Presiding over the tarnishing, degradation, loss of the credibility and respected reputation of a great nation hardly qualifies the current leadership of the U.S. for the term « Administration. » That label implies orderly structure, competence, coherent planning and implementation of a thought=out agenda consistent with values and policies evolved and developed over more than 200 years of democratic regard for people, their rights, and a sense of justice and equality.

What we have now instead is a chaotic travesty of « administration » suggestive of a comedy for the Three Stooges, but not at all funny.

And when we look into our souls in the deep of night, it is sad to note that the seeds of this aberrant chaos have been lurking in our midst all along. Racism, sexism, arrogance and corruption are not new. And we cannot always escape elements of them in our own lives, not merely in others we can point at.

But the best in our natures identifies these tendencies, these weaknesses, and tries to root them out. We begin by acknowledging our faults and flaws. We own them. And we do what penance and restitution we can.

Our collective approach must parallel the private one: we must identify the disease and rot in our system, own the fact we allowed it to happen, and rid ourselves of the corruption, vice and public theft in our government.

We do that through the courts and the ballot box. We must use both.