There is work to do

Penny said: "One thing is certain, our future is in jeopardy" and I started to write a comment, but it just kept growing larger. I decided it was a post, not a comment. I am not normally a pessimist, but I am definitely not a happy citizen right now and it is difficult to see any light in the tunnel.

On all fronts, our future seems in jeopardy. In my 32 years of voting, I have never been this fearful about the power of a limited few to alter so many aspects of life. I see soon to be appointed Supreme Court Justices who will interpret the Constitution in a fundamentalist manner, willing to overturn past rulings, the Bill of Rights and our freedoms encoded in that document imperiled by the likes of Ashcroft and others, War and our relationship with the rest of the world continuing in a downward spiral, the economy in upheaval and the widening gap between the rich and poor along with the continued loss of skilled jobs, the environment being raped for a few years of oil or the sake of a few dollars of profit, the civil rights of all people imperiled, to name only a few. This administration wants to send us in the direction of those dark futuristic novels and backwards from the progress we might have made in the past thirty years. Worse, now they feel they have a mandate to do bigger things, and more damage, even though they only barely won the popular vote.

I am dismayed (a mild word for what I feel) and cannot find peace and hope within, to trust it will all work out for the good. I fear a long fight within the country to attempt to halt the reverse direction Bush seems determined to travel. And I have no illusions about our ability to stop any of it.

I feel as if I ought to offer sympathy and hope to those who feel like me. At this moment, it is difficult to find anything except the strength to commiserate. But we must all come out of the dark feelings of despair and look towards what we can and must do in order to impede and slow the enactment of the visions of the administration and the ultra conservative Republicans. Our future and our children's future depend on it.

Get involved, stay informed, educate everyone you come in contact with and keep the hysteria to a minimum. Only cold hard facts convince people, and even then it is an uphill battle. People want to believe they are on the side of right. It will take an effort to convince any of the folks who voted for Bush that they were wrong. We have a Federal election in two years that could put more Democrats in Congress.

Work towards that new goal. I know it is mind numbing to think about, and the vision of the next four years is staggeringly dismal. But we have to drag ourselves up and work on now. It does no good to wallow in defeat.

We have work to do. No one said citizenship was easy.