Monday, November 2, 2020

STRESS, YOU, ME, EDGES AND THREATS AND WHERE THE HELL ARE WE?

      Ever wake up as a kid from some horrible dream which had you placed as living in a  dream rather than dreaming it? Were you real? Were your parent and siblings? Did you really have to take that test today? Do you ever feel now that childhood nightmares - or perhaps dreams - are returning? Perhaps, hopefully, maybe, we are dreaming now and when we wake up all will be different. Trump? Feh! That idiot? That joke of a tax fraud and a failed developer? Nah! Could not be real. Ha! If only.

Well, sorry, folks, but we actually are living that nightmare and the dreams do not help. Warnings of reaching critical points in the pandemic, with close to 100,000 new cases a day and growing, with daily rates of 1,000 dying every day, how much worse can it get?! Much worse is the answer, unless you are living in the world of Trump where mysterious corners exist and are turned, where officials go on RUSSIAN TV to promote that theory, where Fauci, an honest individual in a corrupt administration, tells us that "we're in for a whole lot of hurt."

"I want to be seen. I want to be heard." This is the voice of America. This is the you and me who will fix this situation. This is the you and me who will persevere, cast that vote, insure that the mail-ins are counted, that the election is straight and true, hopefully impervious to the attempts made by Trump et al to suppress the voting, the threats made to call in the lawyers should things not go his way or original majorities turn into minorities in ballots and he, G-d and all the Fates willing, loses the election. Only then, only then perhaps, will the stress lessen, at least a tad. 

Remember, though, there are still two months remaining in his corrupt and filthy regime and the harm can continue, even as the harm he has done, with the consensus and enabling of his wimpy GOP, with appointments of inadequate - to say the least - judges to the Federal courts, to the placement of a shill, a puppet, three actually, on the Supreme Court as his final go to in his fight to the finish to win the election, The fight to the finish of this country. As an aside, please note that Kavanaugh has already written an incorrect, almost ignorant, opinion that had to be taken back for rewriting and proper statements. Lovely judges at the top we have now, thanks to that man!

So as we stand on the edge of that cliff, looking down into the abyss, we truly do see the monster looking back at us and the wonder is how many of those looking down have turned into that very monster, allowing the worst of themselves to surge forth in a nasty tsunami of hatred and violence, of intolerance and noncaring, of actual harm to others, harm approaching, no, actually, war crimes, were we in a declared war.

We are told that records are made to be broken and this year has certainly been such a year, though we could have done without the record breaking! Pandemic, economy, hate and violence, deaths on the street, nastiness in politics to a point never reached before, a true swamp in DC, bigger and deeper than ever before, and now we are told that November, usually a catch your breath month for those of us in the hurricane zone, are being told that there can be a few more in the offing this month! No no no no. Breaking point reached. Stress levels blinking red. Edge is crumbling. Need a break. Where is that root beer? If only it were that easy.

So tomorrow and Wednesday and Thursday and however long it takes to count the ballots, to hear every voice, we need to be watchful, concerned, aware. We need to shore up that crumbling edge, build up the defenses for democracy. And when we are done for that brief moment and can savor a victory of sorts, for there is much to be done to repair our country, to heal our country, we can turn to local politics and fix that. If we were to lose this election.....well, I simply cannot go there today.

But David, oh, David, sitting there like a troll, trolling, in your office, hunched over the computer whose advances have long ago left you behind, guess what the new posting for the Clubhouse says? IT IS OPEN. BOARD MEETINGS CAN BE SCHEDULED. So why, my dear man, are you now inserting the phrase that meetings are subject to state and county rules. Trust me, Eva heeds them quite well and I trust her when she says it is open. OPEN, my dear friend - not so much. Time to leave the office, and either resign or call the meetings, hear the questions and  feel that frisson of fear go down your spine as you realize that people have had it up to here and beyond with petty dictators, with incompetence, with nastiness, with lies, with secrets, with potential disasters awaiting   us at the next few steps. Oh, David, Delegate Assembly? Executive Board meetings? Open committee meetings in larger rooms allowing for more spacing and people? Oh, David, do you hear us, the residents? Listen a tad harder if you do not.

    To borrow a phrase from a favorite show, Les Miz, "do you hear the people shouting" and that goes for all those who have tried to leave morality behind, strayed down the wrong and dangerous paths, who have played dangerous games of chicken with democracy, with the fate of our Village, the fate of our country and the fate of the world. VOTE if you have not. Stand there at the lines and distribute water. Call attention to harassment and attempts at suppression of voting. Be an American. Stand up for America.




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