As frustrating and emotionally draining as the debt-ceiling wrangling in Washington has been, what is equally draining is reading our community perpetuate an ongoing feud between the pro-Obama and anti-Obama camps that is frankly depressing the living shit out of me.
I had to step away from my computerfor about a half-hour after reading the invectives, missives, and insults fired off in the comments of this rec-listed diary. Feeling helpless about what to do WRT to the debt ceiling, helpless about what my own district's elected officials do despite my letters and calls and emails, and helpless about this site's constant community infighting, I decided, fuck it, I'm going to help people in the only way I feel I can really make a difference.
Directly.
My husband and I are not rich people by any means, but we know how to stock up when it comes to good deals at the grocery stores. BOGOs, coupons, cost-cutting shopping strategies--we know them and we use them. It is because of our frugality and ability to stock up that we had amassed a good-sized pantry full of nutritious nonperishables that aren't pure malnutritious, chemicalized, and processed crap.
Well, that food isn't doing much good sitting on our shelves when it could be helping a family in need right now. My kids don't really go for the "nutritious" packaged foods anyway, much to my chagrin, so why not give it to someone who will appreciate it? As I type this, I'm looking at three big bags of non-perishables that I plan to deliver to the ECHO food bank near my sons' pediatrician on my way to work tomorrow morning. It may not look like a ton of food, but it's nearly 1/3 of my pantry, and perhaps it will help someone get by for another day, another week, another few meals.
Such as the food banks after food banks after food banks with shelves that are going empty, where "dire need" is an all-too-common phrase seen in calls for help from cities and towns all over the country are becoming ever too squeezed (at least 98 percent of us, anyway) to afford to donate.
There is nothing wrong with healthy debate and disagreement among like-minded people in a community like Daily Kos with a common progressive set of goals we all seem to forget from time to time. But it seems that the constant fighting, squabbling, hurling insults, flames, hide rates, and so on is crossing the line of healthy disagreement and turning into an UNhealthy preoccupation with fighting for the sake of fighting. And then what the hell are we really accomplishing for the good of our community when we're away from our computers? You know, like in the real world.
Right now, probably somewhere in your neighborhood, someone is going without food because he or she had to use the pennies in his/her pocket to get to work or go to the doctor's, if s/he is lucky enough to have one of either. Maybe someone went without food so his or her son or daughter could eat instead. It shouldn't be like this in a free society. It shouldn't be like that in America. But it is happening. Right the hell now.
People don't have to wait for the debt ceiling to expire to be hungry right the hell now, and we can do something to help, right the hell now. Tearing each other to shreds does more damage than it does to help--in fact, it doesn't help at all. If our goal as progressives is to ultimately help people, then we should be doing more of it, and less--much less--of tearing each other apart.