Opinion : EEK a Trump Supporter was helping

I suppose I really shouldn't be online as much as I am, and yet, this job requires it, so it's a hazard. (I am resisting all kinds of smart-aleck remarks right here.) I am continually amazed at the sheer, I want to say stupidity, but some of you might get offended if I used that word. Let's see I'm amazed at the sheer whininess of people. No, it's not really whining. Let's see, is it, victimhood? No, that's not it either. I guess that I'm just continually amazed at the way people turn everything, EVERYTHING into a reason to be upset, angry or "offended."I really do miss the last century when we didn't know that we were supposed to curl up in a ball and cry over everything. We just dealt with it and moved on. 
But not now. Now, we have to turn everything into a reason to meltdown. For example, a writer named Virginia Heffernan, of the LA Times, wrote an article about the "Trumpites" next door who had the audacity to plow her driveway, "without being asked" mind you, and then of all things they "did a great job."Now, I don't know about you, but I think most of us would give a sigh of relief that someone showed up, unasked and plowed it. Even better, that they did a great job of clearing it. We wouldn't care what side of the ballot they voted on, we'd give a sigh of relief and thank the plowee with a heartfelt thank you. This gal, however, is pondering how to, "in the face of this act of aggressive niceness, resist demands for unity." Can we back up to "aggressive niceness?" What in the world is that? She says that she realizes that she owes the guy thanks, but just "how much thanks" she is pondering now. She said the guy "back-dragged the driveway like a pro," so now she's stuck in her mental snowdrift trying to figure out all of this kindness, from all people, a Trump supporter. Sigh. I shared with you how I attended a Trump parade covering it for Vinton Today and I think I used the term that it was like one huge block party. People all around were happy, and friendly and nice. Oh, that's right, you won't hear about that on the news.I really think I should quit reading other people's articles in my attempt to see what's out there. She goes on to point out that these neighbors are "staunch partisans of blue lives," okay they support the local sheriff, and she adds, "there aren't a lot of anything other than white lives in the neighborhood." What? What in the, what??? I'm not sure what that has to do with plowing the snow, but okay,  I'm just a small-town reporter person.Now she is going to go all really weird on us. "Back in the city, people don't sweep other people's walkways for nothing." Maybe that's the problem and a sign that you live in the wrong part of our world. Fasten your seatbelts, the next section SHOULD cause you to facepalm. I kid you not, she says this in regards to the neighbor's actions, "Hezbollah, the Shiite Islamist political party in Lebanon, also gives things away for free. The favors Hezbollah does for people in the cities Tyre and Sidon probably don't involve snowplows, but, like other mafias, Hezbollah tends to its own - the Shiite sick, elderly and hungry. They offer protection and hospitality and win loyalty that way. And they also demand devotion to their brutal, us-versus-them anti-Sunni cause. Some of us are family, the favors say; the rest are infidels. The same is true with Louis Farrakhan, who currently helms the Nation of Islam. While the Southern Poverty Law Center classifies him as a dangerous anti-Semite, much of his flock says he's just a little screwy and unfailingly magnanimous. To them."Back up the snowplow. She's comparing her neighbor to a terrorist. I have to admit, if I were the neighbor, at this point, I think I'd dump the snow back in her driveway. Nice guy or not. If the crazy lady next door, with a full driveway, assumes that you're a terrorist because you plowed her driveway, that snow is going right back where it came from, just so we're clear. The gal doesn't stop, she, well, she keeps digging so to speak. 

"When someone helps you when you're down, or snowed in, it's almost impossible to regard them as a blight on the world. In fact, you're more likely to be overwhelmed with gratitude and convinced of the person's inherent goodness." We wouldn't want to do that if they are a "Trumpite" now do we? We all know that "Trumpites" are evil.

She goes on, "You might end up like the upper-middle-class family I stayed with in France as a teenager. They did not attend a citywide celebration for the 100th birthday of Charles de Gaulle, the war hero who orchestrated the liberation of his country from Nazi Germany in 1944. They did have several portraits of Philippe Pétain, Nazi collaborator, on their wall.

When I screwed up the courage to ask how it was for them during the occupation, the lady of the house replied, "We were happy because the Nazis were very polis." I didn't know the word, so I excused myself to consult a French-English dictionary. I was in tears when I found the entry: "polite."

Wait! Can I ask where in the world you find friends that like the Nazis? I mean, isn't that what "Trumpites" are labeled as? But she actually traveled to France to stay with these "friends." Okaaay. I just did a mental check list. I don't think I have a single friend that thinks Nazis are great.

She continues, "So when I accept generosity from my pandemic neighbors, acknowledging the legitimate kindness with a wave or a plate of cookies, am I also sealing us in as fellow travelers who are very polis to each other but not so much to "them"?" There it is, the Trumpites are Nazis, even though she herself said she has friends who thought actual Nazis were nice...I'm so confused.

And this is how you get a political point out there, all because your neighbor took pity on your and plowed your driveway. "Loving your neighbor is evidently much easier when your neighborhood is full of people just like you." Well, that'd actually probably be a bit cultish. 

"What do we do about the Trumpites around us? Like Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), who spoke eloquently this week about her terrifying experience during the insurrection at the Capitol on Jan. 6." I will let the word eloquently pass and just point out that AOC wasn't even in the building when it happened, and I'd guess she had no idea what was actually happening at the time. But whatever.

"Americans are expected to forgive and forget before we've even stitched up our wounds.," (I assume she's talking about Biden's call for unity after 4 years of being kicked around? Oh but she's not.) "Or gotten our vaccines against the pandemic that former President Trump utterly failed to mitigate." Wait just a minute. You mean the virus that was released from a Chinese facility, and that the Chinese knew about but said nothing? And when Trump found out about it, he went to work making the way for a vaccine to be created in less than a year, requires car plants to go into ventilator production so much so that we had so many ventilators that we sent them to other countries, ordered a ship to New York to help out...you mean THAT failure to mitigate? Got it.

"My neighbors supported a man who showed near-murderous contempt for the majority of Americans. They kept him in business with their support." Oh puleaze.

"But the plowing.

On Jan. 6, after the insurrection, Sen. Ben Sasse (R-Neb.) issued an aw-shucks plea for all Americans to love their neighbors. The United States, he said, "isn't Hatfields and McCoys, this blood feud forever." And, he added, "You can't hate someone who shovels your driveway."

At the time, I seethed; the Capitol had just been desecrated. But maybe my neighbor heard Sasse and was determined to make a bid for reconciliation.

So here's my response to my plowed driveway, for now. Politely, but not profusely, I'll acknowledge the Sassian move. With a wave and a thanks, a minimal start on building back trust. I'm not ready to knock on the door with a covered dish yet."

I'm rolling my eyes, oh the drama!

"I also can't give my neighbors absolution; it's not mine to give. Free driveway work, as nice as it is, is just not the same currency as justice and truth. To pretend it is would be to lie, and they probably aren't looking for absolution anyway." Lady, they just saw that your driveway needed to be plowed and they must've known that you didn't have the means to clear it. 

"But I can offer a standing invitation to make amends. Not with a snowplow but by recognizing the truth about the Trump administration and, more important, by working for justice for all those whom the administration harmed. Only when we work shoulder to shoulder to repair the damage of the last four years will we even begin to dig out of this storm."

And that my friends is how if you are a "Trumpite" you can drive your liberal neighbors who write for the LA Times crazy, just show up and plow their driveway. It will keep them up at night trying to figure out why you did it. 

But honestly, I wouldn't. I swear after reading the neighbors article, I'd go and fetch every flake of that snow right back and dump it back in her driveway. I guess I am just not as nice as her Trumpite neighbor. I'd probably even haul and extra load or two back to her drive just so we're clear that we aren't terrorist.

I sure hope that this guy, whatever he does, doesn't mow her law if she gets laid up this summer, I mean, if he did that, she might go into some serious sort of break down. Quit being so "aggressively nice" already! Of course, that would give her another article, and he'd probably be slapped with a lawsuit or something for his "aggressive niceness."

In Iowa, all "aggressive niceness" is welcome, we won't compare you to a terrorist when you plow or shovel for us. we promise.

Sigh. 

Footnote: https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2021-02-05/trumpite-neighbor-unity-capitol-attack