Well, it's been a long time. I've got excuses - actually a lot of great excuses - but they're about as useless as excuses usually are. The truth is, I've gone numb.
It's not worth the time to even read the headlines anymore. They arrange themselves in a few broad categories: Outrage! Cabinet member is stupid and incompetent! Dems are asleep! Illegal! Here's what's going to happen! Constitution! Millions affected! And my favorite, and I'm sure your favorite too: Trump backs off!
They all have one thing in common: None of it matters, because nothing will be done. It will continue for years. The media circus will charge along happily, with another breathtaking act every day. Elon Musk and his gazillionaire buds will have all your personal information: all of it. The economy will continue to be a very, very slow train wreck. More and more people will be without healthcare. We will continue to discover that "Oh - the Federal government does that? I never knew" when it stops doing that and we notice. Other people, not us, will be affected, until it is too late. The liberal consensus (not a partisan term - look it up) will be history, something the Republicans have worked at for decades. There is no hope in sight, at least not yet.
There's no way to know how it will end. It could end in any number of apocalyptic disasters, which I don't want to think about. But it also could happen when someone gets up and does... something. Who? I don't know. A butcher, a baker, a candlestick maker. A housewife. An activist. A teenager. God help us, maybe even an elected representative. What? I don't know. A viral video. A growing organization. A young man with a grocery bag, standing in front of a tank. God help us, maybe legislative action with teeth.
Early on in this blog, I noted that "denial works only so long, and then you've got to get up and do something. This is my something." I made the promise, so I have to do it, however I feel. OK. If this guy can rise up, we can all rise up.
I had a vision, which is nothing exceptional: just an idea that I could see. It's a foolish idea, but this is my blog, and so here it is. Every American who is sick of this shit - which polls tell us are a healthy majority - travels to a nearby big city - preferably in a red state, but it probably doesn't matter - and sits in the street somewhere. This would be, like, 200 million Americans scattered among twenty or thirty cities. Do the math. Each of us - every one - has a small sign. The sign says, "NO."
Like I said, a foolish vision. But somewhere there's a foolish vision that will take root, grow, and overwhelm us with its brilliant simplicity, it's undeniable truth.
Watch for it.
