I want to focus on hope this year.
The November election was, at last, a glimmer of hope after six long years of darkness.* By the narrowest of margins, the religious fanatics no longer control Congress and the fascists in the White House have been put on notice. The moderates of both parties have scared the bejeebus out of the far right kooks who have taken over the Republican party, and hopefully, the far left Congressional leaders of the Democratic party.
Yes, there is reason for hope, slim as it is, that reason will prevail and the three branches of our government will be representative of the country's majority, which is moderate. This glimmer of hope, as I see it, is very small and in danger of being snuffed out. The only way to keep it going is to pay attention, for each and every one of us who care about the future of this country to write to our representatives, to call them out when they endanger us, to hold them accountable, to demand that they represent us and not the lobbyists.
It is up to us. It has always been up to us, but we became complacent and let the wackos gain control, with heartbreaking results, as we have seen. See, the reason I say that hope, although it is there, is very slim, is because I have very little confidence in people to actually follow through and hold Congress' feet to the fire. But then, Dallas County went Democratic in the November elections, which gobsmacked everyone, so maybe people will continue to pay attention in the coming year, after all.
Hope, like love, must be a verb this year. We have to pay attention, stay informed, and take action.
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* For those who think the word "darkness" is melodramtic, let me say this: The President of the United States thinks that a supernatural being that he calls "God" told him, personally, to invade a sovereign country because that would, somehow, help prepare the way for the Second Coming. Countless thousands have died because of this deluded man's decisions, including nearly 3,000 American servicemen and women. This was all in response - bear with me here if you can, because there's no logic - to another deluded man's belief that the presence of non[Islamic] believers on "sacred soil" in the land of Mecca was blasphemous to his supernatural being that he calls "Allah," so he brought down the World Trade Center towers, which killed nearly 3,000 Americans. Why the first deluded man invaded Iraq and deposed Saddam Hussein, who had nothing whatever to do with the second deluded man's actions is a mystery, but it somehow made sense to the first deluded man's, um, brain.
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Our species may well be in a transitional evolutionary phase wherein we either use our minds to survive or become extinct in consequence of idiotic religious behavior.
-Baubles of Blasphemy-Edwin F. Kagin
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