Happy New Year. One feels apologetic after addressing someone with
that greeting, now needing to qualify it, saying this New Year has to be better
than the last. In the spirit of self
analysis, or criticism, I once again look at my writings over the past years. I’ve always said that writing this blog is
not an act of self promotion, there is no advertising, no dialogue invitation
(other than my email address if one wants to write me). It is an exercise in accountability and
remembrance. I’ve joked with friends
that it provides an alternative memory bank, particularly when it comes to
books, cultural events, and travel destinations, the details of which are too
easily forgotten as time inextricably moves on.
We all have our opinions and our passions. For nearly 15 years I’ve guardedly worn my
heart and mind on my sleeve, and while looking back there are things I regret
saying, but for the most part I’m satisfied.
Sometimes, I’ve even been prophetic, and now I’m alarmed by some of the
things I write and think, those going to a dark, dark place. Perhaps that direction is to be expected as I
age, and feel its physical and psychological impact.
However, most of all I fear that the “American Experiment” is beginning
to look like the creation of Victor Frankenstein as we slip from democracy, to
anacrocy, to oligarchy, destination autocracy. We have abandoned the concept of “the common
good” and are in a civil war, the polarization of just about every major
issue. This has been mostly played out
in a grand political charade but incidents such as Charlottesville, and the
attack on Congress last January 6 foreshadows where this might go as a hot
war. The proliferation of guns almost
ensures some kind of armed conflict, most likely that very kind of guerrilla
warfare.
We can’t even see eye to eye about COVID, extremists exploiting
the issue as one of individual freedom. I
have written about this and our ex-President; the thought of his being the
leader of our country could have been the punch line of a joke not very long
ago. His popular support ironically is
not what he’s done for his followers but instead his giving voice to his
follower’s hatred of the virtues of where we thought we were moving, into a
more tolerant, ethnically diverse, educated society.
It is bad enough if we only had to be concerned about the
Trumpublicans mastery of propaganda and Gaslighting. The liberal press writes much about the evils
of Gerrymandering and I agree. But,
worse than Gerrymandering is the recent attempts to appoint local election
officials, or representatives to the out dated, unnecessary, democracy-threatening
Electoral College who are “sympathetic” to Trumpublican causes.
This sets up the real possibility that fair elections can be
overturned as being illegitimate. Then
we will be a banana republic. If election
fraud does not work there are always guns.
Is it no wonder I am in a dark place?
At least a cultural light was on in this blog for a long time, but
with COVID, many of the theatre and the musical performances which we used to
attend in the past, and I enthusiastically wrote about, have been discontinued
or migrated to Zoom (not the same).
My reading life has been disrupted by the chaos of our times and
although I still try to escape in reading, I find myself less motivated to
write about what I read. Similarly, the piano: still working on improving
my skills, but writing about it right now is a different matter. (Stephen Sondheim’s death in 2021 was a shock
and I will write about Sondheim eventually; what he has meant to me musically
and personally).
Travel has been shut down, or dangerous, as the civil war plays out,
the unvaccinated, the unmasked, claiming their “freedom” transcends everyone
else’s. Thus trips I might have written about are no longer to be experienced.
As a society we’ve politicized everything and consequently
progress with managing COVID has been disrupted. Years ago we were able to
eliminate most smoking in public places which is clearly a danger to the
non-smoker, but that took decades for “freedom-loving” smokers to accept, and
the Covid issue is even more volatile and equally consequential.
They accept the licensing of motor vehicles, but not of guns,
again equally dangerous if in the wrong hands, or being military grade. I have
written more than 30 entries over the years on the need for sensible control of
automatic weapons, and covering incidents such as the recent Kyle Rittenhouse murders as examples of the consequences of no congressional action. Even since the horror of murders of children
at Sandy Hook in Newtown, CT, now almost ten years ago, we’ve done nothing
other than recite the hollow words, “thoughts and prayers.”
It’s open shooting season on the soil of our once sacred nation,
each and every one of them intolerable, destroying spirit. I’ve written to our so called elected
representatives who answer with form letters or emails extolling “freedom and
the sacredness of the 2nd amendment” as if it was handed down from heaven.
I am getting to my point.
Every year I seem to write less.
The definition of “banging one’s head against the wall” is “to attempt
continuously and fruitlessly to accomplish some task or achieve some goal that
is or seems ultimately hopeless.” Yes
that is where I am at with “freedom lovers” be they of guns, ignoring science,
pursuing conspiracy theories, or undermining the very essence of our laws.
Ah, laws. Another bête
noire. Here we are at the 1st
anniversary of one of the ugliest days in American history, and our Justice System
moves in glacial slow motion. Of course
we must be thorough, but at the expense of never bringing the masterminds who
are responsible to Justice?
When I wrote my 100th entry in this blog I posted a
playful entry “How is my driving?” Now
that I;m posting my 726th entry, I no longer ask that question. A better one would be, “why am I driving?” I
am struck by my first entry from last year ironically beginning “Could we have
a worse start to a year that follows the worst year in memory?” Talk about déjà vous. I include that entry below as the same themes
reverberate:
Saturday, January 9, 2021
The Revoltingly Horrid Year Continues….
Could
we have a worse start to a year that follows the worst year in memory?
A
quote President unquote, whose name I cannot even speak, continues behaving
like an unhinged mobster boss. His
attempts to coerce the Georgia Secretary of State to throw their lawful
election is just one more manifestation of his never-ending quest not to be
labeled a loser, which he is and has always been. His behavior then was criminal, impeachable.
But
wait, that has been forgotten now as this deranged man stood safely behind a
bullet proof shield and urged his slavish rabble to storm Congress just as it
was ratifying the Electoral College Vote to name Joseph Biden the next
President. He yelled, Stop the
Steal! He promised he’ll be there with
them every step along the way. He didn’t
clarify that he meant that metaphorically, as neither he nor his followers know
the meaning of the word. Instead he
retired to the security of his White House Media Room with family members and
sycophants to enjoy the siege of his insurrectionists in what we would consider
a coup attempt if we were watching a 3rd world government. It was like a Super Bowl party to them as
they watched his minions do his dirty work.
Criminal,
inciting sedition. This by a sitting
President. Unthinkable. Punishable, impeachable,
So
his job of demolishing the last vestiges of democracy and decency is
complete. He is a deluded anarchist and
by pandering to that base he has created a populist persona with a dedicated
following, ready to die for him. It
could have been a greater loss of life during the siege had those pipe bombs
and Molotov cocktails been detonated.
Perhaps the deep rumble of explosions and their accompanying terrifying
bright lights was what he was waiting for.
We’ve
all seen this coming and with every despicable act we (and many elected
representatives) have given him more and more latitude. After all it has been reasoned, he doesn’t
understand the consequences. He doesn’t
understand how government really works….
How
easily the behavior of one tragically flawed person can obfuscate so many
serious issues which are tossed by the wayside, the pandemic and distribution
of the vaccines, the climate, racial issues, gun control, voter suppression,
and a national debt from which the nation might not recover. Meanwhile Bitcoins and the stock market rage
on while the nation burns, and we wake up each morning, fearing the next
disaster du jour.
Good
riddance to our Mobster President who, unfortunately, will still be part of the
cancer that erodes our society from within, no matter the degree of his
exile. Mar a Lago may be his Elba.