I’ve lived long enough to see the Cold War, assassinations, Vietnam, the counterculture, civil rights struggles, Watergate, inflation, stagflation, oil embargoes, economic crashes, 9/11, endless war, and all other manner of craziness. Despite all of this, I never felt that the future was hopeless. With the emergence of these lunatics, that has all changed.
I’ve lived long enough to see the Cold War, assassinations, Vietnam, the counterculture, civil rights struggles, Watergate, inflation, stagflation, oil embargoes, economic crashes, 9/11, endless war, and all other manner of craziness. Despite all of this, I never felt that the future was hopeless. With the emergence of these lunatics, that has all changed.
Mark, we cannot be self-indulgent and say we are now hopeless. Think of the residents of eastern Ukraine or the cabinet members who remain loyal to democracy and Zelenskyy after the corruption scandal revealed last week... they cannot simply give up hope. Hope is a muscle, an action word, a powerful motivator for each of us to get up and DO ONE THING. It will be enough. Stay well, remain engaged. Be an agent of change. You are my hope.
I am probably as old as Mark, and his comment could be from me. I think he may be indicating that he hasn't the energy or belief in causes to feel he will effect change. That is how I feel at any rate. Personal concerns at my age, primarily regarding my health, are the priority now. Correct me if I am wrong, Mark, but I and maybe he, have reached the stage where the noise is overpowering the signal, and I am in withdrawal.
After spending a career in industry, exposed to “the chain of command” that buried the lead, in many cases I was responsible for tracking down the root causes of quality problems in spite of their obstacles. Today I follow the daily release of new information and am fascinated at how many disparate puzzle pieces work their way unto the table, gradually forming the pictures we are now seeing as complex, intertwining machinations of evil plotters
Its impossible for average individuals to keep it all straight, and it can be exhausting to try, HOWEVER, my experience tells me that these daily revelations ARE exposing the criminals for what they are, certain news iutlets ARE challenging the Murdoch Propaganda Machinery AND the American Voting Ship is making a course correction away from the low information MAGA iceberg
That’s my take. Keep the faith that Good and Honest will rule the day; Eventually. It can’t be done without our support. Peace and Wellness to you
The pieces have been there (well mostly) but the deliberate effort to obfuscate has made the puzzle one that Alan Turing would have had trouble with. Thanks to those who keep trying, despite the “Weaponization of the government” by republican evil. It has been and is deliberate and calculated, the goal, power at any cost…
Many of us news nerds are aware of the pieces, and you are correct, propaganda media frames them in obfuscation as we attempt to keep the pieces connecting properly
Having a skilled journalist highlight the puzzle in context is critical; lis like being able to view the completed puzzle picture on the box ahead of time instead of having fit pieces together without reference
We WILL complete the puzzle eventually and then be on to the next
Continuous Improvement is what we Quality Engineers call it
You hit it on the head Jeri, "Deliberate effort to obfuscate" is the bottom line. As much as these wannabe actors, who have no interest in legislating, try to muddy the waters, their intention is simplistic. These mostly white people know that they can't keep winning elections based on the up and up because their numbers are dwindling. The answer? Close the borders, keep Blacks away from the polls at all cost, and guard our youth from history and the truth. As their web begins to fray they will only continue their ridiculousness to foment on steroids.For all of his stupid behaviors, Bill Barr somehow knew that they might land his ass in jail and turned course. Why? Because of groups and individuals who put truth and justice over their careers: The 1/6 Select Committee, Fani Willis, Letitia James, Jack Smith, etc. There IS hope. I'm betting all my currency on our youth. Their intelligence is being insulted and they are taking action. It is because of them, against all odds, that we did well enough in the midterms. High school students are suing DeSantis over proposing cancelling African American studies because the course "significantly lacks educational value." I predict that Kevin McCarthy and his antics will blurr away in history as did the old McCarthyism....
I found most interesting the spinning that Billy Bob did. Drinks with the special counsel...that's rich. Btw, I read Snyder yesterday and posted it on to my Facebook page.
Count me in, Dave, as another one of the hopeful. Heather’s right that Bannon has helped the GOP by sowing confusion. She’s wrong, however, to view the “Weaponization” committee as just another “attempt to continue that strategy” because McCarthy’s goal is not to confuse but to conscript Americans who truly believe a “Deep State” has been conspiring against them. To be sure the committee will fail to find evidence of such blatant evil. That said, Democrats shouldn’t get complacent for many if not most Americans still feel that someone is picking their pocket. And until national leaders--on the right or on the left--learn how to present real information (e.g. pending legislation that creates new tax breaks for billionaires), disinformation will prevail.
I was intrigued by how the J6 Committee employ a media storyteller to take raw information and storyboard it into content that made it easier to digest for average citizens
I totally understand the feelings of hopelessness and helplessness which I have. I remember my Uncle who was in a body bag in WW11and a soldier noticed he was from Springfield Ma his hometown. The medic rescued him. After a year in the hospital he came home. His love for his nieces, nephews, friends children and his students was felt throughout the community. He had hope for the future until he died at 75 in a skiing accident. He never gave up and always had hope for the future and next generation. At times I feel tired and hopeless but I know I must continue expressing my thoughts for the next generation and my grand children.
Ed At 89 I adhere to Churchill’s exhortation: NEVER, NEVER, NEVER, NEVER, NEVER GIVE UP. I must use a walker and am exploring getting a horn that plays Battle Hymn of the Republic.
I may retreat for a bit to keep from losing my marbles entirely, but once I feel strong enough emotionally (and so far I always do) I pay attention again. Thank providence for people like Heather CR!!!!
(I'm a few years behind you at 73, but I've seen a lot as well, and have been watching these religious lunatics for a LONG old time!)
Karen In playing marbles remember to always hang on to your favorite shooter. It is especially useful against lunatics and nihilists (or do I repeat myself?)
Wonderful, Keith. I know it's important to acknowledge being tired as it offers an opportunity to reset, but I think going on about them in social media as I'm seeing today may "feel like venting" but it can de-energize the very people you need to keep going, and that helps the GOP. I love your approach and will be listening for Battle Hymn horns wherever I go.
My group of 70-80 year old women have re-emerged politically over the last 6 years and have been and will continue to do whatever actions we can (contacting our Congress Critters, doing get out the vote activities, etc.) and will continue to do so. Yeah, we're tired. No, we're not quitting. We understand withdrawal. We also understand that it's what they want us to do.
I am very happy for you and your group. Keep up the good work. I have other issues on my plate which are more important than what you are doing, but I am on a first-name basis with most of my representatives and communicate with them regularly. I am highly to persusion of this type, if that was intended. I know me, and I know what I can and will do at this stage of my life. I remember working for SNCC in 1963 or so, and staying with activism throught my life. Including some succesful lobbying on the state level for a minimum-wage increase, getting 2 senators elected by getting endorsements; one senatorial candidate asked me if I could get the endorsement of a state-level subset of an international union which I did, and getting both senatorial candidates on a third-party line successfully, door-to-door reminders to vote, and checking that those people did vote, right up until the polls closed. I need not say more, I know what I have done.
I'm only 78, but have outlived so many. A family elder who lives alone in a 1-room studio on Miami Beach being extorted by a landlord in addition to rising prices of everything & actually hope I expire before my savings do. I feel like the nation is crumbling from within due to idiots electing unqualified performers instead of legislators to run the government. I am withdrawing, my world is shrinking and my only fear is for my grandchildren who will have to exist in this dystopian near future.
I appreciate your contributions here, Rob. Although the pandemic hastened my own shrinking world and age has added further limitations, I have found that this substack community and others have actually increased my world beyond the walls of my home. Stay tuned. Stay in touch!
Keep heart. Almost every generation of Americans on these shores has “bemoaned” the changes they see diminishing the country for their children and grandchildren. America has always changed in cycles; some say a pendulum.
In truth, it’s only been true for the Native Americans that their next generations faced significantly “less.”
And yet you continue to read and stay informed. Good for you, and I bet you still vote, right? It might not seem like much, but those two things - staying informed and voting - are still crucial. You must take care of yourself first to be able to do these two things, and as bad as it is, it can get a whole lot worse, so take a deep breath, and from a fellow citizen, thanks for hanging in there!
I tried last year. Now I feel the same as you Ed. 80 years is coming up this summer. I sapped my energy last year and was defeated. That hurt! I was the best most qualified candidate.
Thank you, Keith. I fought until it was over! I don't think I could go though that again but I will support my fellow Democrats in any way I can. The sad part is we need more Democrats that are younger than me.... to step up. We need somehow to educate those that vote.
I am very sorry that happened to you, Sharon, as we all had high hopes for your success. People are ignorant about one’s qualifications. Also, many are disinterested in voting and that is what is disturbing to me.
I am old as well. I respectfully and profoundly disagree with your and Mark's view. I have never been more proud to be an American. We are waging a true and hard fight for Democracy. And we are winning.
Turn your gaze from the loud liars and you will see this.
"Mark, we cannot be self-indulgent and say we are now hopeless."
I think that may be an unfair assessment of how Mark is feeling. I do not believe that hopelessness is self-indulgence. With few exceptions (I can't speak for the universe), no one decides nor prefers to "simply give up hope."
Hopelessness isn't a pop decision. It's a process. It's global and it's personal.
Concerning the 2023 state of things, moments or long stretches of hopelessness are borne of life circumstances plus exhaustion fueled by no small amount of relentless propaganda via people whose raison d'être is to generate widespread hopelessness. Have you noticed how loud and persistent and omnipresent the underminers are?
Hope is not a muscle. It is a somewhat fragile state of being. More so with advanced age. It comes and goes, rises and falls. I agree that hope needs to be nurtured. Especially in times like these. But it's not as simple as suck it up and don't feel sorry for yourself.
I'd be flat out astonished if individuals in Ukraine do not experience times of hopelessness. Including Zelenskyy. Their motivation is to push and push and push back every single day with the hope that they'll stay alive long enough to defeat the devil and reclaim their country. Survival. Powerful stuff. And many visible role models.
Maybe expressed hopelessness can be, as Ed noted below, a time to re-adjust on an almost daily basis to harsh realities. I'm a peer of Mark and Ed. It's no small thing at our age to see our country and the world as a whole in such a freaking mess and try to summon up the wherewithal (energy-wise) to try one more time to make a difference.
I've been an activist most of my adult life. I'm very tired. Not to be confused with apathetic. Bravo for those who can sustain hope without moments of diminished hope. I used to be one of them. I hope to never give up hope entirely. But I'd be less than candid if I didn't say that some days, that's difficult. Please don't assume I'm being self-indulgent by admitting that.
Enriching counterpoint — or eliding points. Thank you for the contribution.
I‘m aLao getting on in years, BJ. My belief in America, in people, in myself has ebbed and flowed as well. My diplomatic upbringing afforded up close view of coups d’etats and non-democratic governments, corruption and deceptions, deceit and decay. My personal history contains near ancestors who survived the Holocaust and some who did not. I have family who fled pogroms 150 years ago, dispersing across a diaspora too distant to sustain connections in real-cousins-time. I have returned, off and on, to an America anpparently indifferent to its own decay and certainly to the distractions that entertainment media contributed (well before Internet, even).
The losses, when tallied, feel insurmountable.
Raised largely away from American schools, and without benefit of deep dives into our history, I didn’t learn all that I have had to learn about our history (ergo my gratitude to Heather Cox Richardson!) — complicity in exporting Jim Crow to Nazi Germany, the breadth of our lynching obsessions, the systematization of segregation so that participants in it might not ever discern it, the founding trade-offs written into the constitution, etc. etc.
The betrayal of knowledge — meaning the ability to know one’s own history — when tallied, feels hopeless.
Still I’ll stick with muscle metaphor for hope. Unused it can become weak and fragile. Exercised, it can become habit… or flexed at point of need.
The Equal Justice Initiative has an atrocity-of-the-day calendar — which notes justice ignored and tortures / calamities / deaths prevailing. Why? It is my reminder that while I am still alive and here, my effort in this new day on the calendar can begin to tilt back the cosmic scale, to hold up for myself the idea of future reconciliation — to histories untold and DNA uncharted. It is my exercise of hope such as can propel me to just one thing. Today.
I share a similar history as you, Leslie. Both parents were victims of the Holocaust. My grandparents were gassed in Chelmno. I too, have been an activist since 1970. I get worn out. I take a break and then I get active again. It’s a pendulum swing for me. I will never stop fighting for justice...never!
Mark, have heart. Things are better now, even if it often seems otherwise. I too have lived through all of that, but remember the Big Muddy? We actually went to war on the wrong side in another country's civil war, and the entire Pentagon was complicit in it. And remember the mess that France was in back then, and how their mess got it all started? Egads - that even softens the current view of the mess in Ukraine. The US military's officer corps was significantly corrupt back then, and the CIA under the Dulles brothers was little different from the KGB, including a heavy dose of the kind of corruption we now see in the Putin regime. And that had a long tail - remember Contragate? Today, sure we still have our bad apples (e.g. Flynn), and we have gone through another scumbag presidency, but the self examination is happening this time with much less tension than we had back in 1967-72. As outrageous as jurists like Alito are, back then we had Julius Hoffman. Admittedly he wasn't on the high court, but today I think that if a judge were act as he did back then he would probably get himself arrested while sitting on the bench in his own courtroom.
Then there is Trump. Yes he was a thoroughly disgusting and awful president, but history will eventually judge him by the long term impacts of his misbehavior and malfeasance. How long will the tails be of his bad actions? They would have to be very long indeed to even come close to the impacts with which we are still struggling from the Andrew Jackson presidency (i.e. the Indian Exclusion Acts). I suspect that as awful as the Donald has been, his lasting impacts will be more along the lines of an embarrassing chapter in the history books, and not a source of constitutional issues that last for centuries.
So have heart and enjoy a read of Steven Pinker's "The Better Angels of our Nature." It will make you feel better in what are admittedly some troubling times. We'll get through this, albeit on a hotter planet that has radically modified coastlines and areas of human habitation, of which there will be fewer of us packed into the remaining areas where we live, as the die-off we are in accelerates and then peaks later in the century. As Slipping Jimmy would say: "It's all good man."
In 1984 I wrote a short story of a dystopian future, titled "The Legend" that started:
"Come lad, let me tell you a tale of Ancient Tymes, of Men and Gods, of Peasants and Kings, Empires and Warriors. You know nothing of that tyme, for you were not yet born, and I, Merlin the Ancient One, was just a babe."
It described our world of wondrous things that ended in a nuclear war, and this was the remaining, struggling civilization.
In 1996 I rewrote that story changing the Nuclear destruction to Climate change destruction. I still have them both: The Legend Bang & The Legend Whimper. Now it seems that either one could be our epitaph.
FOR ANYONE INTERESTED, HERE IS MY 1984 SHORT STORY
The Legend
by Rob Boyte
February 1984
Come lad, let me tell you a tale of Ancient Tymes, of Men and Gods, of Peasants and Kings, Empires and Warriors. You know nothing of that tyme, for you were not yet born, and I, Merlin the Ancient One, was just a babe.
This was the tyme of my Parents, of which we have little knowledge, for so much was lost in the Dark Ages, when men lived as animals and knew nothing of the Civilized Arts, but only how to kill and survive.
But lad, before I grow older than my 90 years, let me tell you the tale as told me by my Father, when I was but a dozen years like you. Know you that it is true, though you may not fathom its meaning, for there are few records of the Great Civilization before the Dark Ages, gathered from the moldy books, carved stones and objects that we keep in the Archives.
My father once lived in one of the Empires that ruled half the World after a great war, but saw ruin and corruption in the way men there lived, and moved us to a lesser Kingdom in the wilderness. There he pursued life's natural course, studied the Seasons, the Flora and Fauna, the Elementals and Arcana, the Ancient Truths forgotten by the Great Civilization.
Mind you I said this tale was of Gods and Men, and lo, those were wondrous tymes, when some Men lived as Gods. There were Great Cities in the heart of the Empires, where dwelt Wizards whose knowledge of the Hidden Powers even I cannot fathom, but my Father was there and saw them with his own eyes. Listen carefully lad, for what I tell you is Truth, and not legend or the ramblings of an old man as so many would have you believe.
Their Physicians used not only the Herbs and Roots but the very Earth and Ethers to heal all disease, and their Surgeons could remove the viscera, yea even the Heart from a corpse and make it live in another person. They controlled the power of Lightning and made it move machines and give light and make heat or cold as they desired. The lightning was also made to carry their voice and image to others around the world and even helped them think, to create more wondrous devices than they already had.
There were mechanical carriages that moved five tymes the speed of a horse at full gallop, and ships of steel so large they could sail the Seas through the worst of storms, or move quickly without a breeze. Some of these I've heard can be seen today, sunken in shallow water off the coast. There were machines that flew, and could carry hundreds of people from one part of the world to the other side, and moved so fast that their own sound could not catch them. There were even such flying machines as could leave the Earth and go to the Moon.
Alas, it were these very devices which destroyed both Empires and most all life on Earth, for their Sorcerers had also harnessed the power of the Sun. After a generation of this knowledge, both Empires unleashed this awesome power on each other, and in less than a day the Great Civilization perished. In the ensuing years most men and beasts in the rest of the world succumbed to sickness or famine or The Great Winter, which lasted a decade.
Only a very few survived those dreadful tymes, those Dark Ages. My Father was one. He named me Merlin after a Wizard more ancient than his own tyme, for I too refused to die, as if protected by the Hidden Powers. There were those who prepared for such a tyme, but they could not see the breadth or length of the destruction, and the hand of Death touched them with the same ease as those who were unprepared. Who lived and who died was by the Grace of God and there were many who did not wait for that Grace, for only the very strong of spirit could endure those tymes when the dead were envied by the living. My own Mother succumbed to the Great Winter, but I had been weaned and somehow lived on, eating bugs and lizards and worms that dwelt beneath the ground.
We survived, as Chronicled in the New Archives, and fell in with others, each helping in our struggle for life. We built walls and fought the Marauders, found weeds and rats and grew them for food, and scavenged through the Great Winter, and survived.
Now we are secure in our faire City with its stout walls. Those terrible Dark Ages have passed and we are building anew from the ruin, a New Civilization. Each day brings new Knowledge from old books for those of us who read, and with the Wisdom of all my years I can now see the Larger Scheme.
This tale I have told you to pass on to others, for mark my words lad, this World I give to you will pass into change, and again and again with your children's children it will change, until someday it be, as it was in Ancient Tymes, a Great Civilization with the power of its own demise.
I'm willing to bet that Black people in this country, and especially Black women, have had it worse than you or me. What was Jim Crow from the perspective of Black people but lunatics running the show? And who's been fighting hardest all these decades to make the U.S. more representative, more just, more inclusive? This is a long-haul fight, and it seems that people who didn't realize there was a problem until Trump got elected want to give up already. There's plenty of work to be done. Find something you can do and then do it.
@Susanna, what you said! “ This is a long-haul fight, and it seems that people who didn't realize there was a problem until Trump got elected want to give up already. There's plenty of work to be done. Find something you can do and then do it.” Two great options: 1. If you can afford a small expense, write postcards for Postcards to Voters or Field Team Six. 2. For a free option, join phonebanks run by Mobilize, Indivisible, or Swing Left.
I'm a Postcards To Voters junkie! Before COVID local activists had regular postcard parties. Time to get back to them again. After years of voting Democratic, and occasionally volunteering for Democratic campaigns, I finally registered as a Dem in January 2017 and got involved with my local Dem group -- which has a heavy overlap with local Indivisible. IMO it's the best way to avoid getting despondent -- there really are millions of us out here doing the work in ways large and small.
Thanks for the reminder, Elizabeth M! I've worked for our County Democratic HQ for 20+ years. We're rural and Red, but only 5000 less Dems than Repubs voters plus we have 14000 Independents. Our candidates have not been successful in the last 15 years and sometimes it's discouraging. But I'm always buoyed by enthusiastic candidates and volunteers. And can sometimes be discouraged by apathy or fear of the gun owners and disinformation the Repubs spew, the sign destruction and sign stealing, the hateful billboard signs. But I keep coming back; at 78, I can't give up, for my beautiful grandchildren!
What Elizabeth M. said! You *are* an inspiration, and so are the candidates and volunteers who keep the faith and keep at it. Maybe because I'm a bread baker, I think of you all as the yeast (or maybe the sourdough starter!) that is helping the whole county to rise.
I come by it honestly. ;-) Have been baking bread with sourdough for about 40 years, have had to start starter from scratch a couple of times (oops), and have also lent and borrowed starter from neighbors more than once.
I watched the 1619 Project ep1 last night (Hulu) which said exactly this. Then listened to a podcast where Bono said, "You're not America yet". Certain residents on this land have continually been working towards liberty and justice for all.
I *love* "You're not America yet." America is a goal we're working toward, not an idealized version of the past or all of our past mistakes either. It took me a long, long time to understand this.
Like you, Mark, I find these dreadful machinations very deflating. I worry for my grown children, and especially for my grandchildren. What kind of USA will they be inheriting? It does seem like watching a train wreck happening in slow motion, at times. I'm finding it harder to believe that the moral universe even exists, let alone that its arc bends toward justice.
It has taken a beating like never before in my life. I no longer have the resources to DONATE, DONATE, DONATE. Probably won’t matter, but I feel hamstrung…
Hook up with Postcards to Voters. For short money — usually you supply the stamps —you write postcards to pre-selected Democratic or likely-Democratic voters in key districts or states but who left to their own devices don’t always vote, providing succinct voting information before key elections. Analysis shows that if these voters receive a postcard, they are much more likely to vote than if they don’t get one. For $30, I recently finished and mailed 50 postcards to Wisconsin Democrats before a February state election that has state Supreme Court candidates on the ballot. ‘Til I pay down a big credit card bill from over-donating to vulnerable Dems in 2022, I am refusing all donation requests. But I can afford to write postcards.
I write letters with Vote Forward, they do much the same thing. They tell us that our letters are very effective, I don't know how they know but it keeps me writing!
I'm glad you mentioned Vote Forward. I should have. I wrote some letters through them to likely Dem voters in Georgia in the lead-up to Rafael Warnock's successful Jan. 2021 runoff. So yes, it was very gratifying to see him win and then think "I made a tiny contribution toward that!" It keeps me writing. Of course, the totally amazing Stacy Abrams and the fantastic organization she has built get the lioness's share of the credit for turning Georgia purple. She has proven that winning isn't magic--it's about doing the work, and building the movement.
One of the things that give me hope is Heather's letters and then the response of the posters here with exception of a couple trolls who show up from time to time and take up space. I am too old for any activities except to donate to causes and certain pols.
Hope just informed us, and the nation, about what these criminals were up to. It is harder in places such as China, where the counter-narrative is violently suppressed. Collectively we need not go there.
Anne-Louise L., this is humanity: let us not forget the many trials of Moses (the Moses in the Bible and in other sacred writings)...after escaping the Egyptians, he takes the Hebrew people to freedom. God calls him up to receive the 10 commandments leaving the Hebrews in the care of Aaron. coming down from the mountain. he finds the people who have been freed from slavery , also having experienced amazing miracles. worshiping a golden calf....prefering a god they had made rather than the God who had freed them from slavery. This is us.
We can choose to be slaves or free. Freedom takes a lot of work! We cannot "sleep!"
There has been so much unlawful behavior in high places and so little justice, so far. Investigation after investigation yields no justice and only serves to validate the disinformation the public has been fed. We are avoiding the appearance of partisanship at the expense of our democracy and although the mid terms were disappointing for the GOP, the fact remains that millions of voters support these criminals. There is a lot of work to be done, to overcome this corruption, and so far, not much in the way of real consequences. It is so frustrating.
Totally agree. It is incomprehensible that, with everything that has been unearthed, people like trump, his family members, and minions continue to wreak havoc while the ongoing corruption generates hand wringing and the investigative reports get "tabled". It is also stunning (but not really given gerrymandering) that the lowest of the low (incompetent and evil) are in congressional positions of power. There is only so long people can "keep the faith"/maintain momentum that something can and is going to be done to clean things up. As has been said by others, we may well be the generation/time period that loses democracy.
Is there a boundary for tolerance? Have we reached the edge of our laws? Who of us will be beaten to submission when our laws are no longer respected? Have we reached a belief in Democracy where bipartisanship does not serve our nation? I no longer respect anyone who identifies with the RepubliCON Party. Lying scum.
There has been so much unlawful behavior in high places and so little justice, so far. Investigation after investigation yields no justice and only serves to validate the disinformation the public has been fed. We are avoiding the appearance of partisanship at the expense of our democracy and although the mid terms were disappointing for the GOP, the fact remains that millions of voters support these criminals. There is a lot of work to be done, to overcome this corruption, and so far, not much in the way of real consequences. It is so frustrating.
Mark, have heart. Things are better now, even if it often seems otherwise. I too have lived through all of that, but remember the Big Muddy? We actually went to war on the wrong side in another country's civil war, and the entire Pentagon was complicit in it. And remember the mess that France was in back then, and how their mess got it all started? Egads - that even softens the current view of the mess in Ukraine. The US military's officer corps was significantly corrupt back then, and the CIA under the Dulles brothers was little different from the KGB, including a heavy dose of the kind of corruption we now see in the Putin regime. And that had a long tail - remember Contragate? Today, sure we still have our bad apples (e.g. Flynn), and we have gone through another scumbag presidency, but the self examination is happening this time with much less tension than we had back in 1967-72. As outrageous as jurists like Alito are, back then we had Julius Hoffman. Admittedly he wasn't on the high court, but today I think that if a judge were act as he did back then he would probably get himself arrested while sitting on the bench in his own courtroom.
Then there is Trump. Yes he was a thoroughly disgusting and awful president, but history will eventually judge him by the long term impacts of his misbehavior and malfeasance. How long will the tails be of his bad actions? They would have to be very long indeed to even come close to the impacts with which we are still struggling from the Andrew Jackson presidency (i.e. the Indian Exclusion Acts). I suspect that as awful as the Donald has been, his lasting impacts will be more along the lines of an embarrassing chapter in the history books, and not a source of constitutional issues that last for centuries.
So have heart and enjoy a read of Steven Pinker's "The Better Angels of our Nature." It will make you feel better in what are admittedly some troubling times. We'll get through this, albeit on a hotter planet that has radically modified coastlines and areas of human habitation, of which there will be fewer of us packed into the remaining areas where we live, as the die-off we are in accelerates and then peaks later in the century. As Slipping Jimmy would say: "It's all good man."
Many have commented on feeling hopeless in the face of mounting “craziness.” When hopelessness rears its ugly head, think of a fire extinguisher -- sharing this short poem that was shared with me when hope was hard to find. Whatever the “burning haunted house” may be, the future demands we remain hopeful and use our fire extinguisher!
Mark, I too have lived through all that you highlight. And having spent my career working mostly on environmental issues, I can speak loudly to the idea that the future may be bleaker than I’d hoped when I started. Yet, it seems truly remarkable, at least to me, that African Americans, black women in particular, could find enough hope for the future, to vote in such giant numbers in 2020 and organize the bejesus out if places like Georgia. Thank God for Stacy Abrams and millions like her. We know how bad a second term under Trump would have been and without their amazing efforts, well, !!!!!!! But why were some of the most oppressed people in America do highly motivated to vote?
Or how about the daily work of Indigenous people throughout this country to protect and preserve? I just had lunch with a friend who was at the Standing Rock protest 5 years ago when the police turned fire hoses of water on against the protesters. The temperature was well below zero and many of those present suffered hypothermia and frostbite, even broken bones, then were arrested and their wounds left untreated. My friend will forever carry her physical and psychological wounds. Yet she continues to be very active - We spent the day at the Capitol in St. Paul talking with our legislators about an upcoming bill requiring that utilities provide 100% of electricity from renewable sources. Will we prevent the climate crisis from obliterating our way of life if this bill is passed? No. But it is a step in the right direction and Minnesota is in a great position to lead.
Sitting around feeling hopeless at our age is deadly. Don’t. If you’d like some guidance on daily actions you can take, try reading Chop Wood, Carry Water here on Substack. Jessica Craven does a credible job of writing shorts scripts and ways of contacting your legislators.
As Gandhi said; “Be the change you wish to see in the world.”
Mark, I too have lived long enough to have see all of that you listed and more, and have always seen myself as an optimist, but with the surreal-ness of what is going on these days I can't help but see little to be optimistic about. And that includes the insanity in Congress, right wing propaganda, and the environment.
Mark, have heart. Things are better now, even if it often seems otherwise. I too have lived through all of that, but remember the Big Muddy? We actually went to war on the wrong side in another country's civil war, and the entire Pentagon was complicit in it. And remember the mess that France was in back then, and how their mess got it all started? Egads - that even softens the current view of the mess in Ukraine. The US military's officer corps was significantly corrupt back then, and the CIA under the Dulles brothers was little different from the KGB, including a heavy dose of the kind of corruption we now see in the Putin regime. And that had a long tail - remember Contragate? Today, sure we still have our bad apples (e.g. Flynn), and we have gone through another scumbag presidency, but the self examination is happening this time with much less tension than we had back in 1967-72. As outrageous as jurists like Alito are, back then we had Julius Hoffman. Admittedly he wasn't on the high court, but today I think that if a judge were act as he did back then he would probably get himself arrested while sitting on the bench in his own courtroom.
Then there is Trump. Yes he was a thoroughly disgusting and awful president, but history will eventually judge him by the long term impacts of his misbehavior and malfeasance. How long will the tails be of his bad actions? They would have to be very long indeed to even come close to the impacts with which we are still struggling from the Andrew Jackson presidency (i.e. the Indian Exclusion Acts). I suspect that as awful as the Donald has been, his lasting impacts will be more along the lines of an embarrassing chapter in the history books, and not a source of constitutional issues that last for centuries.
So have heart and enjoy a read of Steven Pinker's "The Better Angels of our Nature." It will make you feel better in what are admittedly some troubling times. We'll get through this, albeit on a hotter planet that has radically modified coastlines and areas of human habitation, of which there will be fewer of us packed into the remaining areas where we live, as the die-off we are in accelerates and then peaks later in the century. As Slipping Jimmy would say: "It's all good man."
I can remember the MCCarthy hearings as a kid & the start of the Korean War . Also had to swear that I was not ever a member of the Communist party for a state job. I share Mark's feeling that unless something drastically changes, the path this country is headed is not good. Since trump was elected I have been in fear of loosing our form of government. It does not help that I live in a red state & probably the county that is most red in the whole state. The only hope is that the younger generation can turn this around
I grew up and served in the Military during the Cold War. I served in classified Intel overseas as a very young Airman. Russia was our enemy then. Russia is our enemy now. You speak of "endless war". There is an economy associated with that. Gore Vidal's "Perpetual War for Perpetual Peace" is quite telling. Our Military budget is bloated beyond imagination. We, the people, have been seduced into believing that fat cat is required and necessary. Our so-called “leaders” have assured the perpetual wars.
I recall how during LBJ's tour in the White House and Vietnam, "guns vs. butter" was a universal argument. Guns always won the day. Still do. As to "hope", I refuse to give it up. That is equivalent to "throwing in the towel" and saying "they've won". I will not cede victory to "them", the Kevin McCarthys, the Greenes. the Gosars and on and on; the people of the darkness. They are the fools’ paradise. We cannot fall victim to their tyranny; their disloyalty; their destructiveness.
Today is "Holocaust Remembrance Day". We must never forget, all the while giving witness to the street hooligans who cry out, "Jews will not replace us". Where in the Name of God did they come up with that mantra? Oh! It's been around longer than those jackasses have been alive. But it was not just the Jews who were sent to the gas chambers. Homosexuals and partisans were sent there as well. No, Mark. At 78 years-old (soon to turn 79 – God willing), I will not give up or give in. I was a young Airman during the Cuban Missile Crisis; later witnessing the fall of the Berlin Wall. I refuse to let “them” win. Call me a foolish old man, but in the absence of hope there is nothing left but despair.
Mark I lived through the Depression and WW II, McCarthyism and all that you describe. For the first time, these days I wonder whether the America of my first 89 years will lose its core values in the years ahead.
When I served my country I took an oath to support the Constitution. This was not true with Trump and many Republican Congress members who participated in anti-constitutional insidious conspiracy.
Mark: I’m older than everyone (or so it may seem to some in my orbit) but “hopelessness” is not available to any of Heather’s readers! Yet while the fanatics appear to be in charge of their Party, there are some “reasonable conservatives” among them to make a difference with only a four vote margin. I have been reassured of that by several Democratic members and rest assured, their financial backers have no zeal for a crash of our economy and a train wrecked stock market. Moreover, the fanatics are leading their Party into the dustbin not only of history but also the trashbin of the 24 election! Keep up your political faith, Mark, help is on the way from the truncated middle of the Nation and the reasonableness of Hakim and friends!
On this thread of seniors what I am wondering is how influential where u live is to how optimistic u feel? I live in a red state & a county that is front & center of of the freedom caucus In the last election they voted for everything that others in the state rejected
I’ve lived long enough to see the Cold War, assassinations, Vietnam, the counterculture, civil rights struggles, Watergate, inflation, stagflation, oil embargoes, economic crashes, 9/11, endless war, and all other manner of craziness. Despite all of this, I never felt that the future was hopeless. With the emergence of these lunatics, that has all changed.
Mark, we cannot be self-indulgent and say we are now hopeless. Think of the residents of eastern Ukraine or the cabinet members who remain loyal to democracy and Zelenskyy after the corruption scandal revealed last week... they cannot simply give up hope. Hope is a muscle, an action word, a powerful motivator for each of us to get up and DO ONE THING. It will be enough. Stay well, remain engaged. Be an agent of change. You are my hope.
I am probably as old as Mark, and his comment could be from me. I think he may be indicating that he hasn't the energy or belief in causes to feel he will effect change. That is how I feel at any rate. Personal concerns at my age, primarily regarding my health, are the priority now. Correct me if I am wrong, Mark, but I and maybe he, have reached the stage where the noise is overpowering the signal, and I am in withdrawal.
After spending a career in industry, exposed to “the chain of command” that buried the lead, in many cases I was responsible for tracking down the root causes of quality problems in spite of their obstacles. Today I follow the daily release of new information and am fascinated at how many disparate puzzle pieces work their way unto the table, gradually forming the pictures we are now seeing as complex, intertwining machinations of evil plotters
Its impossible for average individuals to keep it all straight, and it can be exhausting to try, HOWEVER, my experience tells me that these daily revelations ARE exposing the criminals for what they are, certain news iutlets ARE challenging the Murdoch Propaganda Machinery AND the American Voting Ship is making a course correction away from the low information MAGA iceberg
That’s my take. Keep the faith that Good and Honest will rule the day; Eventually. It can’t be done without our support. Peace and Wellness to you
The pieces have been there (well mostly) but the deliberate effort to obfuscate has made the puzzle one that Alan Turing would have had trouble with. Thanks to those who keep trying, despite the “Weaponization of the government” by republican evil. It has been and is deliberate and calculated, the goal, power at any cost…
Remember, this last election was supposed to give the House 25 GOP members. It didn't. Because of the work.
Also remember, Lauren Boebert only won by 554 votes last time. We can get out 555 voters with postcards and networking!
Many of us news nerds are aware of the pieces, and you are correct, propaganda media frames them in obfuscation as we attempt to keep the pieces connecting properly
Having a skilled journalist highlight the puzzle in context is critical; lis like being able to view the completed puzzle picture on the box ahead of time instead of having fit pieces together without reference
We WILL complete the puzzle eventually and then be on to the next
Continuous Improvement is what we Quality Engineers call it
Yep! I’m right there with you as a retired Quality Nurse...love the process of a Root Cause Analysis and those pesky 5 why’s.
Thanks for your reference to Alan Turing. For many reasons, I consider him both a hero and a martyr.
You hit it on the head Jeri, "Deliberate effort to obfuscate" is the bottom line. As much as these wannabe actors, who have no interest in legislating, try to muddy the waters, their intention is simplistic. These mostly white people know that they can't keep winning elections based on the up and up because their numbers are dwindling. The answer? Close the borders, keep Blacks away from the polls at all cost, and guard our youth from history and the truth. As their web begins to fray they will only continue their ridiculousness to foment on steroids.For all of his stupid behaviors, Bill Barr somehow knew that they might land his ass in jail and turned course. Why? Because of groups and individuals who put truth and justice over their careers: The 1/6 Select Committee, Fani Willis, Letitia James, Jack Smith, etc. There IS hope. I'm betting all my currency on our youth. Their intelligence is being insulted and they are taking action. It is because of them, against all odds, that we did well enough in the midterms. High school students are suing DeSantis over proposing cancelling African American studies because the course "significantly lacks educational value." I predict that Kevin McCarthy and his antics will blurr away in history as did the old McCarthyism....
I found most interesting the spinning that Billy Bob did. Drinks with the special counsel...that's rich. Btw, I read Snyder yesterday and posted it on to my Facebook page.
Count me in, Dave, as another one of the hopeful. Heather’s right that Bannon has helped the GOP by sowing confusion. She’s wrong, however, to view the “Weaponization” committee as just another “attempt to continue that strategy” because McCarthy’s goal is not to confuse but to conscript Americans who truly believe a “Deep State” has been conspiring against them. To be sure the committee will fail to find evidence of such blatant evil. That said, Democrats shouldn’t get complacent for many if not most Americans still feel that someone is picking their pocket. And until national leaders--on the right or on the left--learn how to present real information (e.g. pending legislation that creates new tax breaks for billionaires), disinformation will prevail.
I was intrigued by how the J6 Committee employ a media storyteller to take raw information and storyboard it into content that made it easier to digest for average citizens
I hope they continue with that strategy
I totally understand the feelings of hopelessness and helplessness which I have. I remember my Uncle who was in a body bag in WW11and a soldier noticed he was from Springfield Ma his hometown. The medic rescued him. After a year in the hospital he came home. His love for his nieces, nephews, friends children and his students was felt throughout the community. He had hope for the future until he died at 75 in a skiing accident. He never gave up and always had hope for the future and next generation. At times I feel tired and hopeless but I know I must continue expressing my thoughts for the next generation and my grand children.
Wow. What a miraculous story. ❤️
Hear hear!
Ed At 89 I adhere to Churchill’s exhortation: NEVER, NEVER, NEVER, NEVER, NEVER GIVE UP. I must use a walker and am exploring getting a horn that plays Battle Hymn of the Republic.
I agree.
I may retreat for a bit to keep from losing my marbles entirely, but once I feel strong enough emotionally (and so far I always do) I pay attention again. Thank providence for people like Heather CR!!!!
(I'm a few years behind you at 73, but I've seen a lot as well, and have been watching these religious lunatics for a LONG old time!)
Karen In playing marbles remember to always hang on to your favorite shooter. It is especially useful against lunatics and nihilists (or do I repeat myself?)
Wonderful, Keith. I know it's important to acknowledge being tired as it offers an opportunity to reset, but I think going on about them in social media as I'm seeing today may "feel like venting" but it can de-energize the very people you need to keep going, and that helps the GOP. I love your approach and will be listening for Battle Hymn horns wherever I go.
My group of 70-80 year old women have re-emerged politically over the last 6 years and have been and will continue to do whatever actions we can (contacting our Congress Critters, doing get out the vote activities, etc.) and will continue to do so. Yeah, we're tired. No, we're not quitting. We understand withdrawal. We also understand that it's what they want us to do.
I am very happy for you and your group. Keep up the good work. I have other issues on my plate which are more important than what you are doing, but I am on a first-name basis with most of my representatives and communicate with them regularly. I am highly to persusion of this type, if that was intended. I know me, and I know what I can and will do at this stage of my life. I remember working for SNCC in 1963 or so, and staying with activism throught my life. Including some succesful lobbying on the state level for a minimum-wage increase, getting 2 senators elected by getting endorsements; one senatorial candidate asked me if I could get the endorsement of a state-level subset of an international union which I did, and getting both senatorial candidates on a third-party line successfully, door-to-door reminders to vote, and checking that those people did vote, right up until the polls closed. I need not say more, I know what I have done.
I'm only 78, but have outlived so many. A family elder who lives alone in a 1-room studio on Miami Beach being extorted by a landlord in addition to rising prices of everything & actually hope I expire before my savings do. I feel like the nation is crumbling from within due to idiots electing unqualified performers instead of legislators to run the government. I am withdrawing, my world is shrinking and my only fear is for my grandchildren who will have to exist in this dystopian near future.
"crumbling from within"
So true.
I appreciate your contributions here, Rob. Although the pandemic hastened my own shrinking world and age has added further limitations, I have found that this substack community and others have actually increased my world beyond the walls of my home. Stay tuned. Stay in touch!
Keep heart. Almost every generation of Americans on these shores has “bemoaned” the changes they see diminishing the country for their children and grandchildren. America has always changed in cycles; some say a pendulum.
In truth, it’s only been true for the Native Americans that their next generations faced significantly “less.”
And yet you continue to read and stay informed. Good for you, and I bet you still vote, right? It might not seem like much, but those two things - staying informed and voting - are still crucial. You must take care of yourself first to be able to do these two things, and as bad as it is, it can get a whole lot worse, so take a deep breath, and from a fellow citizen, thanks for hanging in there!
I tried last year. Now I feel the same as you Ed. 80 years is coming up this summer. I sapped my energy last year and was defeated. That hurt! I was the best most qualified candidate.
Sharon You are my hero for your massive effort to fight the good fight. You won and your district lost.
Thank you, Keith. I fought until it was over! I don't think I could go though that again but I will support my fellow Democrats in any way I can. The sad part is we need more Democrats that are younger than me.... to step up. We need somehow to educate those that vote.
I am very sorry that happened to you, Sharon, as we all had high hopes for your success. People are ignorant about one’s qualifications. Also, many are disinterested in voting and that is what is disturbing to me.
Thank you!
I am old as well. I respectfully and profoundly disagree with your and Mark's view. I have never been more proud to be an American. We are waging a true and hard fight for Democracy. And we are winning.
Turn your gaze from the loud liars and you will see this.
I´m right there with you.
Janet So young! About the age of my two oldest kids. Like fine wine, you are aging exceedingly well.
Janet I got my info from a Jewish laser, so it must be true.
"Mark, we cannot be self-indulgent and say we are now hopeless."
I think that may be an unfair assessment of how Mark is feeling. I do not believe that hopelessness is self-indulgence. With few exceptions (I can't speak for the universe), no one decides nor prefers to "simply give up hope."
Hopelessness isn't a pop decision. It's a process. It's global and it's personal.
Concerning the 2023 state of things, moments or long stretches of hopelessness are borne of life circumstances plus exhaustion fueled by no small amount of relentless propaganda via people whose raison d'être is to generate widespread hopelessness. Have you noticed how loud and persistent and omnipresent the underminers are?
Hope is not a muscle. It is a somewhat fragile state of being. More so with advanced age. It comes and goes, rises and falls. I agree that hope needs to be nurtured. Especially in times like these. But it's not as simple as suck it up and don't feel sorry for yourself.
I'd be flat out astonished if individuals in Ukraine do not experience times of hopelessness. Including Zelenskyy. Their motivation is to push and push and push back every single day with the hope that they'll stay alive long enough to defeat the devil and reclaim their country. Survival. Powerful stuff. And many visible role models.
Maybe expressed hopelessness can be, as Ed noted below, a time to re-adjust on an almost daily basis to harsh realities. I'm a peer of Mark and Ed. It's no small thing at our age to see our country and the world as a whole in such a freaking mess and try to summon up the wherewithal (energy-wise) to try one more time to make a difference.
I've been an activist most of my adult life. I'm very tired. Not to be confused with apathetic. Bravo for those who can sustain hope without moments of diminished hope. I used to be one of them. I hope to never give up hope entirely. But I'd be less than candid if I didn't say that some days, that's difficult. Please don't assume I'm being self-indulgent by admitting that.
BJ,
Enriching counterpoint — or eliding points. Thank you for the contribution.
I‘m aLao getting on in years, BJ. My belief in America, in people, in myself has ebbed and flowed as well. My diplomatic upbringing afforded up close view of coups d’etats and non-democratic governments, corruption and deceptions, deceit and decay. My personal history contains near ancestors who survived the Holocaust and some who did not. I have family who fled pogroms 150 years ago, dispersing across a diaspora too distant to sustain connections in real-cousins-time. I have returned, off and on, to an America anpparently indifferent to its own decay and certainly to the distractions that entertainment media contributed (well before Internet, even).
The losses, when tallied, feel insurmountable.
Raised largely away from American schools, and without benefit of deep dives into our history, I didn’t learn all that I have had to learn about our history (ergo my gratitude to Heather Cox Richardson!) — complicity in exporting Jim Crow to Nazi Germany, the breadth of our lynching obsessions, the systematization of segregation so that participants in it might not ever discern it, the founding trade-offs written into the constitution, etc. etc.
The betrayal of knowledge — meaning the ability to know one’s own history — when tallied, feels hopeless.
Still I’ll stick with muscle metaphor for hope. Unused it can become weak and fragile. Exercised, it can become habit… or flexed at point of need.
The Equal Justice Initiative has an atrocity-of-the-day calendar — which notes justice ignored and tortures / calamities / deaths prevailing. Why? It is my reminder that while I am still alive and here, my effort in this new day on the calendar can begin to tilt back the cosmic scale, to hold up for myself the idea of future reconciliation — to histories untold and DNA uncharted. It is my exercise of hope such as can propel me to just one thing. Today.
* … propel me to do at least one thing, today.* 🥴
I share a similar history as you, Leslie. Both parents were victims of the Holocaust. My grandparents were gassed in Chelmno. I too, have been an activist since 1970. I get worn out. I take a break and then I get active again. It’s a pendulum swing for me. I will never stop fighting for justice...never!
Respect and inward applause.
I have confidence that my children and grandchildren will right the ship.
Mark, have heart. Things are better now, even if it often seems otherwise. I too have lived through all of that, but remember the Big Muddy? We actually went to war on the wrong side in another country's civil war, and the entire Pentagon was complicit in it. And remember the mess that France was in back then, and how their mess got it all started? Egads - that even softens the current view of the mess in Ukraine. The US military's officer corps was significantly corrupt back then, and the CIA under the Dulles brothers was little different from the KGB, including a heavy dose of the kind of corruption we now see in the Putin regime. And that had a long tail - remember Contragate? Today, sure we still have our bad apples (e.g. Flynn), and we have gone through another scumbag presidency, but the self examination is happening this time with much less tension than we had back in 1967-72. As outrageous as jurists like Alito are, back then we had Julius Hoffman. Admittedly he wasn't on the high court, but today I think that if a judge were act as he did back then he would probably get himself arrested while sitting on the bench in his own courtroom.
Then there is Trump. Yes he was a thoroughly disgusting and awful president, but history will eventually judge him by the long term impacts of his misbehavior and malfeasance. How long will the tails be of his bad actions? They would have to be very long indeed to even come close to the impacts with which we are still struggling from the Andrew Jackson presidency (i.e. the Indian Exclusion Acts). I suspect that as awful as the Donald has been, his lasting impacts will be more along the lines of an embarrassing chapter in the history books, and not a source of constitutional issues that last for centuries.
So have heart and enjoy a read of Steven Pinker's "The Better Angels of our Nature." It will make you feel better in what are admittedly some troubling times. We'll get through this, albeit on a hotter planet that has radically modified coastlines and areas of human habitation, of which there will be fewer of us packed into the remaining areas where we live, as the die-off we are in accelerates and then peaks later in the century. As Slipping Jimmy would say: "It's all good man."
Thanks for reminding me of so much, HA. No comfort to see that evil machinations are still the rule in the era of nukes and nature’s ultimate fury.
"...the era of nukes and nature’s ultimate fury."
In 1984 I wrote a short story of a dystopian future, titled "The Legend" that started:
"Come lad, let me tell you a tale of Ancient Tymes, of Men and Gods, of Peasants and Kings, Empires and Warriors. You know nothing of that tyme, for you were not yet born, and I, Merlin the Ancient One, was just a babe."
It described our world of wondrous things that ended in a nuclear war, and this was the remaining, struggling civilization.
In 1996 I rewrote that story changing the Nuclear destruction to Climate change destruction. I still have them both: The Legend Bang & The Legend Whimper. Now it seems that either one could be our epitaph.
FOR ANYONE INTERESTED, HERE IS MY 1984 SHORT STORY
The Legend
by Rob Boyte
February 1984
Come lad, let me tell you a tale of Ancient Tymes, of Men and Gods, of Peasants and Kings, Empires and Warriors. You know nothing of that tyme, for you were not yet born, and I, Merlin the Ancient One, was just a babe.
This was the tyme of my Parents, of which we have little knowledge, for so much was lost in the Dark Ages, when men lived as animals and knew nothing of the Civilized Arts, but only how to kill and survive.
But lad, before I grow older than my 90 years, let me tell you the tale as told me by my Father, when I was but a dozen years like you. Know you that it is true, though you may not fathom its meaning, for there are few records of the Great Civilization before the Dark Ages, gathered from the moldy books, carved stones and objects that we keep in the Archives.
My father once lived in one of the Empires that ruled half the World after a great war, but saw ruin and corruption in the way men there lived, and moved us to a lesser Kingdom in the wilderness. There he pursued life's natural course, studied the Seasons, the Flora and Fauna, the Elementals and Arcana, the Ancient Truths forgotten by the Great Civilization.
Mind you I said this tale was of Gods and Men, and lo, those were wondrous tymes, when some Men lived as Gods. There were Great Cities in the heart of the Empires, where dwelt Wizards whose knowledge of the Hidden Powers even I cannot fathom, but my Father was there and saw them with his own eyes. Listen carefully lad, for what I tell you is Truth, and not legend or the ramblings of an old man as so many would have you believe.
Their Physicians used not only the Herbs and Roots but the very Earth and Ethers to heal all disease, and their Surgeons could remove the viscera, yea even the Heart from a corpse and make it live in another person. They controlled the power of Lightning and made it move machines and give light and make heat or cold as they desired. The lightning was also made to carry their voice and image to others around the world and even helped them think, to create more wondrous devices than they already had.
There were mechanical carriages that moved five tymes the speed of a horse at full gallop, and ships of steel so large they could sail the Seas through the worst of storms, or move quickly without a breeze. Some of these I've heard can be seen today, sunken in shallow water off the coast. There were machines that flew, and could carry hundreds of people from one part of the world to the other side, and moved so fast that their own sound could not catch them. There were even such flying machines as could leave the Earth and go to the Moon.
Alas, it were these very devices which destroyed both Empires and most all life on Earth, for their Sorcerers had also harnessed the power of the Sun. After a generation of this knowledge, both Empires unleashed this awesome power on each other, and in less than a day the Great Civilization perished. In the ensuing years most men and beasts in the rest of the world succumbed to sickness or famine or The Great Winter, which lasted a decade.
Only a very few survived those dreadful tymes, those Dark Ages. My Father was one. He named me Merlin after a Wizard more ancient than his own tyme, for I too refused to die, as if protected by the Hidden Powers. There were those who prepared for such a tyme, but they could not see the breadth or length of the destruction, and the hand of Death touched them with the same ease as those who were unprepared. Who lived and who died was by the Grace of God and there were many who did not wait for that Grace, for only the very strong of spirit could endure those tymes when the dead were envied by the living. My own Mother succumbed to the Great Winter, but I had been weaned and somehow lived on, eating bugs and lizards and worms that dwelt beneath the ground.
We survived, as Chronicled in the New Archives, and fell in with others, each helping in our struggle for life. We built walls and fought the Marauders, found weeds and rats and grew them for food, and scavenged through the Great Winter, and survived.
Now we are secure in our faire City with its stout walls. Those terrible Dark Ages have passed and we are building anew from the ruin, a New Civilization. Each day brings new Knowledge from old books for those of us who read, and with the Wisdom of all my years I can now see the Larger Scheme.
This tale I have told you to pass on to others, for mark my words lad, this World I give to you will pass into change, and again and again with your children's children it will change, until someday it be, as it was in Ancient Tymes, a Great Civilization with the power of its own demise.
100% to you, Craig. From Mr. 67 years in Vermont :)
Well said, sir.
I love the thoughts you wrote. Thank you. Be well.
I'm willing to bet that Black people in this country, and especially Black women, have had it worse than you or me. What was Jim Crow from the perspective of Black people but lunatics running the show? And who's been fighting hardest all these decades to make the U.S. more representative, more just, more inclusive? This is a long-haul fight, and it seems that people who didn't realize there was a problem until Trump got elected want to give up already. There's plenty of work to be done. Find something you can do and then do it.
@Susanna, what you said! “ This is a long-haul fight, and it seems that people who didn't realize there was a problem until Trump got elected want to give up already. There's plenty of work to be done. Find something you can do and then do it.” Two great options: 1. If you can afford a small expense, write postcards for Postcards to Voters or Field Team Six. 2. For a free option, join phonebanks run by Mobilize, Indivisible, or Swing Left.
I'm a Postcards To Voters junkie! Before COVID local activists had regular postcard parties. Time to get back to them again. After years of voting Democratic, and occasionally volunteering for Democratic campaigns, I finally registered as a Dem in January 2017 and got involved with my local Dem group -- which has a heavy overlap with local Indivisible. IMO it's the best way to avoid getting despondent -- there really are millions of us out here doing the work in ways large and small.
❤️
Thanks for the reminder, Elizabeth M! I've worked for our County Democratic HQ for 20+ years. We're rural and Red, but only 5000 less Dems than Repubs voters plus we have 14000 Independents. Our candidates have not been successful in the last 15 years and sometimes it's discouraging. But I'm always buoyed by enthusiastic candidates and volunteers. And can sometimes be discouraged by apathy or fear of the gun owners and disinformation the Repubs spew, the sign destruction and sign stealing, the hateful billboard signs. But I keep coming back; at 78, I can't give up, for my beautiful grandchildren!
What Elizabeth M. said! You *are* an inspiration, and so are the candidates and volunteers who keep the faith and keep at it. Maybe because I'm a bread baker, I think of you all as the yeast (or maybe the sourdough starter!) that is helping the whole county to rise.
love the sourdough starter, Susanna, thank you, Sandy
I come by it honestly. ;-) Have been baking bread with sourdough for about 40 years, have had to start starter from scratch a couple of times (oops), and have also lent and borrowed starter from neighbors more than once.
Yay, Sandra VO! You are an inspiration!
I watched the 1619 Project ep1 last night (Hulu) which said exactly this. Then listened to a podcast where Bono said, "You're not America yet". Certain residents on this land have continually been working towards liberty and justice for all.
I *love* "You're not America yet." America is a goal we're working toward, not an idealized version of the past or all of our past mistakes either. It took me a long, long time to understand this.
Like you, Mark, I find these dreadful machinations very deflating. I worry for my grown children, and especially for my grandchildren. What kind of USA will they be inheriting? It does seem like watching a train wreck happening in slow motion, at times. I'm finding it harder to believe that the moral universe even exists, let alone that its arc bends toward justice.
Deflating? Downright depressing. But there came a knocking from the inside of Pandora's box. Let me out, let me out. It was hope.
It has taken a beating like never before in my life. I no longer have the resources to DONATE, DONATE, DONATE. Probably won’t matter, but I feel hamstrung…
I agree.... I'm tired too... Everyone wants $
Your voice is appreciated, Jeri. Others can donate while you continue to do your part by speaking out.
Hook up with Postcards to Voters. For short money — usually you supply the stamps —you write postcards to pre-selected Democratic or likely-Democratic voters in key districts or states but who left to their own devices don’t always vote, providing succinct voting information before key elections. Analysis shows that if these voters receive a postcard, they are much more likely to vote than if they don’t get one. For $30, I recently finished and mailed 50 postcards to Wisconsin Democrats before a February state election that has state Supreme Court candidates on the ballot. ‘Til I pay down a big credit card bill from over-donating to vulnerable Dems in 2022, I am refusing all donation requests. But I can afford to write postcards.
I’ve written postcards in several elections to Georgia and Virginia voters. I like to think it helped especially in the recent midterms.
Bravo! Yes, I did the same, and felt like I made a concrete, if small, contribution to the result.
I write letters with Vote Forward, they do much the same thing. They tell us that our letters are very effective, I don't know how they know but it keeps me writing!
I'm glad you mentioned Vote Forward. I should have. I wrote some letters through them to likely Dem voters in Georgia in the lead-up to Rafael Warnock's successful Jan. 2021 runoff. So yes, it was very gratifying to see him win and then think "I made a tiny contribution toward that!" It keeps me writing. Of course, the totally amazing Stacy Abrams and the fantastic organization she has built get the lioness's share of the credit for turning Georgia purple. She has proven that winning isn't magic--it's about doing the work, and building the movement.
Thanks. I may have received one from you as it was postmarked Boston. And, yes this Supreme Court election is critical. Thanks.
Glad to hear the postcards are getting through, and targetting a crucial election. If yours was signed "Ellie", it was from me. :-)
Did your last sentence in the past year. Pay up time
One of the things that give me hope is Heather's letters and then the response of the posters here with exception of a couple trolls who show up from time to time and take up space. I am too old for any activities except to donate to causes and certain pols.
Hope just informed us, and the nation, about what these criminals were up to. It is harder in places such as China, where the counter-narrative is violently suppressed. Collectively we need not go there.
Anne-Louise L., this is humanity: let us not forget the many trials of Moses (the Moses in the Bible and in other sacred writings)...after escaping the Egyptians, he takes the Hebrew people to freedom. God calls him up to receive the 10 commandments leaving the Hebrews in the care of Aaron. coming down from the mountain. he finds the people who have been freed from slavery , also having experienced amazing miracles. worshiping a golden calf....prefering a god they had made rather than the God who had freed them from slavery. This is us.
We can choose to be slaves or free. Freedom takes a lot of work! We cannot "sleep!"
There has been so much unlawful behavior in high places and so little justice, so far. Investigation after investigation yields no justice and only serves to validate the disinformation the public has been fed. We are avoiding the appearance of partisanship at the expense of our democracy and although the mid terms were disappointing for the GOP, the fact remains that millions of voters support these criminals. There is a lot of work to be done, to overcome this corruption, and so far, not much in the way of real consequences. It is so frustrating.
Totally agree. It is incomprehensible that, with everything that has been unearthed, people like trump, his family members, and minions continue to wreak havoc while the ongoing corruption generates hand wringing and the investigative reports get "tabled". It is also stunning (but not really given gerrymandering) that the lowest of the low (incompetent and evil) are in congressional positions of power. There is only so long people can "keep the faith"/maintain momentum that something can and is going to be done to clean things up. As has been said by others, we may well be the generation/time period that loses democracy.
Is there a boundary for tolerance? Have we reached the edge of our laws? Who of us will be beaten to submission when our laws are no longer respected? Have we reached a belief in Democracy where bipartisanship does not serve our nation? I no longer respect anyone who identifies with the RepubliCON Party. Lying scum.
Never ever let them defeat our spirit. Never ever!
Every word, what wreckage will we leave behind???
There has been so much unlawful behavior in high places and so little justice, so far. Investigation after investigation yields no justice and only serves to validate the disinformation the public has been fed. We are avoiding the appearance of partisanship at the expense of our democracy and although the mid terms were disappointing for the GOP, the fact remains that millions of voters support these criminals. There is a lot of work to be done, to overcome this corruption, and so far, not much in the way of real consequences. It is so frustrating.
Mark, have heart. Things are better now, even if it often seems otherwise. I too have lived through all of that, but remember the Big Muddy? We actually went to war on the wrong side in another country's civil war, and the entire Pentagon was complicit in it. And remember the mess that France was in back then, and how their mess got it all started? Egads - that even softens the current view of the mess in Ukraine. The US military's officer corps was significantly corrupt back then, and the CIA under the Dulles brothers was little different from the KGB, including a heavy dose of the kind of corruption we now see in the Putin regime. And that had a long tail - remember Contragate? Today, sure we still have our bad apples (e.g. Flynn), and we have gone through another scumbag presidency, but the self examination is happening this time with much less tension than we had back in 1967-72. As outrageous as jurists like Alito are, back then we had Julius Hoffman. Admittedly he wasn't on the high court, but today I think that if a judge were act as he did back then he would probably get himself arrested while sitting on the bench in his own courtroom.
Then there is Trump. Yes he was a thoroughly disgusting and awful president, but history will eventually judge him by the long term impacts of his misbehavior and malfeasance. How long will the tails be of his bad actions? They would have to be very long indeed to even come close to the impacts with which we are still struggling from the Andrew Jackson presidency (i.e. the Indian Exclusion Acts). I suspect that as awful as the Donald has been, his lasting impacts will be more along the lines of an embarrassing chapter in the history books, and not a source of constitutional issues that last for centuries.
So have heart and enjoy a read of Steven Pinker's "The Better Angels of our Nature." It will make you feel better in what are admittedly some troubling times. We'll get through this, albeit on a hotter planet that has radically modified coastlines and areas of human habitation, of which there will be fewer of us packed into the remaining areas where we live, as the die-off we are in accelerates and then peaks later in the century. As Slipping Jimmy would say: "It's all good man."
Beautifully written, Craig.
And it is climate change that really is my long term concern.
That and this WAR... for me. :-(
Craig The ‘Big Muddy’ is a lasting contribution by one of my heroes—Pete Seeger, who was a great American who fought for our America.
Many have commented on feeling hopeless in the face of mounting “craziness.” When hopelessness rears its ugly head, think of a fire extinguisher -- sharing this short poem that was shared with me when hope was hard to find. Whatever the “burning haunted house” may be, the future demands we remain hopeful and use our fire extinguisher!
Voting as Fire Extinguisher
When the haunted house catches fire:
a moment of indecision.
The house was, after all, built on bones,
and blood, and bad intentions.
Everyone who enters the house feels
that overwhelming dread, the evil
that perhaps only fire can purge.
It's tempting to just let it burn.
And then I remember:
there are children inside.
-Kyle Tran Myhre
Wow!
Mark, I too have lived through all that you highlight. And having spent my career working mostly on environmental issues, I can speak loudly to the idea that the future may be bleaker than I’d hoped when I started. Yet, it seems truly remarkable, at least to me, that African Americans, black women in particular, could find enough hope for the future, to vote in such giant numbers in 2020 and organize the bejesus out if places like Georgia. Thank God for Stacy Abrams and millions like her. We know how bad a second term under Trump would have been and without their amazing efforts, well, !!!!!!! But why were some of the most oppressed people in America do highly motivated to vote?
Or how about the daily work of Indigenous people throughout this country to protect and preserve? I just had lunch with a friend who was at the Standing Rock protest 5 years ago when the police turned fire hoses of water on against the protesters. The temperature was well below zero and many of those present suffered hypothermia and frostbite, even broken bones, then were arrested and their wounds left untreated. My friend will forever carry her physical and psychological wounds. Yet she continues to be very active - We spent the day at the Capitol in St. Paul talking with our legislators about an upcoming bill requiring that utilities provide 100% of electricity from renewable sources. Will we prevent the climate crisis from obliterating our way of life if this bill is passed? No. But it is a step in the right direction and Minnesota is in a great position to lead.
Sitting around feeling hopeless at our age is deadly. Don’t. If you’d like some guidance on daily actions you can take, try reading Chop Wood, Carry Water here on Substack. Jessica Craven does a credible job of writing shorts scripts and ways of contacting your legislators.
As Gandhi said; “Be the change you wish to see in the world.”
💯💯💯
Mark, I too have lived long enough to have see all of that you listed and more, and have always seen myself as an optimist, but with the surreal-ness of what is going on these days I can't help but see little to be optimistic about. And that includes the insanity in Congress, right wing propaganda, and the environment.
Mark, have heart. Things are better now, even if it often seems otherwise. I too have lived through all of that, but remember the Big Muddy? We actually went to war on the wrong side in another country's civil war, and the entire Pentagon was complicit in it. And remember the mess that France was in back then, and how their mess got it all started? Egads - that even softens the current view of the mess in Ukraine. The US military's officer corps was significantly corrupt back then, and the CIA under the Dulles brothers was little different from the KGB, including a heavy dose of the kind of corruption we now see in the Putin regime. And that had a long tail - remember Contragate? Today, sure we still have our bad apples (e.g. Flynn), and we have gone through another scumbag presidency, but the self examination is happening this time with much less tension than we had back in 1967-72. As outrageous as jurists like Alito are, back then we had Julius Hoffman. Admittedly he wasn't on the high court, but today I think that if a judge were act as he did back then he would probably get himself arrested while sitting on the bench in his own courtroom.
Then there is Trump. Yes he was a thoroughly disgusting and awful president, but history will eventually judge him by the long term impacts of his misbehavior and malfeasance. How long will the tails be of his bad actions? They would have to be very long indeed to even come close to the impacts with which we are still struggling from the Andrew Jackson presidency (i.e. the Indian Exclusion Acts). I suspect that as awful as the Donald has been, his lasting impacts will be more along the lines of an embarrassing chapter in the history books, and not a source of constitutional issues that last for centuries.
So have heart and enjoy a read of Steven Pinker's "The Better Angels of our Nature." It will make you feel better in what are admittedly some troubling times. We'll get through this, albeit on a hotter planet that has radically modified coastlines and areas of human habitation, of which there will be fewer of us packed into the remaining areas where we live, as the die-off we are in accelerates and then peaks later in the century. As Slipping Jimmy would say: "It's all good man."
I can remember the MCCarthy hearings as a kid & the start of the Korean War . Also had to swear that I was not ever a member of the Communist party for a state job. I share Mark's feeling that unless something drastically changes, the path this country is headed is not good. Since trump was elected I have been in fear of loosing our form of government. It does not help that I live in a red state & probably the county that is most red in the whole state. The only hope is that the younger generation can turn this around
I grew up and served in the Military during the Cold War. I served in classified Intel overseas as a very young Airman. Russia was our enemy then. Russia is our enemy now. You speak of "endless war". There is an economy associated with that. Gore Vidal's "Perpetual War for Perpetual Peace" is quite telling. Our Military budget is bloated beyond imagination. We, the people, have been seduced into believing that fat cat is required and necessary. Our so-called “leaders” have assured the perpetual wars.
I recall how during LBJ's tour in the White House and Vietnam, "guns vs. butter" was a universal argument. Guns always won the day. Still do. As to "hope", I refuse to give it up. That is equivalent to "throwing in the towel" and saying "they've won". I will not cede victory to "them", the Kevin McCarthys, the Greenes. the Gosars and on and on; the people of the darkness. They are the fools’ paradise. We cannot fall victim to their tyranny; their disloyalty; their destructiveness.
Today is "Holocaust Remembrance Day". We must never forget, all the while giving witness to the street hooligans who cry out, "Jews will not replace us". Where in the Name of God did they come up with that mantra? Oh! It's been around longer than those jackasses have been alive. But it was not just the Jews who were sent to the gas chambers. Homosexuals and partisans were sent there as well. No, Mark. At 78 years-old (soon to turn 79 – God willing), I will not give up or give in. I was a young Airman during the Cuban Missile Crisis; later witnessing the fall of the Berlin Wall. I refuse to let “them” win. Call me a foolish old man, but in the absence of hope there is nothing left but despair.
Mark I lived through the Depression and WW II, McCarthyism and all that you describe. For the first time, these days I wonder whether the America of my first 89 years will lose its core values in the years ahead.
When I served my country I took an oath to support the Constitution. This was not true with Trump and many Republican Congress members who participated in anti-constitutional insidious conspiracy.
Traitorous lunatics.
Mark: I’m older than everyone (or so it may seem to some in my orbit) but “hopelessness” is not available to any of Heather’s readers! Yet while the fanatics appear to be in charge of their Party, there are some “reasonable conservatives” among them to make a difference with only a four vote margin. I have been reassured of that by several Democratic members and rest assured, their financial backers have no zeal for a crash of our economy and a train wrecked stock market. Moreover, the fanatics are leading their Party into the dustbin not only of history but also the trashbin of the 24 election! Keep up your political faith, Mark, help is on the way from the truncated middle of the Nation and the reasonableness of Hakim and friends!
On this thread of seniors what I am wondering is how influential where u live is to how optimistic u feel? I live in a red state & a county that is front & center of of the freedom caucus In the last election they voted for everything that others in the state rejected
Me too.
Same here - we must be about the same age.