Give him a chance, they said. He’ll change, they said. You’ll see another side of him, they said. He will be more “presidential,” they said.

I did. He didn’t. I don’t see it. No, he isn’t.

It’s been months since I wrote anything remotely related to our 45th president of the United States. I saw no purpose to it, thought no good would come of it.

Even now, I’m not sure it’s a good idea, but I question whether keeping silent is the most “American” way to respond to what is going on in our country. It is not an easy thing to choose to comment on this subject, especially in the part of the country in which I live.

It is no secret that I did not support candidate Donald Trump. I have, however, tried to support and hoped for good for President Donald Trump. After all, he is the head of our country, and it benefits us all for him to succeed at the job.

Unfortunately, the energy in our nation right now feels as strange as the weather pattern we are in around here. It is gloomy. Then there is a short burst of sun, followed by more gloomy. After a while, it starts to wear on your positive attitude.

It’s living in a constant state of waiting for the other shoe to drop. This is not a state I particularly enjoy, and I don’t think it’s a good way for our country to move forward. It certainly doesn’t feel like making America great.

My wise father always told me the best way to know the energy behind something is to test the message and messenger. If the message is positive, offers hope, is uplifting and not fearful, you can be sure it is coming from the right spirit; he called it coming from God and showed the messenger was speaking from a good place.

On the other hand, if the message is chaotic, fosters constant upset and separation, feels hopeless and fearful, it is not coming from the energy of love, which he also called God. And the messenger, well let’s just say misguided is a good word for the messenger.

Since January 20, I’ve thought a lot about what makes our president tick, and by watching how he responds to things, it’s not hard to figure out. He thrives on and craves constant attention. In fact, he will take any kind of attention, even if it is negative, as long as it keeps him in the center of the hurricane.

It is, I think, a characteristic he can’t help or control. It is who he is as a person.

Why else would the leader of a country criticize the mayor of a city that just suffered a tragedy? Why would a person take the focus off the tragedy and try to grab attention for himself by stirring up a controversy?

Imagine the response in this country if Britain’s prime minister called out the mayor of Orlando after that tragic nightclub attack. What if Germany’s head of state criticized New York’s mayor after 911? Would Americans be fine with that happening?

As I said, politics is not something I’ve written much about and not a column topic at the top of my list of favorites. That said, what is going on right now in our country feels bigger than politics. It goes beyond party affiliation and whether you label yourself liberal or conservative. It may well be about what happens to our democracy.

In this moment, we need to be Americans first whether we are private citizens or elected officials, and we need to do some serious soul searching about what it means to be an American. We definitely need to take time to test the messages we are sending to the world, and the messengers who are sending them.

Seems to me, our messenger-in-chief needs to do some serious reassessing in that area. And for goodness sake, stop communicating via Twitter.

 

Nancy Blackmon is a former newspaper editor and a yoga teacher.