Greetings,
In these last two weeks of the most surreal year our country has seen so far, normality seems about as believable as Santa Claus. Our lives have been upended by disease, our economy destroyed, our government is in tatters. It’s hard to remember what ‘normal’ was, and even harder to imagine returning to ‘normalcy’ of any kind. Hope is on the horizon in the form of vaccines and new political leadership but hope is not the solution to our problems. We are.
This year we were assaulted; are still BEING assaulted, by enemies without and within. From the outside, Covid has slaughtered over 300,000 and the death count is growing. Months ago, Russia launched a massive attack in the virtual world whose real-world effects are still unknown. From the inside, our people are bitterly divided over how our country should protect (dare we say ‘advance’?) basic human dignity and civil rights. Large groups of people balk at the simple community protection of wearing masks to slow a plague. Our ‘representatives’ bicker over table scraps for the commoners as an already-shrinking economy crumbles completely, leaving millions wondering whether 2021 will bring homelessness, hunger, or death.
Our President, consumed by his delusion of election fraud, has only emerged from his bunker to veto a defense bill and set up yet another government shutdown, destroy an insufficient and insulting covid package, and issue corrupt pardons to mass murderers and political cronies. Trump created many of today’s problems and exacerbated others, and it’s proper to hold him responsible. But it’s not all about Trump. Congress is impotent. There’s blame to go around, but neither the ‘people’s house’ nor the ‘world’s greatest deliberative body’ have been able to come together to respond to existential threats to our country. Investigators and prosecutors are stymied by corruption. The Judiciary has been occupied by Federalist society clones who defer to corporate ‘people’ instead of humans.
Hope is on the horizon with Biden, but anyone hoping he can cure our problems is heading for disappointment. Trump was an aberration that transcended party and the country will be better for Democrats, Republicans, and Independents when he’s gone, but the fundamental problems will remain. Trump is a symptom, but the disease will continue. As long as government is enslaved to corporate interests, as long as money matters more than votes, as long as ideology matters more than the people it theoretically serves, the disease will keep eating us.
Christmas is a season of hope, and this year we have hope. It’s a blessed relief, and the gift of shiny possibilities is the best our battered peoples could receive. But government of the People, by the People, FOR the people isn’t based on hope. It’s not Santa myth for naïve children, but it doesn’t happen by itself. It’s up to us to do the hard work to make it real. Now we have a chance again… my hope for all of us is that we seize it.
Make a great day, and a great 2021
