Thoughts of Love and Politics and Art

by Summer D Clemenson | Mar 26, 2026 | Life, Opinions, Politics

Karen often asks me what I am thinking about. The other day she actually asked me what I feel after I write a big article like To Be Defined By Love. My answer is that I am often thinking of lots of things and I usually have a couple of articles growing at once, which is why I tend to have more than one scenario in most of my articles that are not book reviews or letters to representatives. Often I have thoughts of love and politics and art.

Today I was reading a story about a woman at the grocery store. She was tired. The story said she was wearing a pair of worn scrubs with stains. Her baby was fussy. She had a few cans of formula, a gallon of milk and some cheep cereal on the grocery belt. But her card, when the cashier ran it through the machine said DECLINE.

People in line were impatient. A man in the line told her if she could not afford the child, she should not have had one.

Another man in line was listening and he was remembering all kinds of things from his long life, from raising his family, losing jobs, from economy shifts, losing his wife. He thought about something she had often said: The country gets meanest when people get scared.

Against the young woman’s protests, the gentleman decided to buy her items for her. That same man that was offensive to the woman, told the gentleman that he was part of the problem. The gentleman’s response was: The problem is grown men picking on exhausted women with hungry babies. You don’t know one thing about her. Not one. You don’t know if she just got of a double shift. You don’t know if her baby is sick. You don’t know if she slept last night. All you know is someone is weaker than you and you decided to make yourself feel bigger.

This story answered a question I have been asking myself because I don’t understand why some people can care so little for their fellow man. Because that mother that needs help could be anyone: a disabled person, a person down on their luck, an immigrant that is having trouble getting asylum. They could be anyone who innocently needs help. And that man that can only fault her, could be anyone that is scared and needs to feel big for a minute and is using them to make themselves feel powerful. If you don’t know real love, and you only know that someone more powerful has been standing on your neck, you might need to stand a neck or two, every now and then. I suddenly understood a question I have had for a long time. I see why people appreciate certain kinds of power; power that makes my stomach hurt because I understand love and I want everyone else to understand the kind of love that doesn’t judge but just lifts you up when you need it.

Later, I saw a post in a group that I follow on Facebook and they were discussing the price of gas in Washington State. They referred to our governor as a communist. They were only picking on him. this group hates democrats. I don’t mind that they don’t like democrats but I see where republicans are not serving us too and I don’t think it is fair, so I decided to do some quick research before I answered them.

In the 5 actual communist countries in the world, gas is lower or comparable to Washington states gas prices.

• China $4.10 to $4.70
• Cuba is about $4.90
• Laos is the highest at about $6.70
• North Korea is about $3.55
• Vietnam is about $3.75

The average price of gas in Washington State the first week on February 2026 was $3.76 – $3.86. That is almost a $2 difference in about 6 weeks. I think that shows a huge impact on our economy that the decision our president made by taking us into war. Not only has he spent almost $20 billion of our tax dollars on a non-emergency and helped Israel kill a lot of civilians, while lining his own family pockets, and his donors’ pockets, but he has given permission to big businesses to jack up fuel costs which will essentially force every other necessary cost to go up too, because we rely heavily on shipments that depend on fuel.

So yes. Ferguson is a jerk. But Trump, he is well named. Because the word Trumpery refers to something showy but ultimately worthless, rubbish, or nonsense. And a Trump Card is a crucial, hidden advantage or resource used to secure victory, stemming from 16th-century trick-taking card games where a designated suit (“trump”) overrides all others. Put them together and it explains everything.

Last night I found a post about a school in the Puyallup School District that removed a drawing made by a student that depicted President Trump as a Pig, KKK Member and included reference to his assassination. Those are the words of the post as it was written in the group. I have read a few articles posted online regarding this art project and apparently there may have been a few other questionable smaller drawings, but from the only picture I can find, I see a pig in a light blue suit and no words. I have learned to read most comments before I make any, partially because I believe I don’t need to repeat what anyone might have already said, however, in this situation I didn’t see anything useful so I responded:

I am so baffled by some of you. I graduated class of 1993 at R. A. Long and even though I didn’t take art classes because I was in creative writing classes, I loved it when the art classes would display their work in hallway to the library, which I went to all the time because I also worked on the school paper and the year book. It was required to take current events and we had to buy a subscription to Newsweek AND read it. Art, whether it was hanging on the wall or in the paper or even in a skit in the drama department, included current events. I imagine the school is still doing that because some kids are curious. I was born that way. My family could not keep up with me so I learned to hang out in libraries and as the internet was born; WOW! Today’s kids don’t know a world without access to information at their fingertips.

Reading some of the beliefs that some of you have, makes me feel scared. You are not asking the right questions. You are not reading. You are trusting the wrong people and you want to think that kids need to only be obedient and not to be thinking people. I have spent the evening researching claims that Congress’s Natural Resources Committee made about oversight investigations that will not be made because republicans are afraid of Trump. These members of Congress are not lying. It isn’t hard to find the truth. But so many of you want to believe Trump has our best interests at heart. He doesn’t. But here we are worried about a picture of a pig wearing a suit.

I don’t consider it liberal thinking to be creative. The art we are talking about does not (at least from the image I saw) say Trump’s name on it. I have never seen Trump wear a light blue suit. I think people have assumed something that maybe may have been implied, but maybe might not be the case. This is the point of art. Do I want to see the Obamas portrayed as any animals, no, which is why I did not seek out the video our president had on his social media platform. But here is the thing:

1. Art is made to make a point that causes us to think.
2. Art does not have to be factual because it is supposed to make us feel.
3. It is not fair to judge children more strictly than the president. So are you putting the same energy into censoring the president?
4. Would I hang this art in my home? No, but this student’s art should be allowed to be displayed along their peers because they are all processing what they see in the world right now and it isn’t violent or pornographic.

The only real argument that anyone wanted to push at me was that children are impressionable. And to that I would say that children are impressionable. I see that Trump seems to have made in impression on at least 27 women. As far as sex offenders go…maybe we need to hold sex offenders accountable at all levels of government, local, state and federal levels. We need to change laws and consequences so that they are more meaningful since victim’s lives are permanently changed. Perpetrators should look forward to life sentences once they have proven they are repeat offenders with violent tendencies and since rape is not about sex, but about power they are all violent crimes, if you do it more than once it is a repeat offence with a life sentence.

Teachers can be impressionable, yes, but they can also be good role models. My creative writing teacher saw I was bored with the assignments he made for the kids that wanted an easy class, so he let me write my own assignment. Many which he did not return to me. Was I angry, yes, but life is as it is. I am more angry that I got a high grade on my Senior Project because when I took College English classes I didn’t know enough and I had to work harder because public school let me get by without knowing proper grammar. I just don’t see in the picture what people are so angry about. If there was actual violence in the picture, the teacher could have given more boundaries for the art project before they hung the art.

But people adding their thoughts without proof of the words or actual pictures of what they are implying is not enough for me. What about thought? What about politics? What about love? It seems sometimes we can’t distinguish the difference between any of them. I don’t write what I write because I hate anyone. I write what I write because I love everyone and I value honesty. I know that sometimes we are too busy to find the truth and since I am curious and I don’t have the stamina for a daily job, but I can read and write, I do it and I share with people, because I appreciate my readers. Do I expect you to believe everything I say. I hope you feel I have enough integrity to not steer you in the wrong direction and that I hope you have enough integrity that you will respect my attempts.

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Feel free to leave your comments below!

My name is Summer. That is how you can call me. I hope that I am a blessing to you. I am not perfect. I will fall again. But I am forgiven. For anyone reading this that isn’t a Christian, unapologetically, I am a Jesus Follower, but I believe there is room for lots of beliefs and religions in the world. It is not my intent to offend people with different beliefs than I have and I would be open to open-minded conversations with no goals of changing anyone’s mind, but sharing information. If you are interested in becoming a Jesus Follower…Do you know Jesus? Do want the Holy Spirit to fill you and give you understanding and salvation? Ask Him. Want someone to pray with you? Contact me.

If you would like to know Jesus as your friend, but want to make this amazing commitment by yourself please pray something like this: Thank you Jesus that You are the Son of God, the God that created heaven and earth. Thank you Jesus that You came to earth in the form of a man so that You would be able to empathize with my humanity. Thank You that You did this in order to fulfill the promises You made at the foundation of the world. I realize that I am a sinner and do things that hurt myself and keep myself away from you. Thank You that You died for my sins so that You could defeat death and bring me into Your life. Please forgive me. I ask You to be Lord of my life. I ask you to heal my hurts and show me what my new life, empowered by You looks like. Thank You for Your mercy.

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