It is said that our elected officials are simply a reflection of us. The orange man in Oval Office is no different. His mastery is that he recognized it and fueled the fire. We are not a healthy country. For a good amount of time we had our differences but we had respect for each other. The orange man has made it ok for that respect to go out the door.
Example 1 - The orange man referring to NFL players who don’t stand for the National Anthem “maybe they shouldn’Be in the country “ There is no way that’s ok to say as the Preasident but the orange man gets away with it.
Example 2 - a headline today. GOP representative loses endorsement after he says it’s ok to refuse to sell a home to gay people.
Example 3 - three friends were riding on the coast highway in the bike lane when a car repeatedly swerved into the bike lane with the intention of running them off the road. He is a surfer who was driving to his surf spot. Ok it’s getting really dangerous to ride outside in the USA. Most of that is caused by cell phone distraction. It’s more than that though. I’ve personally been yelled at by more drivers this year than I can remember in all the years previous. There is a angst in the air and cyclists in tight clothes are becoming the target. I say for our part we have to step up our game of riding defensive.
All three of these examples are in the last 48 hours. The orange man did not start this. It’s been building over time. The orange man is simply bringing it front and center to the world media and making it ok.
The other day I made a hand signal while riding my bike telling the cars behind that I was moving into the left lane so I could turn left at the upcoming stop sign. A car pulled up to me after I moved over and the guy started yelling at me telling me I should indicate my intentions much sooner. I smiled at him, apologized and said I would do that from now on. He was full of shit by the way. My smile and apology was simply a way to deescalate the tension and show him respect.
I think if we just get back to respecting people and showing the respect we can win in the end. It won’t answer the differences but it can bring some of the tension down. Do that and ignore hype about the orange man. It’s his goal to be in the headlines all the time. We need to stop reading the headlines.
