America Lost

This little mill house with the stone chimney used to be my home when I was in my teens. It was on what we call, in upstate SC, the Drayton "Mill Hill." It had a tin roof and the rain sounded wonderful. I went back to SC, recently, and found that the house was no more. It had burned and all that was left was some overgrown foundation markers.

To me, that house symbolizes our nation. We are so divisive, so gullible and easily led that any voice of reason is out-shouted by the far right and the equally offensive far left. I never laid claims to being a moderate, but I am beginning to believe that is what I am. I sure am sick of hearing people on the left disparage the POTUS. He is a good man trying to work in bad times.

I think we will survive but as what, I have no clue. We are no longer innocents, those of us who were raised to the tune of a history slanted and revised to leave out the worst of our offenses against peoples and the land. I no longer can support war in the name of misguided nationalism when I know it has more to do with the financial and territorial interests of the wealthy and powerful.

We are seeing the emergence of that "Military/Industrial Complex" threat about which President Eisenhower warned us. We are seeing the nastiness of fundamentalist religion via the Dominionists trying to convert our Constitution into another book of the bible and form a theocracy. If anyone would like to see how dystopian THAT future would be, just read Margaret Atwood's " The Handmaid's Tale," and shudder. Keep in mind, while reading it, that infertility among the white and privileged is on the rise.

Right now, we are being held back from any real progress by a group of brainwashing, scheming, nasty people called The Tea Party, The Koch Brothers, Rupert Murdoch, Karl Rove, Grover Norquist, Fox News and their congressional gang of obstructionists, Cantor, McConnell, Boehner, Cruz, Rubio, etc, ad nauseum. We have seen the ugly face of racism and ignorance and it is our congress, our police, our courts and, if we are honest, ourselves. We were complacent and it happened while we thought Uncle Sugar was taking care of it all.

We are trying, now, to woo the rest of the populace with a positive message when they have become addicted to the negative. Paranoia causes the poorest of whites, the neediest of the elderly, to vote against their own best interests, and that paranoia has been carefully cultivated. How can we overcome such a juggernaut? The spin machine of the far right is well-funded and very active. They have infiltrated our schools to teach ignorance, our media to spread lies and they are very good at what they do. We have to be stronger, we have to be more proactive and aggressive in delivering the truth and we have to be willing to keep on point.

If the far left, "Emo-Progs" are disappointed in the POTUS, Boo-fuken-Hoo! What did you expect? This man is swimming upstream against a flood. He is doing his best and he is savvy enough to know that compromise is supposed to be the way this government rolls. So we don't have universal healthcare but we do have the Affordable Care Act and that is a step in the right direction. We have no more DOMA. Which reminds me, you also forget that he has a Supreme Court that is out to further the interests of their far-right cronies. I am reminded of the line from the song, "Clowns to the left of me, Jokers to the right, And here I am, Stuck in the middle with you." If I were religious and believed in it, I would be praying for our President morning, noon and night.

I consider Barack Obama to be one of the most admirable and underestimated (by all but his enemies) president of my lifetime. But he needs the people and a workable congress. He is the President..NOT a dictator. I have watched him age and watched him care. I have seen the way the innocent and wounded cling to him. We have a real asset in this man if the thumb-sucking far left and the bigots would get off their high horses and work for and with him. The nation is changing. The financially upper-class white majority is becoming the minority. That they should be given license to control our nation with impunity is execrable. I am white. I used to be middle class. Now we are seniors fighting to maintain our independence thanks to the financial meltdown courtesy of Dubya and his king-makers. It is time we all became color-blind and immunized ourselves against the Bullshit.

I have a friend who is putting her energy where her mouth is. Sandy Young, a long-time friend in Texas is now the Chairman of the Medina County Democratic Party. She works hard and gets hate mail and calls because she is very blue in a large swatch of VERY red. Texas is the home of equal-opportunity racism, as you know. They hate both brown and black, equally. So what can the rest of us do?

I spend a lot of time trying to control my health issues, but I have this blog, a Facebook page, the know-how to contact and write letters to congressmen, senators and the editors of various media. I can talk to my neighbors. I can research, read and get the REAL facts. There are members of my husband's family that won't talk to me about the issues and that's OK..but they know where he and I both stand. Taking a stand and claiming it does make a difference, even if it makes others uncomfortable or even angry. We are fighting for our national lives. We are fighting for our infrastructure, our children's' futures, our educational system, the comfort and health of our elderly and disabled and the needs of young families. We are fighting for true justice, for peace, for tolerance, for hope, for real progress and for the America that we thought we had...the America we can make better and more real for ALL of us. I have to believe in this and want it for all of us or I and we don't deserve it at all.