Eyes on the Prize
"Extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice." --- Barry Goldwater
I don’t always know what I am going to write about when I sit down at my desk in the middle of the day. Sometimes I “park downhill” which is a writing term I learned recently where you start a topic the day before to give yourself a head start when you finally sit down to write.
It’s been very useful.
I do, however, have a growing list of topics or thoughts “parked downhill” because the Information Age truly is like trying to drink from a fire hose. Some of them might get abandoned yet, even so, they provide me with possible future crutches. Some I might tow away.
I want to write about QAnon because I have had two conversations recently with people I consider to be on top of the daily news and I was flabbergasted they were wholly unfamiliar with the batshit crazy conspiracy phenomenon that now has adherents running for political office.
I want to say something about the fraudulent elections in Belarus and the human uprising that could potentially change the course of their history. Some members of the military and the police are joining the protesters which include women in white with flowers.
I want to talk about the young women elected to Congress in 2018 who embody the spirit of public servants and are precisely what a nation teetering on the brink of losing the right to call itself ‘a city on a shining hill’ needs. I have wanted to highlight Representative Katie Porter from a conservative district in Southern California because, I believe, she is the first single mom to hold office and she is a dogged investigator, researcher and interrogator.
I want to report on what I learned about the history of napalm by listening to Malcolm Gladwell’s first four episodes of this season’s Revisionist History. And then today, as I was listening to American Elections: Wicked Game, I learned that General Curtis LeMay, napalm’s greatest advocate, from World War II through Vietnam, was Senator Barry Goldwater’s running mate in 1964.
I want to wax poetic about David Whyte, the first poet I ever went to see live but, instead, I am going to bestow upon you the Pablo Neruda writing he bestowed upon us that evening at Elliott Bay Books. Even as a non sequitur, Neruda’s words bring insight. And I’ll never forget Whyte’s engrossing, pitch perfect recital. It was enough to make you want to be a “professional” poet.
I didn’t know what to say, my mouth
could not speak,
my eyes could not see
and something ignited in my soul,
fever or unremembered wings
and I went my own way
deciphering that burning fire
and I wrote the first bare line,
bare, without substance, pure
foolishness,
pure wisdom
of one who knows nothing,
and suddenly I saw
the heavens
unfastened and open.
So you see? My mind could go a thousand directions on any given day but, of course, there is always a torrent of news related to the transnational crime syndicate masquerading as a government.
This is your daily reminder they continue to roll back environmental regulations, the man’s taxes and financial records remain under lock and key, evangelicals still see him as their ‘imperfect vessel’ and their COVID19 response was never going to cohere because the response was always going to be to do the opposite of whatever the Obama/Biden administration did.
Ignoring the science is a losing proposition. Alternative facts lose against viruses.
And now we have the Great USPS Debacle and I have what should be a daily reminder.
When Bill Clinton was elected in the ‘90s, the slogan of the day was “It’s the economy, stupid!” It was an update and reset on Ronald Reagan’s “Are you better off now than you were four years ago?”
The slogan this time around should be - “It’s the Electoral College, stupid!”
Meaning, progressives, liberals, Democrats, sentient human beings need to focus their energies on the states that swing one way in one election, another way in another election. These are: Arizona, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Michigan and Florida.
Did you know that if just 1% more Black voters had turned out in Michigan in 2016 we would not currently be saddled with this - this is a word you are going to want to learn - kakistocracy?
In so many words, what is going on with the USPS is abominable, but what the crime syndicate is doing is throwing smoke bombs all over the landscape in order to get us to take our eyes off the prize. And that prize is the Electoral College.
###
Brief resource list:
Teri Kanefield’s Things to Do in order to save our democracy.
Also, sorry to send you to Twitterverse, but this is a good compilation.
He concludes with:
“What you don't get, Trump supporters, is that our succumbing to frustration and shaking our heads, thinking of you as stupid, may very well be wrong and unhelpful, but it's also...hear me out...charitable.”
YES to keeping eyes on the prize. And thanks for Neruda. And sharing your brain.