What to write? To tell the truth, this has been a most difficult week for me, for various reasons. I almost - almost - did not write this morning as my husband urged me to take a day off. I will - tomorrow, as I do every week. But the urge to write is strong, imperative, to vent angry concerns, feelings of hopelessness and helplessness, to explain options to myself even as I write of them, to plead with others out there and around the world, to come back to sanity, to return to a time when we can speak with each other, not at, or to, turning a deaf ear as we talk over each other, drowning out any possibilities of positive change.
Today, as I read the morning round up of news, I just about threw my hands up in despair and surrender. What the hell are we doing out there? What map are we using to map our way out of crisis? Where has the truth gone? Where has common sense gone? When did Americans define themselves by Party affiliation rather than as Americans! When did we change our thinking from inclusivity to exclusivity, driving a mad march towards an end goal of depriving as many as they can of the right to vote. Disenfranchisement as an American goal!! Unheard of! Definitely intolerable!
Fauci warns of a terrible future, a wrong way that we have taken, straight into the traffic of skyrocketing pandemic rates, populism of an increasingly dire state of mind and action, complete dissonance in the body politic and a confused majority of people wondering how the hell we got here and how do we get out of here safely and promptly?
The man who claimed that he, and only he, can do it all and rescue the nation (which he destroyed in the first place) has had his nakedness exposed. He cannot. He will not. He is simply incapable of this. He has neither the brain capacity, the empathy, the innovative thinking, the openness to fresh thinking so needed at this point. All he can perseverate on is the use of soldiers - to nicely emulate his role models of other countries, you know, friends of his - Putin, Kim, Xi, name a country in South America as you please- and deploy them against civilians, with the soldiers issued bayonets!!!!! American soldiers equipped to attack, stab, fellow citizens, neighbors who are exercising their constitutional rights. Shudder! Shudder again, for worse is ahead unless we consult some new AAA for the nation who will map out a new, a better, route for us.
Watch a most perfect imperfect weekend as the man boasts of new job rates even as the layoffs begin again, as the "handled, disappearing, almost over, minor," virus spikes in new record setting rates, as Trump continues to ignore science or his duties as a supposed role model, refusing to wear a mask even though he says he has worn them - where? - and adds that he looks quite handsome in them. Ugh!!
He proposes a mass gathering by Mt. Rushmore this weekend, all the better to infect more people, a huge spread possibility as they return home to share ever so nicely with others, and then invite one and all in yet another self aggrandizing July 4 National Mall event. All the better to infect more people, more and more, ever so much the better in his thinking. In any case, be reassured by his assurance that the vaccine is on its way. Soon, very soon, just ask him.
Congress cannot seem to find the ability to remember that they are all Americans, charged with the responsibility of keeping our nation on an even keel, yet now finding themselves in a mess that is quite largely a product of Republican obstructionism. Even as the boasters and boosters of balanced budgets nuclear bombed the budget, first with their immense tax cuts for the wealthy and then with the huge outlay of monies for relief that actually did not do much to solve anything, so temporary and fleeting was it. A month's rent paid, yes, but what about the year to come? A child graduates but where to go when there is no income and no safety on campuses? Congress, the Senate, the GOP, have turned their backs on us, left us alone in the dark night without a map, without even a flashlight. And from the thickly forested roadsides we hear the sounds of .....what? Well, we do not know, for we have never been here before with all the factors of tragedy and troubles gathered together in one massively troubled and dangerous mile on the road.
But wait, for like the Ginzu knives and cheap bargains, there is more. Please try to control your shock at even the mere glimmer - and it is more than that - of Tucker Carlson, or Junior or perhaps both in a 2024 presidential election!!Oh, dear Lord, please send us a better, more up to date map. Help us shred this one and plot a new route on a new map, reach a safety stop, where the right to be assured of good government, the right to vote, the right to be well and safe, the rights that America has promised her citizens and the world for lo these many a years, are upheld and valued. And guarded.
Can we find that better map? Can we plot our route using it? Can we thread our way through dangerous passages along the way to our goals of a better America? I certainly hope so, for if not, well, there is the cliff, just waiting for the wrong turn or the wrong speed. Meanwhile, do your best to keep you and yours well and safe despite all that might get in the way. Wear your masks. It has no politics! Distance yourself. And VOTE!
A Happy 4th of July, a safe one, and a remembrance of what it truly means.
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