POLITICS : CHANCES.

"Can't we just all take a deep breath, calm down, and give him a chance?"

Some of us - many of us - have the luxury of making what sound like rational, neutral statements like this. I've heard variations of this repeatedly.

How many of us would feel good about hopping on a 747 being piloted by someone whose only previous experience with motorized vehicles was driving a bus? Especially if the pilot decided to forgo using the instruments or guidance systems and started shoving passengers off without parachutes because...one might be a hijacker?*

This is now beyond hypothetical. Beyond abstractions. Beyond conjecture. This is reality.

And these are people. Real. People. People with faces and families and hopes.

To take a deep breath and calm down while people around are drowning...that's not a neutral decision. If your child was in that pool, drowning, would you want - would I want - onlookers to sit back, calm down, and wait for someone to do something? Give the lifeguard a chance to do the right thing? Wait it out?

People's lives are being affected. Hurt. We can pretend that it's an aberration; that he's just cleaning things up right away to make things better for Americans in the long run. But how many people's lives have to be harmed by the decisions he is laying the groundwork for NOW? How many lives until we say: you had your chance?

He is our President. I accept that. I don't like it, I do not pretend to like it, but I accept it. And I will give him a chance. A chance on a case by case basis. The same chance I gave at the beginning with his predecessor. The chance to do the right thing, and the right to wield my opposition when he doesn't. As I did with his predecessor, a man I came to respect greatly even amidst my disagreements on policy sometimes. But I came to believe in his patriotism, in his desire to fight for all Americans, as well as for the basic dignities and rights of children and families across the world.

When our President begins making decisions that are worthy of being given a chance, I will give him a chance. I will keep my mind open.

Please keep your mind open as to when it's not appropriate to "give a chance."

Love you all.

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*original analogy from my dad, Lee Long, that I extrapolated from