Vote, early and often, vote everyday, keep voicing and voting

Vote, early and often, vote everyday, keep voicing and voting

In the year of our Lord 2020, man is still alive. And some of you may question the term “Our Lord”, I’m cool with that, because my lord and your lord may not be the same, at least in nomenclature, and some of you may not recognize any Lord, and that’s cool too. But we can’t escape the fact that it’s 2020 in the most common usage of dates. I understand that there are some calendars that say its 5781 and some say it’s the year of the rat, no matter what you call it; it is the here and now.

Let’s look at the here and now. Let’s look at what we the people have allowed to happen and what will bite us in the ass, if we don’t get up and do something about it. We have a Federal Government that is a wholly owned subsidiary of the 1%, aided and abetted by various foreign powers who vote with their coin of the realm after it’s converted to the Dollar. It is no longer a representation of We the People, it is more a scenario of we the minions being subservient to those we put in charge, the ones we elected to do our bidding who failed to read that part of the memo.

We have black folks, people of color, indigenous folks all thinking that their lives matter, until they try to vote, or until they try to live while being black or colored or native, and a contemptuous system reminds them in small almost intangible ways every day that they don’t matter unless they’re being useful to the overseers. There are of course times when it becomes necessary to thin out the herd and remove a potentially offending darkie. This process is also useful to send a message to the others who would dare to assume that they are of equal stature. Of course there is no established bag limit; you’re on your own to keep it to a respectable occasional elimination but always free to push intimidation. Should it happen that you are caught by angry citizens, don’t worry, someone will arrange for you to get a free pass.

We have a scenario where most people failed mathematics courses like geometry. In geometry you look at a vessel and decide what the volume is, it’s the official version of the glass being half empty or half full. In arithmetic you are taught the very basics like adding and subtracting, multiplying and dividing. If you paid attention, you would know that if you have a number (or a volume in a container) and keep subtracting, you will sooner or later hit zero, or as it used to say on the bottom of my oatmeal bowl “all gone dummy”.  How hard a concept is it to understand that finite means that there is no more after it’s gone? How hard is it to understand that if the glass is empty, it’s empty? If we subtract every day from a given quantity, without ever adding more to it, how hard is it to understand that zero means zero. This is what we are still facing in today’s world. But when it comes to the resources of this planet, a finite vessel, a half empty glass to which nothing more will ever be added, there’s a collective failure to understand basic math. The only math that is understood is purely economics, how much can I gain while I rape, pillage and plunder what’s left, with no regard to the future, not even the future of the very children I brought into this world? This, this level of selfishness where people would sacrifice the well being of their own offspring, living human beings being traded for dead presidents and statesman.

We have a world that teaches our children in a school system that is by law to be free of religion, a system that adheres to the mandate of separation of church and state, we teach them religion. We denigrated the religions of others by referring to them as mythologies, we make our children study them, compare them and know all of the names of the various gods, while at the same time making Saturday morning cartoons and other buffoonery out of the beliefs of others. But never, ever, mentioning the mythology of the thousands of other sects in the world today. Because after all, they were wrong and all others are right, but none can provide any real proof to justify their positions. It’s purely a matter of the ones in charge, the ones left standing writing the rules. And of those left claiming their righteous position in the world of deities all stand there holding up their pure and chaste books, books that have never been opened, claiming their rights and their license from a myth. Creating the necessary illusions and holding them up high. Never has any set of books seen so many editors and interpreters, all while ignoring the basic messages that were sent forth. The messages that the leaders of the various mythologies, the real people involved sent forth as guidance for their followers. Instead of proffering that guidance to the world and living by the examples set forth, we choose instead to rewrite the narrative to reflect each of our individual views, each willing to decide how the world should operate, without ever having to pay the price of crucifixion. 

We always complain about the weather, we’re the personification of the Three Bears, but all we do is complain. We refuse to recognize that there are changes upon us; we’re the dinosaurs staring at the meteor, frozen in our tracks. We all stand around the water cooler, some with our masks on and others indifferent giggling and laughing at the concept of global warming. And maybe just maybe, we’re right to laugh, although there’s science that says otherwise. Maybe we are so focused on the terminology, the descriptive phrase instead of the actual events. Maybe global warming was an absolutely terrible name for the phenomena that is indeed impacting us, hitting us hard, forcing us to use up the entire alphabet to name colossal storms. Maybe we are burying our heads in the sand to seek out a better name for what’s happening. Maybe we are too focused on semantics, as a comfortable way to deny reality. Maybe we are too focused on the comments of our leaders who said that we would face these problems in X number of years and find it amusing that they were too imprecise and missed the mark by a few years or even a decade, what we are focusing on is the glee that their prediction is off by a set of numbers, but fail to address that their prediction is still correct.

We would claim to be Christians (or various other sects), we allow children to go hungry, we stand against love unconditional, we condition access to an afterlife, a concept that no human can guarantee. The afterlife for some is available for the right amount of silver and gold, the same silver and gold that could feed starving children. We deny love to all, in fact we defy our god by saying he/she made a mistake, because we are uncomfortable with a concept. We honor our prejudices that we were taught, over and above the words of a vicar, because it’s easier and it’s consistent with our peers. Because we don’t have the individual courage to stand and speak when something is wrong. We allow, war, hunger, homelessness, lack of health care, the destruction of Eden, because to do otherwise is a sacrifice that doesn’t benefit us, we gladly show how selfish we are and how willing we are to count our blessings in terms of the coin of the realm, and we will of course on Sunday part with a tithe tossed into an offering plate, not to soothe our souls, but to show others how righteous we are.

And all of these things creep into our lives via the world of politics, and we accept them, and every few years, we get the opportunity to change our leadership, every two years on the federal level and of course this year where we are in that magical 4th year and we get the opportunity to change a Congress and the President. This year is certainly a most contentious one; it’s one where we are all encouraged to vote, and to make our voices heard. This year we are reminded of the value of our vote and the duty of a citizen to vote. Voting is certainly a critical function, one that allows us all to select leadership that is for the most part consistent with our viewpoints. Going to the voting booth, the ballot box, the mailbox, the drop-off box are all important. But in all of this voting and consideration of all of these issues, we generally fail in the most important ballots and elections of all. We fail to recognize the critical candidates and the ballot referendums, we fail to recognize ourselves. We fail to look at ourselves as the candidate, as the voter, as the voice of what should be. We fail to put forth our opinions, not just for the who that is on the ballot but for the what needs to be done. We fail to elect ourselves to be the voices of the needs that are ignored; we fail to put ourselves forward voicing our opinions as part of our people’s referendum on what must be done. The simple task of voting is not enough, there must be more. There must be a constant and continuous push with our voices and with our presence to remind all of those who are elected, why we chose them, what the agenda was that we demanded be addressed. Voting is not a once and done scenario, it is a constant and daily push to remind all that we have concerns and we demand change, for the good of all.