Today’s post isn’t going to be about Japanese at all, though I might find a way to fit it in.  I do have a Japanese post waiting in the wings, but I think I want to discuss something else.  If you would like a Japanese post, please skip this one, and the next one will be about Japanese.  If you just want to unfollow me, well, go for it, I guess.

I have been on this planet for somewhere around forty-five years, and I have seen some crazy stuff.  I believe I was born when Gerald Ford was President – I was born not long after Nixon resigned.  I was in my 20s and living in Oregon when Clinton was impeached – I remember purchasing and setting up a state of the art CRT television at the time and seeing him apologizing for lying to the American people.  Even then, impeachment was a divisive topic, and even though he was impeached in a bipartisan manner, he was ultimately acquitted.

This is to say, I have seen many craven political things in my time on this earth, and none can hold a candle to the craven partisan display I saw in my country today.  Today I saw a group of people so driven by hatred for a man that they were going to impeach him one day after his election – it was just a matter of finding the right things to impeach him for.  And through all of this, they still haven’t succeeded.  Oh, sure, they impeached him, but on “crimes” so flimsy that they wouldn’t even make it past a grand jury if they had been trying to actually prosecute.

I’m tired and burnt out of the whole thing, and I just want it to stop.

I think, worldwide, that politics are not a pleasant thing.  I know that Japan has a parliamentary system, much as Great Britain has.  They also have a constitution that makes at least a basic attempt at providing human rights (in practice, not so much, much of the time, but they try, anyway).  But in any country, a constitution really is just a piece of paper – it’s the ideas on that paper that are what actually matter.  And when you have a group of people who are so blinded by irrational hatred that they’re willing to shred those ideas just to get their pound of flesh, well, we’re not in a very good place.

I also know that in Japan, people write prayers on little slips of paper and pin them to shrines.  Pin a few on shrines for my country, please.  We really need it right now.

I’m intentionally not stating how I lean politically.  As far as you know, I could be a Trump supporter, or I could be someone who really dislikes the guy but has a deep enough respect for our constitution as to be able to recognize a travesty of justice when I see one.  Or I could be somewhere in between.  It doesn’t matter.  My government disgusted me last night, and I remain disgusted today.  In fact, it disgusted me so much, I am considering donating to a political candidate for the first time in many years.  Hint:  It’s not a Democrat.

I am not ashamed of my country right now, but I am ashamed of my House – and if the Senate doesn’t act quickly to trash this piece of… well, I’ll be ashamed of them, too.  Perhaps, or perhaps not, I am ashamed of the President too.  It doesn’t matter.  There are more important things to be concerned about at the moment.

I think things will turn out okay, but I hate the process.  Just make it stop already.

Okay, I’m done, I think.  Next post – Japanese.