Just when I was getting depressed from all the bad news everywhere, the rain has returned with a vengeance to Potlatch. Right now it is 2 pm and dark as night outside, just as it seems to be for people in Afghanistan and those among us grappling with the urgent issues of the Covid-19 pandemic and the myriad of unsettled political issues.
Here the rain is pounding on the tin roof and running wild down the roads washing the gravel off into the woods. I’ve been unable to get outside to plant the oakleaf hydrangea and crepe myrtle I recently bought for the garden. And so it seems to go, day after day, with the sun occasionally bursting through only to be replaced with more darkness and rain. Whatever happened to our wonderful summers; could it be climate change?
I’m with most of you complaining that the news is always bad. Like you I would like to drop out and hide until the sun comes out and there is some good news to report. Much of what I read and the people I talk with decry our “sick” politics. Increasingly I question myself about what I have learned the many years I’ve been in this world. Even more I’m disappointed in those who seem to attack most conventional wisdom, satisfied that they know best and cocksure that they are always right. One thing I do know is that there has been a change for the worse in politics with no end in sight for the self-serving and diabolical partisanship that grips us.
Hang in there Panch. Brighter days ahead ☀️
Thanks,you are right but there are a lot of knuckleheads out there.
Wherever it is that we are is it not the conventional wisdom that brought us here?
Yes, according to Libertarians. The rub is that most of us would not agree with how Libertarians see things as to what is “conventional.” Neocons, the Christian Right and most recently the Trump Republicans cannot be described as being conventional. Libertarians sat on their hands and cheered Trump on as he threw them crumbs. Rather interestingly, Biden has done the right thing by withdrawing from Afghanistan. His action is a return to traditional American foreign policy.
As for domestic policy, it is not conventional to turn down vaccines and ignore safety protocols in the face of a life threatening pandemic. Trump bears responsibility for much of what has been happening as he spread falsehoods thinking it would get him reelected. Such politics have contributed directly to what we see happening in Florida and Texas now. How satisfying must it be to have the freedom to catch the virus and die and take your neighbors with you?