Man, I once longed for change, excitement, unpredictability, for a time when life and death hung on a whim. Those longings of course came from my life of privilege, where necessary needs were always met, where contrived excitement ghosted quickly, where temporary salvation could be bought only through increasing the toxicity in “the dose-levels-required”.
Now those times I longed for, are here … and they do not have the same glory they beckoned with when seen from far away.
Nothing from the past seems real anymore. Does anyone truly and deeply care about our national debt, you know, that problem of overspending money we will never have? Apparently if you still do, you don’t matter. Do we really and truly deeply care that over 50% of US Citizens don’t have enough money for minimal substandard living? Apparently if you do, you don’t matter anymore. Do we really and truly deeply care that a huge square acreage of the United States of America, still has post-storm catastrophic food, lodging and electrical issues after …how long? If you still care about such things, apparently you’re a ghost. Does anyone give one stinky shit about that pathetic petty small-time money laundering huckster running the world’s most powerful nation?
These are moot questions. We live with all of the above.
There is one single relevant question to ask ourselves,…. this one: what are each one of us,individually, going to do and how much are we willing to give of ourselves to make things right?
Tough question. I struggle with this daily. Once it was a vague long distant hypothetical that was more academic than real life. As days approach a Constitutional Crises (a polite form of saying Civil War), now it becomes more difficult to choose.
When Trump fires Mueller and Rosenstein, whether or not this nation can survive as a democracy or instead becomes an autocracy, will depend on one thing…
HOW MANY OF US TAKE TO THE STREETS TO PROTEST….
If there is no action and all is crickets, our democracy is done. If taking care of the next customer in your line for his $3.66 order is more important than whether your nation works for you or you work solely for it as in Nazi Germany, then this nation ultimately will deserve what it gets. If you can’t protest because finishing your bosses’ project is more important than whether we remain a nation run by law or become another one of a long list of failed-Trump enterprises, then the pain we endure in our futures will be deserved.
When these firings take place, and they will be done for one single reason, to obstruct a criminal investigation and if everyone shrugs their shoulders, then we are no longer a nation of morals, a nation of values, a nation of law, or a nation to be proud of. Everyone should take a knee to the flag. Period.
Some of us have seen such galvanizing moments elsewhere. Most of us reading this can remember our amazement as the Arab Spring outpourings rocked the Muslim political world. Some of you may be so old you can vividly remember seeing live actual clips from a globally televised Tienanmen Square, or the majestic unbelief as the infamous symbol of the Berlin Wall tumbled to allow the joining of one people kept apart for so long. At each of these events, so many different kinds of people, interrupted their daily routines, joined up, and stood shoulder to shoulder and said by their actions or maybe even audibly, … “OVER OUR DEAD BODIES”.
Power is the one thing that changes things permanently. The American Revolution can be one example. The defeat of Southerners in 1865, can be another. The unconditional surrender of Germany and Japan could be a third. But so could every municipality whose citizens stand up and say, “we will not let this thing happen”, which shows the result of applying people-power to a problem. There is very little recourse left when a small minority at the top insists on using its self-formulated back-room tricks to subdue a large plurality underneath who do not wish to be subjugated.
Success or failure in mob gatherings depends solely on each gathering’s “will” to exact permanent change. Demonstrations against water cannons accomplish nothing. How many times have we seen it in Turkey? Throwing a few rocks for the TV cameras, nada, still keeps the same regime in power. But, … marching to the Bastille to overrun its defenses, creates a change that lead to a Democracy. In all cases the degree of how much we want to give up of ourselves has an overbearing thumb on the scale as to how our actions will go. Tienanmen Square could have made China a democracy by unleashing Civil War, but the leadership in that square unaccustomed to power didn’t want to go that far; they opted for a gentle peaceful revolution. So it be became a wasted opportunity; today China remains a dictatorship with little personal freedom. Like China,the French Revolution could have also ended as a peaceful-protest encampment that could eventually be crushed by loyal paramilitaries mustered from across the Continent to eliminate them. Instead, they were so abused, tired, hungry, that ONLY visceral and immediate change could alleviate their suffering. They stormed as a blood mob.
If 4 million instantly show up in the National Mall, there is nothing stopping them from marching into the Capitol and forcibly removing all Congress members as prisoners, or from occupying the White House and incarcerating all occupants still alive to be tried on national television. 4000 riot police against 4 million who will stop at nothing, does not end well for many people… If you are consumed with blind-rage so much that you continue charging forward as both the person left or right of you gets shot done and there are 4 million still behind you? Eventually some of you will actually mount the barricade and start fighting with your bare hands against those whose unfortunate job they signed up for, was to protect public property. Revolution is the one way to guarantee change. Its cost is so high though.
Theoretical: if everyone in DC would just pour into its streets, gravitate towards the Mall, there exists the possibility that the non-violent means firmly embedded in our Constitution (read Impeachment) may actually be trotted out by the brown-stained-pants of our Republican Congressional members, even including those elected from Fox-News Wonderland, who in fear will ignore their party’s leadership to buckle down and do what is best for the country.
If you haven’t already, start this conversation in your head now…. “What am I going to do when Trump fires Mueller and Rosenstein?” Unless you already have a credible, solid, committed plan, my bet is that you probably will do nothing but mope and America will slip away one more step from democratic government. But don’t worry. Rome continued 500 years under multiple Caesars after losing its democracy...