I didn't have the words

[babylonsister]

Phew! Quite a read. :D



I didn't have the words

by Steven D
Sat Jul 30th, 2011 at 11:37:42 PM EST


Despair, anger, helplessness.

I confess I have felt all of those emotions, not only over the past few weeks, but ever since Al Gore conceded defeat in the 2000 election after the Supreme Court effectively appointed George W. Bush to the Presidency. I have felt helpless as horror after horror in our country has piled up: 9/11, anthrax, wars, torture, illegal surveillance, the Patriot Act, corruption, massive deficits, the lack of good jobs and then the lack of jobs at all, the failure of our ever more insidious murder by spreadsheet health care system, the collapse of our economy because of greed and avarice and stupidity, the use of tasers used to kill and torture people, murders and assassination attempts by domestic right wing terrorists, the utter failure to address climate change, racism, homophobia, the subversion of our military by extreme right wing Dominionist "Christians," rapacious looters on Wall Street and polluters of the public discourse on our airwaves -- oh, the list is too long to recall every incident or trauma that we, as individuals, communities and a nation have endured these last 11 years. You no doubt can think of many more than I that should and could be added to this list.

And how has it come to this? How has an extreme faction of an already extreme party funded by wealthy billionaires and criminal corporations led us to this point in our history? Well, we know the reasons. We know the fear and hatred and divisions that have been used against "We, the people of the United States" to fracture and splinter us into small, easily managed and easily manipulated groups. We have seen our neighbors, friends and family rise up and rage in hatred -- not against the real villains of our age -- but against the designated scapegoats those villains have chosen to be slandered, cursed and abused.

We have borne witness to the dissipation of the better angels of our nature, our human nature, even here, even among a self-selected community of people who seek the betterment of our country, who work to see the ideals we believe in and which we have always been told are the bedrock of its foundation realized. Yes, even here many of us have succumbed to the darkness that lives within everyone. We have fought and disparaged one another and allowed a divide to grow between people with the same goals, people who should be allies, not enemies.

more...

http://www.boomantribune.com/story/2011/7/30/233742/001

[lonestarnot]

1. Problem with that is, politics over patriotism. Elections over needs of the American people and

what is best for America. Dead democracy. (paragraphs 2 & 3)

[Igel]

2. That, and a lack of reflecting surfaces. n/t