The Gentle Rant

We are a deeply divided nation, and that division stems from a profound failure of leadership at the highest level. Rather than uniting the country, the President has repeatedly encouraged hostility and discrimination among its citizens. His administration and its allies appear more focused on stripping away individual rights than on safeguarding them.

Time and again, they pass judgment on whom people love, on those courageous enough to live authentically in the bodies they were meant to have, and on women seeking autonomy over their own bodies. Women’s rights have been systematically eroded, while the hungry, the poor, and the vulnerable—people we once welcomed with compassion—are increasingly pushed aside.

This administration has weaponized religion, using it not as a source of moral guidance but as a justification for exclusion, intolerance, and hate.

The man occupying the presidency is dangerous. His actions and rhetoric have caused lasting harm to our nation and to the dignity of the office itself. This is no longer simply a matter of political disagreement. The presidency has been diminished, its integrity tarnished. Internationally, the respect once afforded to the United States has eroded; we have become a spectacle rather than a standard. The days when America was regarded as a moral and democratic leader feel painfully distant.

I love my country deeply, yet I am ashamed of its current leadership. Laws have been broken, women have been assaulted, and credible allegations of horrific abuse linger unanswered. One must ask: what will it take for the officials we elected to act? And more troubling still—will they act at all?

I no longer feel represented by the President. He has made it clear that those who do not share his political affiliation or beliefs are unworthy of his leadership. In my lifetime, I have never witnessed a nation so fractured, so wounded by its own government.

I long for a time when differences were met with dialogue rather than disdain, when leaders crossed party lines for the common good, and when respect for one another and for the office was paramount. The thought of enduring years more of this instability and cruelty is overwhelming. I am exhausted. And I am afraid.