Magical Thinking told me that the National Nightmare would be over.
Magical Thinking told me that [secretly] most Republican politicians in Washington would be glad to see him go. Foolish thoughts.
I should have been prepared; Magical Thinking has been an enemy for most of my life, in the form of FEAR [False Evidence Appearing Real] and HPtFtU [Human Propensity to Foul things Up] The latter phrase coined by Francis Spufford in his book Unapologetic, uses a slightly different phrase.
I followed the commentary on MSNBC nearly every weeknight for 5 years; after the second Acquittal, I sort of gave up. Six people were killed, hundreds were maimed or injured. The Vice President and the Speaker of the House, as well as other notable Democrats were targeted by the mob of Insurrectionists and marked for death. Excrement covered the walls and floors of the Capitol Building; personal property of lawmakers was stolen after office doors were broken down.
The man who said he could fire a shot at someone on Fifth Avenue, with no consequences, proved that he knew what he was talking about.
No Consequences.
The question then becomes, what happens next. Hopefully State and Federal charges will be made against trump; and he will end up in jail alongside his long-time personal attorney, Michael Cohen, who was indicted for crimes committed for the benefit of Donald J. Trump. Rape, Sexual Assault, Bank Fraud, Insurance Fraud and whatever else ends up on the docket will need to be enough.
Give a Damn
Noel Stookey
©1971 Songbirds of Paradise Music
You remember the song called “Give a Damn” Some group sang last summer?
About people livin’ with rats and things the paper couldn’t cover?
Well, it wasn’t very popular Nobody wanted to hear
And that’s a shame ’cause a pretty tune Was just what we needed that year
The first thing nobody wanted to hear was “damn” – that was on the label
I mean it’s okay if you just read it there, but you didn’t bring it up at the table
So the radio didn’t play the song Except on the FM stations
Until some looter worked his way Down to the United Nations
Then word got around that there’s this song All about the riots and stuff
So, they played “Give A Damn” on the noon report Just once, but that was enough
Some cameraman with groovy footage of glowing embers and charred remains
Put the pictures with the song on the six o’clock news Following the baseball game
Then everybody said it was a real fine song “Why didn’t we hear it before?
Let’s all blame the radio stations for bringing on the domestic war
Oh sure, we’d seen some articles We knew some people needed help
But social workers take care of that I mean, why give a damn yourself?”
Well, the reason that you didn’t and the reason that you won’t
Is you think you got a lot to lose and the other fella don’t
Oh, you give a damn, well so does he ‘You think the rest of us are just fakin’?
I mean what do you need that you got to give Less than what you’re takin’?
Where could you go? Who could you see? What could you do the best?
The book is in your left hand Your right hand knows the address
Address your questions, address your money Address your telephone number But above all else, please address yourself to give a damn this summer.
More than 500,000 people have died from COVID-19
Studies show that 40% of the COVID-19 deaths did not need to occur. Had the 45th president made any real effort to address the Pandemic, hundreds of thousands would not have died.
I consider this to be unforgivable.
Too many government leaders consider this to be ‘business as usual’.
My Give a Damn has broken.
but…
Do not be daunted by the enormity
of the world’s grief.
Do justly, now.
Love mercy, now.
Walk humbly, now.
You are not obligated to complete the work,
but neither are you free to abandon it.
-The Talmud
From Aaron Copland’s Lincoln Portrait
“Fellow citizens, we cannot escape history.”
That is what he said. That is what Abraham Lincoln said.
“Fellow citizens, we cannot escape history. We of this congress and this administration will be remembered in spite of ourselves. No personal significance or insignificance can spare one or another of us. The fiery trial through which we pass will light us down in honor or dishonor to the latest generation. We, even we here, hold the power and bear the responsibility.” [Annual Message to Congress, December 1, 1862]
He was born in Kentucky, raised in Indiana, and lived in Illinois. And this is what he said. This is what Abe Lincoln said.
“The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty and we must rise with the occasion. As our case is new, so we must think anew and act anew. We must disenthrall ourselves and then we will save our country.” [Annual Message to Congress, December 1, 1862]
When standing erect he was six feet four inches tall, and this is what he said.
He said: “It is the eternal struggle between two principles, right and wrong, throughout the world. It is the same spirit that says ‘you toil and work and earn bread, and I’ll eat it.’ No matter in what shape it comes, whether from the mouth of a king who seeks to bestride the people of his own nation, and live by the fruit of their labor, or from one race of men as an apology for enslaving another race, it is the same tyrannical principle.” [Lincoln-Douglas debates, 15 October 1858]
Lincoln was a quiet man. Abe Lincoln was a quiet and a melancholy man. But when he spoke of democracy, this is what he said.
He said: “As I would not be a slave, so I would not be a master. This expresses my idea of democracy. Whatever differs from this, to the extent of the difference, is no democracy.”
Abraham Lincoln, sixteenth president of these United States, is everlasting in the memory of his countrymen. For on the battleground at Gettysburg, this is what he said:
He said: “That from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion. That we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain. That this nation under God shall have a new birth of freedom and that government of the people, by the people, and for the people shall not perish from the earth.”
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Tags: depression, faith, freelance illustration, hope, intolerance, material poverty, mental health, Nerve Pain, Neuropathy, pain, persistence, personal excellence, Polyneuropathy
Chronicles in Ordinary Time 