Reading dailyKos the last few days has been depressing and scary. A lot of people here are exposing a lot of maggots, and it's scary to see what's under the rocks. Necessary, but scary. But it's not enought to expose maggots. We must also plant crass. Otherwise, our landscape will be just a lot of upturned rocks and dirt.
Most people aren't devils or gods, they're just ordinary shmoes trying to get along in the world, not thinking too much, just putting food on the table and themselves in a chair before a TV. They listen to what their leaders say because it's easy, and they don't question because that's hard.
Winning the hearts and minds of the leaders of the opposition may be impossible; but winning the hearts and minds of these people - the ordinary people - is possible. We just have to plant some grass.
I have some ideas below the fold. But not nearly enough. I need your help - this community's help. Together we do have the brains, the talent, and the wherewithal to plant a lot of grass. The seeds are there.
I have sometimes played a game with myself:
Suppose you had a fortune. A Gates-like fortune. What would you do?
One thing I'd like to do is start rewarding acts that promote a civil society. What do I mean? What acts would promote such a society? It could be a lot of things. In another thread yesterday, I posted about a story I remembered about a town in Montana where they put a stop to bigotry. Naturally, a kog tracked it down - thanks word is bond, and here it is: Billings. There are other people like that police chief. People we don't hear about. Let's find them. Let's reward them. Let's give them publicity.
Or what happened to the people in a small town in Tennessee where one person decided they didn't know enough about differences: I wrote about The great film that came out of this.
Let's distribute those films. Buy a copy or two. Send it off to someone somewhere.
Another is the simple acts of random kindness that go on each day, that we see, here and there, like the type of thing that AlanF reported on in Rena, Lungfish and a Stolen Hat. Good acts. Acts that promote tolerance. Acts that promote a civil society.
These people are rare, but they aren't unknown. Even if only 1 in 1,000 Americans are like that - well that's 300,000 people. We can find them. We can publicize them.
It's necessary, of course, to expose the maggots. I applaud the work that many kogs do to expose them. But, while it is necessary to expose the maggots, it is our own act of bigotry to assume that everything that lives under the rock is and always will be a maggot. Some are just people who have never seen light.
But I need your help. I know nothing about marketing. I bet there are kogs who do. I don't know that many good stories. But I bet there are kogs who do.
Thanks for reading
(oh, and one other thing, given what's going on, I'd rather not use the term kossack. My ancestors were likely raped by cossacks. I used kogs - but I am open to suggestion)