If I had to summarize 2016 in one word- it would be 'heartbreaking', the entire spectrum of the word.
Civilized Americans went on hateful rants everyday. Spewing judgment and intolerance onto anyone with a different view. What I feel should have happened this election year, is that those running for the POTUS should be vetted like the immigrants coming into this country. I'm sure that both Clinton and Trump would be labeled terrorists and not allowed entry into the United States. I think a better show of "united" states might have been a population that refuses to be bullied and bought by fake news, propaganda, and the media bias. How can we as a nation of civilized people, be unable to refuse the choices being presented to us for the leader of our country? Why and how, did our Presidential ballot have two "evils". It is truly disheartening.
I guess I have the answer to that, also due to my experiences this year.
The American people are lied to. Everyday. Lied to by news outlets reporting from all over the world. In fact, I've found that the truth of things reported is about 165 degrees in the opposite direction- or the information has no basis in reality whatsoever. We are merely puppets. Even thinking, investigating and coming to the conclusion that we are steered by the power elite of the world somehow still makes us pawns in a game we never wanted to play in the first place. Edward Snowden blew the whistle on the surveillance, worldwide, of unsuspecting people. The NSA and the governments of many countries around the world agreed to collect meta-data at a rate of 1 billion/per second, to store in case they might need it someday. I'm admitting right now that I have been the one to say- who cares- I haven't got anything to hide. I don't. But that no longer seems like a legitimate answer. The investigation into the NSA found testimony blatantly denying that it was happening and we're supposed to believe that they just stopped because new laws were passed?
Does anyone else think, as I do, that the corruption in our politics- home and abroad- is ...heartbreaking? I have lost any notion that the government of the United States is "for the people".
2016 has taught me that we are all terrorists. The bad guys who think they are good guys get to call the good guys terrorists. And terrorists get to call governmental authorities terrorists. And the American population gets to condemn anyone from the Middle East as a terrorist, for reasons I still can't understand. When Syrian citizens began to rebel against their government, President Bashir Assad, because of the corruption and distrust of their government (because of the killing of its civilians), guess what they were called? Terrorists. When the real terrorist was their president. Ironically, the "war on terror" made the United States terrorists in the Middle East and yet again the cycle of bloodshed continues.
As a side note- If a country is in the midst of a civil war and the US needs to pick a side- how do you think we would go about picking that side? It will be picked by deciding which side has more to offer us. Whether by trade, military advantages, or other capitalist objectives- I'm sure there are lots of noble things our country does around the world, I'm not saying that we are just a bullying, money and power hungry democracy. I'm saying that rose colored glasses shouldn't be the main pair you wear when reading or watching the news and it's coverage of our involvement in foreign affairs.
I also found a young Muslim man to be more filled with the light of God, then the people who have condemned him because of his ethnic and religious background, some of those people being in my own family. Which leads me to another lesson I learned in 2016- it is easier for people to hate and fear than to listen to logic and reason. The young muslim man has become like a brother to me. But I find it heartbreaking that it seems I have lost one to gain one.
After working in the ICU setting for the majority of my career, I have discovered that stepping away from the bedside of critical care has not released the burden of stress I feel during non-critical nursing care. I am sure that this could be classified as post-traumatic behavior, the compulsion to wait for something terrible to the patient right in front of me. To prepare my work area for worst-case scenarios and being highly sensitive to others who don't see the thousands of potential things that could go wrong (maybe because they've never worked critical care). And jumping into another nurse's care of a patient when I was certainly not invited to do so and it certainly wasn't a life or death situation, is apparently considered unhelpful and bossy. The residual of years working in a very fast paced, high stress department has made me a not so favorite nurse to work with and this year, I've been humbled.
2016 has taught me that last conversations can be haunting, first impressions can be completely wrong, and that the dog nose prints left on the back windows of my car can be more important than a huge jar of her ashes. Even if it has been a year and half since I lost her.
2016 has also taught me that God answers my prayers, that making time to walk through the bible and getting to understand His message for me is more important than exercise in treating my depression, and that gratitude to God for the miracle of my life is cause enough to spend the rest of it showing others the love and grace He has shown me. I have learned that when in doubt, kneel.
Civilized Americans went on hateful rants everyday. Spewing judgment and intolerance onto anyone with a different view. What I feel should have happened this election year, is that those running for the POTUS should be vetted like the immigrants coming into this country. I'm sure that both Clinton and Trump would be labeled terrorists and not allowed entry into the United States. I think a better show of "united" states might have been a population that refuses to be bullied and bought by fake news, propaganda, and the media bias. How can we as a nation of civilized people, be unable to refuse the choices being presented to us for the leader of our country? Why and how, did our Presidential ballot have two "evils". It is truly disheartening.
I guess I have the answer to that, also due to my experiences this year.
The American people are lied to. Everyday. Lied to by news outlets reporting from all over the world. In fact, I've found that the truth of things reported is about 165 degrees in the opposite direction- or the information has no basis in reality whatsoever. We are merely puppets. Even thinking, investigating and coming to the conclusion that we are steered by the power elite of the world somehow still makes us pawns in a game we never wanted to play in the first place. Edward Snowden blew the whistle on the surveillance, worldwide, of unsuspecting people. The NSA and the governments of many countries around the world agreed to collect meta-data at a rate of 1 billion/per second, to store in case they might need it someday. I'm admitting right now that I have been the one to say- who cares- I haven't got anything to hide. I don't. But that no longer seems like a legitimate answer. The investigation into the NSA found testimony blatantly denying that it was happening and we're supposed to believe that they just stopped because new laws were passed?
Does anyone else think, as I do, that the corruption in our politics- home and abroad- is ...heartbreaking? I have lost any notion that the government of the United States is "for the people".
2016 has taught me that we are all terrorists. The bad guys who think they are good guys get to call the good guys terrorists. And terrorists get to call governmental authorities terrorists. And the American population gets to condemn anyone from the Middle East as a terrorist, for reasons I still can't understand. When Syrian citizens began to rebel against their government, President Bashir Assad, because of the corruption and distrust of their government (because of the killing of its civilians), guess what they were called? Terrorists. When the real terrorist was their president. Ironically, the "war on terror" made the United States terrorists in the Middle East and yet again the cycle of bloodshed continues.
As a side note- If a country is in the midst of a civil war and the US needs to pick a side- how do you think we would go about picking that side? It will be picked by deciding which side has more to offer us. Whether by trade, military advantages, or other capitalist objectives- I'm sure there are lots of noble things our country does around the world, I'm not saying that we are just a bullying, money and power hungry democracy. I'm saying that rose colored glasses shouldn't be the main pair you wear when reading or watching the news and it's coverage of our involvement in foreign affairs.
I also found a young Muslim man to be more filled with the light of God, then the people who have condemned him because of his ethnic and religious background, some of those people being in my own family. Which leads me to another lesson I learned in 2016- it is easier for people to hate and fear than to listen to logic and reason. The young muslim man has become like a brother to me. But I find it heartbreaking that it seems I have lost one to gain one.
After working in the ICU setting for the majority of my career, I have discovered that stepping away from the bedside of critical care has not released the burden of stress I feel during non-critical nursing care. I am sure that this could be classified as post-traumatic behavior, the compulsion to wait for something terrible to the patient right in front of me. To prepare my work area for worst-case scenarios and being highly sensitive to others who don't see the thousands of potential things that could go wrong (maybe because they've never worked critical care). And jumping into another nurse's care of a patient when I was certainly not invited to do so and it certainly wasn't a life or death situation, is apparently considered unhelpful and bossy. The residual of years working in a very fast paced, high stress department has made me a not so favorite nurse to work with and this year, I've been humbled.
2016 has taught me that last conversations can be haunting, first impressions can be completely wrong, and that the dog nose prints left on the back windows of my car can be more important than a huge jar of her ashes. Even if it has been a year and half since I lost her.
2016 has also taught me that God answers my prayers, that making time to walk through the bible and getting to understand His message for me is more important than exercise in treating my depression, and that gratitude to God for the miracle of my life is cause enough to spend the rest of it showing others the love and grace He has shown me. I have learned that when in doubt, kneel.
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