MADE IT?

     Did we really? Are we over the hump or is it not even in sight. Will there be a sea change over the next few months or are we smoking or drinking too many meals? Is it a pipe dream or is it real? Can we make a difference or are we caught in currents over which we have no control? Do we take on the mien of an optimist or shall we walk around with the frown lines of a pessimist? Do we even have that luxury of making a choice?

There is proof on both sides of the matter. At first glance we see no hope. Speeches re the pandemic, now driving our shattered economy, our broken spirits, our dreams turned nightmares, are securely in the pessimist camp. Almost 20 million infections and growing at an amazingly overwhelming rate. We will hit the figure of 400,000 dead within a matter of days if this continues. There are spoilers of vaccines, errors of injections, a broken system of transport and inoculations, and all this has to be done double! Based on the current situation, bad news!! Amazingly bad.

But on the other hand we have the optimism, the attached to reality optimism of Biden and Harris. Yes, it will get worse before it gets better, but the better is in sight, is possible, is realistic if, if, we make that effort to actually work towards it. The necessity of it, the determination to secure that goal is evident in the words of Jennifer Lopez last night. "2020 is almost over. We made it."

We also have reminders around us, if we but look hard and long, and can find remnants of a more decent, shall we say, friendlier, less warlike political world. There is evidence that there are still people out there with dignity, who sigh, as so many of us do, over the shocking lack of standards re governmental honesty, role modeling, anything positive re governing and its adherents. Adam Schiff is such  man, and his seemingly mild, "It's not Okay" says it all. “You might think it’s OK,” he proposed to his Republican colleagues. Then, more in sorrow than in anger, he said, “But I don’t think it’s OK.” It contains within those three words the angst, the anxiety, the resignation, the desperation and the determination to stop this, to turn the country around, to take the chance that we have been given.

There is some hope, a glimmer of hope, a tiny dot of it, that there are Republicans who will grow  spine and a moral sense of conduct and beliefs and act on them. Ben Sasse is such a one, though he has too often talked the talk without the follow through of walking the walk. However, at this point, any sign is good. “Let’s be clear what is happening here: We have a bunch of ambitious politicians who think there’s a quick way to tap into the president’s populist base without doing any real, long-term damage,” Mr. Sasse wrote. “But they’re wrong — and this issue is bigger than anyone’s personal ambitions. Adults don’t point a loaded gun at the heart of legitimate self-government.”

What he says is so true and unfortunately not enough of us see the truth of it. The GOP, under the destructive leadership, if it can be called that, has attempted to break the democracy of this country and has just about succeeded. The crisis will not end with the Inauguration, but will rather continue, and we must be ever vigilant to stamp and stomp out these fires that endanger us so. Freedom, yes - rebellion - no!

Ominous rumbles in the Mideast. The president turning on Jared (HA!) China and Russia treating us as an insignificant nation. A broken and shattered economy. A new generation looking into a future that seems hopeless for and to them. A country which has turned its back on its welcoming immigrants.  A deterioration of American can do spirit, work together spirit. A period of decades needed to clear the benches of incompetent backwards thinking Trump appointed judges and the damage they are doing to our ethos.

People reaching out with food, with shelter, with tutoring, with job offers. A new and enthusiastic generation concerned with politics and how to use it to make the system better, more responsive, more constructive rather than destructive. A new awareness re the climate and the environment. A growing distaste for the ugly hatred that has become PC. Vaccines and better planning. New hopes. New dreams. New possibilities.

The choice is clearly and starkly there. We need to make it. We need to make the right one. It is as simple as that. Making it to 2021 is not magic. Nor is the hard slog ahead of us. But it can be done. It truly can. It must. Else all these sacrifices have been for naught. I cannot believe that. I will not believe that. Nor should you.