CARLTON FLETCHER: Looking for redemption in the beauty of words

I get the joy of rediscovering you.

— Journey

Who was it that said, “Physician, heal thyself.”?

I’ve been pondering those words that Jesus said (Luke 4:23) as I’ve endured fury and fallout from people who have taken exception to my using this space in this newspaper I love to express an opinion that, while obviously not shared by a large number of people, is my own. And, yes, part of my job in this world of new journalism is to express that opinion, maybe even stir up some discussion.

I don’t apologize for stating my heart-felt belief that, no matter what Joe Biden brings to the table as president of this country, I’m more willing to endure four years of a bad president than the way-past-legal attempts of our current president to disregard the Constitution our government is based upon just to feed his enormous ego.

And while I believe each of you is not only entitled to his or her opinion about the current president — and certainly to disagree with mine — the fact that an alarming number of you have declared that you’d rather live under a Trump dictatorship than to see someone else — someone, by the way, who was duly and legally elected — become president is a really frightening revelation.

Many talk about “kissing our freedoms goodbye” under Biden — before he’s even taken office — and yet you embrace the thought of a dictatorship under Trump? Wow!

OK, so that shakes me, as it should every American. But guess what … I may be saddened, sickened, flabbergasted or otherwise concerned about people’s unflagging loyalty to this man, people who bestow godlike power on someone who has only a passing relationship with the truth, but I am not so moved to anger or disappointment that I would end or even threaten a relationship that mattered to me over the nonsense of Trump, Biden, Perdue, Warnock, Ossoff, Loeffler, Obama, Nixon or any other politician you can name.

I believe politics is a dirty word in America circa 2020. Anyone running for office today is going to tell you two things, without fail: 1) All the great things he or she will do for you if elected and 2) the evil his opponent will inflict on the populace if — God forbid — he or she is elected.

It’s all bull. It’s all a sham — lies based on one thing and one thing only: Will enough gullible people buy enough of this hooey to vote me into office? It’s like that old joke: How do you know when a politician is lying? When his or her lips are moving.

I’ve said before; I’ll say again: Most people — OK, some people — get into politics with good intentions, to help make a positive difference. But almost all of them are quickly corrupted, lured to the Star Wars-like “Dark Side” by lying lobbyists and deep-pocketed party loyalists with two obviously irresistible enticements: power and money. It is not just good luck or happenstance that puts almost always wealthy people into offices that pay relatively small sums of money and has them come out the other side even more wealthy. It’s greed, pure and simple.

Now, as for physicians healing themselves, I think it’s time for me, obviously, and many others, maybe not so obviously … at least not to them, to heal ourselves. I detest politics. I can’t name you one politician — not one — outside the local level, and darned few of them, that I would trust to carry out even the simplest matter with dignity. (They’d have to check with the party bosses or the PACs that line their pockets first.)

I’m going to stop concerning myself with the machinations of politics and politicians and focus more on people and things that matter. And while that doesn’t mean I won’t speak out if I see something that I consider corrupt and evil in our governments, I’m going to work on finishing out this career on a high note, to rediscover the beauty and righteousness in my chosen profession that lured me to it in the first place.

I’ve allowed myself — my words — to be poisoned by my loathing of evil politicians and their actions. I’m going to go back and seek the beauty in words that has never stopped inspiring me. I can only hope and pray to find solace in them once again.