Taking Responsibility for my actions
1/30/2025
Surviving the trump administration, A Daily Thread. Episode 8: Taking Responsibility for My Actions
Last night, a black hawk helicopter carrying three soldiers crashed into a passenger plane carrying 64 people in the busy air above the Washington DC airport. No survivors have been recovered.
This happened nine days after the man who somehow currently holds the office of president of the United States fired the head of TSA and members of the Aviation Safety Committee. Upon learning the news of the crash, trump blamed the helicopter pilots and the control tower in a Truth Social post: “…why didn’t the helicopter go up or down, or turn. Why didn’t the control tower tell the helicopter what to do instead of asking if they saw the plane…”
In a press conference this morning, he went on to blame “Obama, Biden, and the democrats” as well as DEI hires for causing the crash. When asked how he came to that conclusion, trump said “because I have common sense.”
By refusing to acknowledge any part in this tragedy and instead blaming everyone around him, trump is modeling poor leadership. It might seem impossible as everyday citizens to try to hold him accountable, but that doesn’t mean we’re powerless. We can model accountability in our own lives. Here’s a recent personal example:
A few days ago, I was trying to write one of these posts. It’s hard for me to focus when there are distractions of any kind. My partner and stepson were having a conversation outside my office door, and their voices were making it hard for me to concentrate. So without saying anything, I got up and closed the door rather forcefully.
After a few beats, my partner opened the door and asked: “did you just close this door?” And my step son followed up with: “if you want us to be quiet, could you ask us instead of just closing the door?”
My first reaction (specifically to my step son’s request) was HOW DARE YOU tell me I can’t close my door? KNOW YOUR PLACE, KID! I wish I was joking, but that’s pretty much verbatim what ran through my head. I made some kind of snarky comment about how they were being too loud, and tried to get back to writing.
It took several hours of reflection and further conversation with my partner, but I came around to the realization that my step son’s request had been accurate and reasonable, and although it stung my ego to confront changing my own behavior, that was the warranted course of action. I apologized to my step son for sniping at him and told him I would try to do better in the future.
It was uncomfortable, and hard, and it makes my blood pressure rise even to write about it. But trying to grow in this way aligns with my values, so that’s the choice I made.
I didn’t make this strategy up. Steps 5 and 6 of 12-step programs guide us to take responsibility for harm we have caused and take action to do better in the future.
So, to bring it back around to where I started: it’s perfectly reasonable to be appalled and upset by trump’s lack of accountability. It’s important to work together to hold him and his administration accountable for their lies, blaming, and harmful actions.
AND, if we don’t immediately know how to do that, we can also hold OURSELVES personally accountable when we cause harm, and work to be leaders with more integrity than the current president.
#survivingthetrumpadministration #fightfascism #notmypresident #standupspeakout #strongertogether
