The topics I write about that seem to get the most response from readers have to do with dogs or politics. I’m always glad to hear from the good dog people. Not so much from political hacks, on either side.

I recently posted a piece that was, I’ll admit, a harsh and perhaps overly generalized rendering of Trump supporters. Apparently I offended some folks who had previously been readers of my peculiar ramblings. It’s not that I lament losing a reader or two. It’s that ever since I graduated from being a ninth-grade hyperactive bully and all around major jerk (several relapses throughout my life notwithstanding), I feel lousy when I realize I hurt someone’s feelings.

So, with some degree of apology, I’ll proceed by first stating that this is not political. It is not about policy or social ideology or philosophies on government. I make no attempt to scrounge up dubious information from the internet as evidence for a jury. It is rather a reflection of my personal values, the ones instilled in me by a good hearted mother and grandmother and reinforced through a belief in a Christ who is humble and forgiving.

While this is not political, it is about Trump, and it’s my reaction to someone recently accusing me of being afflicted by TDS – Trump Derangement Syndrome. TDS is a phrase commonly used by Trump supporters to explain away any criticism of their champion, and it suggests that the critic suffers from an obsession with finding fault with the President – that it is some kind of mental disease, the underlying cause of which might be envy or hatred of authority figures.

Perhaps I speak for others accused of suffering from TDS when I say that my mental health is fine, and that I have the reason and the right to get upset about things that I know are wrong. And even though I have no God-given right to judge people’s souls, I have the obligation to speak out against those who, by their words and actions, commit the kinds of transgressions that the bible has spelled out and Western Civilization in general has long considered reprehensible and punishable.

I confess that I get very upset when I hear people telling lies over and over again. I sometimes speak out harshly against them (which is my right as an American citizen, at least for now), and if I have the opportunity to confront them, I do so assertively, in writing or in person. Does that make me deranged?

I admit to having feelings of disgust toward people who place material values above all else – those who define themselves by their material gain, and who covet gold and precious metals and minerals as they turn away from the poor and needy. Is my disgust for this kind of person a symptom of my mental derangement?

Is my contempt for bullies a sign of instability? And the fact that I feel angry when I see someone who scares those with less power into humiliating themselves or giving away something, or compromising their values – does that make me abnormal or deranged?

Does the fact that I believe in our justice system – one in which a unanimous jury of regular people determines the guilt or innocence of a defendant – and that I become outraged when the jury of public opinion, based on lies, attempts to reverse that justice – does my outrage qualify as derangement?

Am I deranged because I am repulsed by the photo op, seized by someone who avoided military service, that showcases him saluting over the casket of a fallen soldier – a victim of a war he started? Or because I can’t forget about how he referred to soldiers as losers and debased the real war hero John McCain? Or how he fancies himself the great transactor, the Deal Maker, as he deals in weapons and soldiers as if they were currency and commodity, or like pieces of some video game?

Am I sick because I have no respect for people who brag, blame, threaten, whine, and call foul every time something doesn’t go their way?

Is my disdain for people who are motivated by greed, power, and revenge a sign of my own illness? Am I sick because I believe in my heart of hearts that I have a moral obligation to oppose a leader who has blatantly committed over half Pope Gregory’s seven deadly sins and repeatedly broken more than half the Ten Commandments, with nary a hint of remorse?

It is not my mind that is suffering. It is my soul, along with the soul of any of us who care about others, about the planet, and about all humanity, and not just the America first version. Might is not always right.

Musician, writer, house painter Pete Howard lives in Dunkirk. Send comments to odyssmusic20@gmail.com