A PLEA TO MY FELLOW DEMOCRATS
Looking over a variety of Facebook posts today in the wake of the latest exit from the Democratic race, and the ongoing debate over whether Biden cares about young people or if Sanders is too far left for party moderates, and what I'm seeing is what I stated last week to be my biggest fear: too many people saying "If the candidate I support isn't nominated, then I'm not voting."
At the risk of sounding like a broken record: We simply CAN'T allow ourselves to respond that way. If we do, we're saddled with four more years of Trump - and the idea of how much further damage might be inflicted upon our country during those four years is simply too frightening to consider.
The priority HAS to be getting rid of Trump. Once that has been accomplished, then we can zero in a little more on some of the other narrower issues that good Americans who are registered Democrats find themselves debating about.
Disagreements about the particulars of student loan debt, medical coverage for everyone or (insert your particular favorite cause here) are perfectly legitimate discussions that need to be had, in the hopes of finding areas of compromise that will in turn lead to solutions for the benefit of us all. But all those discussions and disagreements are ultimately pointless if we allow the current occupant of the Oval Office to remain there.
Here is what I know: There are things about each and every one of this year's Democratic hopefuls that I have liked, and things about each and every one of this year's Democratic hopefuls that I have disliked. That has been the case with every election that has taken place since I became old enough to vote - which is more years now than I have fingers and toes to count on. But never - NOT ONCE - in all that time have the stakes felt as high as they do this in this election.
Every election has seen us debating over differences in ideologies. This is the first time I have felt like what we are deciding the very soul of the nation itself... over whether the Founding Fathers' grand experiment will continue, or be swept under the rug of history by a vainglorious dolt with Fascist tendencies and, it would seem, delusions of godhood.
At this point I really don't care who will ultimately be the Democratic nominee. Speaking as a former two-term county Democratic Party chairman - and more importantly, as an American citizen who cares deeply about the future of this country, and the legacy we will be leaving to my little granddaughter and her generation - I'm willing to vote for a candidate who may not have been my first, second or even third choice if it means closing the door once and for all on the Trump Presidency, a.k.a. the Second Dark Age.
So please, I'm begging you: Stop pouting, get your heads out of your rear-ends (use a crowbar if you must), and UNIFY - if not for the sake of the individual candidate, then for the sake of the concept of saving America from four more years of Donald Trump. That is the mission.
Period.
End of rant.
In : Opinion
Tags: election politics. patriotism
John A. Small is an award-winning newspaper journalist, columnist and broadcaster whose work has been honored by the Oklahoma Press Association, the Society of Professional Journalists, the Associated Press, the National Newspaper Association, and the Oklahoma Education Association. He and his wife Melissa were married in 1986; they have two sons, Joshua Orrin (born 1991) and William Ian (born 1996).
Mr. Small is the News Editor and columnist for the Johnston County Capital-Democrat, a weekly newspaper headquartered in Tishomingo, OK. He obtained his nickname, "Bard of the Lesser Boulevards," from a journalism colleague - the late Phil Byrum - in recognition of the success of his popular newspaper column, "Small Talk." (In addition to the many awards the column itself has received over the years, a radio version of "Small Talk" earned an award for "Best Small Market Commentary" from the Society of Professional Journalists in 1998.)
John was born in Oklahoma City in 1963; lived in the Bradley-Bourbonnais-Kankakee area of Illinois for most of the next 28 years (with brief sojourns in Texas and Athens, Greece, thrown in to break up the monotony); then returned to his native state in 1991, where he currently resides in the Tishomingo/Ravia area. He graduated from Bradley-Bourbonnais Community High School in 1981, and received his bachelor's degree in journalism from Olivet Nazarene University in Bourbonnais in 1991. The years between high school and college were a period frought with numerous exploits and misadventures, some of which have become the stuff of legend; nobody was hurt along the way, however, which should count for something.
In addition to his professional career as a journalist he has published two short story collections: "Days Gone By: Legends And Tales Of Sipokni West" (2007), a collection of western stories; and "Something In The Air" (2011), a more eclectic collection. He was also a contributor to the 2005 Locus Award-nominated science fiction anthology "Myths For The Modern Age: Philip Jose Farmer's Wold Newton Universe," edited by Win Scott Eckert. In additon he has written a stage play and a self-published cookbook; served as project editor for a book about the JFK assassination entitled "The Men On The Sixth Floor"; and has either published or posted on the Internet a number of essays, stories and poems.
He has also won writing awards from the Veterans of Foreign Wars and the National Library of Poetry. He is a past president of the Johnston County Chamber of Commerce in Tishomingo; was a charter member and past president of the Johnston County Reading Council, the local literacy advocacy and "friends of the library" organization; served as Johnston County's first-ever Americans with Disabilities Act coordinator in 1994-95; served two terms as chairman of the Johnston County (OK) Democratic Party; and has taught journalism classes for local Boy Scout Merit Badge Fairs. He is a member of the New Wold Newton Meteorics Society.
