Oh I know, Dear Berners. You didn’t “ask to be born.” And Hill didn’t “earn your vote.”
Well, *I* take PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY. Not for the fact that Hill lost Indiana, but because we have one less US Senator (Bayh) and John Gregg (our awesome gubernatorial candidate) didn’t win. I just didn’t knock enough doors. (Although I will credit myself with knocking about 8.5K doors for John and Evan this cycle, and John did win my county by about 160 votes. Woo hoo.)
So-o who the heck is responsible for the state of this nation?? This is what I mean by civic engagement.
1) The Orange Menace and his pals in Congress are about to flood the market with money (four tax cuts: personal, capital gains, corporate and “infrastructure”) . What does the term “bubble” mean to you? Can you say Tulips? Of course, this will occur while they eviscerate all Federal government protections for the banking system. Duh. Yeah, I explained it here,
2) You think you’re safe in the blue states ? Rubbish.
3) And finally … because I know you’re paying attention, our President-Elect has already laid the groundwork for a war with Iran. (And who knows what comes after that.)
So here’s the bottom line:
- While I do very rarely lavish praise on Diaries like this, (it’s from someone who knew Alan Berg before he was murdered by a white nationalist — plus the writing is top-notch), I generally heap scorn on folks who are not willing to work for our campaigns (read the link if you think you have to go out and knock the doors of nutso gun-toting white nationalists in a red state as an N-word like me … no, it’s NOT nec’y to expose yourself to potential death for months on end, every day, for an election.)
- I didn’t “ask to be born” any more than you did. Or anyone. But I live here, in this unfortunate excuse for a state, and I take responsibility for the disgrace that is Pence. Every single time that I registered someone with a purple earring, I made it clear that I was very proud to represent the INDIANA DEMOCRATIC PARTY and that I really wanted that person to vote. And BTW Union folks in this state were extremely supportive. This is not about ethnicity, orientation, or anything else.
So I take personal responsibility for the state of this world. Or the horror that is the state of Indiana.
God (and I don’t mean the Christian one necessarily — more the abstraction) is in all of us, and she says that we are all responsible.
Even if we didn’t “ask to be born;” or “Hillary didn’t earn our vote.”
That’s what civic engagement means to me.
P.S.: All we have left now in this horrible state are the Black Churches. Thank GOD for them. Actually since my lifetime door knocking total is about 25K, I can say with certainty that no AA person has ever threatened me, and when I see the door open up, I say to myself “Thank God you’re BLACK.” It’s another door that I will walk away from, alive … even if I don’t get them to register or get their vote (which is rare).