At times it feels as if we are in an atonal version of musical chairs. The music is jagged, irritating, eating away at the harmony and peace that music is supposed to bring. Instead, we have a game in which chairs are quickly disappearing or being abandoned. The game is afoot? Maybe, but is the game a winnable one, or is it futile, as futile as fighting the Borg on Star Trek.
A turnover is coming to DC. New music is being favored. New chairs are brought out. Some are impressive, as the choice of Haaland for Secretary of the Interior, the first Native American to do so. Perhaps we can look forward to better music as we traverse the shrinking federal lands that contain and protect our natural national monuments and stunning vistas of Nature.
But even now, there are jangling notes being heard underneath, irritating to the ears, troubling to the soul. There is a pettiness to be found in the music as the GOP, small people all, still threaten to disrupt Congressional approval for Biden on Jan. 6, and fight tooth and nail against approval of Biden appointees. Never mind the dysfunctional government that would arise, for we have had exactly that the past four years as they perfected the game of jagged musical chairs. The Democrats bicker within themselves over the appointments to the new Biden term, declaring the music offkey before it is even heard. The various factions demand their own version of perfection and the music of those differing perceptions are hurtful and harmful.
Then we are told of the growing shrinkage of the power and role of America in this new post Trump era. He has given away the world to others. He has shrunk our image, our influence, and now we are being told of the new alliance - England, Germany, France, Italy, and the EU, and there is the big invisible elephant in the room - not Carmen Sandiego missing, but the mystery is rather where in the world is the Untied States of America? We do not hear the music of the Star Spangled Banner any longer. Like the music of the French in the 1812 Overture, it was once triumphant, and then began to fade, its tones and notes defeated by the growing victory notes of Czarist Russia and the opponents of Napoleon.
Even as the world shrinks, there are those who forget that fact. Pence must do his job and confirm the fact of Biden's imminent presidency. Then, he is packing his bags and running away, on a last binge of spending our funds, far away, he thinks, out of range, of the anticipated barbs of his master, Trump, in a Twitter bombing. Well, news for Pence. Twitter and venom travel the world and the airwaves, the wires and the wireless, the air and the print of the media. No extra chairs away from the music and no avoiding the music either!
Such stupidity. Such shortsighted thinking, but what can one expect from a man who wrote in July that there will never be a second wave of the virus, that it would be over soon enough. Ahem! 215,000 new cases yesterday, a total of over 16 million - read that number again - infected. Almost 3,000 dead in a day, joining the almost 310,000 dead already, and the numbers are expected to grow. Each infection, each death, a tragedy, one of gasping for breath, of loneliness, of love frustrated, and of a lack of necessity as proper handling at the beginning would have alleviated and ameliorated some of this, much of this.
The blame, the indictments of murder and manslaughter, should fall upon the GOP and its perverted uncaring leader, Trump. He feasted at his own versions of the Berchtesgaden as Americans grew hungrier, colder, more frightened and more divided. The cutting notes of the music grew even as the chairs available shrunk. And in the meanwhile, the music of salvation, the sweet notes of a returning world, became fainter and fainter, as we are now told - surprise! - that it will take much longer to roll out the entire vaccination program. Whoever believed the fairy tale of the lesser time needed, well, fairy tales in truth, well, they did not always have happy ever after endings. Sometimes the wolf ate the little child, while others were cooked, thrown away by a world too grim, too stupidly stubborn, too damned ignorant and defying of the truth, too indifferent to the true degree of suffering of the masses of the world's population.
Trump threatens not to leave the WH on Inauguration Day. I hereby volunteer to grab one ankle and pull. That will make the year 2020 begin to fade in the distance as we get rid of some poisonous growth, broken chairs, and horrible atonal hurtful music. In the meanwhile, DeSantis of Florida refuses to speak to the mayors of south Florida, the crashing states are ignored in their dire need for funding, and the new version of anti - vaxxers are continuing to threaten our national health.
Is there anyone who remembers how to play consoling music, inspirational music, challenging music, hopeful music, encouraging music, music that will remind us to move those feet and dance? In fact, how many of us remember how to dance, how to move around those chairs and find a seat, how to laugh as we pull our friends onto our laps to share the seat, to remain in the game, to become a shared and sharing group of winners, all looking to move forward, cut out the exclusionary tactics of corruption and cronyism. Making sure there are enough chairs for all in a new administration, or at least the attempts to do so, to move forward, to gain traction against what has become of America and find her truth once again - and soon.
Come, and let us find the music together, make music together as the song went, in peace and harmony, reserving anger and the channeling of that anger, always attempting to move forward, no more backwards movements. No more music that disturbs, hurting the ear drums, forcing deafness, willing or not , upon so many. The world has shrunk. The music is heard all around the world, no matter its point of origin. Chairs are wanted by more people, people who refuse to be out of the game in an early stage. We need to set the alarm, the soft music to awaken us, to get louder as time goes on, allowing for more volume, more encouragement and inspiration, a growth of hope and goodness. That is the shrinking world we need, the music and the additional numbers of chairs to be added to the game.
The game is real.
Can we not recognize that fact? Can we not agree to play it properly, choose the right mix of music, treasure the music of all the nations of the world, and grow together? Pipe dreams? Maybe, but where would we be without dreams? And as the world shrinks, let us open the game to more. Who knows how far we will be able to extend the line of chairs, what progress will be made, what new music will be heard?
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