It’s easy to distance oneself from our elected officials, even those who share our interests.  There’s such a great distance between us, and at least I am usually in my cold political brain when I think about them.  In fact, I’ve become so used to being lied to that I have become somewhat jaundiced about everyone and everything.

So an article in the Morning New York Times on Sunday belatedly touched an empathic part of me when  I read Ian Prasad Philbrick’s story “In the Room.”  He interviewed Times colleague and reporter Emily Cochrane  who was trapped in the upper gallery of the House chamber during the January 6 attack.  She recalled the period when “all of a sudden the people in front of me started moving again, climbing over chairs and bannisters so I did the same.”

The article describes those who sit in the back of the chamber during testimony and how many  who experienced the Januay 6 attack have a mutual support network.  For more insight, see the article:

In my post a few minutes ago I chickened out like a coward.  At almost 87 I should have known better.  Then I read a youngster’s post,  (https://annieasksyou.com), and got back on my feet.

In her post Annie said a lot of wise things, including quotes from retired Judge J. Michael Luttig’s appearance before the House select committee on June 16:

“The former president’s accountability under the law for the riot in the United States Capitol on January 6 is incidental to his responsibility and accountability for his attempt to steal the 2020 presidential election from the American People and thereby steal America’s democracy from America herself.

“That said, willful ignorance of law and fact is neither excuse nor defense in law. Willful ignorance, thus, is neither political nor legal excuse or defense available to the former President of the United States, his allies, and his supporters.

“The former president’s party cynically and embarrassingly rationalizes January 6 as having been something between hallowed, legitimate public discourse and a visitors tour of the Capitol that got out of hand. January 6, of course, was neither, and the former president and his party know that. It was not legitimate public discourse by any definition.

“Nor was it a civics tour of the Capitol building, though that day proved to be an eye-opening civics lesson for all Americans.”

He then distinguishes between the former president and many of his party—and “the rest of us Americans.” It’s “the rest of us Americans” who must be responsible for ensuring that our democracy prevails.

“We Americans begin to make this consequential decision this week, when Congress, rightly if painfully, takes us back to that day in January we want so much to forget but mustn’t, and reminds us of what was at stake that day and still, in what is this most unholy of wars.”

Luttig is decrying all partisanship and all attacks by politicians on our institutions. As he includes attacks on the judiciary, he obviously is being an equal opportunity scold.

He wants us, We the People, to talk to one another, listen to one another, and then encourage our political leaders to choose country over party.

“All it would take to turn America around is a consensus among some number of these political leaders who possess the combined necessary moral authority and who would agree to be bound together by patriotic covenant to stand up, step forward, and acknowledge to the American People that America is in peril.”

How will the consensus emerge?

“…the logic for reconciliation of these wars being waged in America today dictates that this number needs to include a critical mass of leaders from the former president’s political party and that those leaders need to go first.

“All of these leaders then need the patriotic will to extend their hands and ask of the others and of all Americans ‘Can we talk? America needs us.’”

Why would any poor or middle class person and/or those who love democracy want gun – toting money – grubbing liars bent on power who buy elections?….Huh?  Tell me that,  — who carry guns without a permit, bent on cuts to social security, medicaid, medicare, Obamacare, and get paranoid about science (not recognizing technology as science)….Who create a teacher shortage,  castrate public education, arm teachers whose anxiety level is already high and target those who aren’t mirror images of ourselves?  Manipulation is the word of the day, but few call attention to it meanwhile…

….who automate jobs to avoid paying better salaries while incarcerating women who choose not to bring more innocents into this crazy, overpopulated world.  (They say Amazon has several stores without living employees, and that WalMart has automated floor scrubber/waxers, in addition to self-checkouts.  When will restaurant hostesses become robots?)  More babies, fewer jobs.  That road leads to using surplus humans for wartime gun fodder.  They should bring back  Soylent Green on screen.

Ever wonder  why federal prisons are more like hotels and more state prisons are privatized?  Would  some of our errant politicians misbehave so boldly if they feared incarceration in a state prison?  A number of evangelicals have given  religion a questionable reputation and daily life is flooded with manipulative phone calls.  Many of us avoid answering the telephone these days.  (I pick up the phone but don’t say a word.  They somewhat quickly hang up, possibly afraid of being recorded.)  Alas, transparency appears to be a thing of the past.  And I haven’t heard from fact check recently.  Has it been bought out along with the social networks?   Or have we come to expect that everyone lies these days? Maybe they’ve begun charging too much. And Fox network continues snarling, or so I’m told.  I have to throw away most of my mail due to bleeding good causes that are making me bleed.  It’s also rumored that we’re not going to prepare ourselves for an expected visitation by a more deadly and contagious virus in the future.  I suspect the filibuster has not turned out to be a good idea for democracy, and castrates our best hopes.  I won’t breathe a word about the Supreme Court.  Apoplexy is not on my menu today.  Won’t mention selling Mother Earth to the highest bidder, either.

I swear off blowing my top like this and then the downright nastiness afoot in our country creeps up again and I’m ashamed of myself for letting off  so much steam.  But hey, it’s better than packing a pistol this very day.  In Ohio they’ve rduced the training required for teachers who want to carry their gun at schoolpack at which Ohio law permits me to do.  Mea culpa.  I was going to apologize for name-calling, but let’s see…money grubbing? Liars? gun toting?  How else can one say it?

Image: Pixabay

Come on!  What out-of-sync American thought that idea up?  Apologizing for what Americans  did more than a century ago?  Who’s kidding who?  If I were black I’m afraid I might spend my share on guns–you know, to protect my civil rights like the NRA.

Not only racist, but preaching and  teachig intolerance and wanting us to look like fools and stooge denyers?

The photo is of an Al;abama minister arrested for watering his traveling friend’s flowers.  Fortunately he  wasn’t shot, and the charges were dropped several weeks later.  He observed that he felt the situation could have been handled better.  Source: all over the internet.

It’s frustrating to be losing it, and I can’t refer you correctly, but I still know a jewel when I read it.  If you haven’t visited the following site, it’s a continuous hoot, til the distant end.  I’m talking about trying to usher you either to Fandango’s site today or Marilyn Armstrong’s site or Charley Hurley’s.  Priceless.  Here:

https://wordpress.com/read/feeds/7887880

JOKE:   They’re laughing–  Other countries don’t have to wait:  U.S. citizens are killing off each other themselves, without forcing other countries to waste lives  in a war

As long as U.S.  liberals spend energy calling Republican accusations conspiracies, the less likely will it be to look at them as possible evidence of SABOTAGE of democracy.  Evidence of actual increasing purposeful sabotage of America’s democracy?

1. Florida’s governor forming his own military force who only report to him, not the nation.
2. Supreme Court in 2010 ruling to allow the wealthy to buy elections.
3. Koch brothers meetings with Republicans to help word congressional bills
4. Former president’s  overt attachment to Russia, continuing to manifest in many conservatives.
5. Elected representative blatantly calling for the dark MAGA to come out.
6. Former president’s asking militant groups to stand by
7. Overt attempt to overturn presidental election and the January 6 attempt
8. Trying to limit peaceful protests, aggressive use of firepower
9. Multiple attacking on public schools–book banning, attacking science, blatant lying, total lack of transparency, flooding guns into the population and feeding paranoia….
10. Taking over media giants
11. Urging another Civil War
12. I won’t mess with no. 13….The foregoing are off the top of my head and I encourage the reader to both list more in the comments and search the hard news on the internet for sources of  the preceding and more.  Re-labeling conspiracy theories and overt attacks on democracy  as SABOTAGE might help clarify our current challenges.  Where does the war on women fit in?  Maybe by encouraging more strident Christians to sell out democracy.  Consider if calls for “freedom” may not be a call to sabotage further.