December 11
I sit in my dark quiet living room, with my giant tree sparkling and the face of Miss Braswell, second grade teacher, smiling at me from her manila-folder glittery ornament that has somehow survived in our Christmas decorations 40 years. She reminds me to work harder and do a better job today.
It seems like we are barreling towards something now, doesn’t it? We have used the words of crisis so often in the last year they seem meaningless, but today there is an existential feeling to it, like we are getting to a breaking point. So much corruption and scandal all at once. I have been watching the Ken Burns series about American independence, and it strikes me the things the colonists were fighting about, laying down their lives for, coming together to stop were so much LESS than what is happening to us today. We are facing the complete redesigning of the world order in favor of Russia and the technocrats, a complete reordering of our financial systems in favor of crypto (whatever that even is), a complete reordering of our citizenry to be only white supremacists. Worse than taxation without representation I fear. All of this at once.
I have no illusions that the dementia addled narcissist at the helm of America now is really in charge—we are being ruled by the Heritage Foundation or Stephen Miller and Steve Bannon I guess. There will be an uprising, or there will not. I am not sure which way it will go actually. Oh Congress can put a bandaid on the health care crisis by extending the tax credits but that doesn’t really solve the problem. In the richest country in the world our people struggle to just live, our farmers cannot farm, our military is told to lie and break the law.
Today my grandchildren are grieving mightily over the loss of their beloved Larry the two year old black kitty who went out to explore a few days ago and has not come back. My hear breaks for them and their sorrow, but it makes me realize this is nothing compared the sorrow they may feel in the future if we do not fix this world now.
I want so badly to think that we can do that—come together and push so hard it will stop. Our forefathers dropped what they were doing and marched together to fight tyranny, even though they had little in common at the beginning. In that coming together, they had to had to define “America”. To figure out how different cultures and languages and religions could become one. But we don’t have to do that. We already know what America is… we just have to wrench it back from evil and make it better.
Again, well said Janie. Today I feel invigorated because it is we seniors who are taking up the mantle for Hope, Freedom, and the chance that we can put this tattered mess back to together. It is not so much for our generation, but the younger generations who deserve better. I have lived a good life, I have experienced the some best of our democracy. I will not let it fail now! For those that had sacrificed and fought for me in the past, I now dedicate myself to clawing back what we once had. Imperfect, not free from fault, our system of government always worked for the betterment of its citizens in the hope that everyone can share in the hopes and dreams of freedom. Stay vigilant and actively resist.
Oh, Janie, I wish I could disagree with you on any of this. I wish idealism was still a thing. My innocence,if not my idealism, was crushed when I was in high school and JFK was assassinated, then again in college when MLK and RFK died the same way. I could never have imagined this warped view of America in those scary days. At least then, we had safe places, like schools and religious institutions. Now, it feels like safety is a luxury. We always heard from our Greatest Generation that freedom isn't free, but I guess I didn't really understand how much of our democracy was based on each of us holding one another accountable. Shame was a big part of it. Honor. Decency. They seem almost quaint concepts now. We all have to teach and model those ideals, those core values now to our own grandchildren and to everyone else, too. Keep reminding us, Janie, in your beautiful way. Thank you for being you.