Friday, January 20, 2017

Guess who's back

Well it's inauguration day and Donald Trump will take the stage in what I am sure will be his biggest self love festival since yesterday. Now a lot of my friends have anxiety and fear over what this will mean. Myself included. Some of us are still wondering how we got here. According to some of my libertarian friends we got here because elitist liberals love telling people how stupid they are and how superior they are. Which is very funny coming from libertarians who spent the entire election trying to promote a geographically challenged man as the "smart alternative" to other candidates. Libertarians have been playing the smug smarter choice card for as long as I can remember. They are kings of the "you are all idiots for picking the other two major parties"argument.

Here is just one part of the scorecard:
Whig party Presidents: 4
Libertarian party Presidents: 0

A party that is has been defunct for many decades has more presidential representation than you. So cool it with the calling the kettle black shit.

We are generally predisposed to want to call someone an idiot for making bad choices. But that luxury is now gone. Your frustration and anger don't matter. (I know I can scarcely believe I am saying it too.) Now is the time that we all become...wait for it...Bruce Lee.

No we aren't all going to learn Kung Fu. We are going to be cool headed problem solvers that don't let pettiness and anger get in our way. We are all going to be Arthur Fonzarelli. We are all going to take our little special snowflake feelings and put them in a room separate from where we work. we will go in and visit them occasionally and then come back out as icy and cool as before.

I am tired of when they go low we go high. It is time for when they lose rationality we have it. We are going to have a president who will constantly be throwing tantrums and the way we deal with tantrums is to not give them any attention. (we already tried showing them how stupid they look, that tactic didn't work.)

No when it comes to the political discourse in this country, I will not fight with my feelings.

At the opening of the film Enter the Dragon, Bruce Lee tells a student to attack him with emotional content, not anger.

For too long we have been at this world like a kid eating fried chicken. We are so worried about eating the breading. Time to be adults and get down to the meat. Where the actual food is.

 "Oh! But Gabriel, the breading is so tasty we love the memes and the jokes and the snark. I just love telling Trump voters that they are fucking stupid. And when they get all pissy about it I love to point out that the party that insults minorities and the lgbt community and anyone with a sense of decency at how others should be treated, is getting all bitchy when the tables are turned. That is the most fun thing ever. Breading is delicious and so salty!"

Yet millions can and will lose health care. Meat just left behind to rot and be stolen by scavengers who will strip you of what others fought so hard for you to have. We thank soldiers for pointing a gun in our defense but we never applaud the absolute hard work it took by regular folks everyday doing something to make our lives easier. the folks who fought for universal health care and only could get the ACA. And now while you make fun of Grizzlies in schools, that woman will make schools follow a profit margin. Yeah its fucking hilarious. It is. I laugh every time I see it. I enjoy breading too. But what will happen to our educators who fight everyday to make sure our children are just a bit better than they were the day before.

We will lose all of it if we don't stop pointing fingers.

A friend of mine said that the trouble with liberals is that if something or someone is not perfect or perfectly aligned with our beliefs it is considered worthless. I think that is true. I think it is also true of republicans, libertarians, green partiers, tea partiers, animal activists, socialists, hippies, bikers, fundamentalists, sports fans, theatregoers...Americans.

It has been bread into our thinking that we have to be the best, have the best, be seen with the best, be associated with the best in order to be happy. Look no further than the man who will be sworn into office today. But the best is what you make it.

Some of the best tasting food in the world comes from poor people who were given scraps and had to make do.

It won't be perfect but it will be yours. It will be because of your efforts. Because of our efforts. We are in this together.

"Stand up and fight and I will stand up with you."  -The Dropkick Murphys The Gauntlet

With deep and abiding affection,

Gabriel






2 comments:

  1. Well said. It's time we all look to get back to standing up for equal rights for everyone and not backing down from it. It's also time we the people look and find where the true middle ground lies and show people it exists. Not in some theoretical sense but actually exists. I think there is more common ground on the most heated issues facing this country that we have allowed ourselves to become polarized over, than we know. Love you brother glad your back at it.

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