Noblesse oblige

 

I truly hope this is a dismal year for the Republican party. 

Their cavalier cruelty and snickering adherence to Trump's depravities need to be made an example of what not to do.

Mitch McConnel, Lindsay Graham, Donald Trump, men who believe they are above it all, above us all, because they have money and power, need a lesson in American realism.

Money always speaks. Since the beginning of this nation money has had more power than poverty, but there was once an idea that with money and power comes noblesse oblige, or the idea that you are honor bound to take care of those around you.

My grandfather didn't just pay his housekeeper while she was young enough and healthy enough to work. He eventually built her a house and took care of her until she died. The same was true of others who worked for him. If they were sick, he made sure they got to the doctor. If their kids had problems, he tried to help. He set up scholarship funds for young people he didn't even know.

He was not an infinitely wealthy man. By today's standards he probably wasn't even rich, but he grew up poor and he knew what it was like. And he had honor.

Unlike the Trumps who believe the world exists to please them, he felt he owed the people of this world a chance to make it. 

Today's world is a scary place. Every good deed by a politician seems to have an alternate and abhorrent reason behind it. Religion is simply a political ploy used to control those poor folks who believe in magic. Medical care is important because it keeps the scientific community working to develop ways only the rich can afford. 

We have devolved into the very things we said we were leaving behind when this country began.