The Gloom

I apologize for my prolonged absence, sometimes the gloom is a powerful motivator to action or at least writing, and sometimes it overtakes you. It could be called depression, plenty of that around, but the gloom ebbs and flows while depression has more of a constant value. Hard to put into words and I'm sure psychologists would disagree with my ideas here. No one individual can or should feel responsible for the state of society, or the personality disorders of "other people." Trying can only drive you over the cliff.

Personal stuff that has no effect on others aside, the big picture has not changed. The election solved nothing. The firewall against crazy held... barely. Wherever the republicans hold power, that is where power lies in the political side of our suicide pact. So in this case it is the house of representatives... currently held in less esteem than cockroaches, but when power is it's own end popularity is meaningless. There are enough right wing authoritarian followers out there who will believe whatever the smoke machine tells them, no matter how far-fetched as long as it is what they want to hear. And that is at the heart of the gloom.

I say the political side of the suicide pact because there are so many roads leading to destruction that it matters little which one is the shortest. Environmental destruction, overpopulation, resource depletion, global warming, the next pandemic, nuclear war or even a series of splendid little conventional ones lay ahead. So what does it matter to comment on whatever the outrage of the day is? The trouble is that the more balls I let breeze over the plate, the harder it is to finally swing at one.

Every day (excuse me, "newscycle") that passes makes it more difficult to finally jump back into the fray. I feel I need to explain myself and why this site basically went dark a few months ago. A few cliches spring to mind, "bailing out the ocean with a teaspoon", arguing with a brick wall" among them. Whether it is guns, history, economics, or any other topic discussed it makes not a dent. Despair set in. Especially after Tanya Lohr went down to defeat by almost 60 points against glenn grothman. I know firsthand how hard Tanya worked, canvassing door-to-door, talking to anyone who would listen. I know as well many people who also broke their backs and in one case damaged their health severely, trying to get a voice of sanity into the WI State Senate. It was our chance, all the progressive-minded people in my little corner of hell, to show the state and the country that it can be done.

But it didn't. And grothman is still a prick, only now he has a "mandate" from the slack-jawed yokels to wreck good governance, punish the poor and minorities, frolick in corporate campaign bribes, and generally make the minority of sane denizens of Washington County, WI the laughing stock of the country. And that... was heartbreaking.

So, I will give it a shot. This blog will try to put up some comment, however small, on at least one piece of the unfolding tragedy on a regular basis. Unless I hear/read serious objections I guess.