THE INAUGURATION, MAKING EACH COUNTRY GREAT, AND THE WOMEN'S MARCH

This past week, the US inaugurated a new president. I have one comment - on the utter difference between the tone of the inauguration, and the tone of the protests.

I also have a question: what does it mean, to non-Americans, to keep hearing, "Make America great again"?


I was going to end with that question. But then, yesterday, into my inbox came a comment on the anti-Trump Women's Marches around the world. I had barely read the first lines when I knew: I want to share this.

Plus, today I was sent something from Sultan Knish and again I knew: I want to share this. It's something that, if ever we forget it, we need to relearn: most humans need to see ourselves as good. A powerful tool: to refuse to accept evil as good.

There's even one more thing: an email I sent yesterday, to the person who has what is probably the biggest personal growth site on the planet. He wants to start integrating more content on "responsible stewardship of our shared planet." He was clearly concerned about Trump's taking down the pages on climate change from the White House website. We all know the mainstream position, backed by Obama - global warming is CO2-caused and must be stopped. This person clearly agrees with that position. Anyway, I wrote to him.

There is a connection between all these things: GOOD THINKING, something utterly vital.


In case you missed it, here are my thoughts on the panic, a few decades ago, on the population explosion bomb, in contrast to the current doom and gloom panic about the low birth rate in the West:
http://elsasblog.com/170115-population-explosion-eureka.html

And here are the many comments - agreeing, disagreeing, adding, debating:
http://elsasblog.com/170115-population-explosion-eureka.html#comments


Next, the stark contrast between the anti-Trump protests and Trump's inauguration.

The protests. Considerable violence, destruction, looting. Shop windows smashed. Signs like: "No borders, no law and order." A denunciation of capitalism. A denunciation of the United States, in signs reading, "America was never great," and in flag burning. (Note: I'm not against flag burning - just think of the ISIS flag, for instance. I'm just noting the anti-American tenor of the protests.)

The inauguration. Words like: We will turn things around, make America great again. Jobs. Strong borders. Law and order. Safety everywhere, including in the inner cities. The images as well are utterly different from those of the protests. Orderly people congregating en masse to hear Trump's first speech as president. Pride, patriotism.


Listening to Trump's inauguration speech, I came to a question: what does it mean, to people in countries other than the United States, to hear the slogan, "Make America Great Again."

My response: Your greatness does not take away from mine - unless you're draining me or vilifying me. Likewise, my greatness does not take from yours - again, unless I'm draining you or vilifying you. There's room for much greatness.

I also think of an old saying: charity begins at home. We each need to take care of our home - home country, home neighborhood, and our personal lives.

In fact, many European pro-freedom leaders are thrilled at Trump's victory.


More on Trump's core point: protecting Americans. I remember being against the 1989 Free Trade Agreement between Canada and the US, and even more against the 1994 trilateral agreement (Canada, the US, and Mexico). Canada had tariffs against many foreign products. These tariffs protected local jobs and the local standard of living. It made no sense to me to change that.

So I was hearing Trump say things I've always advocated: we must protect our own countries.


I know Europeans who love being able to travel from one country to another without being stopped. No passport. No visa. No fuss. I've enjoyed that as well. But that comes at a high cost, because not only law-abiding people go from country to country.

Another cost is that European countries have given up considerable autonomy to unelected European Union officials - like United Nations members have given up considerable autonomy to the UN, which designates zero Islamic refugees to Islamic countries, but many to, for instance, the United States.


And now, the comment I want to share with you about the Women's Marches, which occurred on the first full day of Trump’s presidency. Millions were expected to attend worldwide to show support for women's rights. "Dump Trump" was a popular sign. So were signs with comments that Trump has made about women.

Here's the response I want to share:

No march yet by women anywhere on earth against a certain MISOGYNIST born 1500 years ago whose ideas about WOMEN are still blind belief and total conviction among millions of Muslims across the globe!

No march yet by women against the same individual who asked his followers never to trust a Christian and called the Jews "descendants of the pigs and monkeys".

No march against the Caliphate, IS or Daesh, who have been massacring whole communities, killing the men and boys but enslaving, raping and selling girls and women in Syria and Nigeria!

No march against those who are openly committed to GLOBAL Islamisation and destruction of the existing order of civilised societies.

No march against the Muslim next door who has one wife in America or Europe and three back in Pakistan or Afghanistan.

No march in front of the Embassy of Saudi Arabia where a woman is not allowed to drive a car alone, where even a princess was BEHEADED in public for marrying a man of her choice!

No march by women against the ISLAMIC Sharia Law that declares the evidence of two women equal to that of one man.

No march by women against Sharia Law that sanctions stoning to death of women for suspected, even perceived, adultery but not of men for the same crime.

No march by women yet against the culture in which a woman walks, in a tent like burka with only eyes showing, far BEHIND her husband.

No march yet by women anywhere against the so-called "honour killing" that kills WOMEN daily in Pakistan.

No march by women yet against the perpetrators of "Nine Eleven" that killed all the females working in those two WTC towers in New York!

There was also the massacre of over one million Hindus and the gang rape of tens of thousands of Hindu girls and women in 1947 as a "Thank you!" for the separation from India.

THANK GOD, Donald Trump has appeared to save & defend the CHRISTIAN civilisation without shame, fear or embarrassment in which everybody (except a certain "Mohammed") feels safe and happy.

Rajput, UK

Good thinking. What are the priorities of those marching, when they criticize Trump for comments, but don't mention the restrictions on women's rights in Islam? In fact, it doesn't sound as if women's rights were the issue, when flagrant violations of women's rights were completely ignored. I think it's time that those at the march call for Pink Power in Saudi Arabia and Pakistan.


Next is another comment, again based on good thinking. The rare human exults in being evil. Most don't. Instead most humans need to see ourselves, believe ourselves, position ourselves as good. So Nazis claimed Jews were dangerous and evil and controlled the world. This claim about Jews being behind it all can also be found in various Islamic accounts of events which might show Islamics in a bad light.

Here's Sultan Knish:

Grievance was at the root of Mohammed's conquests. His "I was minding my own business, preaching a totalitarian ideology that said non-Muslims are inferior dogs when someone made fun of me, so of course I had them killed and fought a war and enslaved their descendants for all time" narrative. Poor innocent me.

Muslims must believe themselves to be moral, or accept that [many devout Muslims] are mass murderers fighting wars and destroying civilizations. And they need us to accept their narrative, to view them as moral actors resisting oppression and injustice - rather than [that many devout Muslims are] monsters spreading pain, hate and fear in formerly peaceful places. While we may not be able to prevent them from believing their lies, accepting their lies deludes us and them... and directly feeds violence.
http://sultanknish.blogspot.co.uk/2011/11/dangers-of-legitimizing-islamic.html
(The inserts in square brackets are to make the passage be in line with what I know of Islamics.)

Just as most of us don't accept Nazi lies and instead reflect back the image of Nazism as evil, we need to reject Islamic lies and reflect back what the facts show about Islamic ideology and Islam-inspired actions.

Most Germans could not face looking at Nazi history for at least a generation. Too horrific. A good question: what will it do when most non-Islamics look steadily at Islamics with a good clear solid knowledge of Islamic ideology?


There are always more questions. Can anything get the anti-Trump ragers to see themselves as anything other than good?

Another question, probably more important: What's the chance that we can reach, not a frothing rager, but someone concerned about the world, caring intensely to do good - and deeply convinced of mainstream "truths." Vishen Lakiani, founder of a huge personal growth site, is good at getting listening. When he sends an email, it goes to 1,000,000 people. But can he hear something outside the message he's used to letting in? I don't know.

All the same, when he yesterday sent a message about integrating more content on "responsible stewardship of our shared planet," I responded.

Was writing to him a waste of time? As some famous baseball player said: You miss 100% of the balls you don't try to hit. But someone else said: Pick your battles. Maybe another "battle" might have been a better use of my time. Hard to know in advance.

There's a third quote. This one is from George Patton (American general in World War II): "A good plan violently executed now is better than a perfect plan executed next week."

So I didn't wait. I wrote and sent. Here's the email:
http://elsasblog.com/170121-vishen-please-listen-re-climate-change.html

Comments welcome - to anything I've written.


And with that, all the best to all of us who care and dare,

Elsa

PS. You're welcome to post any of this on Facebook, Twitter, etc. Please include the link to the webpage or the site.
http://elsasblog.com/170122-good-thinking-re-make-us-great-see-islam.html


THE SITE:
http://elsasblog.com




posted Jan 22, 2017




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Good Thinking
re Make US Great.
And good thinking
re the Women's March,
sane priorities,
and seeing the truth
about Islam.

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