"I am"... I cried
"I am"... said I
And I am lost and I can't
Even say why (I Am…I Said by Neil Diamond)
There I was, able enough to have used my Silver Sneakers Gym membership, as a part of my Blue Shield Part B/C/D Medicare, working out at 24 Hour Fitness, finding myself riding the bike, watching the TV in an air-conditioned room, filled with all sorts of cardio machines, and windows galore, permitting a show and tell of the people walking on Santa Monica Boulevard. Having finished my weight’s routine, I was finalizing my wellness program with 30 minutes of cardio. There I was watching, CNN and MSNBC discuss the variety of Tweets, by Trump, accusing Michael Cohen of caving in, and proudly patting Paul Manafort on the back for continuing to be the criminal he had always intended to be. I had my headphones tightly ticked into my earlobes, trying my hardest to listen to remixes of disco music, but with so many televisions positioned at every angle, it was hard not to notice the world of Trump even asI tried my best to isolate these 30 minutes to my own world.
I turned my head to the right, looking out at Santa Monica Boulevard, and I watched as the lady drenched in dirt, and sweat, carrying her three bags of plastic bottles and glass containers, tried to reach deep into the depths of the metal trash can situated in front of the gym. At first, it might have seemed funny watching as she almost dove to the bottom of that barrel, like a swimmer might choose to dive to the bottom of a swimming pool. But there was really no humor, the lady covered with soot, and grime finally rose up holding two plastic bottles, the one in her right hand she placed in her mouth, leaning her head back permitting whatever liquid was lost at the bottom of the container to fall into her throat. The bottle in her left hand was immediately tossed into one of the sacks she had placed on the ground. I turned my head away, almost feeling that I was intruding, and as I did so, CNN was announcing that Trump was about to honor a Military hero for his service in protecting his Troops from an Al Qaeda attack. And then it was as if a whack on the side of my head happened.
What world am I living in, I am…I cried to myself. A criminal is sitting in the White House. A man known to have no use for scruples, a man hacked and hijacked into office, and who is guilty of so many crimes, pretending to be the guy who is honoring real heroes. Trump offers congratulations to a guy who does not admit his own crimes and defames the guy who pleads guilty. And then I wondered, deeply as I turned my head once again toward the street outside, watching one man with his sign for some food pacing back and forth in front of the gym, am I lost…am I lucky…I am riding my bike in an air-conditioned gym, watching a criminal as Commander-In-Chief, act as if nothing is unusual…witnessing poverty, hunger, homelessness…I am so confused anymore! And to top it off, not ONE Republican of any crucial political position has come forward to announce that FINALLY, America belongs to its citizens, and not Putin and his puppets. I am lost, and I don’t even know why!
