A Bleak Day's Hangover

I've read Fahrenheit 451 twice, and it has always been one of my favorites, but now I think I'll read it again and find some of the other books to read as well.

Yes, it was a sobering day. I'm wondering what America is going to be like in 10 or 20 years. I don't think it is going to look good for the common working person.

Perhaps the unions will have to be destroyed, then rebuilt under another name when the workers realize they need them.

I confess, the last few weeks have beaten me down, & I'm having an awful time finding something positive on which to focus. If it were possible, I would take a vacation from it all & just back away. Fortunately, I have a small glimmer of hope left for us so I'm going to try to "go there" as often as I can. Meanwhile, I think I'll curl up with a Ray Bradbury classic. :) Dee

We don't mellow with age. We lose the fluff and detritus that diluted or obstructed our true values. We are liberated now to act on our values. Those of us who are able can join to oppose the billionaires and extreme rightists with millions of votes and articulation. Rise up and act on your values. We have many years left in which we must be responsible.

What bothers me is that women can even contemplate voting Republican--or can members of unions or ANYONE in the middle class.... How can moralistic issues like abortion and homosexuality be so blinding as to obscure the destruction that is occurring in our country? I just don't get it. At 71 also, I have never been as scared and anxious regarding our future as I am now.

For someone following politics with real passion, mellowing out surely is never going to be possible. Anyway the cliche about people mellowing with age seems mostly wishful thinking. I've decided to mostly ignore politics and that helps me stay mildly mellow. But some people,women especially, I think, go just the opposite and move into crabby-old-lady-dom having been "nice" much of their previous life -- it happened to my mother.

I agree that we don't mellow with age, but I do think we become more selective of the things that we are passionate about.

We have learned to not "sweat the little things".

I do get more upset about the things I really care about and go into deep depression for a day or two, then I pull myself up and move on. I was depressed over the stupidity of the average voter, but now I read that many who voted for Walker were Obama fans and would not vote Republican in the national campaign. I find this reasoning to be inconsistent, but I have never understood the mind of rational people doing irrational things.

The 'lemonade' in this story is that Walker no longer has a Republican majority in the Senate so it will be much harder for him to get his reactionary laws passed.

I was furious at my U.S. Senator (Pat Toomey R-PA) for voting, along with all the other republican sheep, against the Paycheck Fairness Act.

I called his office (along with Emailing him) and told his representative to remind the Senator that thousands of children in our State, and in this Country, depend on their Mother's paycheck alone for
their support and well being.

Most of the time the dad's have left the family and the support checks they send are sporadic at best.

Children need the money their Moms make and republicans don't really get that.

Let's try as hard as we can to support Democratic candidates and bring some reason and understanding back to our Government.

Especially we must return to the days when a simple majority won the issue. With this insane Filabuster rule it is almost impossible for any Democratic bill to pass.

Headline in today's LA Times: "Billionaires Buy Wisconsin recall election for Scott Walker"

That about says it all. Citizens United was insane. Even with a predominantly conservative Supreme Court, this decision defies simple logic.

We had this phenomenon here in MA when Scott Brown was elected. This is a scary state of affairs indeed. There were folks from out of state on bridges, waving at cars, with HUGE Scott Brown signs. Koch Bros pour $$$$ into these elections. That should be illegal.

At almost 69 and living in shared housing on a Social Security check after working for non-profits my entire life, earning less than all the men I worked with, I am furious that women especially buy the crap the Republicans are using billionares money to throw at them/us. We get what we buy! I'm also wanting the dems to wo"man" up - most seem so beaten down right now. Because I have grandchildren in grade school I'm very aware of everything they are losing in our "education" system. I'm with Molly - rise up! Speak out! thanks Ronni!

Yes, just when I think I will forever be soft and mindless, something comes along to stir me up again. I'm still in there, I find. Perhaps now we just husband our energies for what matters.

Yes, I'd live in Canada if my passions weren't here in the sunshine. I'd be homeless again on my SS because I chose to follow my dreams not thinking of having a stroke. Still folks who dream and have passion keep us all going. You certainly help tho you have to have thick skin for politics.

Now, more than ever, I'm thinking of moving to Mexico or back to the backcountry in the moutains of West Virginia for what years remain to me.

I thought my heart was through with being broken when we began to win more rights for people in the 1960s in the hard-fought Civil Rights Movement, but what is happening in America today is overwhelming me again. And I'm getting too old to rally my inner powers and commitment and my diminishing physical strength to fight fools and idiots again.

Don't think my old heart can stand much more. I'm ready to go crawl in a hole and hide!

Nope, not gonna mellow. Impossible if one ever sees, hears, or reads any news about anything beyond one's own front door. Turning off the TV and computer helps, but you can't escape the news for long.

"Mellowing with age?" What's that? Sitting in front of the television all day with the soaps, and Dr. Phil and Judge Judy? Wines and cheeses "mellow" with age, not humans. We elders should embrace the wisdom we've gathered and, with all our strength, even though it may be less than it was a decade or two or three ago, FIGHT THE BASTARDS!!!

The fix is in and it ain't leaving. If you can, plant.
XO
WWW

I, too, seem to become more impassioned with age. I do know that we on the left have got to stick together now.
Hang together or hang separately. It was Walker himself who told his rich backer that the strategy was "divide and conquer."

The current situation is extremely discouraging, especially since so many of the battles Progressives are fighting today are the same ones we fought 50 years ago with varying degrees of success--i.e., equal pay for women. I've been fortunate in that I work in the nonprofit sector where salaries are usually (but not always) fairly equal. Also, women generally hold more management positions in NPOs.

But most women do not get equal pay, which is precisely why the legislation is needed. However, conservatives/Republicans will never vote for it because--like the Taliban--they truly believe that women shouldn't be working outside the home at all! (Forget the fact that women's salaries often are 50%+ of family income in today's economy.) They want to take the country back to the "good old days" when rich white males were in control of almost everything. Unfortunately, with billions from Karl Rove, the Koch brothers and others, they seem to be making significant headway. The re-election of Scott Walker is a clear example.

I don't have an answer. We can protest, we can vote and we can support Progressive candidates financially to the extent we're able. But thanks to Citizens United, Big Money seems firmly entrenched for now, and sad to say it may take longer than most of us will be around before the pendulum begins to swing back--which it surely must.

Well said Ronni and thank you! It just boggles the mind....

I think the outcome of the next presidential election may portend the future strength or weakness of our democracy for a long time to come.
To me this is an even scarier time than the 1960's, which was pretty scary. It is a quieter time, almost eerily quiet as if people really don't believe that it is possible for these few billionaires to erode our democracy, but they can. I hope I am wrong.

Ding! DING! Post sent me directly to idea of REPARATIONS FOR SLAVERY movement needed now as I read, "...pay gap reduces a woman's Social Security benefit...some women...struggling in retirement because they were paid 30 or 40 percent less during their working years than men doing the same job."