The Wilderness

“We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory will swell when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature.”

Abraham Lincoln

Soapbox LogoI find myself sitting, sometimes for hours, with nothing in my heart but despair for a nation and a people that seems to have lost all semblances of good, all impression of humanity and all appearance of what was at one time something to polish and throw across our shoulders like a mantle of hallelujah and can’t touch this. We are too frequently a sorry lot these days, pathetic because if you are old enough to know better, old enough to remember real heroes, you know today we fall far short too often we are not anywhere near what we once were. This is not wishful thinking or a desire for a past that was not all that grand for many of us; it is a desire for what was good about our people and our nation a wish for our better angels to rescue us.

Led by fools wrapped in false patriotism and draping themselves in more and more elaborate regalia of power, hanging their sense of victimization on the cross of rotting hypocrisy with the Prosperity Gospel as their guiding principal of pretentious faith, we lap up the Reality Soap Opera our government has become. We hang on the Tweets, flip channels seeking the most salacious version of the latest utterings and engage in on-going debates of what, why and who which grow increasingly heated even breaking families and decades old friendships against the debacle of the current political maelstrom. In the process we play into the hand of those who spent years and worked hard to dumb down a nation, distracting us from the real issues to focus on a clueless, classless buffoon with a big button, three baby mama’s and a lifetime in the tabloids. Trailing behind him tails dragging and equally indefensible are his mind-numbing minions digging in to do his will as we watch in dismay the nation brought low by their treacherous acts.

There is no calamity which a great nation can invite which equals that which follows a supine submission to wrong and injustice and the consequent loss of national self-respect and honor, beneath which are shielded and defended a people’s safety and greatness.

Eldridge Cleaver

I am stunned. Where once stood heroes now the stage is filled with an assembly of

45 and others

GOP with 45 celebrate Tax Bill

Fiends and Brutes, all jockeying for the front row wanting to take credit, be the first to claim the honor of destroying what is good and sane about us, replacing it with cruelty, banality and sometimes even evil. Where once stood heroes we are left with these slavish servants of duplicity and ignorance spewing their toxic venom on friend and foe alike.

Yet here we find ourselves today, in this once great nation led by cowards and calling those who are tasked with keeping us safe, who place themselves at risk to do so, those who swear oaths to uphold the laws of this land “Nazi’s”, “Jackbooted Gestapo”, “Stormtroopers”; was there anything else? I am certain I missed something, nevermind that should suffice. Looking out on the nation turned upside down and on its head, smiling as the real new generation Nazis march down our city streets waving swastikas and shouting slogans snatched directly from a history seeped in the blood of our grandparents and the horror of mass graves and genocide. These modern day radical nationalist can do nothing but nod their empty heads as they proclaim there are fine people in those mobs.

This President with every act makes us less than what we once were. I am stunned at the level of corruption we are sunk to. This nation cheers as this president tears up every treaty, destroys every alliance, gleefully pisses on every norms. What once saw a nation torn apart to its roots is now the forth column on the fifth page of the weekly paper as a cartoon.

What will ultimately demand our attention? Finally force us to take stock at what we have done to ourselves with this self-inflicted act of ignorance. What will finally break s836329897140350377_p90_i2_w288the cloak of silence around our better angels, cause them to unfurl their wings and unsheathe their swords to fight for what remains of the good in us and this nation.  Will we truly simply allow this side show to play out, praying the Democrats find their missing backbone and at a minimum perform their duties and stop this administration and their fellows in Congress from the worst of their actions? Or will we instead continue to submit to what is the very worst in what this nation and its people and have been.

I personally pray this is not the only solution we have. At this rate we are in for another six years of this Horror Show, by then it will truly be too late to save us.

If not now, Tomorrow?

Soapbox LogoMy silence does not indicate lack of interest; in fact I have, like so many others, remained glued to the tragedy that is the United States of America. Each day it seems there is some new ‘thing’, some new chaotic stew of childishness, some immoral or cruel act from those who would be leaders. Each morning I waken to worse and coarser communication bombarding me from every corner of the world. Every single night I crawl into my bed and wonder if the world will see another morning, with heightened levels of fear, for my nation, my friends, children and grandchildren I wonder what we will be left with in three years. Hell, some nights I wonder what, if anything, we will be left with in three months let alone three years.

Do you think I am being dramatic? Really, do you not wonder the same things I wonder?
I am constantly stunned by the level of depravity and craven corruption that is now our entire body politic. One side has their Inglorious Leader, why hide? Do not for one minute believe though, I am pointing at one party and leaving the other out of this, no indeed both are equally shady and own the corruption that is this dissolute hell the United States of America is now become.

The President of the United States is an antagonistic, juvenile delinquent with the spoiled-bratmindset of a schoolyard bully who has never been told NO. Meanwhile, the Republican controlled Congress chip away at our Freedoms, chisel away at our rights, our economy, our Democracy; at the very foundation of what makes our nation Great and none of us are paying a bit of attention. Each and every single day, we sit staring at our electronic devices, bitching and whining at the latest tweet by that fool that is POTUS, while Congress has their way with us without a single cry being raised.

So I have to ask, with all the warnings we have been given by their acts, their words and the clarion call of those who have watched Presidents since before the days of Nixon and his fall, if not now when?

When do men and women of dignity, morals and ethics finally say enough; when do they say, no damned more. Where are they perhaps is the better question.

When do these lost men and women say, pack your bags, turn in your badge and carry your happy and undignified asses out of my House (Congress, Senate) before you embarrass this nation further than you have. No more with your dog whistles, your stunts, your ignorant statements of patriotism, your blatant and ugly hypocrisy,

DCSkyline

Washington D.C Skyline

no more tearing our nations foundations up by the roots, no more of your terrible families, your corruption, your sycophant ways, no more of your bullying, your nationalism, your pseudo Christianity and worst your followings and encouragement of Nazi’s, White Supremacists, Xenophobic Nationalists. I am certain my list could be longer, this is simply the tip of the iceberg, the very tip. This list applies not just to the current occupant of the White House, but members of his legal team, Congress, Senate, his advisers, Family and Friends, Spokespersons, Cabinet and Media mouthpieces.

Our nation is more divided than ever before and we simply sit and twiddle our thumbs bemoan our situation remind ourselves that he is not legitimate as Madam Secretary Clinton won the popular vote (so what). Or even worse, that Bernie was cheated (no he wasn’t).

Truly my silence does not indicate a lack of interest. My silence has been self-imposed, my psyche shut down and I drew a blank each time I tried to write. I have over hundred half written odes to the state of the union in my file, I simply could not finish them. I have over fifty poems, I could not finish my heart was breaking as our nation shattered. I have over fifty simple bridges of what is happening with my world, to break the silence and reenter the world; I could not finish them my writers block built a wall I could not scale. I am beating it down today, I am speaking today. Maybe I will speak again tomorrow. I hope you, my friends are still out there as there is much to say.

Signature

3 May 2018

%d bloggers like this: