Computer problems and my job bring me to this thread a bit late.

Reading over BUSHwhacked I & II, I think how easy it is to generalize about complex things. Abortion, prayer, Christianity, the Constitution, atheism--I feel uneducated in many ways when I consider all the ins and outs of these issues.

Kat, you wondered where the energy would come from to fight against yet another wave of oppression. Where has anyone ever gotten this energy from? My feeling about this is much of the world has been fully engaged in this fight and by virtue of my citizenship (US) and skin color (pale) and class (middle), I've been exempt. It's about time I feel to be a part of something more worldly and human.

The Right and all that word implies (from Bush to the far Right) reminds me of that character in the film Yellow Submarine that snortled up everything, including itself. Perhaps that's an optimistic view of the possible future we're facing. It's oddly optimistic, because I'm not particularly optimistic about the next 50 years. The drive to have things at someone else's expense is an old problem, but it does feel as though that process has been intensified exponentially. I believe that those with corporate wealth--that less than 1% of the human population--are panicking because it's clear the supply is drying up. They are like addicts, indeed, they exemplify the addiction process because even knowing that resource extraction and over-consumption are killing the biosphere (which includes us), these profit-driven practices continue. I think Helen Caldicott observed in a speech that when gasoline-burning cars are aggressively marketed to the populations of China and India, the atmosphere will not recover. Period.

So here's the paradox--knowing that there are the corporate junkies who would like us all to become junkies and who will even go to court to force us to become junkies, how do I, with my 1974 Martin D-28 and my 49 year old life span, drum up the courage to just be who I am? And how do I express my love and compassion for all those who would simply just like to be who they are, with friends, families, lovers, babies, grandchildren, old scratched record collections, flannel shirts, hiking boots, and all the paraphenalia we cherish in our own right? How do I talk to the very injured teenagers and small children I work with, who live in very injured families and communities? How can I survive witnessing their trauma, let alone how can I help prevent it?

Personally, this is what I've decided to do, and ironically the decision was made a long time ago--it really chose me, I didn't chose it--and I'm not preaching to anyone, just describing what has been and is helpful to me in my life. I'm not exactly good at doing all these things, I'm still a practicing human being and I make a lot of mistakes. And this list is deceptively simplistic.
Meditation, Tai Chi, and Chi Gong
Hiking
Dance
Education
Singing
Hot springs
the ocean
the mountains
Relationships of trust and love
teachers
learning to be less judgemental
speaking up
writing letters
caring for my grandson
poetry and songwriting
political activism
change the strings on my guitar

Don't give up, the potential we have to be fully human is completely real, more real than the ghost-lives Bush and his ilk would have us lead.

blt