These past few days ...
Have been extraordinarily rough for America. I feel you, dawgs. I feel you. But we can't just surrender.
Sometimes I think, by writing this substack with sarcasm, self-deprecation, oomph and piss, readers might get the impression that I’m 100 percent gusto; that I am convinced—over time—America will wake up and right itself and continue toward democracy’s destiny.
I am not.
Like y’all, I get down. Like y’all, the gut punches hurt. I can’t believe we just, oh, kidnapped a foreign leader so we can steal oil. I can’t believe Stephen Miller is a power player. I can’t believe Trump added his name to a center honoring a murdered predecessor. I can’t believe there’s a WALL OF PRESIDENTS in the White House that has a photograph of an autopen above Joe Biden’s name.
On and on and on.
And it guts me. It tears me up. It causes me to lose hope, to doubt, to sometimes legitimately scream in anger. I fantasize about moving to another nation and walling myself off.
I do, I do, I do.
But … ultimately, this is my country, and this is my fight. And while the nation as a whole feels enormous, Orange County does not. So I do what I can do, and you do what you can do. We have important local elections approaching. We have zealot-run school boards trying to stuff out kids’ heads with nationalistic garbage. We have oceans to keep clean, we have air to keep fresh. We have purpose.
I have purpose.
So, yeah, it all sucks right now. There’s no denying it, and the weight crushes me and my family and my friends.
But I do, quite often, think of my Grandma Marta and Grandpa Kurt, arriving here from Nazi Germany, seeking something beautiful in the United States of America.
I will not watch that die without giving it my all.
And neither should you.
Surrender isn't an option.
Watch Ken Burn's timely released doc series on the American Revolution. Nothing came easy. Family members fought family members (see Benjamin Franklin).
This has to implode. It can't sustain this amount of incompetent idiocy. When it collapses upon itself, that may be even more sad to watch than what we see now.
Preserve your energy. Lay low when needed. Don't get sucked into diversions. The truth always wins even if some can't handle it, try to distort it or flat out lie. Keep telling the truth in a decent, kind, rational way. Your integrity matters. Call together friends to see what you can do together. Stand vigil outside the Federal Building. Be present.
Stay safe.
Yesterday, Jan 6, was soul crushing to relive. Especially with the delusional MAGA folks who want to rewrite it.
this all hurts. Lean into our pain and keep fighting.
Let me add another item to the list - that vague feeling of impending nausea upon learning of his latest escapade that irreparably soils our once great and proud nation.