I had planned on writing an inspirational blog to kick off the start of 2026. You know the type: words of encouragement to stay the course, silly memories of mistakes resulting in opportunities to make corrections in judgment, sage advice accumulated over decades.
Instead, I am writing about outrage, helplessness, and shame. Yesterday brought news that my country had executed a military operation resulting in the kidnapping of the sitting head of government of Venezuela.
I can’t believe I have even written those words. The United States of America sent our troops into another sovereign nation without provocation and just kidnapped the President (and his wife) and brought them back to the U.S. in handcuffs. This isn’t a joke. This is a fact.
In my mind’s eye, I am imagining a scenario where a stern mother figure is standing over a petulant man-child and asking, “Just what were you thinking, Donald?”
Who does this? Aren’t there rules about this? Who said it was okay?
Apparently, the United States of America does this. And yes, there are rules about this, but we just ignored them. And nobody who has any sense of decency or respect for law would have given the go-ahead for this action, which leads me to conclude only one thing: there are no adults in charge any longer in the current administration.
Act Now, Explain Later
Guidance from a mentor that once made sense to me ran something like this: If you are told you can’t do something, go ahead and do it anyway, because it is easier to explain and ask for forgiveness afterward than get permission ahead of time.
I once thought this approach had some validity. And, I have even contemplated using that as a strategy to get around cumbersome rules or regulations that no longer serve a purpose. But not when it comes to taking over a foreign nation. Seems like there ought to be some agreed upon rules about doing things like that. Oh, wait! There are!
After the Outrage Dies Down
I have limited capacity for sustaining outrage. Oh, there are moments when it can still be spiked, but holding a steady level of shock and fury is truly not possible. The outrage dissipates and I’m left with feelings of helplessness and hopelessness.
And these feelings are unbearable. I watch the news and feel my stomach drop. I talk with friends who share my horror, and we trade the same questions: How did we get here? How do we stop this? Who will hold them accountable? But the questions lead nowhere. The conversations circle back on themselves. We’re all asking, but no one has answers.
The helplessness is particularly cruel because it comes with full awareness. I know this is wrong. I know there are laws being broken, norms being shattered, principles being abandoned. I can see it all clearly—and I can do nothing to stop it. It’s like watching a car crash in slow motion, unable to warn the drivers or pull anyone from the wreckage.
Most of us will do just about anything to rid ourselves of feeling helpless or hopeless, which then turns into a whole new set of problems. You know: pushing back in ways that make things worse, seeking payback, numbing out with substances, shutting down emotionally, or running away entirely. These reactions become one of those endless domino-toppling collapses that leave all kinds of pain and suffering in their wake.
If We’re Lucky . . .
If we’re lucky, that kind of suffering and pain can be avoided. It’s not as if we don’t know how to prevent all this. And it’s not as if we don’t know what to do even if we weren’t able to prevent it. We need to remove the source of the problem and we need to not do this again, ever!
Implementing that solution, however, seems to be the point of contention. The desire for revenge and immediate gratification are human qualities that have taken thousands of years of evolution to mold into a justice system.
What Happened to Truth, Justice, and the American Way?
We used to be the Good Guys. Even when we’ve fallen short—and as a nation, we’ve done so many times—we could at least claim some higher moral ground. We brought the bad guys to justice.
But that is over. The only way back from this is finding a way to clean the Augean Stables. We need to redirect the river of greed and hate and restore the flow of democracy. Who will be our Hercules?
Power Tends to Corrupt; Absolute Power Corrupts Absolutely
The famous quote finds evidence of its truth in the actions taken by my government in the past days. In my own fantasy life, I imagine all kinds of justice being served, painful consequences for those who’ve abandoned their oaths and their humanity. But I have restraint. I have a moral compass. To my shame, such restraint and moral guides seem absent from the current leadership of my country—those in power have apparently confused fantasy with permission.
While these activities have been reported, talked about, and protested, attempts at stopping them have failed. I am left feeling impotent. What can I do to change things?
What Would Hank Do?
Yesterday was my husband’s birthday. I had planned to write about him today—about the joy and love we shared, about the man who spent his career serving others through the YMCA and American Red Cross, who lived his Eagle Scout values every single day. When I shared my struggle with a dear friend about how to honor Hank given what had happened, she asked: “What would Hank have done if he were alive?” The answer came immediately: “He’d take action.” Not grand pronouncements or fantasies of revenge—just action. Being of service to his community. Standing up for what was right.
And that’s what is needed right now. We need to stop waiting for others to take charge and fix things. We need to step up and take full responsibility for what it means to live in a democracy. We will need to face some very hard truths in the coming days, and we have an awful lot of work ahead of us to restore trust. But that starts at home. It starts with each of us refusing to become numb, refusing to look away, and choosing service over helplessness. It starts with every one of us standing up for what is right, even when—especially when—our own government will not.
2 responses to “We Interrupt Our Regular Programming . . .”
We are experiencing what our country voted for, a President who is always right and has mobilized our power structures to do his bidding. From his perspective, might makes right and for the most part, his supporters have agreed. He is a pragmatist with little moral compass. This is why he respects other similar leaders like Putin and Xi. The most troublesome part of what has happened is the moral changes in our country that embrace power diplomacy as the ultimate good. This is quite a shift from WW II when truth, right, and wrong were dominant values in our culture. Our country is experiencing an exchange of Christian and community first world views for individualism where each individual decides what is right and uses social media, etc. to expand their views, unleashed from prior shared values.
While this trend is disturbing, I believe that we are do for a correction from this swing of public thinking, which is so destructive, back to a more reasoned and time tested moral compass based public policy. Like your husband, each of us should continue to advocated for pursuit of life, liberty, truth, and gracious living despite our world being badly broken.
I strongly sense how the RIGIDITY of the “robotic” childhood scripts so clearly running this “president” are now moving the world toward a non-reversible tipping point, one reflecting (somewhat more sane) “reality” coming back to bear. Not because powerful others are necessarily acting out of principle (sigh!), but rather, due to the utter inability of this “man” to EVER comprehend that ITS actions have “consequences.” (All its life, it was artificially shielded from all consequences of its actions). THAT galactic-size blind spot is rigidly emboldening it into ever-more, bottomless recklessness. Especially as “consequences” ever more DO arise (Epstein, Canada, increasing global approbation), which it seeks to hide via hoisting up ever-more-distracting / dramatic “bright shiny objects.” (Expect FURTHER ever-more outrageous such “objects” designed to frighten and dazzle our eyes). Picture in “The Wizard of Oz” ‒ Dorothy’s dog Toto ‒ pulling aside the curtain to reveal the tiny freak of “The Wizard.”
ITEM: giant international petroleum conglomerates are NOT rushing to “hop on board” to fulfill “ITS” fantasy that the USA can “steal” Venezuela’s oil. ITEM: For many, many months, Canada has been signing huge new international ECONOMIC agreements to move vital raw resource products away from the USA and toward Asia and the EU ‒ including quietly (they’re Canadian!!!) building a huge new port and rail line in Vancouver with a new huge Liquid Natural Gas plant there, along with several new giant LNG ships. Including re-directing VAST amounts of aluminum, timber and rare earths away from the USA (via long-standing new Asia and EU contracts). All leading to Canada becoming the center of a new East/West alliance, while bypassing our country, with US ever more viewed as erratic, unpredictable and bullying.
So, this “president” can rant all it wants, on “Paranoid Lies Social,” but it remains unable to see the how the dominoes IT is tipping over ‒ ever more undermine the myth of “American exceptionalism.” One other giant (but slowly falling) domino WILL be its “base” receiving more and more economic torment; although few will likely ever admit the source [impossible to say: “we were wrong”], BUT ‒ they WILL become increasingly disheartened and distracted by their ever worse (and tragic) survival woes. Tick Tock.