Cheating

Among the many evils made into norms by Donald Trump, one of the worst is the acceptance of cheating as a way to win, a viable strategy. I often think about the "social contract," the way we keep large groups of people in a stable and orderly society, it is by agreeing to the rules of the game.

Once, when I was in West Virginia visiting my parents, this time with a man I was dating, my sister, father and nephew were playing monopoloy This being the age when grandparents didn't have internet or X-box, we all played games together regularly, Monopoly, checkers, scrabble. As my intelligence and skill set are mostly derived from art and reading, I am not particulary good at games and I often misunderstand the parameters. I stopped doing crossword puzzles when they began to allow words stuck together and anagrams and abbreviations. Squeezing through the cracks of the rules by allowing the use of cheat apps and, for example, allowing obscure and unheard of words to make scrabble has undermined my plesure in playing any of those games. I deplore cheating. My sister caught the man I was dating cheating at the monopoly game which only added further proof to what I had begun to see as a growing case against him in regard to values. He was all about winning and getting what he wanted by whatever means. This to me was akin to cowardice or other signs of weakness. You should be able to win by true ability not by rigging the game.

Donald Trump supported the concept of cheating as a way to win with his entire career and rise to power. He committed fraud throughout his business life, cheated throughout his marriages, cheated his employees at his business and promoted the attitude that playing fair was for suckers and winners should do anything to get the power they craved.

Herschel Walker is a prime example of a Trumpian cheat and deceit platform. He promoted a 'no choice' policy for abortion to win over Fundamentalists votes in Georgia, then lied and denied when he was exposed as having paid two different women for their abortions while in relationships with them. He is tied with the Democratic candidate, Warnock and we won't know, perhaps until December who will win.

Throughout our relationship with the Indigenous people of North America, our local and federal governments have used the same deceitful and fraudulent strategies in robbing them of their homelands, much the same kind of behavior cheated African Americans of their lands in the South, which was exposed in the news some time back in regard to the state taking over the homesteads of poor Black people who died because there were gaps in their paperwork, leaving their descendents robbed and cheated of their family inheritance.

It's George Bailey versus Potter all over again. And this time around, the Potter is Trump, and DeSantis and all the Republican toadies who have adopted his cheating and ceceitful strategies to win no matter what.

In this sports obsessed country, I have to wonder what would happen if the same kind of strategies began to take over football and baseball?

Yesterday I voted, in person, as always because I love to see the same poll workers each year and to celebrate the joy of the vote because I know how hard fought the battle for that right was for women, and how so many women suffered to bring it to vicotry!

Fortunately, I live in a Democratic state.

One of the things I took from the Hannah Freeman story in the book "A Lenape Among the Quakers" by Dawn Marsh, was to be wary of becoming a 'ward of the state' or of anyone for that matter, because that is how you lose your freedom. There are so many ways elderly people get cheated through health care as well as their financial lives when they become weakened.

As for our country, I don't know how we are going to climb out of this pit of cheating and deceitfulness that has claimed so many in government and so many citizens. I hope at some point they see the connection in regard to the sports they love and once again begin to be aware of the essential component of fairness in our dealings with one another in the world.

Happy Trails! Jo Ann wrightj45@yahoo.com