I’m going to ask you for a favor in a few minutes.
I’m laying in bed on Sunday afternoon. My arms and legs are paint splattered. Just like all the other weekends.
I painted hallway trim. A little touch up aside, that whole area is done. My mom and my sister urged me to paint the ceiling deep purple and the walls white. They were right, it looks stunning. I even got a mini, over-the-top crystal chandelier. It’s all terribly gaudy and wonderful.
I’m seeing our new little house transform and it feels gratifying.
Randy and I hung artwork up over the weekend. Pieces that had always been relegated to an office or a basement because they’re not really appropriate now have center stage. Who says we can’t have a 5 foot poster of Elvis Costello in the dining room?
I tried to stay away from the news as much as I could this weekend.
Everything is happening so fast. Indictments, verdicts, and meltdowns.
I felt profound sadness when John McCain passed. I’m reading that we’re going to investigate Hillary’s emails again when the president is committing treason in front of everybody. This is insanity.
Buckle up, because I think we’re going to see a lot more insane shit real fast. I’m afraid for everyone.
Joey comes home a week from today. I just need for him to not get eaten by a cougar for one more week and then I’ll be able to breathe again.
After hours of painting, I found my way back to the rest of the world. The first thing I read is there has been a mass shooting in Jacksonville, Florida.
For a brief moment, I cried uncle.
Too much. Too fucking much. I can’t read anymore, I can’t take in anymore, I can’t keep being this afraid. I give up.
And then it passed.
I don’t. I don’t give up.
Fuck giving up. I’d rather stay mad and afraid than give up.
Here’s the thing, though, we all need breaks.
I needed one in a big bad way this weekend, so I took it. I wasn’t perfect. I mean, I still checked in, just not quite as obsessively. We have to walk away when we need to walk away.
And now is where I ask you for something.
We’re in peril right now, you guys. I hate that we are and I want to be all comforting and shit, but the truth is, our democracy is in peril. Lives are in peril.
We must vote in the midterms. Every eligible voter must vote in the midterms.
My request is that you try to convince someone who is on the fence or who plans to abstain from voting to vote.
A young person, who is very dear to me, planned to not vote. He didn’t vote in the presidential election and did not plan to vote in the midterms. He feels the whole system is broken and he isn’t participating.
Of course, I disagree with this stance for more reasons than I have time to write down. But I didn’t talk about my reasons to disagree. I told him that I respected what he said and that I could understand his frustration. Then I explained to him the reasons I felt it was important for everyone to vote.
I promised to stand by him and listen to his ideas for change in the world. I also explained he had a choice.
Young people can start from the ground, or they can dig themselves out of a hole.
It makes no sense to start from a deficit.
I asked him if he would reconsider and to vote a straight blue ticket. I asked that he consider this because, while he may not believe his vote makes a difference, I believe with all my heart his vote will make a difference.
He agreed.
Don’t give up. We can do this. We must do this.
Shit is super bad right now and if we don’t at least flip the house, I don’t know what will happen. Nothing good. I am fairly certain of that. Nothing good.
I take comfort in knowing we are many in number. That counts for a lot. Still, life is unsettling and scary.
Be kind to each other.
Commit to voting on November 6th.
#RESIST
Photo courtesy of James DeMers
It has always been important to vote down the ticket but never as important as now. My rant to those who discuss displeasure but don’t vote is “Shut Up”, you gave away your privilege to complain.
It is so important now. So very important.
right on sister! i’m w/ you! i try to be non-political in most of my media work, but it was just seeping in from every angle, so we started a new podcast called GD Politics and we aim to keep it positive, solutions-based, and hopefully rational. i just couldn’t remain silent, but didn’t want this stuff infiltrating all the other topics we talk about. EVERY episode will talk about voting. hope you’ll check it out!
I am so looking forward to checking your podcast out!!
I vote by mail and love it. I can sit at my computer for a couple of hours with my honest-to-god paper ballots and look up every initiative and down ballot race until I’m confident I have it all right before making a mark on them. No-one is standing in line waiting for me to finish. My signature on the mailing envelope gets matched with the one they have on file for positive ID without any vote suppressing hoops to jump through. And in a week I can enter my ballot numbers into a website to confirm that my vote got counted.
One of the political bloggers I have been reading for years instituted “Trumpless Tuesdays” a while ago to combat Fergus overload, and when I was without internet access for a while I tried to enjoy the forced separation from the shitstorm that is the news these days while it lasted, but I didn’t really like it much.
I can’t do that much to resist the attack on our country on a good day, and I guess I feel like the very least I can do is stay well enough informed about what’s going on to be able to talk to anyone who is straying from the truth about it and know what to say.
I know that’s easier for some than others, and I don’t seem to be too much worse for the wear, so I’ve taken that up as my political job this time, and the sheer number of words that get typed on this laptop in service of it has worn the letters off of the e,r,t,u,i,a,s,d, and n keys on the keyboard. I’m having to learn to be what they used to call a “touch typist” when I was in school.
I’m a little jealous of your Elvis poster. I have posters from The Joy Formidable show I saw in 2015 and from Sleater-Kinney and Quasi at the Fillmore in 2005 (I think) and although they are framed, they are not hung, and I sort of have them on display in my room.
Oh well, please hang in there, Ohio is so damn important, and at least there are some amusing Pecker jokes to try and stay sane with…
P.S. Purple ceilings are the shit.
The Elvis poster came from a Peaches record store. Randy had it rolled up for years and years. I put it on a canvas and it is looking mighty fine in the Dining room.
I so agree with the need to vote. I’m also petrified over the Russian hacking. Experts say its almost foregone. However, if enough of us get out there, even the best hacker can’t win. I pray.
I’m going to vote and believe that it matters, because it doesn’t make sense to me to do otherwise.
I agree with encouraging people to vote, but I draw the line at telling anyone whom to vote for. Each person should research the options and make up their own mind according to their conscience. That is my belief. And I don’t think I’ve ever voted a straight ticket, because both “teams” are good and bad, and it’s only by considering the individual that you get any idea of how they may or may not act in office.
But what do I know? I’ve been living under communism for the last 2 years – in China and again in Vietnam – where options are not an option. So I treasure the ability to vote as I see fit and not as anyone else tells me to. Telling people who to vote for seems a bit totalitarian, after things I’ve seen.
I agree. I mean, I nearly agree. I would have written a similar response two years ago. But this is bad. Republicans have proven to us that they will do nothing to hold 45 accountable. They are doing all they can to suppress voters, to protect themselves and apparently, a lot of them are in Russia’s pocket. While they remain in office, babies are without their parents. Protections put in place are being stripped away. His swamp monster cabinet continues to spend money like it grows on trees. The GOP is corrupt. Right now we have to get the compromised people OUT and the only way to do that is to vote a straight blue ticket.
Mind you, I didn’t tell him how to vote. I asked him to vote that way. He agreed.
As many others have said those who didn’t vote are part of why we’re in the mess we’re in now. That and the fact that a bunch of people in the U.S. are stupid, racist assholes.
Anyway where I live there have been four special elections just this year. I think technically the current runoff election makes it five. I don’t think there’s really a conspiracy–just a combination of bad circumstances and a lot of candidates–but it sure feels like someone’s trying to sow confusion and voting fatigue.
For me at least it’s not working. I have voted and will continue to vote at every opportunity. Hopefully my vote will at least cancel out that of some stupid, racist asshole.
As long as we keep voting, we’re doing what we can. If I can enlist in some more young people, I will. I am working on it. The key, I have found, is to just listen and not tell them they are wrong for not voting. Then everyone digs their heels in. If you listen and tell them why they should vote instead of telling them they are wrong, I think we have more of a chance to convert them to voters. At least for the midterms. I can’t see beyond the midterms right now.
I never thought we’d live in times like these. Weirdness on both sides of the pond that I just can’t fathom. Hooray for purple ceilings, 5 foot posters of EC and people who still believe that we can make a difference. At least we can try. Never give up! xx
Never ever give up. That just can’t be an option. I just hope it swings back around before I shuffle off my mortal coil.
I can’t vote as I live in Australia and am Australian, but you can be assured, if I could I most certainly would. Pretty much the rest of the world is looking on and saying ‘how the hell did this happen?’. Quite, quite terrifying, even from afar, and the implications are global as well. I wish you (us) all much luck, and a change asap.
I hope so to. This is just horrifying. I am afraid every day, but I am also committed to doing everything I can to fight until these corrupt assholes are gone. Hopefully in prison.