Key Thoughts

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Rob Vajko

We Don’t Care Anymore

We have a real problem with President Trump’s presidency and it isn’t what you think it is. It isn’t the problem of whether or not Russia meddled in the election and it isn’t the problem of the repeal and replacement of Obamacare. It isn’t about the wall between the United States and Mexico and it isn’t about the travel ban.

No, the problem that I’m talking about is the apathy that is setting in. Most of us are reaching that point where we just don’t care anymore.

Take a look at Facebook, the barometer of our times. I have a wide variety of friends and acquaintances on Facebook and they cover a broad spectrum regarding their views on Trump and politics in general. Before, during and right after the election, it seemed that Trump was all that anyone was talking about and every post solicited a plethora of comments, likes and outrage. Now it seems far less people are talking about him and if someone does post something, no one is commenting anymore.

And I blame the media.

It is one thing to report the news; it’s another to launch a full-on assault against the president in order to make him look ridiculous. I for one don’t care if his wife doesn’t want to hold his hand in public. I also don’t care who apparently snubbed him or with what world leader he exchanged an awkward handshake.

A perfect example of this attempt to ridicule everything the president says came after he made a comment during a visit last March by Ireland’s Prime Minister Edna Kenny on St. Patrick’s Day. Trump said: “As we stand together with our Irish friends, I'm reminded of that proverb—and this is a good one, this is one I like. I've heard it for many, many years and I love it. ‘Always remember to forget the friends that proved untrue. But never forget to remember those that have stuck by you.’”

Turns out that line came from Albasheer Adam Alhassan, a business manager at First Bank of Nigeria, who wrote the poem in college. “I posted those things when I was back in school, over 10 years ago. I never thought it would get to this level,” he told CNN at the time.

Stephen Colbert spent three minutes trying to make Trump out to be an idiot for not knowing that the quote was Nigerian, not Irish. If you reread what he said, however, you will notice that the president never actually states that the “proverb” is Irish, just that it’s one of his favorites. Did anyone catch the apology from Colbert on his show the following night? Me neither.

The way the media is constantly and consistently nitpicking about anything and everything Trump does is causing an overexposure that makes it so we just don’t care to hear it anymore. We tune out the reports telling us what the White House is or isn’t doing. It’s like a kid constantly trying to make fun of a classmate. It was kind of humorous at first, but after a while it just gets pathetic and sad and we all feel uncomfortable listening to it, so we go play dodgeball instead.

Rob Vajko lives in Purdy.


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