Winter has peaked; we’re on the downhill side. I wonder if
ever we will be on the downhill side of undesirable human traits and behavior,
or come to an acceptable way to eliminate unacceptable behavior.
Remember the #MeToo movement in its beginning, exposing so much sexual harassment and sexual
assault. How many well known men were caught up, and many famous and powerful,
under the force of public opinion, left their post or office.
Accusations
against Senator Al Franken were a sad disappointment to me, and after a short
reflection on his championship of women, I admitted to myself there is no do
over, just a start over.
Which brings me around to things still so very wrong, and we
do not have the national will, or even individual will to address. Seventy
percent of Americans feel the government is failing at combating corruption,
up from fifty percent two years ago.
The man in the red hat was going to drain
the swamp. And, it’s almost two years until our next opportunity to start over.
We have the governor of Virginia waffling on owning up to
being the fellow in black face or the fellow in KKK sheets or neither or both of them,
but he can’t remember, and blablabla. He must resign. No do over.
Do we really understand how pervasive open racism is in our
country now? I admit I came of age in the March on Washington era. One of the
originals, when Peter, Paul and Mary sang. I always tried to see us getting
better. It’s close to impossible, now.
Rep. Lee Zeldin (R-N.Y.)
spent his first week at work since the government reopened harassing a Muslim
colleague on Twitter with suggestions that she hates Jewish people. Both were
named to the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations.
Rep Zeldin was named the second ranking member and Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) a
freshman representative.
His accusations were based on
an anonymous anti-Jewish voice mail he received. Rep. Zeldin invited Rep. Omar to co-sponsor his resolution naming her and
known white supremists as examples of anti-Semitic hatred. That in response to
her invitation to tea and a discussion of fighting religious discrimination.
How to start over. I don’t know. I wonder if it will
be warm enough tomorrow to cut back the sedum and butterfly bushes, or if we
should leave them through this week’s snow storm for protection for birds and
mice, and cats.
I would leave the sedum and the butterfly bushes are protection.
ReplyDeleteOn the start over front? I have seen a little of the Zeldin/Omar nastiness and shudder. And wish I could say that nothing similar could happen here. How I wish it.
Racist/sexist dog whistlers thrive. Hiss and spit.
I do believe people can change, even the worst of people. It does seem a little hypocritical when we try to change people and then try to hold them accountable after they have changed.
ReplyDeleteIt's never an easy question nor an easy answer.
Indeed: never an easy question or easy answer.
ReplyDeleteYes, leave them. That's a do over. I came of age as Kennedy came to power, and I believed. I believed in Bobbie, Ethel, And all of them but Rosemary. Today I am horrified. But then again, who am I to say beans about anyone else. i'm going to see if I can go out into society tomorrow night and not cough. We can triumph in the small things.
ReplyDeleteYou're right: Hate is a Cancer.
ReplyDeleteAnd wrong ... those bushes can and should wait. :)
I was a child when Carter was in office and when the ERA failed to pass. My mother possessed a copy of Our Bodies Ourselves and Planned Parenthood was not yet targeted by zealots with either bombs or guns. I thought we were getting better. Maybe we were, but just in pockets and not uniformly across this massive country. May the pockets join together to become ever larger swaths of tolerance and acceptance. x
ReplyDeleteyes, leave the bushes until all danger of more snow and frost is gone. I don't know what to say about the rest. It seems the original steps forward have fallen off the ladder. There are so many instances where a start over is needed.
ReplyDeleteEvery day on the news I see the venom and vitriol coming from the people who are supposed to be setting examples for the rest of us. I am so tired of everyone hating everyone else so very loudly. I wish for civility.
ReplyDeleteHate is a powerful statement.
ReplyDeleteCoffee is on
Our politics at the moment are no better than they are in your country Joanne. This hate is all-pervading.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Weave. I despair of the way the world is going.
ReplyDeleteLX
Corruption is rapidly becoming normalised in the UK too. Just this morning it was revealed that Tory peer John Selwyn Gummer's private company has been paid more than £600,000 from 'green' businesses that stand to make millions from his advice to Ministers. Apparently this has been going on for at least five years. The swamp still needs draining!
ReplyDeleteAnd the Labour Party is still rife with antisemitism and misogyny, despite regular promises to root it out.
Hari Om
ReplyDeletethe worst thing about corruption in the Western model is that it super-deceitful and masquerades as a positive. At least in places like India and Africa it doesn't disguise itself. That it will always pervade society? How can we expect change on that level, really, when it has existed for as long as Mankind has entered commerce? It will forever be within the individual's power to play or not play - all we can do is make the difference in our immediate sphere of influence. You do that well my friend! YAM xx
Where I live, all of us have to at LEAST have a live-and-let-live outlook and behave respectfully to each other because this is our community and as such, we have to interact and live side-by-side. Or at least we do. But this is a small community.
ReplyDeleteAnd I have hope. I think that things can change. I've seen it happen before. Of course, things sometimes change back for the worse again, too.
I don't know. But it grieves me to my bones to observe the racism, the sexism that happens now. This is 2019, for heaven's sake!
too much corruption! so they elect a con man who has the most corrupt administration in history supported by the third of the population that wants to see it all burn down while they dance around the bonfire. we haven't seen this level of hate and racism and violence since the Civil Rights era. how do we put this djinn back in the bottle? I don't know if we can. two more years down the road (unless Mueller pulls a rabbit out of his hat) and the damage will be worse. I weep for what this country could have been.
ReplyDeleteNot sure about the plants as I have a brown thumb when it comes to growing things, but the consensus in the comments above seem to think to wait to cut them. Hopefully you'll be getting some spring like days in the days to come.
ReplyDeletebetty
Once toxic hate is allowed to surface as being somehow a "valid" viewpoint, it's like trying to stuff a genie back in the bottle to get rid of it.
ReplyDeleteI too believe hate is a cancer. I don’t know how we are going to fight it either, Joanne. Keep plugging at it, I guess.
ReplyDeleteThe hate has always existed. It's just that now it seems to have become alright to voice it all. Whenever they feel like it. Wherever they feel like it.
ReplyDeleteMAGA brings out the hate in people that many kept hidden for at least a little while.
ReplyDeleteLove,
Janie
I absolutely agree with you that "Hate is a Cancer."
ReplyDeletehave a great day
Hate doesn't get anybody anywhere. If only people could understand that.
ReplyDeleteIt was very good to leave the country for a few weeks, shake off the residue and look at it all from afar- I surprised myself by having feelings of hopefulness! It will take time to heal after the Orange gas has been sent to the slammer but I think this country will rally and become a more cohesive population- the racists and fascist, having come out of their hidey holes- have been scorned , shamed and maybe re-educated, if pressure to do so is strong enough. And I think it may be.
ReplyDeleteHi there!
ReplyDeleteI'm totally against racism and sexism and all other forms of "isms," but in the case of the governor of Virginia, wasn't he on a costume party in 1984?
Both concepts demonstrated by the costumes are repulsive to humanity, and so is their representation.
DeleteHang in there-things are going to get better. They have to.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you wholeheartedly. And I would leave the sedum and butterfly bush for the birds for now.
ReplyDeleteAgreed, there is a calculated manipulation of general discontent. It worsens the toxicity of public discourse. We saw it work clumsily back in the '60s, but now it's a cruel art-form.
ReplyDeleteI recently came across your blog and am enjoying it. We must be about the same age (March on Washington/Peter, Paul & Mary) and this post really resonates with me. Daily I struggle to not be angry.
ReplyDelete