No one has ever accused me of being unemotional.
I wear my heart on my sleeve, my dress, my shoes – everywhere.
But, as a lawyer, I learned -- early on -- that sometimes I had to leave some of this in the hallway.
I learned that I had to walk into a courtroom as an actress; and I learned how to do it well. I learned not to cry, smirk, yell, make faces. Because none of that contributed to effective advocacy – and my job was to be an advocate.
Which is not to say that my heart didn’t snap in two sometimes, or that I didn’t (once) almost break my hand smacking a marble hallway wall after a particularly unfair (and unjust) ruling.
RIGHT NOW, though we all need to be effective advocates, and we need to get our game on!
We need to reinvigorate the message of hope.
Frankly, we have two choices: We can remain stoic and keep going with our message for a better America, or we can just let despair take us over. I choose the former.
And I choose it even when I want to smack a marble wall so hard that I could break my hand.
We need to keep our Senate and House of Representatives Democratic. Period.
The circumstances of our country right are truly frightening. Just take a look at Meteor Blades’ front page post tonight. Half of the people in this country are suffering as a result of the Bush-Recession. HALF.
And despite this, what the Republicans (and their right-wing cheerleaders) propose is that now is the time to start worrying about deficits.
Seriously?
What a concept for Republicans! Heaven knows this wasn't an issue when Bush was President:
O'Neill said he tried to warn Vice President Dick Cheney that growing budget deficits-expected to top $500 billion this fiscal year alone-posed a threat to the economy. Cheney cut him off. "You know, Paul, Reagan proved deficits don't matter," he said, according to excerpts. Cheney continued: "We won the midterms (congressional elections). This is our due." A month later, Cheney told the Treasury secretary he was fired.
Source ~ On the Issues
Yup, deficits don’t matter; except when Democrats have the White House.
When cranking the deficit up was for the purpose of launching a horrific and unnecessary war -- albeit one that would fill the coffers of troop killers such as Halliburton, which is responsible for the death of Sgt. Ryan D. Maseth and so many others -- Republicans seemed disengaged.
Apparently, deficits that padded the pockets of good GOP supporters are okay.
Deficits that might possibly put struggling Americans back to work – not so much.
And while all of this weighs heavily, there is now, as well, the plight of our oil-soaked wildlife in the Gulf . . . the wildlife Gov. Bobby Jindal has dispatched the National Guard to keep you from seeing ~ I can’t bear to look at the pictures.
Pelicans.
A lot of reasons for despair. As was this advertisement, which someone living in the United States in 2010 actually thought appropriate:
Well: Seriously? Shame on you, Rick Barber. THIS American didn't find it appropriate it all. Actually, I found it shocking.
And there we have it: Deficit-liars, shameless war-enablers who are willing to sacrifice our brave military to make a buck, environment-haters who think it’s fine to sacrifice our environment to oil companies . . . and their sad, sick minions who are comfortable using slavery and the Holocaust as talking points.
Pretty much sums up the GOP.
So our choices are this: Sink into despair because some Americans seem to be buying into the talking points of the GOP OR getting our gear up and and our shoes on and working to stop this. Providing better talking points. Stating the truth and advocating the truth. Getting out there.
Yup – it’s easy to despair – but that’s what they want.
No way. No how.
Get your game on.
From the comments (another stark reminder):
For the first time ever -- and this is worth repeating -- one of the two major political parties in America is sabotaging a delicate economic recovery for the sake of humiliating the president and his party, and subsequently recapturing a political majority.
Here