I am posting on Facebook because we all need to Stand Up

October 1, 2020

If you know me, then you know I’m not one to use words lightly, and you might wonder why I am posting so often on Facebook.

I’m standing up because this is not a normal election between two equivalent sides who simply disagree on issues and policies.

Do you remember during John McCain’s run in 2008 when an attendee made a racist comment about Obama at a Minnesota rally? Rather than feed that hatred, McCain stood up against it, took away the microphone, and denounced it. McCain was an honorable and good man; the Republican Party sure has fallen a long way since then.

Rather than standing for values that we should all cherish, such as honesty, compassion, empathy, and goodness, Trump stands for the exact opposite.

I’m standing up for my daughter, so that the world she inherits won’t be a bitter and hateful place.

I’m standing up because I believe in the sanctity of the family. Children should never, no matter their immigration status, be separated from their parents and locked away, and no American or Christian should be comfortable with the fact that this has been done on the southern border.

I’m standing up because Trump’s statements about and actions taken against refugees violate America’s moral obligation to the world and are anti-Christian.

I’m standing up because Trump’s attacks on our voting process subvert our democracy, and because he has undermined the governmental institutions that keep us safe and that prevent unchecked power.

I’m standing up because Trump’s lies are so stupid that he should be laughed off our national stage. At his Duluth rally yesterday, he said that if Biden were elected there would be “no more cows, no more airplanes, no more nothing” and that Biden wanted to tear down and then rebuild the Empire State Building. This is stupid.

Sonja and I drove Lake Street across Minneapolis last night. Contrary to Trump’s claim that Minneapolis is “in ashes,” I can report that it is not in ashes, nor was it unsafe. And we couldn’t find Antifa, either. Oh, wait, that’s right –– Trump is now telling us that Antifa is moving to the suburbs.

I’m standing up because too many Americans cheer on his nonsense, and more of us need to jeer him back into his bunker.

I’m standing up because I hope to provide a counterbalance of common sense in Facebook feeds that can so easily be filled with hateful memes, propaganda, and misinformation.

I’m standing up because Trump has blurred the line between fact and fiction –– and in the process created a culture of chaos and ignorance.

I’m standing up because Trump has promoted hatred of and violence against the media repeatedly, and yesterday at his rally in Duluth, one of his supporters punched a WCCO News cameraman.

At the last debate, Trump asked white supremacists to “stand back and stand by,” and for that and all these other reasons, the rest of us need to Stand Up.