Wednesday, November 9, 2016

Mourning In America

It’s time to pony up, fuck boys.

I woke up today angry. Not angry like the 49ers just lost again, or angry like my girlfriend blew some dude in a dirty bar bathroom stall. Angry deep down in a piece of me I’d forgotten was there. Back in the part of me that started looking at this country and thinking, ‘What the fuck are any of you people doing!?’ way back when I just an edgy teenager that thought I knew everything and could solve every issue if people would just listen. A part of me that died years ago when I realized that nobody cared. Nobody spent any energy learning. They picked a team, chose a color, and thought taking an hour out of their day once every four years equated to doing their civic duty.

This morning I felt that part of me come back to life. At first I just wanted to lash out. It feels good to lash out, at least in the moment. It’s instant gratification. It’s catharsis after the last 18 months have proved, if nothing else, people are batshit crazy. But lashing out doesn’t solve anything. It doesn’t serve any purpose. Catharsis is actually the only thing it’s good for, and even then it’s more like jacking off dry all day. It might feel good but you’re just going to rip all the skin off your dick so it itches all day while you’re walking around with it stuffed in your boxer briefs, until it starts itching while the skin slowly grows back. It’s a false answer. It’s an emotional response. Emotional responses are what got us here in the first place.

I’m seeing a lot of calls for unity. Facebook is rife with people who are weary and exhausted of a long political cycle that essentially came down to being hammered at the bar at last call and just going home with whoever you could get to drive you there. They want back their puppies and their memes and they want to argue over Game of Thrones and the Walking Dead and they want all this nasty political stuff to go away. I’ve seen at least a dozen people write that they’re so tired of all the hate. That’s actually the only thing I’ve seen.

Well, sorry. While I will say this is no time for wild rhetoric or mindless ranting, as the anger subsides from a wildfire into a smouldering ember in the cold light of dawn, I can tell you right now I will not let it lie. I’m not going to attack you. I’m not going to argue that Clinton won the popular vote, or talk about the (many) failings of Donald Trump. I’m not going to compare anyone to Hitler. In fact, I stand by statements I made before the election. The best thing about the whole sordid affair is that Hillary Clinton honored her word and respected the democratic process, conceding defeat with grace, and doing her part to ensure a peaceful transition of power. As dramatically displeased with the result as I may be, that is paramount. It is one of, if not the most, pivotal keystones our nation is built upon.

That being said, fuck this. This is not good enough, and I personally apologize. I apologize to Mexican Americans. I apologize to Muslims. I apologize to women. I apologize to the LGBT community. I was silent for most of this election. I just want to live my life. I want to have a job, and do it well, and make a little money, and get laid sometimes, and get drunk, and maybe play video games or go for a hike or something. That is still what I want. As I write this, I’m already dreading the fact that it may be that no one reads it, but if someone does, it’ll probably start a stupid argument that I don’t want to have. I don’t want to deal with that. And I didn’t, for 18 months. I just quietly read, and watched, with ever growing horror, and kept telling myself, ‘This isn’t going to happen. There is no mother fucking way this is going to happen.’

Well, it happened. So I can’t be quiet anymore. While this is not the time to hate, or be violent, or insult and attack those that felt differently than we did, it is absolutely time to go to work. It is time to find what common ground there is to be found. It is time to be better than Republicans for the last eight years and let the government do its job as much as possible. And it is time to choose the things that cannot afford compromise and rage against letting them destroy what has been built. Both are equally important.

More importantly, though, is this is not the end. This can’t be the end. This isn’t a fight that’s over; it’s just begun. The time to ensure that this bullshit never happens again- and I’m talking to liberals, conservatives, independents, ALL of us -is right now. Fucking today. This morning. It’s time to not be quiet. It’s time to get involved. It’s time realize that posting memes on Facebook and voting once every four years isn’t participating. It’s time to be informed. It’s time to hold the media, both the mainstream media and liberal/conservative blogs and alt-news sources, to a much higher standard. Nobody was happy with where we got. This is just as true for the people who voted for Trump as anyone, and it’s the one thing I think we can agree on.

Well, it’s time to pony  up, fuck boys. It’s on us. And it starts now. Let’s not just tear our clothes off and throw rocks at the big mean looking thing we don’t understand. Let’s not just set shit on fire. Let’s be better. Let’s do it together.

And let’s start right now.

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