was the constant sniffling… This combined with his bizarre ranting had me questioning whether or not he was on some sort of drug that was adding to his irrational behavior. But even without bringing up Rosie O’Donnell, Trump looked unprepared, un-presidential, and uninformed. However, what bothered me the most about his unpolished, brash performance was the fact that he was proudly smiling when he admitted he had not paid any federal taxes! And then had the nerve to state that in doing so he was being smart!!!

How is it that a man, who professes to being a millionaire or billionaire is paying zero in federal taxes, while the rest of us ordinary citizens are paying our fair share? That’s about as un-American as you can get!!! It really irritates me that my children and I are paying more taxes than Donald Trump!!! Not only is that absurd, it is disrespectful to Americans and undeserved!!

One son of mine is the devoted father of three and works a full time job and two part time jobs to make sure his family has everything they need. My other son is 15 years his junior and just starting out in his profession. He still was able to purchase a home by saving his earnings AND paying Federal taxes that Trump conveniently avoided. So here’s my youngest child, who works in the film industry, which requires him to travel around the country working crazy hours on a salary that isn’t much above minimum wage, working his heart out while Trump gets a free ride but my kid doesn’t?  What is so special about Mr. Trump that he can complain about what America doesn’t have and yet refuses to pay Federal taxes, which is what helps build our country. America IS great and now we all know it certainly didn’t get that way because of anything done by Donald Trump!!!

My point is, that both my boys work their behinds off, don’t complain about it, and still have time to help others all while paying their taxes. Both donate their time to our community and help out local foundations in a variety of ways.

I am a retired elementary school teacher who lives on a small teacher’s pension and my social security and I still find time to volunteer in classrooms and help write the educational curriculum for a non-profit organization. In my family, we ALL volunteer our time to help others. We all work and pay our federal taxes, unlike Mr. Trump! None of us has a lot of money, (like you know who) but it would never dawn on my boys to avoid giving back to our government or to our community. That’s not who we are and those aren’t the values of the America I know and love.

Yet a man who is running for the highest office in the land, the President of the United States, doesn’t care enough about his country to do the same. He doesn’t give back, he only takes.

This country was built on the backs of the working class. My family worked hard, I worked hard, and my children work hard. And I am insulted that this imprudent candidate, who was too lazy to even prepare for the debate, has the gall to admit he paid zero federal taxes. And then smirks and tells us he was being smart! NO, he wasn’t being smart, he was being a cheater!!!

I have prided myself on being a first- rate mother, grandmother, and teacher for instilling good and righteous values in my children, grandchildren and my students. And I take pride in my community and my country. I have never resented paying taxes to help our schools, our roads, our clean air, our environment etc. And in the past, I have been proud of most of our leaders. Because no matter who won each election they were decent human beings who cared about America.

But this man has no sense of right and wrong. Whether he is a sociopath in his every day life I cannot say. But, he certainly is a societal sociopath, that’s for sure. Last night proved his inability to have any sympathy or concern for the people of this country. It was unmistakably clear when he actually showed pride for what he got away with. Not what he did for this country, but for what he didn’t do. And of course, JFK’s words rang in my head. “Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country.” That is a lesson Donald Trump obviously never learned.

I do not begrudge successful people in society. I have some very prosperous people in my circle of friends and among my relatives. BUT they all pay their fair share of taxes and they ALL give back to their communities and do so gladly and generously. Not so with Mr. Trump.

I was brought up to do a “mitzvah” (A good deed) every single day. That is how my parents raised me, which is a Jewish tradition, and how I raised my own children. And my oldest son, who is now a father, is carrying on that tradition teaching kindness and understanding to his children and showing them how important it is to help others. That is the pride, which my grandparents taught my parents when they immigrated to this great country of ours. America is all about opportunities and about communities. We are ALL one big family!

Someone should give Mr. Trump a lesson in American History so he can try to understand the reasoning behind our founding fathers. Right now he has no sense of the word community. He is all about “I” not we. And those are not qualities America needs or wants in a President. Trump’s true nature rang out loud and clear last night and it wasn’t the Liberty Bell that was ringing.  It was the chime of selfishness, greed, and egomania.

 

Memories of 9/11

Memories of 9/11 Fifteen years later:

September 11th 2001. It’s hard to believe it’s been 15 years since that tragic day. And like most citizens of this nation, I remember practically every detail of what happened during those horrific moments when the towers fell.

I was home from work with a really bad cold getting ready for a morning doctor’s appointment. I assumed it was my usual first cold of the teaching year, but this time I thought I might need a round of antibiotics and so that particular morning I was home drinking coffee and watching the news rather than working in my classroom, when I saw the exact moment the first plane hit the Twin Towers. I remember in slow motion putting my coffee cup down, and looking at the TV screen in disbelief. My mouth agape, I was totally stunned, not sure what I was witnessing. And then the news kept playing it over and over again. I grabbed the phone and called my now late husband, who was teaching an American history class at Dillard High School. I told him to immediately put on his classroom television and turn on the news, explaining that a plane had crashed into the Twin Towers. And as I was reporting the incident, the second plane came flying in and the tower burst into flames.  I screamed out loud as it happened. There was a silence out of shock as we both watched it together, but miles apart. Suddenly, I heard a group of his high school students scream in the background. I told him I would call him back after the doctors and we hung up not even knowing what to say because neither of us could even comprehend what we had just witnessed. I continued to get dressed, still watching the news, horrified as I, along with the country, now realized that this was not pilot error. It was an attack. Yes, America was beginning to comprehend that for the first time in modern history we were being attacked on U.S. soil.

I drove to the doctor’s listening intently to the radio news trying to understand the depth of what was going on, and when I got to the office the nurses and doctors were huddled around  various televisions that usually shared health hints in the waiting room, but now were tuned into the crash site and the tumbling towers as the news unfolded. I was called back into a patient room by a nurse, but then was waved over to a TV in the very back of the row of offices. It was then I heard about some of the other events of the day. We all looked at each other horrified. Men and women of all ages, races, doctors, nurses, patients in total disbelief. I remember an elderly patient crying. My doctor/nurse practitioner, grabbed my hand and took me into the room to check me out.  I believe she gave me a sample Z pack since I have no memory of ever going to the pharmacy. (That part is hazy. I might have gone to the pharmacy, but I truly don’t recall.)  We briefly shared how horrified we were and I told her that I was going straight to pick up my middle school child and she said, she wasn’t quite sure  what she was going to do, but also expressed concern about her boys who were young and in school as well. We looked at each other shocked and grief stricken and then hugged.  And I left the office.

Suddenly, everyone became afraid for the children. The realization that perhaps these attacks could happen randomly anywhere in our country, even in schools, entered every parent’s mind. So, when I left my doctor’s office, I headed straight for my son’s middle school. My son, Johnny was clueless as to why I was picking him up early and even more baffled that other parents were beginning to crowd the office asking for the release of their children too. While driving home my husband called panicking and telling me to pick up our son, I explained that I already had. We expressed our love for one another and then hung up. I called my 28-year-old son who was working and he said he was fine and it was business as usual and told me not to worry. He worked for the Miami Dolphins back then and nothing changed a sports schedule until a national emergency was declared. I told him to keep in touch and that I loved him. He said the same.

And so I drove home, coughing and sneezing, feverish, and in total shock over what had happened in our country.

I had some chicken soup, took my medicine, and continued to watch the news. My 13-year-old son, Johnny watched a little news too and quite honestly I am not quite sure how he felt. I was crying by now and hugging him, because everything was sinking in and I don’t believe my youngest son understood the extent of what was really going on. He watched a little TV and I told him not to worry about anything, that our country and the military had things under control and he seemed ok, just saddened at the loss of life. We both cried. I encouraged him to work on homework and he went to his room  to finish a school project. And then until my husband came home I don’t think I left the family room. I was glued to the television. Our family watched news non-stop for updates and luckily, my husband brought home dinner on his way home from work. Together as a family we felt closer than ever, and yet we watched in a zombie like state, as our nation seemed shattered. I remember sobbing as I  gazed through tear streaked eyes at the brave first responders trying to save those in need and my husband and I clung to each other tightly still in disbelief.

There are no words great enough to describe the events of that fateful day and all those who lost their lives when the towers fell. No words significant enough to express the sorrow and loss our country endured. Fifteen years…. we can never forget.

 

 

 

There Is Only ONE Choice!

I just turned off the evening news and I am angry!!  I am so sick of people saying there are two awful choices in this election. I totally disagree. There is only ONE awful choice. The other choice is an amazingly dedicated woman who is more experienced and qualified than any other candidate I have ever seen in the past 45 years that I have been voting. NEVER have we had a candidate with Hillary Clinton’s superior qualifications.

Sadly, the American media has decided to justify how absurdly unqualified Trump is, and therefore chosen to lower the bar, creating a new vacuous set of rules for “The Donald” because he is not your typical candidate. Instead, he is like dealing with a spoiled, argumentative preschooler. And in this bizarre world of 24 hour non stop news stations, all the leading channels appear to be sharing a “Voting for Dummies” guidebook.  One in which Trump doesn’t appear as ridiculous and inept as he actually is. And worst of all, in an attempt to make their news reports more credible, these so called journalists are now identifying Hillary as an equally bad candidate just to help Trump appear less nonsensical and somewhat normal. (Like they think the public won’t notice?)

I assume this is being done for ratings, but it seems to me that the closer we get to the election, the majority of reporters don’t want Trump to stand out as the ineffective joke that he is.  They would rather pretend to the public that he is a viable candidate in order to level the playing field. Or make it appear level.  That in itself, is absurd, sexist, and totally unfair to the one candidate (Hillary) who is intelligent, competent, and actually Presidential material.

But what bothers me the most, is that this just isn’t fair. Hillary doesn’t belong in the same category as Trump, nor does she deserve this kind of abusive treatment from American journalists and the American people. Especially, when she has spent a lifetime helping our citizens. Talk about a lack of respect!!! (Let alone the fact that her decades of work and effort have been totally ignored and undervalued.) There is no comparison at all between the candidates.  One has spent a lifetime helping others and one has spent a lifetime helping himself.

Why is it that Hillary has had to fight harder than any other candidate in our history and had to prove herself more than any man running? Why must she answer more questions when Trump gets a free ride? Oh yes, of course, it’s because she’s a woman. To heck with that!

Anyone who cannot see her superiority in this arena over Mr. Trump, is quite frankly, not thinking clearly or rationally. This isn’t reality TV, this is real life!!! And I for one, am sick and tired of intelligent qualified women having to constantly prove themselves over and over to less capable men every single second of every single day in this country! There is such a double standard that it is appalling and offensive.

If Trump wins, then I feel like I have wasted 36 years of teaching.  Because that means deductive reasoning, research, logic, intellectualism, has been thrown out the window. It means rationality and wisdom have died in our nation.

We as a society cannot compete in this world with an ignorant Commander in Chief. Our founding fathers did NOT want us to elect a vain CEO who plans to be a figurehead and delegate responsibility without bothering to learn our history or our constitution. Those great men wanted an intelligent, strong leader who could make perceptive decisions and command effectively. And this time, by golly, it’s going to be a woman. So deal with it!!!!!!!