In a Bad Place

[AverageJoe]

In a Bad Place

I need the good guys to win.
I need people to care about each other.
I need the cruelty to stop.
I need the ignorant
to learn how to think,
to remember what America was
before FOX and Limbaugh, Hannity,
Carlson, O’Reilly, the churches,
Trump, the entire GOP
and their masters in the NRA
and Russia
made anger a commodity,
made anyone who doesn’t
toe the Republican line
into the boogeyman,
before W made schools
stop teaching kids how to reason.
I need the rich to stop
sucking our blood.
I need to climb out of this hole
I have fallen into.
I need to feel better.
I need to have hope.
I need the greedy, frightened dead
to stop dragging the rest of us
down with them
into the sickening graves
after which they lust.

[Basso8vb]

1. I care about you.

That's why I will ALWAYS vote blue.

[Xavier Breath]

2. Yes, we certainly need these things, and we deserve them as well.

But at the age of 58, I'm left wondering if I'll ever see any of those things again in my lifetime.

[Silver Gaia]

10. At 58, you stand a better chance than

those of us in our 70s and 80s! At least you will live to see him dead and gone and have years to live beyond. Cheer up!

[Xavier Breath]

15. I think that when that happens it will seem a small, hollow victory in the face of having seen our nation destroyed.

[Silver Gaia]

17. Be that as it may,

I remember 58. You aren't old. Not yet. And you have many years still to help resist and recover our great nation. I may not see it, but you stand a chance. So work toward that goal with everything you've got. I wish I had that much of a chance, friend, but that's what I will do, nonetheless.

[Xavier Breath]

20. Thanks, I'll be sure to get right on that.

[Silver Gaia]

21. Suit yourself, but you're not old.

That's all.

[Xavier Breath]

22. Old is a relative term.

To someone who is 28, yes, I am most definitely old. To someone 78, yeah, probably not so much. But you have no idea what medical issues I face, so stop lecturing me on my longevity and alleged youth.

And, "suit myself," eh? Tell you what, why don't you keep your condescending 'cheer up' and 'suit yourself' remarks to yourself, ok?

[Silver Gaia]

23. I'm sorry you are feeling so angry.

It is certainly understandable, but I can't and won't let myself go there, nor to sadness and depression. It was not my intention to make you feel worse. I sincerely wish you the best.

[Xavier Breath]

25. I'm not angry.

Can you just stop with the diagnoses already? We're strangers, and it comes off as really condescending.

I cede the floor, the last remark is yours. I also sincerely wish you the best. Good day.

[Silver Gaia]

28. You know what?

If you don't want me to think you are angry, then please, try not to sound angry. I did not mean to offend you nor was I being condescending. You are misinterpreting me, and evidently, I am misinterpreting you. I never meant to insult you, only to say I don't think 58 is "old," which in my experience, most people take in a positive sense. (Hell, I'd love to be that age again!) If that was somehow hurtful (or whatever???) to you, my apologies. I really, really dislike arguing. I've tried to make peace. But I'm done trying. Let's leave it be.

[Xavier Breath]

29. It wasn't the age discussion that bothered me the most.

That was an annoyance, but it was mostly the idea that I will one day be dancing because Trump died, even though I'll be doing said dancing in the smoldering crater of what was once this country, without health insurance and probably subsisting on cat food. Then, the pat speech about getting to work and saving the country, which genuinely feels pollyannish and somewhat naïve at this point. Seems the time to save the country was November 5, and it was a failure and now we'll all live with the consequences. I'm just not in the mood for a pep talk right now, they just ring hollow. Regardless, I shouldn't have responded the way I did. And, I'm sure we'll talk again on down the line. With my goldfish-like memory I'll probably rec you in a day or two in another thread.

[Silver Gaia]

32. I debated on responding to this, but

I decided I couldn't let stand without comnent your insinuation that I am "pollyannish and somewhat naïve" or putting words in my mouth (or at my fingertips) that I put forth "the idea" that you would be "one day be dancing because Trump died."

Those are mischaracterizations of both who I am and what I actually said. What I said is there is there in writing, and I made no mention of "dancing," nor did I think it. That's a distortion of what I wrote.

As for "pollyannish and somewhat naïve," those are direct insults on my personal character. I assure you I am neither. My eyes are wide open. One thing I will never do is roll over and give up, submit. THAT is not in my nature.

I will accept this: "Regardless, I shouldn't have responded the way I did. And, I'm sure we'll talk again on down the line. With my goldfish-like memory I'll probably rec you in a day or two in another thread."

It came on the heels of insults, but I will accept it. I have already offered apologies for anything I said that upset you, so will not repeat those.

With this, I am done.

[Xavier Breath]

33. Well, frankly we've both said that we were done and not meant it, so that remains TBD.

They're have been mischaracterizations by us both. I, for example, was not 'angry.' Subtlety, nuance and emotion can be easily lost in a message board exchange though, and can therefore be open to interpretation, I'll grant you that.

Yes, the attempted pep talk struck me as pollyannish and naïve. Sorry, but that's how I feel at this time. Maybe in a year I'll feel differently and be eager to join you there on the front lines. My judging your remarks as such doesn't mean that I feel you are those things, though. I wouldn't suggest so. I'm sure I've held a pollyannish or naïve belief a time or thousand in my life.

Your comment about not rolling over is a commendable one . Maybe I can be in the place some day, but since I'm definitely not, the "cheer up" struck me as condescending. If you say that was not your intent, then I will accept that.

I've been here a while and I've seen many a dust-up like this between people, and I always think, 'Do these people not realize how silly they're being?' Now that I've been on the inside, I see how easy it is to get caught up in the back-and-forth without realizing that people with no stake in the argument are reading along and just shaking their heads. So for those readers, I'm sorry for my part in this. Guessing this is not what the op intended, and I'm sure this discourse has done little to assuage their negative feelings, with which I empathized.

I too will be done now.

[Silver Gaia]

34. I keep thinking there is nothing left to say, but

then there is. I don't see this conversation the same as people on opposite sides of the fence shouting at each other. We are both on the same side, and we are, I hope, having a conversation about differences we each need to understand. That isn't silly, as I see things.

Emotions are running high right now. I don't mean that as a judgment on you, just a statement of how things are right now in the America we both love, especially on our side of the fence. So, misunderstandings are understandable. I think hashing things out is preferable to stalking off in a huff, and neither party ever understanding where the other is coming from.

That said, I want to point out that when I said, "Cheer up!," that comment was intended ONLY in reference to the point I was trying to make about age. It was not about current politics. There is nothing all that cheery there. But for me, to have someone older than me tell me I'm younger than I think I am IS usually reason to cheer up. Honestly, I don't FEEL old. I don't sit around wishing I was still in my 20s or something (heaven forbid!). I am of an age and I have health issues, but I'm not ready for a rocking chair yet, so... no, I'm not old. As I see things, neither are you, health issues aside for both of us. Above, you said if I did not intend to be condescending, you would accept that. I did not intend to be condescending. I am not like that. Period. End of story.

What you construed as a "pep talk" was, again, based in what I was trying to say about aging. Please read it again with that in mind. You DO stand a better chance to see results one way or the other than I do. That is a simple fact. I would feel better knowing that. That is all I was trying to say. And BTW, just like you said about voting on Nov 5, if we don't get our collective asses in gear now, a year from now is going to be too late to join me on the front lines.

As for "pollyannish and naïve"... please just drop it. My remarks are "me." What I say or write is not separate from who I am. Those terms simply do not apply here and they are insulting. Those who are pollyannas are the stupid people who voted for him and STILL say things like, "Oh, he doesn't mean that like you think he does. He's not going to do that!" or "He's just going to deport criminals. I'm undocumented, but I'm not a criminal. He won't deport ME." THOSE people are pollyannas. And they are naïve, as is anyone who voted for this monster thinking he was going to make life better for them.

As for what the OP intended, maybe he'll tell me I'm wrong, but I see that differently, too. Toward the very end, he wrote:
"I need to climb out of this hole
I have fallen into.
I need to feel better.
I need to have hope."

I think he was saying he wants to climb out of that hole, feel better, have hope. That's where I am coming from. I have plenty of reason to be afraid, and stand to lose everything I've worked for all my life if this asshole idiot succeeds in implementing his plans. I have been in that same hole for almost a month now. Who among us truthfully hasn't? It was a shock and it's frightening to most of us.

But yeah, I'm climbing out. I'm feeling better. I have hope. And that is where I will continue to stand. I've been a fighter my whole life, since I was a young girl, and I'm not about to stop being who I am now.

I really, really, really hope we can be done now. We are on the same side. Take care and good luck.

[Xavier Breath]

39. "I keep thinking there is nothing left to say."

Believe me, I know how you feel. But we've reached the point where we're talking in circles, and neither of us writing another doctoral thesis is going to move the needle or convince either party. YMMV, as they say around these parts.

Good luck to you as well. Good luck to us all. And that is sincere.

[MadameButterfly]

40. We are all struggling with how to be

in relation to his disaster. How much to give in to our despair, where to find the hope necessary to carry on. Yes, my age factors in--I'm 66. This isn't a time for me to hunker down and try not to get into harms way, waiting for some future triumph. This is the last hurrah of my career, my last chance to achieve my dreams--how to I do it in this situation? When this ends, if it ends, will I live to see it?

I'm struggling with not being able to get a night's sleep, waking up so depressed that I can barely start my day. I know that I HAVE to choose a more positive outlook to survive. So I take heart at your hope and courage.

It's hard enough to accept the damage that is inevitable, but the fear of it being permanent is unbearable. I have to imagine that it will end, that we as a people are too enlightened to go the way of Nazi Germany or Putin's Russia, countries that didn't have our experience with democracy or our education when faced with a despot.
Trump really does have dementia, and I've seen how fast a condition like that can decline. His death might not be so far off. He's in terrible health. We don't know how well the new dictatorship will do without their cult leader, on the heels of the economic disaster his administration will be for so many people.
What if this disaster becomes the education that masses have been missing? What if it paves the way for the necessary changes to our constitution to create true majority rule? What if we have many heroes?

There's a lot of Pollyanna bashing these days, always from people who haven't read the book. Her character was not an airhead girl out of touch with reality, but one who chose to focus her thoughts in a way that improved truly difficult lives: her own and that of everyone around her. If we don't start doing some of that ourselves, we will not get through this.

I feel all the things the original OP feels. The OP was a cry for hope, in the end. Recognizing all the disfunction that has brought us to this point, but not choosing to stay there going forward. How we choose to think matters. I'm certainly not the example of how to do it, or I'd be sleeping better. But I know I must find a way. I'm encouraged by how many people are saying they will not give in. I intend to believe that we will win. Because Pollyanna was right. What we focus on is what we get.

[Xavier Breath]

16. Duplicate.

[barbtries]

3. love it,

feel it.

would like to share with attribution. DM me with your full name if you're willing. thank you

[erronis]

8. Agree. This is a very sharable post.

Careful with full names, though.

[lastlib]

4. ....and before Newt Gingrich, Daddy Boosh, and Ronawld Rayguns.....

These are the ones I most blame for making American life suck. Eff every last one of 'em. With a Saguaro cactus.

[Evolve Dammit]

5. I hear ya loud and clear. They are going to destroy much of what is good and right, along with democracy. Fuck 'em. n/t

[LoisB]

6. We all need those things. It's too bad that so many of our fellow citizens don't realize they also have those needs.

[Silver Gaia]

35. Hear, Hear!

[1WorldHope]

7. Move your attention from this injustice and turn your gaze toward beauty.

?si=51hKOBJ7_vQxsOp0


You are not alone. Half the country feels like we do. We can still take care of each other.

[Erda]

9. "America, at its best"

Has never been so for everyone.

I think "America at its best" is right now, because now at least half of us care about what happens to ALL of us.

Look at how far we have come since our inception when it was acceptable to sell other humans, rob land from indigenous people, treat women with disdain, allow children to work our factories, exploit the planet beyond all limits, and not care about the rest of the world.

Those things are still acceptable to less than half of us, but are unacceptable to most of us.

I think, in this moment, we have forgotten and therefore have underestimated what we are up against. We were expecting an easier fight. This fight has not been and will never be easy. I believe we are up to it, so long as we don't have blinders on.

[BonnieJW]

11. Those facts only make it worse

We came so far, making a country so wonderful after tsf and under biden. And now it falls so easily to nazis and crazy people.

It's going to be horrible. I don't see how to prepare for this.

[whathehell]

14. I doubt that any country, even "at it's best"

has ever been good for everyone.

As President Biden used to say: "Don't judge me by the Almighty, judge me by the competition".

[Elessar Zappa]

24. No but our country

was absolutely terrible for minorities and women in earlier decades. Women couldn’t open their own bank account until the 70’s. Almost every gay person either stayed in the closet or had to move to places like NYC or San Francisco. Our politics are terrible right now but I don’t think any other decade is any better.

[whathehell]

26. Can you name any countries,

in regard to women, especially, that were substantially better?

In terms of LBGTQ rights, there are European countries that still don't allow gay marriage. It's not legal in Israel, China, or Japan either.

[planetc]

12. (How I keep out of bad places, or climb out)

This morning, we lost power at about 10:10. In the trailer park here, that means we lost water pressure. And with my internet and phone provider, I lose phone service. This has happened before. This time, I turned on my little head lamp, and read quietly for awhile. I cleared most of the six inches of wet snow off the car so as to make it easier to get out of here when the roads are a bit clearer. I did have to eat a cold lunch, but about 1:30, the power came back on. The water pressure is building back up. First thing I did with power was go back to the NYT Spelling Bee game I had been playing, and feed in the words my brain continues to churn out once I've started playing. Finished the game--they give you a little mortarboard symbol when you get to the score they've decided is "genius."

Then I came over here to see whether anything happened. Found your post. I often wake up feeling about the way you do when you stare at it for too long. (The brain continues to function when you're asleep. Or perhaps it continues to feel.). Anyhow, I maintain that we do not know with any certainty what the outcome of the election was. We accept without question that some bad actor has frozen an entire county's computer network, and is holding the owners up for ransom. But confronted with the possibility that somebody messed with our election,and many of us see that as wishful thinking, or conspiracy theory reliance. It may be, or it may not.

Whatever the truth, the election did NOT do the following: kill any of the caring, smart, responsible people around us. They are all still there, some waiting for the electric to come back on so they can open their store, some plowing the six inches of very heavy snow that started to collect overnight, some getting to work at the hospital and taking care of people with or without power. At least one 14-year-old is knocking on his neighbor's door to see how much snow I want shoveled before he goes off to wrestling practice. This young man is a gem, and I am not telling you his name. My parking lot and school (and another parking lot) are all he and his shovel can handle. So: shovel some snow, check on a neighbor, get in touch with some people or organizations who have smaller problems that the fate of the entire country. If this election was messed with, we have one job ahead of us; if it wasn't messed with, we have another job. Either way, we have some good company to keep while we figure out which job it is.

[Silver Gaia]

36. Thank you for a great post.

[Tesha]

13. We need...

The majority of us were better off then too.
We need to turn back the clock on all the laws.. that made corporations people and money speech.

Is it too late?

[Silver Gaia]

37. Thank you.

"We need to turn back the clock on all the laws.. that made corporations people and money speech."

No, it is not too late. I remember trying to shout from the rooftops about Citizen's United, and too few heard. But now is not the time to give up. This may be what was needed to get people to SEE why they should care, and want to do something about it. Apathy has been killing us quietly.

[MadameButterfly]

18. You are a poet and we need poetry

more than ever.

You are sensitive, and we need that more than ever.
Please, for your sake and ours, keep being you.

I believe on some level God, spirit, whatever you believe in, responds to good, to love, to reason.
It might be that things have to get this bad for the pendulum to swing back.

For us sensitives , and for everyone else, it might hurt for a while. This might be a necessary stage in the process toward recovery. We must stay hopeful and do our part. It won't happen automatically. We must resist, but we must hope. We must believe in God or that good has more power than evil.

Trump told an interviewer once that it's all about fear.
Let's not play his game. Hope, love, compassion, faith. These are powerful beyond understanding.
The only thing to fear is fear itself.

[AverageJoe]

31. You are a very kind person

Thank you.

[Silver Gaia]

38. Thank you for this post.

I agree with all you said.

[AverageJoe]

41. Many thanks, Silver Gaia. :-) n/t

[John Shaft]

19. Right on

that is very good poetry.

[AverageJoe]

30. Thank you, John! n/t

[proud patriot]

27. hug