“This is not who we are as Americans.”

That comment, or some version of it, has been repeated by dozens of politicians and pundits over the past few years. In fact, every time the president insults our allies or women or a race of people, politicians from both sides of the aisle still say it. Every time another school shooting, mass murder, or white supremacist rally occurs, we hear it again many times, along with “thoughts and prayers” for the victims and our nation in the aftermath of a crisis.

I said it myself after immigrants were banned, after the Charlotteville rally where a young woman was murdered by a racist, and after seeing little children taken from their parents crying for their mothers and fathers.

But the past few weeks, and particularly the past few days, have convinced me otherwise. This is exactly who and what we are as a country.

National news coverage reports that several people have been arrested for threatening to kill various U.S. senators of both parties for the way they voted on the recent U.S. Supreme Court nominee. A woman who claims the nominee sexually assaulted her years ago has to go into hiding with her family after receiving dozens of death threats. A journalist for the Washington Post is killed and dismembered in a Saudi embassy for criticizing the government.

In North Carolina, a former Baptist minister running for Congress excuses Donald Trump’s immoral behavior and praises him for turning away immigrants and giving tax cuts to the rich, while promising to cut Social Security and Medicare and threatening to shut down the government unless he gets his way. The top two members of the N.C. General Assembly hold a news conference where they laugh, joke, and brag about how they have taken away all of the Democratic governor’s power and gerrymandered their way into total control of our state’s government.

Robeson County residents have long complained about the wrongdoing of their county officials, and I often read about allegations of wrongdoing here during elections. As a teacher in the PSRC system I saw some of it and would often say a prayer of thanks as I crossed the county line going home that I was not governed by Robeson County elected officials. I thought things were so much better in my own county.

If they were, they are not anymore. I have seen firsthand the corruption and racism in my own community.

When it recently became public knowledge that the sheriff of Bladen County violated a North Carolina nepotism law by creating a job for his own daughter-in-law, a majority of Bladen County commissioners not only voted to allow him to break the law, they praised him for doing it.

Recently I saw and heard many incidents of harassment and intimidation of minority voters and volunteers at the only early voting site in Bladen County. One particular election official left some voters and volunteers in tears. A verbal assault by a male Republican Party official on a young female campaign worker made her quit and flee in tears. One candidate and several volunteers, including a local minister in a wheelchair, were openly called racist names.

It all sickens me, but I am not so naive as to think than any of this behavior is new. Racism and election cheating has existed since this country was created, but until recently there was at least a bipartisan effort to limit such immoral and unethical behavior as much as possible.

Now the end justifies the means, winning is everything, and anybody who disagrees is insulted, threatened, or worse. People no longer even try to hide their racism and partisan behaviors and instead proudly flaunt it under the guise of “free speech” and “MAGA.”

Some people keep telling me this is what America looks like when it is being made “great” again.

When I saw that preacher sitting in his wheelchair with tears in his eyes after being called a racist name, I did not see or feel anything great.

But I did see the truth about America in 2018. This is what we are.

https://www.robesonian.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/web1_patsy-sheppard_ne201810231121823.jpg

Patsy Sheppard, a St. Pauls resident, is a retired educator and active locally in the Democratic Party.

Patsy Sheppard, a St. Pauls resident, is a retired educator and active locally in the Democratic Party.