Nick of Time, Again

I am still alive because of the sustained interest, effort and affection of people other than myself, not a few of whom were strangers. From here on out, I owe. That's the way that works. If you haven't had the experience, you don't know.

Every single day, now that I DO look beyond my puny plans and my many things, I write about injustice, I call people on bullshit, I try to make a difference. I am daily astonished by the seeming stupidity and clear callousness of so many Americans. I remember typing a bumper sticker along the lines of: People Are Not As Stupid As You Think. I may have spoken out of turn. I concede that it could be me but, for sure, SOMEONE is nuts. Things are screwed up six ways from Sunday...and we stay the course. Just like George Bush announced he/we would do, irrespective of the wishes of "his" people.

From my altered consciousness, the ruggedness-nay-brutality of life in America is absolutely unacceptable. I had no idea. Literally, I am appalled. I write and I write until my hands steadily and importantly ache...arthritis, I expect, that I might not have gotten for several years yet...and nothing changes.

So far, as far as I can tell, NOTHING HAS CHANGED. It's Politics As Usual. It's Business As Usual. And with the present absence...ooh, oxymoron...of John Edwards from the race, at least in the Democratic party, ironically, Politics and Business are one and the same. Ron Paul's still hanging in there with the Republicans, I note.

Hundreds of millions of dollars are being spent on this SPECTACLE of a TWO-YEAR campaign while people live in poverty in America, while New Orleans remains Damaged, while Exxon posts record profits, while there is a festival of foreclosures, AND WHILE WE GO RIGHT ON KILLING PEOPLE, IN THEIR COUNTRY, AS THOUGH IT'S A PERFECTLY NORMAL BACKDROP FOR LIFE IN OSTENSIBLY CHRISTIAN AMERICA.

Even as we go broke...even as Americans by the millions have shit lives requiring more-than-full-time jobs for, even then, no security...our military machine runs and runs. Been runnin' for years.

THIS kind of cognitive dissonance, THIS kind of head in the sand, THIS kind of refusal to acknowledge and deal with a problem until it affects us personally is EXACTLY why I challenge the electability of Barack Obama.

We, who can't/won't even curtail our consumption of gasoline when our vulnerability on this front has been broadcast to the world, are suddenly going to add one of the Big Milestones to what seems to me to be the most important election of my lifetime.

Yeah, sure, maybe it'll work. Why not? Hope springs eternally. The question is, WHY NOW?

Shy of something fantastical...say, the Pope rolling out of the Green Zone in his Pope-mobile to plead with all sides to Stop the Insanity, it seems to me that the single most important task at hand is the removal of Republicans from the White House. Singleness of purpose is key. There IS the matter of the voting equipment. A candidate who means to resoundingly defeat the Republicans will want something greater than a slim margin with a margin for error.

The very distinct impression that I am getting is that some people are gettin' pretty emotionally invested in "their" candidate winning...that the seating of a specific Individual has eclipsed the unseating of an unprincipled Megalomaniac.

The VERY thing for which Democrats have been taking Republicans to task...blind, unquestioning loyalty...is what some now display with "their" guy/gal. IN PARTICULAR are certain Obamamaniacs displaying an I-can't-hear-you-plus-you're-a-poop-head devotion that is simultaneously childish but hostile. For my money, that's disturbing.

There's playing the race card, and there's playing the you-can't-say-anything-against-a-minority-without-standing-accused-of-the-R-word. That latter, the Minorities Are Off Limits card? Two of clubs in my deck. The race card has been officially in play for as long as I've been alive and...history attests to this...for as long as our country has been official. It has ALWAYS been susceptible to manipulation, and it always ups the ante.

To say so, to acknowledge a reality, does not MAKE someone the reality. By contrast, strident denial of reality is well-recognized as The Emperor Has No Clothes. The Emperor Has No Clothes is a cautionary tale...we're clear on that, yes?

Me and my feelings being favorite topics for my consideration, I have been thinking about how all this feels. Since I'm being accused of making shit up anyway, I guess I will. I feel like a city slicker who was riding comfortably along as a passenger on the Wells Fargo stagecoach when, pursuant to the stagecoach's ambush and the slaughter of the other passengers plus crew, I suddenly assumed the several reins of an eight-horse team. The physical demands of the hardware alone exceed my comfort zone even if I knew what I was doing, which I don't. Maybe.

But I have an idea-not-to-be-confused-with-a-dream.