trish hermanson - Home

Will Impeachment Lead to Civil War?

10/17/2019

Will impeachment of the President lead to civil war, as some assert? Not from what I’ve observed as I’ve lived through two previous impeachment proceedings in our nation’s history. When I was a congressional intern in Washington, D.C., I sensed something creepy swirling through the corridors of power in the White House. An air of arrogance, secrecy. Only through an impeachment inquiry did we realize the extent of the abuse of power. Richard Nixon resigned, and as a nation, we pushed a reset button as our government sought to cleanse itself of corruption. And life went on.
   Then when I was a mother patching knees on jeans, impeachment charges came against Bill Clinton. His presidency survived, but the process revealed his lying. Reset button again, and life went on.
Now as I chauffeur grandkids around, I listen to reports about Donald Trump. Once again I’m grateful for the instrument in our Constitution’s toolbox of checks and balances that calls for inquiry, yet at the same time makes it difficult to remove a president from office. Without such a tool, the fever of executive power can burn unabated. Government conducted in the shadows can grow, and what is illegal can become the norm.
     Historian John Dalberg-Acton observed, “Absolute power corrupts absolutely.” With unchecked power, the temptation toward corruption is great. So let’s honor the wisdom of our forefathers. For the protection of our nation, let’s embrace this inquiry into whether impeachable events have occurred.
     We’ll learn if it’s time for another reset.
     ***
     Photo of me as an intern with U.S. Congressman Mark Andrews.

Toppling the Myth of Columbus

10/12/2019

Pop quiz: who discovered America? It wasn’t Christopher Columbus. He wasn’t even the first European to establish a New World settlement. Viking Leif Erikson did that five centuries before Columbus at about the same time that Polynesian mariners crossed the Pacific, taking South American sweet potatoes back to their islands.
     So who were the first explorers? Ancestors of modern Native Americans who arrived fifteen thousand years ago by crossing the land bridge that then connected Alaska with Siberia.
     We can certainly credit Columbus for opening the way for European exploration, but at what a high price. Against his queen’s orders, he enslaved more than five hundred Natives and shipped them to Spain. He required other Natives to deliver a quota of gold every three months. Those not making the quota had their hands cut off and bled to death. This led to thousands committing suicide because they had no gold mines. Columbus’ governorship became so cruel that at one point he was shipped back to Spain in chains.
     Then why do we feed Columbus’ fable through text books and annual parades? Is it because we prefer a white-faced, Eurocentric myth rather than honoring the true first explorers, whose descendants were eventually forced onto reservations by descendants of the Europeans? Do we prefer to call our land grabs “manifest destiny” - God ordained - rather than admitting they were a travesty?
  Truth matters in our patriotism, and I applaud the boldness of some states and cities in changing Columbus Day into a celebration of our actual first Americans.
     *** Please share this. Image: Jorge Silva/Reuters/Corbis. Text added.

October 03rd, 2019

10/3/2019

I hurt two people recently. Big time.
     I didn’t mean to. I had good intentions, but sloppy words.
     I asked their forgiveness, and they extended it, but they still hurt. And I hurt for them. Will they ever heal from this? It’s taken me years to recover from some slights from others. Will it take them that long?
     I’m asking God to instigate his amazing Recycling Program, to somehow turn my stupidity into something good in their lives. That would be a miracle.
     As for me, I’ve asked God to enroll me in his Forgiveness-for-Dummies Program: to remind me of his tenderness toward me; to help me understand any message he has for me from this; to give me a scar I can run my finger over to prompt me to walk more cautiously with others.
     How we all need mercy - from God, from each other, and for each other.
      ***
  A song that expresses my aching heart is here. The image is a screenshot from the video.

Chalking Up My Circles of Life

9/26/2019

I know there is a God and I’m not Him, so why do I fret so much? Does my huffing and puffing solve the world’s problems and save the environment and keep the grass from dying from my neighbor’s dog pooping on it? I don’t think so.
     So, with the “help” of my grandson Oak, I’m corralling my ever-expanding concerns through Stephen Covey’s book “The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People.”
     Covey says we each live in a large Circle of Concerns, things we care about or that affect us even though we have little or no control over them. Instead of being distracted by them, he encourages us to focus our energy in a smaller sphere within that, our Circle of Influence, where we can, perhaps, make a difference.
     Good advice, but I’ve discovered two other spheres within my area of influence that I must ask hard questions about or I get into trouble:
     * My Circle of Responsibility - am I fulfilling what I’m actually responsible for?
     * My Circle of Capacity - am I exceeding the limits of my emotional and physical strength?
     If I ignore these questions, I develop another set of circles - under my eyes - from my distracted striving. I tackle what’s not my own, and forget to show up for my own life.
  And that is a colossal waste.

Getting Swept Away?

9/19/2019

I did it again - I allowed myself to get swept away in busyness. Why do I do that?
     I don’t have the excuse of obligations of someone like Eugene H. Peterson, a world-renowned author and lecturer. Yet even with his full schedule, Peterson admitted he sometimes got caught up in busyness simply “because I am vain. I want to appear important. Significant.”
     Ouch. Do I bloat my schedule to try to look important?
     Vanity isn’t the only thing that tricked Peterson into busyness. He said that sometimes it was laziness. “I indolently let others decide what I will do instead of resolutely deciding myself.”
     I’ve done that, too, trying to please others by doing what THEY think I should do instead of setting boundaries.
     So instead of getting swept up with busyness, I want to make some sweeping reforms in my thinking and my schedule. Otherwise, my life may be as futile as Shakespeare described: “full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.”
     What a tragedy that would be.