Once Venerated U.S.A. Plummets into Disgrace

If any day stirs patriotism in the American heart, it’s the Fourth of July. But I won’t be celebrating this year. The thought of waving a flag and declaring that we are the greatest country in the world is laughable.

 

Citizens protest racial injustice in record numbers, disrupting complacency in hundreds of cities and towns across all 50 states. And yet, the inept, immoral president (lower case intended) doubles down on the militarized policing that ignited the protests to begin with. Federal troupes menace fellow citizens as they exercise their American rights to free speech and assembly.

 

Our country should be an example of harmonious diversity to which all others aspire. Instead, multitudes from Berlin to Melbourne take to the streets protesting American racism.

 

Covid-19 runs more rampant here than in any other country. Places identified as shit holes by the same racist president manage the pandemic better.

 

Americans are banned from Europe, parts of Asia, and even Canada because we have failed so badly to combat the virus within our borders.

 

In the midst of this global pandemic, the president, desperately trying to focus the blame somewhere else, carelessly pulls our membership from the World Health Organization.

 

The U.S. should lead the world in fighting disease. Our wealth should create vaccines that we generously share with others.

 

Instead, dimwitted throngs march on state capitals to battle for the fabricated right to not wear disease preventing masks. They do so with blatant disregard for scientific facts and no concern for the public good.

 

I once thought that greed and corruption, persistent evils in the best of countries, could be kept at bay by the determination to live out our ideals. The arc of the moral universe, said the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., would bend towards justice. In spite of occasional backsliding, we were ultimately destined to be the great country we imagined.

 

But evil and corruption have escalated to unprecedented levels. Checks and balances to keep them at bay have been defused.

 

The corrupt elite instigate chaos to distract us from their antics. As a result, we ignore serious threats like climate catastrophe.

 

The criminals running this country are only interested in preserving their own power and wealth. Even the most basic American values don’t interest them. They blithely encourage unthinkable evils such as white supremacy to achieve their goals.

 

And yet.

 

We might have a chance to set things right. In November, we could send a message that corruption will no longer be tolerated. It won’t be easy, however. We must overcome Republican instigated systemic voter suppression, the influence of nefarious countries that manipulate our elections, and the apathy of millions who have not voted in the past.

 

Our reward could be a new United States, a country of which we are truly proud. We could become not the world’s savior, but a responsible citizen nation among others.

 

U.S. Continues to Go Downhill

You think the jackass in the White House and the Republicans in congress can't go any lower, but every day they prove us wrong.

I know Michelle Obama said we're supposed to go high when they go low, but come on. How high can we get?

The recent circus around the confirmation of that blustering pig, Brett Kavanaugh, to the now right wing Supreme Court set me on course to yet another depression about the direction of this country.

I grieved, along with more than half of the rest of the U.S., and the rest of the civilized world, about President Dumb Ass's election two years ago and all of the implications of that. Now some of the worst implications are coming to pass with the confirmation of said blustering pig. Added to that, this week's stark news that we have a decade, more or less, to change our ways before global warming is completely irreversible. Meanwhile Donald Dumbo and the Republicants are actually throwing any progress we've made into reverse.

We look with hope to the rest of the world to take the lead on climate. But things are pretty grim out there too. Brexit is a huge distraction for the UK and was brought about by the same problems that brought us President Turd. And Brexit is more irreversible. Germany, a leader in green, is dealing with a growing right wing. The most environmental progress in the world today is being made in, wait, it can't be, China?

Don't think I've spent the past two years just wallowing in depression. I've redirected more of my energy to social justice. We've all but stopped eating red meat. I got myself appointed to my employer's diversity committee. I give to the ACLU. I'm better about speaking up when I see bigotry in action. I'm more aware of my white privilege. I'm not sure how that helps, but it seems important. I'm doing the best I can.

The country is so divided. And one side is so obviously right and the other so clearly wrong. Even after Dumbo is gone, we will still be a divided nation. With a hot world to live in.

There is one thing that can make a big difference. Now. One thing. And that is to change the direction of the congress, and send a message to state and local governments that we the people have had enough. We are in charge. If this is going to be a democracy, then this is how we take our government back. The way to do it is to vote. Vote. Vote. Vote. I can't say it enough.

A lot of damage has been done, but we can reverse the red tide. A blue congress can put the brakes on the dump administration and even make some good things happen. Let's make a difference now. Let's vote.

And in case you're wondering, I endorse the Democrat side of the ticket.

The Four Other Stages of Grief

I, like many of you, am grieving about the shocking and horrifying election of Donald Trump to the U.S. Presidency on a wave of populism fueled in large part by racism, sexism, and anti-immigration.

I believe it is necessary to grieve now in order to properly respond to the challenges of the next few years.

What is often not understood about the five stages of grief, first written about by Elizabeth Kubler Ross, is that they don't always occur one at a time or in linear fashion. Often, they overlap or occur intermittently. I've already covered denial in a previous BillsWeek entry. Now, I thought I'd hammer out some thoughts about the other stages. Sharing in this way helps me cope with my own grieving. Plus, I'm not sleeping and I have nothing better to do right now.

For the record, what I say here reflects either my own thinking or something I've overheard from others. These reflections don't necessarily reflect my exact point of view. Or maybe they do.

Bargaining

• The people who elected him aren't really racist (sexist, etc.). They were voting for Trump for some other reason.
• He was polite to President Obama when he visited the White House. Maybe he's not so bad after all. Let's give him a chance.
• He did hold up that rainbow flag that one time (even though it was upside down).
• Maybe his stupidity (and/or other shortcomings) will render his presidency ineffective. Perhaps if we give him enough rope, he'll hang himself. 
• Since he was so slippery and flip floppy on issues during the campaign, perhaps he isn't as conservative as we fear. Maybe he only acted that way to get elected.
• He was once a Democrat and a friend of the Clintons. Maybe he's a liberal in disguise. 
• Let's just be really nice to our racist neighbors and try to get along with everyone. 
• Ok, we don't have to be anti-gun. Let's just be "pro-gun safety."

Hmmm. I see why this one usually comes right after denial.

Anger

• If you voted for Trump, explain to your Black/ Muslim/ Immigrant/ LGBT neighbor/ coworker/ friend/ family member why they don't matter to you.
• Since our citizenship and civil rights are under fire, can you be surprised that we are questioning our patriotism?
• How can you come to my home, have friendly conversation with my boyfriend, attend my wedding, and still vote for Donald Trump? Don't you know what I have to lose? Don't you know what the stakes are? Don't you really care about me at all?
• Be alert for that "Kristallnacht" event to happen when the KKK and other thugs start destroying the property and lives of minorities, first without consequences, and then with the endorsement and support of the government. Think it can't happen? It was less than a century ago in a first world country called Germany...

 When you think about it, anger is really just fear turned inside out. It's what has motivated the other side to become so hateful. Fear is what fuels bigotry. It's why a great Presbyterian minister, Jane Spahr, once said, we must love them through their fear. Easier said than done.

Depression

• Can we just go to bed and wait until this is all over?
• Isolation: no talking to friends, no allowing for the comfort of company. Being alone seems less painful, somehow, even though it probably isn't.
• Music might help. Where are those old Peter, Paul, and Mary recordings?
• Depression is the scary one for some of us who have suffered from the chronic, clinical disease of the same name. We fear that if we give into this one, we'll be stuck in it and unable to get out. To us, depression looks like a long, dark, sucking tunnel that pulls you in when you haven't the strength to fight it. It gets all mixed up with the normal, circumstantial depression that happens to everyone when some terrible, external event happens.

Acceptance

• I don't accept this. Racism, sexism, and homophobia are not acceptable norms.
• I don't accept that the U.S.A. is over.
• We can only clearly see what's behind us. What is in front of us can only be estimated at best, and that is often informed by fear. Think of how frightened people were at other times in history when our national life felt threatened and the future was seriously in question: the Cuban missile crisis, Watergate, the assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert Kennedy, and 9/11, just to name a few. Remember how frightened we were, and how shocked. At times we were despondent and hopeless. We always came through it. We always had a response, sometimes a questionable and debatable response, but we did respond. We never just rolled over and let it get to us. We're Americans, goddamnit!
• I do accept Elizabeth Warren's challenge to get involved; to volunteer, to connect with others, to add my voice to others' voices so that we are heard.
• I accept that every couple of years we get to elect new representatives. Look out bitches, mid-terms are only two years away.

Denial is a Good Stage

Crawling out of bed this morning felt like climbing out of ashen ruins after the apocalypse. The extra dose of Seroquel I took helped me sleep after the nightmarish election returns, but didn't make getting up in a strange new world any easier.

The world initially didn't look any different. The cats needed feeding. The coffee needed making. The dishwasher, having been run overnight, needed emptying. I didn't want to shave, but I did. Clyde woke up by himself today so I didn't have to wake him.

We eventually got around to turning on the TV just to make sure it wasn't all a bad dream. It wasn't. Trump was elected, oh my god, I can't even say it.

The world was looking a little different after all.

Like many others, I live in a bubble of like-minded people. Almost everyone I know - friends and family, people I like and hang out with, have the same political views. I read and listen to news that reinforces what I already think and believe. So it's not a surprise when I say that I really don't know very many people that voted for Donald Trump; just a few people at work and on Facebook. In fact, the state I live in (Colorado) didn't go to him in the electoral collage. I have that thread to hold on to. So I simply can't wrap my head around how this disaster happened.

And I'm not even close to ready to contemplate the implications of a republican house and senate (no, I don't intend to capitalize those words for the next four years at least).

I'm still stunned and in shock. I haven't yet declared myself "no longer American," like some others I'm reading about. My extended family is hatching a pretty serious sounding plan to move to Canada. Even though it's guaranteed to be warmer up there in the future (thanks to runaway climate change), I'm not quite yet ready to go. I'm still waiting for it all to sink in.

I'm sure that later I'll be enraged. I'm sure that I'll be terrified. Later. I'm sure I'll be sad. Hopefully at some point in the future I'll be motivated towards activism, but that's not happening yet.

I think this is the denial stage. It's a good stage. This is the stage where you go on doing things which keep you going. So I eat, I work, I feed the cats. If not for denial, I couldn't function at all. I'd just curl up in a ball and not move. Maybe I'll do that tomorrow.

Caught Between a Dumbass and a "Bitch" - Does it Really Matter?

As often happens, the office chatter around me zeroed in on this year's unusual presidential election. Typical of the national conversation, my coworkers could neither comprehend ignorant dumb ass Donald Trump, nor could they fathom a bitch like Hillary Clinton at the presidential helm.

With earphones stuck to my head and my eyes glued to the monitors, I really tried to stay out of it. No one's mind is ever changed by these conversations, and while most of the others treat the topic as casually as they do a jawing about local sports, I would just get really mad and take it personally if I got involved.

But when one of the senior managers pronounced that in fact, it didn't really matter who was elected because none of our lives would actually change based on the outcome, I just about boiled over.

"That's easy to say if you're a straight, white man who has lived in privilege all his life," I fumed. "You take your wife for granted and you don't have to worry that the next Supreme Court appointment could lead to the invalidation of your legal marriage. You have never had your civil rights threatened by a majority vote of your fellow citizens. You have never been threatened with ejection from your home country just because your parents immigrated without proper papers when you were too young to understand what was happening. You were never denied the right to vote just because you didn't have a current driver's licence..."

... is what I would have said, had I been participating in the conversation.

Just to clarify, I don't think Hillary Clinton is a bitch. That's just what some people I work with think.

I've never understood why so many people hate Hillary Clinton so much. To many, she represents cold, conniving liberalism at its worst. She is seen as a shrill, calculating, and ruthlessly ambitious liar.

Of course, many of these adjectives wouldn't be nearly so uncomplimentary if they were describing a man. Men who are ruthless and ambitious are actually admired. And they are never described as shrill.

I have always really liked Hillary. Ever since her controversial 1992 comments that she wasn't just some cookie baking housewife standing by her man, I've admired her intelligence and chutzpah.

She has always come across to me as warm and hard working, deliberate and thoughtful. So sometimes she's a little awkward when she tries to tell a joke, but hey, do we need a comedian in the White House or a President? Hillary is an effective behind the scenes leader who works well with others to get things done, as demonstrated by her performance in the U.S. Senate. Sure she's outspoken, and her views have evolved. She is tough but has a human side as well, though she is criticized for showing the slightest emotion - the woman can't win, really. She's either too tough or too vulnerable.

For the "family values crowd," she takes marriage more seriously than many Republican counterparts, having never been divorced though it would have been totally justified had she chosen to do so. I love that she's a committed member of the United Methodist Church. Let's see, has Donald Trump been divorced? Is he a church member?

As for her alleged "crimes" - Benghazi, the email scandal, Vince Foster's suicide ... One by one, Clinton has been repeatedly cleared of wrongdoing, or doing nothing outside of what was normally also done by Republican peers. The fact is, Republicans can't find that she's done anything really wrong, so they make stuff up or exaggerate because they can't stand the thought of her coming into power.

And while I'm at it:

I really don't understand why so many people are supporting a Trump presidency. He has consistently and blatantly lied. He has demonstrated tremendous lack of knowledge about general civics (such as how government and elections work). He has openly declared and bragged about his own racism and ignorance regarding the world outside of the U.S. He has brazenly offended entire populations of the world with Mexicans and Muslims leading the way. It totally defies logic that he could be elected - and yet he is going to be the Republican nominee.

Donald would make a terrible President. If he even listened to advisers, they'd have to spend their time teaching him the basics of how law is made and why he can't just do whatever he wants because Congress figures in there somewhere. All constitutional checks and balances would be sent into overdrive just to make sure his whimsical power trips don't upset the fragile nature of our form of government.

At least we are presented with a choice this election season. I remember elections past when people complained that there was really no difference between the candidates.

I'm getting married this summer. To a man. For the first time in my life, this is legal in every U.S. state. It isn't too much of a stretch of the imagination to comprehend that if Donald Trump is elected, he could appoint someone to the Supreme Court who could reverse the decisions that made my legal marriage possible. That would only be the beginning.

The person who ends up being President matters to me, to a lot of people, personally.

With All Eyes on Colorado, I'm in Minnesota

It's fun to live in a swing state.

Make room, Ohio. Colorado's electoral votes are hotly contested and could be pivotal in this year's presidential election. As a result, the candidates visit often. Disrupted traffic is a regular event as motorcades transport President Obama to and from Air Force One which is usually parked out at the local air force base.

The first debate between the President and that other guy will be at the University of Denver this Wednesday. The national press will descend upon the Mile High City like they haven't since the Democratic National Convention in 2008, which nominated Mr. Obama for his first term.

When you watch the focus groups and pundits and analysts and news anchors in Denver on October 3, just 10 minutes away from my home, don't worry about me being stuck on I-25 - which will be closed in the middle of town at rush hour. 

I'm 900 miles away in Minnesota. Can I time my trips or what?

I haven’t been here for several years, but Minneapolis is still a progressive, beautiful, northern city. Is Michele Bachmann really from around here? No, I am told. This is not her district.  

Minnesota is a blue state, radical right-wing congresswomen notwithstanding. It’s not a swing state so things are a little quieter here, though a hotly contested anti-gay marriage amendment and an anti-immigrant voter ID amendment are on the ballot. So I am reminded that you don’t have to live in a swing state to have a contestable, divisive election.

I’ll be watching the debate on TV with Minnesota friends, who like me, are cheering for the President and hoping the challenger will really blow it. In addition to the usual comments and zingers from the candidates, I’ll be listening closely to what the national media are saying about my home town.

Meanwhile, though far from I-25, I suppose I could still get caught in a Minneapolis-St. Paul traffic jam.

An Election That’s Out of This World

Every election cycle seems more excessive than the last. Candidates are more extreme. Commercials are increasingly outrageous and definitely more prolific. The public appetite for "change" is huge. Does anyone remember that the politicians they want to change away from in 2010 are the same ones they voted in just two years ago in the name of change?

Don't even get me started on the Constitution. Like the Bible, the Constitution is occasionally dusted off and conveniently re-interpreted in order to fit the immediate purposes of the user. Many of the obnoxious Tea Party people who want to "go back" to the constitution don't even know what's in it.

Ken Buck, Republican candidate for U.S. Senate here in Colorado, is all for the Constitution but is not in favor of the separation of church and state.

Huh?

Christine O'Donnell, running for Senate in Delaware, seemed genuinely surprised that the most sacred of our national documents contained such a clause.

Another odd thing about this election is that, in spite of a national tsunami of Tea Party activism, the TP (pun intended) chosen candidate for governor of Colorado (I can’t even remember his name) is trailing in third place, behind Democratic Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper and the American Constitution Party candidate, famous anti-immigrant, and let's face it, racist, Tom Tancredo. Guess which one I'm for.

But the most stunning thing I've seen this election season was the one that caught me off guard as I filled out my mail-in ballot last weekend.

Initiative 300 reads:

"Shall the voters for the City and County of Denver adopt an Initiated Ordinance to require the creation of an extraterrestrial affairs commission to help ensure the health, safety, and cultural awareness of Denver residents and visitors in relation to potential encounters or interactions with extraterrestrial intelligent beings or their vehicles, and fund such commission from grants, gifts and donations?"

Ok, my first observation is that it really is much too easy to get just any preposterous notion on the ballot. But this goes above and beyond.

I might expect such an initiative in a wacky place like San Francisco or even nearby Boulder, but here in the Mile High City where most of us live in "the real world"? I thought I’d seen it all when at least three marijuana dispensaries popped up within walking distance of my house.

Denver has its whimsy. There's a giant two-story tall blue bear, for example, looking into a window outside the convention center. Our local airline, Frontier, features a different animal character on each plane, every critter marketed with a distinct name and personality. And while we're at the airport, you may have noticed that instead of a regular roof, the terminal is topped by what looks like a circus tent.

But extraterrestrials on the ballot?

Local officials are embarrassed. Some fear it will scare away businesses looking to relocate. Apparently they think the big blue bear attracts business, but ET scares business away.

Personally, I don't see the harm. No public funds will be used. And isn't any publicity for the city good publicity? If I were in a colorless, depressing metropolis back east and looking to relocate, I think I'd be attracted to a whimsical town out west that has the imagination to anticipate possible contact with life from other worlds.

So I voted YES on 300. And while I’m at it, perhaps I'll make sure the guest towels are ready, just in case a little green alien stops by.