It's been almost a week. What have you done since Black Tuesday?

[Moonbeam_Starlight]

Now, before anyone yells "NOTHING! I'VE BEEN TOO DEPRESSED! GO TO HELL!" I totally, completely understand that. I've only made about three "public" appearances in the last week--IHOP, Costco, and the grocery store. And I haven't watched one single second of TV news in any form since Wednesday morning. No papers, either.

But. I have done the following things, and I encourage all my fellow DUers to do whatever they feel they can.

1. Started supporting progressive causes that I've "been meaning to get to." That means I've joined the ACLU, the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), Amnesty International, PFLAG and NOW.

2. Started doing heavy research on what causes/parties the big corporations give to so that I can vary my shopping habits accordingly. In that vein, I joined Costco on Saturday and spent too much money there (oy!).

3. Put two new bumper stickers on my van (removed two old ones to make way, though the Kerry one is staying, so I still only have three). They read:

"Hate is not a family value." and "I'm more PATRIOTICKER than you!"

4. Started active shunning, Amish style, of bush-voting "friends."

5. Besides the Costco thing, have gone back to minimalist living and a frugal way of life. Goodness knows this economy isn't going to get any better now. And I am putting as few of my dollars into georgie's economy as I possibly can. Books from second hand stores, clothes only from companies that act socially responsible and/or give to Dem causes and/or second hand. Going to plant a fall and/or spring garden.

[Getchasome]

1. I've been gettin em

in the gym. It's my sanctuary where the rest of the world doesn't exist for a couple hours every day.

[iamjoy]

2. Share, Please

Your socially responsible companies.
We should not buy from anyone that supports them.

I am also tempted to avoid Republican voting friends. Our values are just too different.

[Moonbeam_Starlight]

15. Let me get my list together and I

will post it here on DU in its entirety. Several of us are working on this.

You can also check out a company by going to www.opensecrets.org

It will tell you what they donate to!!!

[Moonbeam_Starlight]

18. For instance

I don't buy ANY Pilgrim's Pride chicken products. Pilgrim's Pride is based in my state and gives 100% of their soft money donations to republicans and the owner is a big repug.

[eataTREE]

3. Worn black.

[Moonbeam_Starlight]

5. I forgot about that one.

I have actually gone the opposite route. I've been wearing really bright colors and a lot of tie-dye t-shirts to piss off my bush voting neighbors. They expect me to look all glum so me and my best friend had a fantastic day yesterday, laughing and playing Cranium and watching old movies and sewing blankets for Christmas gifts.

And eating homemade tamales. Mmmmmmmmm.

I caught a glimpse of one of my bush voting neighbors who looked a bit perplexed when he saw me.

[RPM]

4. Drink too much and eat too many mini-snickers.

Damn leftover halloween candy.

[Moonbeam_Starlight]

7. Yeah the leftover Halloween shit

is going to KILL me. I swear to all that is good and holy, I gained 10 pounds from this election cycle.

Time to get back to some power walking.

[MuseRider]

6. Wallowed around feeling

uncomfortable in my own skin, community, world. Other than that I am trying to put together thoughts, ideas and gathering information to fight the gathering storm to ammend the constitution in our state to ban Gay Marriage. It was defeated once by the Legislature but the full court press is beginning again and I will NOT stand by and see this happen. Yes, this is Kansas but the Red voters here here are not all like the Reds we discuss with so much hate here on this board. This is a push from outside our state.

[Moonbeam_Starlight]

9. Yep

I am sick of feeling like a minority, but I've decided this just allows me to get bolder and louder.

And I'll be right there with you fighting the new push for the FMA. Only this time I'll have more time and energy to devote to it since the election is over.

BRING IT ON repukes.

[MuseRider]

21. I have decided that

there is just too much out there for me. I feel mind fucked daily and it has caused me so much distress and confusion. I mean, where in the hell do you start? SO, I have decided that this issue is very important for our country and it has always been very important to me because I cherish my friends who are gay and cannot abide for one more minute the treatment they are being handed. My brother died because he was ashamed of being gay from just this kind of treatment as a child and I will not stand by and let anyone else suffer this if I can help it. So I have narrowed down my focus and energy. This is my first priority now.

I am with you sister. I will not go into mourning. I WILL WEAR COLORS. I will be happy but I will not go down. My Kucinich, Kerry, HRC, Moveon and evil Bush* stickers stay on my car and if anyone defaces it I will put a sign on the back with my personal comment about Bush* supporters. Most people around here are willing to leave you alone so I am lucky in that regard but I will never shut up and never say die.

[juslikagrzly]

14. It's probably coming from Oklahoma

We passed that hate mongering amendment by 79% to 21%. And elected psycho Coburn. Watch out Kansas!

[Mz Pip]

8. No TV news for me, either.

Even the Daily Show is painful to watch, if only because there are pictures of Bush on it.

We've watched a lot of movies from Netflix. I've finished 6 paintings for an art show coming up in December. Did a bit of yard work - mostly just shoveling manure on the roses (that is probably a metaphore for something). Checked out the new Target. Started a new mystery novel. Ordered a bunch of beads online. Took a couple of long walks.

Life has returned to normal, because there really isn't much choice. I refuse to be depressed and give the creeps that much more satisfaction.

MzPip
:dem:

[Moonbeam_Starlight]

12. You sound like me.

I've done a lot of the same things. I haven't watched the Daily Show either. I don't want to see his face, hear any commentary on him or even hear his name pronounced.

He's dead to me.

[juslikagrzly]

10. Joined ACLU

and my husband and I are seriously discussing how to get a progressive, christian-left political organization going here in our corner of Oklahoma (maybe a chapter of Interfaith Alliance-there is one in Tulsa already). We're planning to gather like-minded thinkers together, define our purpose, and BE LOUD AND PROUD LIBERALS! Work toward getting liberals elected at the local level. And probably most importantly, refuse to be silent any longer--family and friends be damned!

FWI, I was so depressed on Wednesday all I could do was cry. Now we fight!

[Moonbeam_Starlight]

13. Check out

Universalist Unitarian churches. UU. They are very liberal and progressive and welcome people of all faiths. Social justice is a biggie for them.

That's one thing I forgot in my list--I've started visiting local UU churches.

[juslikagrzly]

16. There is a very progressive faction (large) within the Presbyterian church

also. Check them out. We're Presby's (husband's a minister) and there are tons of progressive presbys out there.

[pelagius]

43. The Witherspoon Society...

...is a resource for progressive Presbyterians.

www.witherspoonsociety.org

[GreenPartyVoter]

11. Ate like crazy and added this stuff to my website

------------------------------------------------------------
Help expose the election 2004 voter fraud today!
http://www.geocities.com/greenpartyvoter/electionreform.htm

[fudge stripe cookays]

17. * Took the dog for a long walk on Saturday

since the weather (unlike my mood) was so beautiful. Fargo dug it and I got some exercise. Lost 2 pounds!

* I joined Jenny Craig, because I'm fed up with being fat and frustrated and eating myself further and further into depression because of these fuckers.

* Joined with DancingBear and Sapphocrat in taking your submissions for places to shop and NOT to shop!

See this original thread:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=2587076

I've posted individual threads for each state asking for your local and national feedback ("Progressive Pages- Need Your Feedback") and the Texas thread ("A Favor My Wonderful Texas Friends...")

Let's have everyone's experiences in the consumer sector with Bush supporting businesses, and those that we WANT to use!

FSC

[Moonbeam_Starlight]

20. Have I told you lately that you rock?

And I think you look great, but good on you, I should have been out walking on Saturday too.

Give that doggie big hugs for me!

[fudge stripe cookays]

37. Thanks sweetie!

Fargo says hi. He's been keeping me going that last week or so.

Molly, the psycho cat from hell, has reached her first heat, and is driving us both mental MEOWING CONSTANTLY.

reprehensor has taken to imitating Cartman when his kitty was doing the same thing: "NO KITTAY!"

Does anybody here know how long this lasts? She's an indoor cat, so no worries there, but I need to go get her fixed soon. All my other girl kitties were fixed before I got them.

FSC

[Tsiyu]

19. Cried, screamed, threw things.

Tried to cheer up some mighty glum kids.

I can't look at * either. The sight of him makes me want to break down in sobs.

We have started planning for meetings at our place on progressive issues brainstorming.

Just now, I "re-decorated" the car.

Since it is Fundy Central where I have to drive, i printed up three new car signs:

"WANT MORALITY? OUTLAW DIVORCE!"

In the back window, three pictures of dead/maimed Iraqi babies interspersed with the two signs:

"JESUS WEEPS-100,000 DEAD" "WHILE REPUBLICANS GLOAT OVER SPOILS OF WAR.( complete with bloody, dripping hand.)"


I can't drive around without letting the world know how I really feel.

Oh, and I shot birds this morning at every B/C sign on my route.

[Moonbeam_Starlight]

34. Watch out with shooting the bird

don't want to get shot for real! (I'm in TX, we have concealed carry permits, so I don't dare do that.)

[Tsiyu]

42. Men in Mid Tennessee like strong women

They just ignore my crazy ass.
Or they agree with me.

One good old boy told me yesterday he should have gone into the con business, the way people would fall for anything ( we were discussing the noodnicks who cast votes for *)

He also said. "* is trying to write another Testament, and put himself right in the middle of it."

He always cracks me up. "True" country Christians CAN'T STAND *. It's the ritzy, ditzy Repukes I piss off. And they're too wimpy for guns. They might mess up the new car detail.

[callous taoboy]

22. Explain the shunning part-

Doing same here at work. Not sure if doing it right.
Callous

[Moonbeam_Starlight]

27. Shunning means shunning

Means I have nothing to do with bush voters.

I'm not outright rude. If they say something to me, I say the MINIMUM POSSIBLE in response.

Fortunately I am not around many at work. The only ones I really have to deal with are my neighbors on both sides, and they seem to have gotten the message that I think they can go to hell for voting with blood on their hands.

Have you seen the shirt that says "How can I trust you? You fell for bush's lies."

Kinda like that.

It means I have no place in my life for people who vote for policies that hurt my family.

I blocked my mother in law's email address from my email account because I have asked her SEVEN times in the past year to please not send me hateful "let's kill all the Arabs" emails. The last straw was an email she sent me on Wednesday about how Jane Fonda is a traitor. I just blocked her. I've been nice, I've asked repeatedly, I've tried to explain I disagree with her, she didn't care.

[callous taoboy]

50. Yeah, I am through

with these colleagues beaming through the hallways. They act as though this is some football game.

[jdots]

23. My wife started on a new Robert Greenwald movie

our friends have2 new movies completed Ground Force and The Oil Factor,both real good and deal with the issues without bashing bush in name.Like anything ,the people who should see them would rather die than face the truth.I am looking for pictures of the crop of republaturds to paint and the sceen is moving foward full speed ahead.As They say " don't get mad ,get organized ! ".This was a major setback but our numbers are strong and very smart,what was once 8% is 50% and growing in terms of the democratic party's lack of defining what it is really all about.I have never been so depressed and scared but if we don't act we can never settles for the lies.

[PhuLoi]

24. Working my way through the Kubler-Ross stages.

Hit acceptance this morning. The American experiment in Democracy is dead.

[Moonbeam_Starlight]

33. I'd say it's definitely on life support

and in the ICU.

[Mend]

25. Cancelled the New York Times

stopped voting in on-line polls, stopped watching any tv, bought a used washer from a resale place rather than a new one, told repuke patients I had no drug samples left for them. Still to do: cancel AOL, continue boycotts of Christmas and any store begining with the letter W. Looking into Canada and Blue states for possible relocation out of hell.

[Moonbeam_Starlight]

29. Hee hee

your list made me chuckle. Do you really tell republican patients you have no drug samples left?

Let them go to the faith based charities for that.

[Mend]

45. Reality Time

As with a lot of patients, I have been giving a patient of mine expensive samples for over three years because she didn't have health coverage for meds. A month ago she came in to get samples wearing a giant * button. She asked for samples last week and unfortunately we were "out"...not a square to spare....paybacks is a bitch. Repukes are off the gravy train in my practice. I am saving everything for the Dems.

[Moonbeam_Starlight]

47. I honestly

can't say that I blame you. And that I wouldn't do the exact same thing.

[PhuLoi]

32. Good luck getting rid of AOL. It permeates your operating sys.

May I sugggest celebrating Oct. 31st as a replacement for Xmas? It is the Pagan new year aka samhain. It drives the fundies nuts when my wife and I do it.

[nostamj]

26. i WAS paralyzed with depression/anger/disbelief... THEN

got the call to arms from Bev and the BBV crew and have been producing LOTS of new graphics and doing what (little) I can to get the word out and motivate!



check this out and join in!
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=104&topic_id=2638554&mesg_id=2638554">BBV | BYTE the Media! | Brainstorming Thread

[Moonbeam_Starlight]

30. I always loved your toon posts

and relied on them to make me smile or laugh.

I'm glad to see you are back, you were missed and we need you!!!!

You do great graphics work. Keep on keeping on, ok?

[nostamj]

35. oh, my 'break' was MUCH shorter than I originally thought

but, when Bev asks... I help. and, I found there's a BIG demand for post-"election" stickers and buttons!

glad you like the graphic work (I'm also doing a bunch of non-political designs, seasonal cards, gift stuff so... going to continue the break from spending hours on TOON threads for a while)

:hi:

[chaska]

28. More we can do:

Don't spend ANY money you don't absolutely have to. That means use the library. Drop your magazine subscriptions. You can read it in the library or check it out once it's not the current issue. And any book you want to read, even new books can be ordered for you. Just ask. Of course there are videos and DVDs as well. Patronize these institutions before Bush eliminates them.

I bought a Sharpie. I plan to add Hitler mustaches or a swastika on the forehead to every magazine cover picturing Bush in every library I frequent. Don't get caught.

If you use a public restroom and it ALREADY HAS graphitti, add you own anti-Bush graphitti.

Continued in another post.

[Moonbeam_Starlight]

31. Wow

I am doing the economic stuff. Don't know if I want to start marking up my library restrooms. No comment on the magazine covers. Ahem. Haven't done that but not going to try to stop anyone.

The economic stuff is key. You're going to need your money anyway and if georgie-porgie wants to screw the economy let's help him.

[chaska]

41. Yeah Moonbeam, I'm pissed.

[demnan]

36. I had to get away from it

for a few days so I spent the weekend outdoors walking and shopping in the local "cute" touristy town with a friend.

I also spent time on the patio watching the cats run around trying to catch birds.

I couldn't watch the Sunday pundits gloat - not now.

[proud patriot]

38. I went to a good friend's funeral Saturday

he died the Saturday before the election .

Been reading some of Bishop Spong's writing .

Hugging my son a lot , hugging my Husband a lot .

[Moonbeam_Starlight]

I'm so sorry proud patriot

one of our local long time Dems died the Sunday before the election. Her funeral was HORRIBLY sad.

:hug:

[chaska]

39. We need to build a movement like in the sixties...

I plan to start a thread on this later but....

Why did the Sixties peace movement succeed? There were many reasons I'm sure, but one huge reason is because it was seen as a cool thing. What the hippies had was a community. Community is dead in America. We need a progressive/liberal community. If we can give people a way to associate, to hang out with each other, to be friends, whatever, people will flock to our side. People are starving for contact with other humans. If we can give them that our numbers will explode.

We should use Meetup to get us together. We should get musicians/bands involved to draw people to public events. And after the event is over, don't just leave; "hang out" and be part of a community. Discuss the things that we need to happen.

Another reason the Sixties succeeded was because people had an identifiable look. Fashion was part of it. We should try to come up with something that will publically identify us as liberals. It should be cool looking, but something that every one can participate in. Not everyone can have long hair, for instance. And love beads ... well, that's just silly.

...for starters.

[chaska]

40. When spelling B-u-s-h, use a swastika for the S.

[notundecided]

44. Stop Bush

I put a sign on my truck-"STOP BUSH". As I drive around my state,
I don't see any protest signs. This is a simple thing to do. If
we could get hundreds, maybe thousands of signs up it would create
an atmosphere.People would begin to react, maybe ask questions. We
could put up fliers in public places, supermarkets, down town areas.

If you have kids in college they could put up fliers in the dorms,
student union, ect.

Just think, as you drive to work every tenth car had a "Stop the War"
sign in the window. It coould have an impact.

[cmf]

46. Pretty much what you've done

We haven't decorated our cars with more stickers, but we've left our Kerry sticker on.

In addition to figuring out what causes we want to support now, we spent most of the day on Sunday doing financial planning so we can be as financially independent as possible. We're already pretty frugal and progressive with our spending habits (patronize the library, buy food from a farm CSA, etc.), but we want to get out of the system as much as possible.

None of my Bush-voting "friends" have contacted me (they must know we're pissed), so I haven't had a chance to shun them yet.

[pelagius]

48. Started a forum for moderate-to-liberal Christians...

...in my county. Six members now, our goal is 300 in the next two years and at least one contact point in every church in our area -- yep, even the fundie churches -- by 2006.

In fact, I'll probably going to disappear from DU for awhile, where I seem to spend an inordinate amount of time wading through -- and sometimes unwisely responding to -- "Christians suck" threads.

I know, don't let the door hit you, etc., but I'm not huffing off. I just think this work is more important than yammering about philosophy.

[SmokingJacket]

49. Thank you for this post --

I told myself before the election that if ** got in office again, it was no more politics for me -- I'd quit reading DU and the blogs and just totally emotionally separate from the whole thing, because it was too painful to have become so invested for nothing.

But that's wrong. We're not the first people to realize we live under a corrupt government. It feels awful, especially if you grew up with a kind of reverence for democracy and for the idea that the Good Guy Wins in the End.

I see now that the way to keep going in this country is to create an active resistance, always. I went to the whole foods store yesterday and think I'm going to sign up as a working member. I'm going to write political essays and maybe start a political blog. I'm getting out my bike and will use my anger at what they're doing to Iraq to power it up and down the crazy hills we have in my town.

That might help burn off some of the Halloween candy that I, too, have indulged in.

[chaska]

51. kick