During the final days of the American presidential campaign, one of Donald Trump’s recurrent messages was “we’re going to drain the swamp.”
It was red meat to his supporters, who think Trump can fix Washington as the consummate outsider. He can’t. Nobody can.
What seemed to escape everyone was to fact check what happens when a swamp is drained. A stinking, oozing muck remains and the groundwater will eventually seep back to make another swamp. The United States is neck deep in it. It’s a dirty mess and it’s up to Americans, not us, to clean it up.
My dad, a veteran of World War II, always taught me to believe in freedom of speech and law and order, but he wouldn’t have believed in Trump.
There are people in Powell River who believe in the word of Trump and they are no different than his white, racist, misogynist, homophobic and uneducated followers. Ignorance knows no boundary; it can’t be walled in.
There are also people in Powell River who are vehemently opposed to foreign investment. Let’s be honest. It’s Chinese investment they don’t want. That’s racism.
Bigotry toward Tla’amin Nation still exists and those thoughts do not embrace truth and reconciliation. The words and denigration some people in Powell River hold toward first nations is racism.
Powell River has organizations that promote and celebrate the cohesiveness and acceptance of difference. Powell River Diversity Initiative and Inclusion Powell River are two that immediately come to mind. However, these groups can’t address all of our problems.
It’s all here: racism, sexism, misogyny, environmental enemies, gun rights activists and homophobia. Powell River is not the perfect paradise we believe it to be.
It might come as a shock to protestors in the US aimlessly wandering city streets south of the border in sadness, desperation, fear, terror, horror, disgust, dismay, distrust, hatred and blame, but, like it or not, carrot top is their president. That’s democracy, kids. You’re not in daycare. Deal with it.
If dealing with it means protest, then by all means do that. Not that it’s going to accomplish anything, yet. The “yeah-buts” will say, “Yeah, but he’s now the most powerful person in the world and everything he does will affect me.”
No, it won’t. If Trump does step out of line, Americans and other world leaders will have to step up and rein him in.
David Brindle is the community reporter for Powell River Peak.
