When W. was elected I was staying in Canada, North Vancouver British Columbia to be exact.I must tell you they were having some good laughs at our expense up there in the great white north.I on the other hand was distraught.It seemed to me that W hadn't the acumen or the backbone to be the leader of the free world.I'd say that time proved me right.But the thing that bothered me most was that Alice through the looking glass feeling.What fucking universe am I in?I felt all alone.I mean totally isolated.Like my whole generation had vanished.I know if you remember the sixties you weren't really there, those were my formative years.I was just a kid.But I remember the spirit of the music.The togetherness we all felt.War for no good reason was bad.America was so ripe with promise that your chest puffed out with pride.Yes the WWII generation thought we were nuts, but we knew that standing in opposition to wrong and injustice was every bit as patriotic as obliterating the Nazi's and the Japanese Imperialists.More below the squiggle.
We all remember Doctor Kings "I have a dream speech". I was seven years old that day. I heard what many might dispute.I didn't hear a plea for justice for blacks.I heard a man speak about a promise made to all of us, the E pluribus unum the "out of many one" of us, a promise made by the founders to strive forward forever in creating a just land, ruled by law for the betterment of every citizen regardless of anything but their humanity.
That feeling of isolation began to creep into my life one day while watching the news.from Nashua New Hampshire when Ronald Reagen said "I paid for this Microphone" when some one tried to cut him off.This was apparently not only memorable to mesome how I knew it was all over but the crying.Oh and let us not forget Michael Stanley Dukakis, who when repeated attacked as a liberal didn't have the balls to stand up and say,"Yes I am, and here is why" the arguments we have all used a hundred times by now, like the 40 hour work weeks? Paid vacation etc.?I didn't understand how people couldn't see right through this guy.When I brought it up the responses I got were but he makes us feel good about America.At that time you may remember Andre Agassi selling Canon cameras talking about image is everything which seemed to epitomize everything Reagen stood for.So on we go, whittling away at the working class death by a billion paper cuts, Bush the elder who seems like a pussycat these days.Then came Clinton who could give me goosebumps when speaking and deliver a nice moderate Republican triangulate to the middle get re-elected DLC bullshit policies.Now it is 9/11 and we frankly as a country I believe suffered from a massive broken heart.But within days I hear a quote from Darth Cheney that chills me to the bone.While Bush the lesser was flying around doing whatever Darth says"I guess we are going to be a nation men not laws for a while"I'm thinking if we abandon the rule of law we have already lost this war on terror they are talking about.That is an act of cowardice.And still this is all in my head.There is nowhere to go and find like minded people.So off we go to Afghanistan and I am OK with that.I want the Taliban gone like scraping a bug off my shoe.Comes 2003 and now ere gonna go after Saddam?WTF?Colin Powell shows up at the UN and says "WMD"well now I have to tell you I have read his biography, I am an US Army vet and this guy is what Army leadership is all about.I really admire him.I think he's that guy that troops run into battle behind.Most importantly he's not gonna sacrifice troops for his own personal glory.So I doubt myself about Iraq.This is extremely painful to me as things progress and W's boys have no clue what to do after the military makes Iraq look third rate.Where are the WMD'S?Still today some idiotin my local paper is trying to justify and illegal war of aggression perpetrated by criminals that lead to the American public accepting torture as a viable method for gaining intelligence not to mention the untold slaughter of Iraqi civilians.Still I am screaming in my head.Does no one else see this shit?Since when is the media jobs to be cheerleaders and not skeptics?Have we forgotten Viet Nam, have we forgotten Watergate.Well no of course not, but news is a business and facts and truth are not as certain as you seem to think buster.Then in 2005 along comes Huffington Post.A light ,a beacon, man I sign on and start commenting to beat the band.I am not alone.Neither are my comments as welcome as I thought they might be.Forget about criticizing Ariana for instance. I tried to call her out for soliciting question to put to Nancy Pelosi and then summarily dismissing the number one question posed, why no investigation of war crimes?Couldn't get a comment through.Still can't get answers as to why some don't get through.But it isn't all bad because lots of stories there lead me to Daily Kos.Now I am out of my depth here, so many policy wonks, and people like Nate Silver and Ministry of Truth carving out a niche in the national spotlight.But it has made me smarter.When I get bullshit arguments at Huffpo I know how to get the facts that back my shit up.Since I have been in the hospital these last two weeks I gave gain about thirty followers and my arguments get sharper all the time.In person I have been told I'm tough to argue with because I am a steamroller of facts.So any way quite a rant I've made for myself.I was inspired in part by watching events that transpired in a diary from luckylizard yesterday.As well as the nice response I got from my own diary a couple of weeks back.My dairies are few and don't garner much attention, and that is OK.I am listed as a frequent commenter though that is probably stretching it.My TU status is like a yo yo I get a message every six weeks or so saying I am a TU again.But my point is, I am NO LONGER alone.I see like minded people make smart arguments.I see facts and reason and logic celebrated.I see courage.People putting there bodies on the line.In the 2008 campaign season I was recovering from major surgery.I lamented here that I could not get out for Obama, and as much as I may find fault with him, and I do, though I never believed him to be a liberal, just maybe the smartest guy in the room and reason would win out more often than not, I couldn't do it.But Some one here said, hey you talk to the folks in your life you voted you did what you could I felt a small part of something again, something grand and good.I wanted to go to downtown Chicago and try a little occupy and wound up with a brain tumor.Cant do that either.But most days I am exerting a little influence with my comments on Huffington post.So I want to say thanks to kos and the community he created.You've made me smarter, a better advocate, in some ways braver.But most importantly I am in my own modest way helping to bend the arc of history towards justice as the President is so fond of saying.Happy New Year.