WHAT I CAN AND CANNOT AFFORD!

By Ed Cooney

Earlier today while in conversation with a friend and reader of these musings, I made something of a confession and a value judgment.

I asserted that I was beginning to be bored with the fortunes of Donald Trump.  Realizing almost immediately that this was a dilemma, I changed my mind. The reason for my temporary boredom is my overall disgust with Donald J. Trump’s appeal. However, since  history, current events and the human dynamic are what I write about every week, I can’t afford to be bored with Donald J. Trump’s current prominent position in our body politic.

Many years ago when I was studying to become a social studies teacher, I learned about the various roles a teacher assumes in the classroom.  These include information provider, counselor, referee, storyteller, clerk, progress evaluator, and most intrepidly,  substitute parent.  There are musts and must nots in each of these roles.

I’m convinced that as individuals we give too little thought to the roles we play as parents, siblings, friends, professionals, and especially as citizens.  Parents probably play the most roles: counselor, entertainer, good and bad cop, companion, encourager, discourager, confessor, mediator, protector, and very often the role of a teacher — just to name a few.

Siblings are often babysitters, physical protectors, and fellow conspirators against the wishes of “grownups.”

Friends very often are in a position to serve as invaluable confidants and even as actual family members.

Professionals not only provide the public with goods and services, more importantly they provide the people with their best judgment of the goods and services they offer.  It is vitally important that these goods and services be of sufficiently high quality to keep the public coming back to them to receive what they offer.

Finally, there’s that vital role of citizen.  It has become intensely fashionable to see one’s role in our socio/political existences primarily as a taxpayer.  The fact of the matter is that we play many more roles than that of taxpayer.  We are sons and daughters, brothers and sisters, parents, neighbors, consumers, judges of character, providers of professional goods and services, evaluators of those goods and services, entertainers, judges, experts, voters, officeholders, protectors of the less fortunate, encouragers of the successful, and finally,  according to Holy Writ, the keeper of our brothers’ and sisters’ welfare.

What we can and cannot afford to say, do, think, and even believe depends on what we expect of ourselves and hope to expect from others.

That’s why so much depends on what we say, do, think and believe in a free society  What society is all about has a direct effect on our values and those values compel the socio/political choices we make or decide to leave to others.

I have a friend who becomes almost apoplectic on the need for the passage of  effective gun control legislation. Yet almost in the same breath he insists that voting or anything we do does not matter. I attribute these obvious contradictory conclusions largely due to the discouragement this gentleman has  experienced on this personal priority.

Hence, the question I offer this week, though largely rhetorical, has special relevance particularly in a political year!

What can we as citizens afford to believe, think and ultimately do in this year that so many of us insist is so vital to our future?  Notice I’m not asking what’s comfortable to believe, think, or do! I am asking what we can afford to believe, think and do as we choose a course to the future.

Can we afford to be as angry as the citizens of Adolf Hitler’s Germany were after the Treaty of Versailles which ended World War I?  Can we afford to be as angry as the Iranians were after the 24 year reign of the Shah which was arranged by our intelligence community under the auspices of Kermit Roosevelt, Teddy Roosevelt’s grandson?  Can we afford to abandon NATO and urge the Japanese to design their own nuclear umbrella?  Remember, the Japanese are the only people in human history to have been the victims of not one but two nuclear bombs!  We were the deliverers of those bombs regardless of how “justifiable” our case was.  Is it good policy to provide a future Japanese generation resentful of this fact with the capacity to reap revenge 75 or perhaps 100  years from now? Note that  construction of nuclear weapons is already unconstitutional under their form of government which after all was practically dictated by General Douglas MacArthur. The righteous anger Mr. Trump and his supporters express in the area of foreign policy makes the above question of affordability both relevant and crucial to world peace. 

To afford an object, project, or a belief system is to spend something of value you possess to obtain its benefits.  As dissatisfied with existing conditions as you may legitimately be, the future’s unknowns must be anticipated as thoroughly as possible.

Much of this pertains more to the forces of thinking and energy that affect all political outcomes in this country than it does to the personal fortune of Mr. Trump. I insist that what we can and can’t afford will either compromise or squander tomorrow and the days after for ourselves and our progeny!

Thus my question is: what must American voters afford to consider and ultimately do next November 8th?

RESPECTFULLY SUBMITTED,

EDWIN COONEY