Thought you might enjoy reading about my baptism at the Daily Kos. Hell, I can still hardly breathe. After absorbing some of the most rabid comments I felt like a Barack supporter who had accidentally stumbled into a McCain event. I didn't get any "Kill Him" rather the blogging equivalent of "Traitor" or "Terrorist" He is an obvious troll...etc.
Little Levi, age four, came up to me at lunch table and yelled, "You can't have those in here!" and pointed directly at my shirt pocket where my box of Old Golds was bulging out. Levi was in trouble all morning, one time pulling a kid off the swing and throwing him to the ground, another time when he cussed out the teacher and aides. I was an 18-year old college baseball player on a full ride scholarship and had been offered this non-paid position as part of my scholarship requirements. The kids liked me as I was the only male around and liked to do active things like giving wild rides on the merry-go-round and building huge block structures.
It was noon and I was hustling down the hall to try to get back to campus for class when Levi stopped me and said.: Mr. Bobby if you were my dad would you have done this to me? He pulled up his shirt and showed me his back covered in wide, red welts. I didn't make it to class that day. And I never saw Levi ever again. Why is this important? It is when an all-American kid from northern Idaho who grew up in a strict Republican background became a liberal.
After my small size and the inability to hit a slider drove me out of the minor leagues, I became a back to the earth hippie and vegetarian. This was when the Vietnam War was a volatile time that tore families apart and cost the lives of five of my grade school friends. I got in my only bar room brawl after chugging a pitcher of beer and getting a little too vocal the night after Richard Nixon had resigned. I ended up working at residential treatment center for emotionally disturbed boys, ran a runaway shelter on the Canadian border, got a Special Ed degree and taught preschool handicapped kids, kindergarten, second, fourth, and sixth grades. I later coached high school baseball, golf, basketball-both boys and girls and taught high school English and Journalism. We took in over 200 foster kids in a 18-year period before I got divorced. I quit teaching suddenly and started a mental health counseling service working with Medicaid eligible clients. I moved away from kids and into adult work and now specialize in treating paranoid schizophrenics.
I now consider myself a tribal elder at age 58 and taught myself how to blog after Sarah Palin was announced as the vice presidential candidate and I learned that she had graduated from the University of Idaho in the town where my business is centered.
I started a blog site, became an active contributor to Impalin' an anti-Palin site and started posting on Open Salon. My lefty cousin suggested I try the Daily Kos and I submitted my first diary two days ago. It had the provocative headline of " I am Looking Forward to This Depression." I entered my diary and then went over to one of my clients home to give him some smokes. I returned a couple hours later and was impressed that my diary had solicited multiple comments. I was amazed by the response and horrified at the tone and tenor of most of the comments. I sucked it up and responded to a few and read every one of them. It started off being painful but I chose to be encouraged by the many positive comments of those who had gotten my mostly positive message. However, after absorbing some of the more rabid comments I started to feel like a Barack supporter who had accidentally stumbled into a McCain rally. I didn't get any "Kill Him!" comments, rather I got the blogging equivalent of "Traitor" or "Terrorist". Here are some of them:
"He is obviously a troll." "He was sent by Bill O'Reilly." " He had no tip jar, no previous posts and then this offensive diary." "You are too much man, don't you care anything about the poor?" "It wouldn't have been so offensive if he had some history on this site." "People die in depressions!" " This is like finding the good in getting cancer." "Oh, spare me the catastrophic bullshit." These were some of the best. What do we really know about this mysterious new poster? Hmm... Kind of like Who is the Real Barack Obama...It become obvious to me that many of these had only read the headline or first paragraph and then went off on me as if I had wished this tough economic time on the poor. Most of the comments were just howls at how terrible the depression is going to be as if I didn't know. Such accusations considering my intense, varied background and service to abuse victims, the poor, the hundreds of families I have dealt with in crisis and the mentally ill was and is insulting.
I was trying to give us all some Hope not cheer like some moron about how cool it was going to be to suffer. I would have taken the criticism of being too pollyannish about my positive spin on a horrific situation. That would have been fair. A note- I am a cancer survivor and yes I used almost the exact philosophy contained in my diary to deal and beat it. I accepted the fact, embraced it as a positive challenge and took action to defeat it. I propose the same for this economic crisis. Here are some things all our you can consider:
Donate to the local food bank now. Take $25 bucks and buy a bunch of food. These agencies are always in need of more help, money and support.
Go into your garage and get a couple of the old backpacks out of there and fill them with school supplies. Go to the Dollar Store and get some paper, pencils, notebooks, markers and take it to the nearest elementary school,
Go to Goodwill and buy a bunch of shirts and take them over to the nursing home.
Go down to the emergency room some night at midnight or so and learn what is going on, let people talk, give them a candy bar, see what you can do to offer support.
Have a spaghetti dinner and donate all the money to some family that has just lost their home.
Take so food over to an elderly neighbor
Offer to drive people to appointments
Give blood
Basically do something rather than sit on your ass and curse at the other side who caused all of this.
For those of you like the guy who chastised me for being "catastrophic" get informed. This isn't a joke or some minor thing that is going to pass quickly so we can all return to our comfortable lives. This is going to be a crisis for at least a year or more. If you deny this than you are simply eating too many bowls of Dreamos.
For those of you who are convinced that I am a troll I fell compelled to lecture you on the difference between being prudent and paranoid. If you are that frequently paranoid I suggest trying a newer medication called Geodon to help. For those who wanted me to wait my turn forget it.
This experience on this progressive site, reminds me of the the assaults I have received over the years when fighting to get kids off Ritalin or when I was verbally assaulted by three women after giving a speech on why the community needed a new Boys and Girls Club because of the increase in single parent families. By the way you can all be progressives. I'll just stay liberal and I will proudly add "bleeding heart" to it. I will not be cowed into not using my own label for who I am.
Perhaps, the Daily Kos needs to add requirements for newbies like me. Here are my deficits that just may not allow me to be welcomed as a contributor to this site:
Even though I shop almost totally at the Food Co-Op I can not eat granola because it gives me gas.
I quit being a vegetarian years ago after reading in the Secret Life of Plants that carrots scream when you pull them up. I started eating tacos again after learning that.
I have this odd trait of actually judging people on actions rather than just words
I don't always choose to demonize in every post those on the other side of things
I think excessive materialism and consumerism is a factor in this economic collapse. I'm sorry but I don't think a 180 pound man needs a two and a half ton vehicle with heated seats to move from point A to point B.
I think everyone who shops at Wal-Mart supports modern day slavery.
I smoke several cigarettes each night. But isn't tobacco an herb?.
I have never thought of John McCain as being a hero. He was shot down while dropping bombs on civilians from thousands of feet above them. The real heroes were the grunts out in the steamy jungle picking off leeches, fighting hand to hand, and trying to save their buddies.
I still don't know if the purple pill is right for me
I really wanted to make my headline—Bitch Slapped but didn't want to be incorrect.
I don't know how to add a tip jar to my diary yet
There is never a shortage of jerks wherever you go. Thanks for the open welcome. Go Barack!