Trump to Speak to National Anti-Gay Organization

Donald Trump is again making his homophobic views known loud and clear.

The US president will become the first sitting president to address social conservative activists and elected officials at the Value Voters Summit in Washington DC on Friday.

He is apparently hoping that people who see themselves on the top of a major hierarchy will vote his way whenever he climbs on top and promotes people on top of any hierarchy. He hopes they will all stick together.

 
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/donald-trump-anti-lgbt-address-hate-group-summit-meeting-first-president-us-homphobia-a7997401.html?fbclid=IwAR1QIBjUv7klaPFU_aTxoVRNi1itIh8GymxfYWMPgsiCNq8HQYZTqsjojKg

Organized Religion Affiliation Dropping

In our country, many times the phrase "man is made in the image of God" is not the truth. In reality, "God is made in the image of a man on top of a hierarchy." As hierarchies are declining in the United States, so are the desire of people who have to commit to hierarchical views of religion.

With supporters of Donald Trump claiming to have the corner on God's views, it is no wonder that so many people are turned off by what they view as the hypocrisy of so many religious institutions.

According to a new Gallup poll, only 50 percent of Americans said they belong to a church, synagogue, or mosque, which is an all-time low. Between 1937 and 1976, the average was 70 percent or higher, was 68 percent in the 1970's through the 1990's. Since 1999, the drop-off has seen a 20-point decline.

https://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/439478-us-church-membership-hits-all-time-low?fbclid=IwAR1iCzoFKRpwtGEg-wHYRGyM-v51Yj24hO04axfKxs_muTpcbVd3gNGD_8g

Animals Bring So Much To Our World

A police dog, Raider, was present in the courtroom when the children of David and Louise Turpin described their lives in their home in Perris, California. The yellow Labrador is a facility dog with the Corona Police Department. Unlike other police dogs, he is highly trained to provide companionship without being a disruption in a work environment.

Humans have had a history of putting ourselves on top of a hierarchy of creatures on earth, and greatly pushing others far down. As we value what others can offer, new opportunities arise for everyone.

https://www.cnn.com/2019/04/19/us/turpin-children-court-emotional-support-dog/index.html

Trump Ordered Braile Removed Because No Blind Person Would Ever Live in Trump Tower

It is not just the race, gender, religious, immigration hierarchies that Trump promotes, but also the able/disabled hierarchy.

“Get rid of the [expletive] braille. No blind people are going to live in Trump Tower,” Trump shouted, according to Barbara Res who led the construction of Trump Tower. “Just do it.” as he demanded the architect remove the braille from the elevator.

“Trump is really not all that different now, but the stakes are higher,” Res wrote. “The ‘just do its’ are getting done. And they are not directed at carpenters and painters or fan magazines. Now they’re about alienating allies, cozying up to dictators and employing dangerous nonsensical economic tactics.”

https://thatoregonlife.com/2018/05/pilot-butte-drive-in/?fbclid=IwAR3N7KTQjfWR-kN03gNgwg0Hm02NqKEhhuWiYz_V6MynNmNciCjLrsOVhLk

Yo Yo Ma Plays at the US - Mexico Border

As part of an event to celebrate the relationship between the two border cities: Laredo, Texas, and Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, Yo Yo Ma played his cello in a park near the Juarez-Lincoln International Bridge, one of the bridges that connect the United States and Mexico.

"As you all know, as you did and do and will do, in culture, we build bridges, not walls," Ma said today. I've lived my life at the borders. Between cultures. Between disciplines. Between musics. Between generations."

Here's to his efforts to recognize that hierarchies can't survive when we honor diversity in our nation and abroad. 

https://thehill.com/blogs/in-the-know/in-the-know/438788-cellist-yo-yo-ma-plays-bach-along-the-us-mexico-border?fbclid=IwAR00EMpJxZ0W2ckQtYgTmdPwqKuhddRGh_euEqwf5zxQixqqQupFIrSeyAE

Morehouse College To Accept Trans Men

Beginning in 2020, Morehouse College, a historically black all-men's school in Atlanta, will begin admitting transgender students who identify as men.

Spelman College, a private historically black all-women's school also in Atlanta, in 2017, adopted a similar policy.

While people who support hierarchies are working hard to put up barriers to transgendered persons, we see progress in spite of them.

https://www.cnn.com/2019/04/13/us/morehouse-college-transgender-policy/index.html

Trump Rally Locations Spark Hate Crimes

Scholars from the University of North Texas have reported that “counties that had hosted a 2016 Trump campaign rally saw a 226 percent increase in reported hate crimes over comparable counties that did not host such a rally.

Though stopping short of claiming causation, the researchers acknowledge “The Trump Effect” in public schools, in which young people mimic Trump’s abusive words and actions against their peers.

When asked whether he thought he should tone down his language, Trump responded, “I think my language is very nice.”  His policies have mostly targeted the poor, undocumented immigrants, trans people and people of color.

https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2019/03/hate-crimes-risen-226-areas-trump-held-rallies/?fbclid=IwAR0PP_nIPrKG5qYMtPklZ90p8tHE5jn4VZSz_rzVjfopgUFSEk9CzotSsb4

A New Kind of Leadership

"I've never seen such leadership," Oprah Winfrey said during a speech at the Women in the World summit in New York City, according to The New Zealand Herald. "The prime minister is a woman who has such courage in her convictions and has set a global standard for leadership with her response."

"Fifty murders could have brought even more destruction but instead led to a portrait of the Prime Minister displayed across Dubai's tallest building with the word 'peace' shining above it,” she continued.

As long as strong hierarchy supporters run the United States, we will not be able to challenge the leadership by white men who want to have guns most everywhere in our society. White men (we mostly see white, heterosexual, able-bodied, native-born, cis-gendered men at the gun shows) are very used to controlling how and where they desire, and guns appear to be a big part of their scheme. 

https://thehill.com/blogs/in-the-know/in-the-know/438525-oprah-praises-new-zealand-prime-minister-for-response-to?fbclid=IwAR33oViK9rtQbkU3qBTEkNimDkP2Mje17RV28wxPHPtJ9YJiMK4KQEdVXuE

Leadership Claims of the Top

So often we allow those at the top to claim to have positive attributes that they do not possess, and let them get away with it. Those who want to support the hierarchy ignore or turn their heads when discrepancies are pointed out, rationalize them away, and blindly follow their programming to follow the top.

Just imagine an African American woman or a Muslim getting away with making these statements and actions.