My level of confidence for this union sustaining itself diminishes almost daily. I think the integrity of our electoral system has been technologically and financially corrupted to the point where the will of the voters has become only a sideshow. Perhaps, this is all karma, and our founding rhetoric about equality, which has, fundamentally, never really existed, has come back to haunt us with our own hypocrisy. Maybe we never were what we claimed to be. Maybe the universe has grown weary of the lip service we offer up with regards to democracy and equality. Maybe everything is just a rich man's trick, and they now have enough power to rub it in our faces and tell us there's not a damn thing we can do about their plundering of what is left of America.
I believe it is already too late to save this place. It is quickly unfurling, a demon. You can't reason with a demon. I do not feel safe here, but I can't convince my family of the urgency to leave. I have no desire to stay and fight, for the same reason I'd have no desire to throw myself into the lion enclosure at the zoo.
"The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice."
That thought now seems less observational and more aspirational. Is the current reversal irreparable? The fascism which reared its head less than a century ago was not eradicated. We see a resurgence now. The previous effort to secure democratic republics required military force, with extraordinary destruction and death. What will be the means this time?
I have had responses from four much-admired correspondents. Three of them were flat out saturnine: Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez, cognomun, and Jim Bob Moore. The fourth, David Ferris, is usually, if not chipper, at least hopeful, but today he echoes the last dingdong of doom of the others.
Will no one stand up for a better future? Is there hope that the American people will regain its collective wits before the authoritarian project becomes unstoppable? Am I shouting into the void?
True, friend, I am less sanguine of late. If the prevailing acceptance of presidential corruption and lies doesn’t get you, the imperious sweep of his Sharpie will. Of course it doesn’t help that our own Supreme Court granted the President the right to do such wrongs. Tens of millions of Americans are unmoored from ideals less enlightened than simply vengeful and endorsed by ICE boots on innocent necks. Where is our humanity? So, yes, I’m been cast adrift on a vast unknown sea. I don’t know where the currents will take me. But shame is my shadow and I’ve no spark to ignite my hope.
My level of confidence for this union sustaining itself diminishes almost daily. I think the integrity of our electoral system has been technologically and financially corrupted to the point where the will of the voters has become only a sideshow. Perhaps, this is all karma, and our founding rhetoric about equality, which has, fundamentally, never really existed, has come back to haunt us with our own hypocrisy. Maybe we never were what we claimed to be. Maybe the universe has grown weary of the lip service we offer up with regards to democracy and equality. Maybe everything is just a rich man's trick, and they now have enough power to rub it in our faces and tell us there's not a damn thing we can do about their plundering of what is left of America.
Will we make it to America's 250th? Yes. Will we be celebrating? No.
I believe it is already too late to save this place. It is quickly unfurling, a demon. You can't reason with a demon. I do not feel safe here, but I can't convince my family of the urgency to leave. I have no desire to stay and fight, for the same reason I'd have no desire to throw myself into the lion enclosure at the zoo.
"The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice."
That thought now seems less observational and more aspirational. Is the current reversal irreparable? The fascism which reared its head less than a century ago was not eradicated. We see a resurgence now. The previous effort to secure democratic republics required military force, with extraordinary destruction and death. What will be the means this time?
I have had responses from four much-admired correspondents. Three of them were flat out saturnine: Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez, cognomun, and Jim Bob Moore. The fourth, David Ferris, is usually, if not chipper, at least hopeful, but today he echoes the last dingdong of doom of the others.
Will no one stand up for a better future? Is there hope that the American people will regain its collective wits before the authoritarian project becomes unstoppable? Am I shouting into the void?
True, friend, I am less sanguine of late. If the prevailing acceptance of presidential corruption and lies doesn’t get you, the imperious sweep of his Sharpie will. Of course it doesn’t help that our own Supreme Court granted the President the right to do such wrongs. Tens of millions of Americans are unmoored from ideals less enlightened than simply vengeful and endorsed by ICE boots on innocent necks. Where is our humanity? So, yes, I’m been cast adrift on a vast unknown sea. I don’t know where the currents will take me. But shame is my shadow and I’ve no spark to ignite my hope.
The option is to give up and we cannot do that.
Better for those we love!