Creek Running North

Thank you for this clear and level-headed first response. You articulated so well some of the broken thoughts that ran through my head last night. I am worn out today, so not excatly in that punching-back mood yet, but your case for it is a shot of energy, indeed.

Fine post, Chris, especially re the difficulty Kerry would have faced.  You quickly dismiss the folks who are contemplating emigration, and it will be intresting to see how that actually plays out.  The parallels to 1936 Germany are close enough that many on the left probably will try to leave, and I can’t really blame them.  Landscape matters too much to me, and I hope I’m not just being sentimental.

I would go hug a Jeffrey Pine now if one were closeby, and drink that vanilla scent that says “here.” But I’ll have to settle for a head-clearing blast of eucalypt, and try not to idealize Australia too much.

Because here we are.

My very first response to the result was a teetering on despair, but as I thought about it I realized that I did not feel like giving up. Rather I felt a deep determination to take advantage of the disappointment we all feel and make it a fire to feed the outrage. Bush’s reelection is a disaster, but, as you so clearly pointed out, the last few months have proved his ineptitude and dishonesty. There is no way, if he continues with his attitude, that anything good can come of what he proposes and does. The world will not stand for it much longer.

My only request this time around is that you Americans take the rest of us in the world on board and use our own wisdom, knowledge, skills, and numbers to help you more (and you help us more) in making this a better world. The planet needs all of our cooperation, not some one-tracked vision bounded by artificial borders. I am as outraged as you are about Bush’s hands in my part of the world and I want more say in the matter!

Hell, I said I’d leave if Arnold got elected, and I’m still here. It’s cheap talk. But so, so understandable.

Thanks Chris. The DNC is in need of a total shakeup; I think that’d be a fine thing.

My frustration is mostly because I was so emotionally invested in this election.  I haven’t voted for a Democrat since ‘92, and I genuinely like Kerry.

Oh, well.  Time for all of us to get to work.  Once I stop fucking crying.

“At least a few of these people will have their worldviews shattered due to the actions of the man they voted for in the next four years. They will need us.” That’s right. And we will have to be level-headed, and not vindictive at that point. For the moment, though, we who opposed Bush need each other.

This was an excellent post, Chris; I’m not surprised by the outcome and my deep sadness today comes from the same place as yours: I can’t stop thinking about how many more human beings are going to die as a result of this election, Americans and non-Americans. It strikes me as a death sentence, and I don’t know how to process that, except to say that it’s not the time to stop raising one’s voice against this insanity.

“While we still have the internet” — that was a very clear-eyed commenter indeed!

This election wasn’t a total loss. In PA, 26 out of 35 candidates endorsed by the Sierra Club (not counting Kerry) won. The challenger to Senator Specter was unfortunately not among them, but considering how little funding and support he recieved, he did remarkably well. And, all things considered, it might not be bad to have a suposedly moderate Republican advance to chair the Senate Judiciary Committee.

But I’m afraid we’re going to have to fight hard to keep the ESA from being overturned (along with NEPA, the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, etc.).

Parting Waters — November 3rd 2004

It feels like Groundhog Day.  The rodent has come out onto the White House lawn and then scampered back in.  Four more years of winter.  I’ve been walking around in a haze all day, on the verge of tears one minute, wanting to strike out at all my republican relatives the next (both my parents are from Ohio and while they are the converted few, their siblings are not as enlightened, not as ‘coastal’)

I came here today knowing Chris would have something to say — something to lift me from my fog.  and I was right.  Chris Clarke has been an unrelenting inspiration to me, and it makes me even more angry when he is upset, b/c unlike so many people out there bitching, I know he really cares.  So I thought I would share my thoughts.  Please bear with me, i think you will find something to take home with you here.  The real America is down on her knees, and I was wondering like so many of us what I can do to help her up, what difference can I, will I make.  My God son was born a week ago.  What can I tell him to save him and his generation from the brutal adulthood I have been christened into these last few years.  This is what I got…

The madness is changing our faces — parting our races — standing in places, we never thought we’d see — we’d say — the day it all slipped away.  A world without end is what they were taught, but that was before all these wars that they fought, got caught up with all these toys that they bought.

Why should you listen to me?  I just a 26-year-old who relates more to Woody Allen than to anyone else in Hollywood.  But I’m still a bleeding-heart liberal (i always thought that was just a cliche, but today, i think i lost a quart or two or three).  Shit, why should I listen to me?  It just doesn’t matter, the chatter ringing in my ears.  You won’t remember my name.  I’ll be long gone, like last week’s #1 pop song.  Waiting for the first glimmer of warmth, sign of light, to quell the fright, then just might — get out and fight, but not in my lifetime.  Like dusk must feel as night creeps closer — I know that I will not last long.  Someone much darker, colder will soon move in. 

Fore I am just the planter of seeds, with no mouths to feed.  Future generations will sow their need from the roots of the weeds that now infiltrate completely, I am left alone to meddle with how we might deal. Touch me, roll with me — as I ebb haggard.

Remove my mask, and you may ask, just who/what are we dealing with.  Everyday I question this quandary, while washing my laundry, far from a neighbor’s eyes — a piece of me dies, rising to the surface of my shallow depths to swim alone, can’t find my home, the music drones on and on and on — allowing for just the occasional breath.  Free of roles and shifting souls, nothing ever seems right, tight situations and sleazy innuendo, brings likely crescendo — crashing to the floor.

Today insanity seemed the right path — a good thing, a goal. Seems like everyone I look up to is insane in some way — in history I mean — insanity breeds with intelligence to give art in so many instances — I see it in my life; what inspires me is not always good, but as food, it is consumed and helps me grow — to show, exactly what I want.  That is to say it has not been that way. — but it is everything I want, my days ruined in thought and perspective — only slightly effective — in moving from yesterday, through today, and toward tomorrow.

From tomorrow I must borrow

so to save for today

moments wishing this dream

didn’t leave me this way.

Thin voices chime “come what may”

or maybe whisper “some day”

but ring in silent cliché

for this cast away

Walls caving to goodbye waving

in just a matter of days

Dire dreams roll into nightmares

drop me down in a maze

Not given a choice of ways

Every turn the feeling stays

Memories weave a hot heavy haze

Haunting as the hound that bays

Reeling senses to cold pretenses

thus the waking in lieu

of the uncommon chance

only dreamed by the few

Still trying to deny they knew

simple truths like the sky was blue

While sweating thoughts that too were due

Dripping wet like morning dew

Words empowering then souring

yielding thoughts of setting adrift

Mentally mixing molten metals

worriedly welding closed this rift

Through nestling nights now lost I sift

Unpacking my one lone true gift

meant for you and me to help lift

us from the cold currents so swift

Suddenly strong, apparently wrong

this dream seemed meant to be

more than just simply sleeping

as if time were using me

I’ll try going back to sea

Yet still searching for the key

In time we may come to see

that only love will set us free.

Like some oasis on this long deserted journey, this is my day — . Day in — Day out.  Bar in — Bar out.  Stay in — Far out.  Soak up — Dry out.  And pray for more rain.

So where do I go now — how will this make a difference?  I want it to be baby steps in a parent’s eyes, no disguise.  I crawl with bleeding belly through the Flash video of my past, my present, my future… where I found this, the only difference I will make is if these goals are met when I die, no lie. 

There are no answers.  At some point, one must come to recognize their own wondering path as just that — freeing themselves from the answers, or even the journey for those answers.  They must find beyond those walls some inherent meaning, that may not be able to be verbalized, or construed in some manner where by it could be studied, interpreted, like some alien autopsy.  It must be accepted as truth without the question of infallibility.  It must bring meaning, and thus I believe happiness, in order to free oneself from the misgivings of society, our lives, our religions.  We will struggle and fight for that which is merely lust, but I pray we will not die for anything short of true love.

Love — separated from family, God, and self — love for another individual, romantic, intimate love, will surpass all questions as I see them put forth — to know I need no other purpose than to love and be loved.  Everything, everything else in time becomes material, whether you want it to or not, it does. 

This is why some say love fades — because they cannot frame it and hang it on a wall.  They can’t tithe to love, hoping for redemption.  Love is with passion, and with passion comes emotion — which will not always wait for your mind to catch up with your heart.  Love is fuel for the lonely, and sedation for the wicked.  Love is in short, the non-answer, in that it can never be questioned.  In that it will always exist, more over persist in the dwindling daylight downstream.

Never a better time to learn to sail, parting waters.

Hi Chris,

I just stopped in to share in the sentiments.  We need to stick together in the darkness don’t we?