Welcome to DU!
The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards.
Join the community:
Create a free account
Support DU (and get rid of ads!):
Become a Star Member
Latest Breaking News
General Discussion
The DU Lounge
All Forums
Issue Forums
Culture Forums
Alliance Forums
Region Forums
Support Forums
Help & Search
Insomnia
Things are strange. Tucker interviewed Glen Greenwald, who attacked President Biden. Both CNN and MSNBC have featured similar slightly mutated narratives. Chuck Todd does a mean impression of Chicken Little. Such routines do, it must be said, create an audience of anxious, angry viewers, sure to be watching, and thus increasing commercial revenue.
Fights at school board meetings, which despite the whimpering of a republican guest on CNN, always show the anti-mask crowd initiates the hostilities. It would be strange indeed for a masked person to confront and slug a drooling anti-masker in the mouth, and risking the spread of the virus. I haven't believed in slugging people any how ..... it's been a long time since I boxed. But watching the news, at times I question the efficacy of a slap -- specifically when I hear the name Sean Hannity.
Have I become one of Ivan Pavlov's dogs? Perhaps an old, feeble, grumpy dog, chained by old age, that growls once per day. But not always. I recognize that there are things to do, based upon values. Last week, my late brother's oldest daughter and his grandson visited me, from out of state. In my family, if a brother died, one fills in as a parent and grandparent role.
When he came into the house, the little boy said I looked "95%" like my brother. I asked how old he is? Eight. How old do you think I am? "Oh, eighty or ninety." I assured him that I'm planning my 100th birthday party, and that he is invited. He had brought me two fish for my pond, and so we added them to the pond's population, fed the fowl, played with kittens, and discussed fossils.
I was reminded of how my uncle served as my daughters' grandfather after my father had died. He would make a 4-hour round trip to watch the girls' sports and graduations. Cards, calls, and presents on birthdays and holidays. This Marine, who became a NYS BCI Senior Investigator, private investigator, and justice of the peace, was bigger than life. My daughters considered him "a great big Teddy Bear."
The next day, I was going to his burial ceremony at a national cemetery in upstate New York. A few hours before I planned to get to sleep, one of my sisters called to say that our mother had died. I notified my children and another family member. It's been a strange uear, with the deaths of my mother, brother, an aunt, and three uncles.
It's difficult to sleep some times, so I sit in a rocking chair. There are pictures of my grandfather as a youth, several years after his father brought the family to this country in the late 1870s, hanging on the wall. This is a portrait of him with his family. His parents display no emotion, while my grandfather and his numerous siblings look like happy children. There are also pictures of his father's siblings, who had come in an earlier wave of immigration.
The following night, my late brother's middle daughter contacted me. I had run into her in a parking lot a week before, and she broke down crying at the site of me. She tried to apologize, until I said my face often makes both children and adults weep. She said it was because it was "creepy" that I looked so much like her father. She has been having a difficult time since her father's death, and now her grandmother's.
I talked about those pictures, and how every generation gets its opportunity. We all get a turn on this living planet. Some are long, some are short, and most are medium in length. Whatever the length, we deal with the realities of our era, and experience the eternal "Now."
I lay down, but can't get to sleep. My mind is focused upon the reality of "Now." For "Now" is the time that a healthy and sane society would be investing to make sure little innocent ones have a safe childhood, even if it means wearing a mask in school. Elderly people would get quality care ate the other end of life. Human beings wouldn't be kept in cages at the southern border. Parking lots would be safe spaces to park an automobile.
Now is the exact time to work for those outcomes. And the Democratic Party is the only way that we might get there.
21 replies
= new reply since forum marked as read
= new reply since forum marked as read
… but nothing very profound seems to come of it, unlike you…
You demonstrate why we don't give up hope - you represent all that is good about the USA
