Thank You

Wait, don't get nervous that this is a farewell. It's not. Nor is it touchy-feely enthusiasm.

Regular readers may no doubt be able to tell I'm been "not quite" myself lately because of some big problems going on in my immediate world, the kinds of things you can't wave a magic wand and make better. The last several weeks, I've thought, "OK, this is too big for me. I can't make it." Those who know me know I'm not a quitter but I guess we all hit a mountain occasionally we cannot move and cannot find a way around. It took me this far in life before I came across something I felt powerless to resolve. Then, overshadowing all of the despair I've felt is the world situation: it's really so dire and has been for so much longer than most of us realized, some of us only recently coming from our self-induced comas of worrying about our own shit and hoping the rest of the world would sort itself out.

But really, all this is a long-winded way of saying that, overnight, as I lay in bed unable to sleep because of real and present worries in my life, I realized how fortunate I am here with my readers. With each passing week, I notice that there are new people coming by once, and then coming back regularly. There are others of you have been coming for most of a year or more. For all of you, it would be easier perhaps if you didn't read blogs like mine because the picture presented here is rarely rosy. Yet come you do. Many of you either share here or have your own blog or journal where you express yourself.

As thinking people, we've had a much harder time of it than most because we understand that our actions have consequences, that there is a much bigger world out there than just ourselves and our loved ones, that speaking up and out is not much appreciated today, and that we can't afford the happy horseshit being advanced by our leaders - that even if we somehow manage to survive, others may not and that matters.

Sure, the extremists love to say the only reason we find fault with Mr. Bush is that we don't like him. But that's a sham. For example, I don't like Mr. Bush or just about anything he stands for. But that has little to do with the situation at hand. I liked Mr. Clinton but had his impeachment been for other legitimate reasons than Monica and the right's boundless hatred for him I certainly would have weighed whether to call for his removal. Most of us could tolerate him fine if he weren't making such a disaster of the U.S. reputation, economy, and future, and weren't seemingly out to destroy the very things we hold dear. We realize we don't have the luxury of time; that unless good people take action and communicate the situation to others, we de facto support Mr. Bush's efforts which will destroy us and what we believe in.

Your presence helps remind me I'm not alone in the fight. We face an enormous battle to put things on a better course, but there is strength in numbers. Each time you speak out, you increase the chance that someone else may come out of his or her coma, may begin to ponder things more closely, and may ultimately join the battle for something better. Each time you sign your name to a request for an inquiry, say "no" to some bullshit measure, and refuse the enticing glass of Koolaid on a very hot and miserable day, you may help empower someone else to do the same.

Unlike the rabid right, we won't all agree, won't all reach the same conclusions, and won't all fight the same way. We aren't about "talking points" and "united message" and symbols meaning more than what they are supposed to represent. Sometimes, we'll even argue with each other.

But I just wanted to take a moment to express my profound gratitude that you found me and I found you, that you're out there trying your best, and that you care beyond your own comfort zone.