Post MidTerm Blues

I would be lying to say it was just another day; I would be lying to say this disappointment is anything new.
To everyone who worked their ass off the past two years energizing an apathetic majority who allowed a vocal minority to impose their will -- thank you. And PLEASE do not lose hope.

Part of me realizes that last sentence was to myself. No matter what happened in the midterms last night and in the races that are still being counted today would still involve getting up and doing the real work of getting to know our neighbors (a broad term that includes those neighbors miles and countries away) and fighting, not as much to win elections, to convince our neighbors what needs saving, what needs building, and that bigotry and fear leave only destruction.

Legend has it that after the General Scipio defeated Carthage in the Third Punic War, he plowed the earth around Carthage and sowed salt in the ground - a way of driving the defeat home by making everything that had sustained Carthaginians - dead. It is the hatred that takes over when 'winning' is the only value a group holds - that possessing something with no value rates higher than letting it have value somewhere else.

Well, we are not conquered. You are not conquered. You are no one's raw materials there for the taking. But that point won't be won with bumper stickers and t-shirt slogans but expanding that definition of neighbor, getting to know them, not running away from ideas that scare you, and talking with neighbors about what makes community work - schools, libraries, opportunities, etc - and building that.

And stop being kinder, gentler when it comes to bigotry. Yes, I know no one wants to lose friends or alienate family, but it's not over 'politics' it's over hate and that's a poison with which the bigots have chosen to salt their earth. Refusing to live in their cesspool and demanding they change to bring the 'family' together is an option.

Thirty years ago this would have baffled me and hurt. It still hurts the knowing that people would choose this toxicity over fertile ground that a greater number of people could share. But that hurt is just the blinders coming off and the sun getting in the eyes.

The Bruce Cockburn song is heavy on my mind this morning and the village idiot on the throne is very real. He is literally salting his own earth. But dwelling on it isn't going to do a damn thing. After the feeling passes it will be time to find those who want to talk about saving what needs saving.

I hope this finds you well. Please take time to take care of yourself.

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'The village idiot takes the throne
His the wind in which all must sway
All sane people, die now
Be lifted up and carried away
You've got no home in this world of sorrows'
There's a parasite feeding on
Everybodys bag of rage
What goes out returns again
To smite the mouth and burn the page
Under the rain of all our dark tomorrows
I can see in the dark its where I used to live
I see excess and the gaping need
Follow the money see where it leads
It is to shrunken men stuffed up with greed
They meet and make plans in strange half-lit tableaux
Under the rain of all our dark tomorrows
You've got no home in this world of sorrows'
Bruce Cockburn, 'All Our Dark Tomorrows'

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