I am truly "fired up" about the election of our 45th president and felt energized by being a part of the Woman's March in Washington DC on February 21. The most critical issue now is to sustain the enthusiasm and opposition to ill considered actions by the administration and prepare for the midterm elections of 2018. .My strong compulsion to be heard on social media stems from at least two sources:
- My "privileged" residency in the nation's capital provides me with the opportunity to read local reliable media, not normally available to readers in other locales.
- A strong desire to do all I can to leave this country and the world in better shape than when I entered (and at 91 the actuarials tell me I don't have too much time}.
While there is much I dislike about the social media, I do appreciate the fact that I am able to vent my frustrations without interruption. Thus I'll take the opportunity to "Rant and Rave" with greater frequency than ever before. I'll close with a few facts on Metro ridership on the day of the inaugural and the Woman's March as well as a few personal observation from this rider.
Metro recorded ridership:
Inauguration of Trump – 570,557 trips
Woman's March 1,001,613 trips the second heaviest day in ridership history surpassed only by ridership for Pres. Barack Obama's inauguration in 2009
I never waited nor stood in line for a Metro train on the day of the inaugural. There were enormous lines for the Metro on the day of the Woman's March and it was so difficult to walk the streets that "unknown participants" – noting my cane – insisted on escorting me to a Metro line so that I would not trip. The conviviality began with singing on many cars as we metroed and continued throughout the day.
I'll soon follow this up with perhaps some other trivia concerning the fiasco of Don's Johns!
And even sooner get back to some of the more serious issues.
Ron, thank you for sharing! I am quite concerned about our days coming, but I have older people telling me, "Oh, everyone was worried when Reagan was elected too because they didn't know what he was going to do," in efforts to calm my worries.
ReplyDeleteI know you're busy, but could you share your insight to how different the first 100 days of Reagan felt atmospherically compared to the first 100 days of Trump so far? Were there protests and riots? If so, what were those like and how did the press depict them? Can we draw comparisons between the two Presidents, or does hindsight being 20/20 ruin that for us? What can we learn from history here? (Reagan was before I was born, so I don't have a first hand experience with the world and political atmosphere at his time.)
I'm sorry, I thought I answered this, but it was probably an error I made in trying to use this (to me) newfangled social media. At the time of Reagan's election I was principal of a 50/50 black/white school. I well remember the fear expressed by many students wondering what the future might bring.
DeleteWe had been highly dependent upon federal funds for special programs. Unfortunately these began to be cut and perhaps it was in this period that the (to me) excessive dependence upon testing was begun. It's hard to compare press coverage because I am comparing The Washington Post was a small town newspaper. Although both Trump and Reagan were best known from movies and television, Reagan at least had the experience of being a governor. Social media has certainly added tremendous change in the amount of information and misinformation we are able to get. At that time we were still pretty much dependent 3 upon major television networks and radio stations. Above all to me the divisiveness caused by Trump far exceeded anything that Reagan did. And finally I think it is rather obvious that Reagan had a political philosophy he was committed to while Trump seems to be chameleonlike.