"...the really important stuff they never tell you about - you have to imagine it on your own."
b. andreas 1997
The really important stuff. Like hearing the jewel-toned trilling of birds at dusk as I walk a narrow foot/bike path winding through the Black Forest.
There are waves of long grass bending in yoga positions on the forest floor. And soft ferns. All shades of green backlit by the last shards of sunlight.
I could imagine that trees stretch, yawn, and sigh in contentment, surrounded in evening sounds of unseen birds, whirring insects, and the dry sizzle of wind through weeds.
Indeed. A babbling rill slides by, rushing over some kind of algae, bending and disappearing. Well, truth is, in this light . . . at this time of day, I hesitate to follow it.
Instead, I stay on the path. Walking through the Black Forest at dusk. Thinking about important stuff. Like knowing that I must leave this place as I found it. Undisturbed. And if there are untold dramas and peace is an illusion, there is still harmony here. Justice. Survival is achieved without anger. Or false pride. But through strength.
There is something here. Important stuff here. To remember our strengths and work from whatever they are. Not our anger. Or our hysterical fears (some fears are necessary). It reminds me how silly and insignificant our issues seem when we make fun of Republicans to do what? Stir the wrong kind of frenzy in people? Our strength has very little to do with the weakness of Rush Limbaugh. It has even less to do with his hypocrisy.
Our strength has every thing to do with our desire to keep our promises. To believe in equity stakes in freedom and the law. And to push politicians to deliver justice: enforce Congressional subpoenas and investigate crimes: war crimes and those against our country and constitution. Push politicians to deliver health care rather than billions in bail outs.
But GOPasaurus? Or ranting about the ravings of lunatics and their upside down thinking? Where does it get us? We need to know how they work the levers, sure. But there's very little new there from what I can tell: not in their talk or tactics.
I'm not seeing much new in us either. The same buttons are being pushed. Some of the left-wing rhetoric has that right-wing tinge of hatred in it. I think it makes us weak. It makes us sound like them.
And when we jump on our own, when progressives are pounded because they don't follow a democratic mind set or script, it amazes me. Because I see brand politics, whether D or R, as the real problem. We are so easily sliced and diced and served up in compartmentalized audiences. My GOD! And we fall for it every time.
Barack Obama is a smart man. I'm glad he was elected. But now I'm worried. Because what I was looking for from him was pushing Congress to invoke our laws, get off its ass, and find a way to have its subpoenas enforced. I thought we would finally have some accountability.
We can get tangled in Rush or Glen or Sean and it's all bullshit. How does this help us get health care that works or how does it help us craft simple and effective messages to counter the bullshit?
If we want health care that works, then the vampires need to know the law works. That high-placed people who break the law get that "examined" life. Politicians must believe that when they are elected to uphold our laws they will be held ACCOUNTABLE to those laws.
Functioning and fair health care will never be a reality as long as the vampires know they can break the law or disregard regulations. The food we eat, the products we buy, all of it, is under seige. Unless we re_establish the rule of law.
And that's what was reinforced on that path in the Black Forest seven hours south and east of where I live in Nederland. In that forest, there is the rule of law. A balance of living and dying, succeeding and failing.
The really important stuff. It's simple.