Since the turn of the new year, I've been relatively silent. I've been wrestling with that, wondering why, even as we get pushed from one manufactured crisis to another, I've chosen to write sparingly. When I do write, it's been on Christian themes that seem divorced from the ebb and flow of nonsense.
It is that last word that should clue us all in. So much of what's going on is just that: nonsense. The sequester is so horrible? It's a law, passed by Congress. The quickest way to end it would be . . . to repeal it. Congress could pass another law that says the whole sequester thing no longer has legal force. Easiest thing in the world. Instead, we continue to have these long, drawn-out scenes where everyone involved behaves like teenage drama queens.
I did comment on Rand Paul's headline-whoring filibuster, in which he demanded the President answer a question never asked. The result of that has been a dust-up among some on the alleged left, with a few of the dimmer lights in that particular political room - David Sirota and Glenn Greenwald being the most prominent - cheering Paul on, as if his entire history of neoconfederate rhetoric and a record on civil liberties that makes Obama look like Clarence Darrow were non-existent. What's worse, these brogressives (I love the term, despite a tad bit of pushback it's received) seem to be cheering a Rand Paul Filibuster that existed wholly within their imaginations. The whole farce boiled down to demanding Pres. Obama promise not to use drones against his political opponents (please read "White Conservatives" here). The on-going back-and-forth between those folks (including me) who saw through this ridiculous waste of time and oxygen and the brogressives has become, like so much else, tiresome. Both sides are reduced, now, to calling one another names, not least of them racist, and declaring the opposition apathetic to horrible crimes.
Then there is the gun debate. From the moment Wayne LaPierre took to the podium and insisted that nothing could change despite the massacre of children in Connecticut, I was aware the direction the discussion would take. Helpless in the face of the spittle-flecked rage the NRA has managed to stir up, all hanging loosely on some weird fear of imminent societal collapse, I have chosen silence because there is not even the possibility of getting a hearing for all the shrieking going on.
Then there are our elected officials. Good Lord, but we have a crew this Congress, don't we? If it isn't Louie Gohmert wanting to arrest the President, it's Ted Cruz insisting Harvard Law School is filled with commies or Don Young calling farm workers wetbacks. It makes one yearn for Newt Gingrich. Almost. Even Michelle Bachman's psychosis seems whimsical these days. Of course, the fact that the biggest foe of immigration reform right now, Ted Cruz, happens to be an immigrant is just luscious. That and his mansplaining the Constitution to Dianne Feinstein. We got rid of Joe Walsh, but he's been replaced by an even bigger joker.
Finally, there's the marriage equality debate. The consensus, both left and right, seems to be that marriage equality either has won or will win. Liberals and the left seem happy; the right, while conceding the loss, is nevertheless indignant that America is making a choice that paints opponents as bigots. When the debate suddenly shifts to the tender fee-fees of people who favor discrimination rooted in bigotry, it does seem time to move on and let them nurse their self-inflicted injuries in peace.
So why the silence? My oft-stated preference not to repeat myself is part of the reason. There are only so many times I can write, "What the hell is wrong with people?" before I get bored. The perch I currently occupy is tiny, the noise around me far louder and stronger. Sometimes silence is the best option, if for no other reason than one more voice in the chorus adds nothing.
With Easter here, and spring forcing its way through the cold air and frozen prairie, while I have much to do what with packing for yet another move, getting our daughters enrolled in yet another school, and dealing with the emotional issues arising from losing my pastor of 19 years, I do foresee more blogging in the near future. Just as there is a time for silence, so, too, is there a time to speak up and out, despite the din around all of us.
It is that last word that should clue us all in. So much of what's going on is just that: nonsense. The sequester is so horrible? It's a law, passed by Congress. The quickest way to end it would be . . . to repeal it. Congress could pass another law that says the whole sequester thing no longer has legal force. Easiest thing in the world. Instead, we continue to have these long, drawn-out scenes where everyone involved behaves like teenage drama queens.
I did comment on Rand Paul's headline-whoring filibuster, in which he demanded the President answer a question never asked. The result of that has been a dust-up among some on the alleged left, with a few of the dimmer lights in that particular political room - David Sirota and Glenn Greenwald being the most prominent - cheering Paul on, as if his entire history of neoconfederate rhetoric and a record on civil liberties that makes Obama look like Clarence Darrow were non-existent. What's worse, these brogressives (I love the term, despite a tad bit of pushback it's received) seem to be cheering a Rand Paul Filibuster that existed wholly within their imaginations. The whole farce boiled down to demanding Pres. Obama promise not to use drones against his political opponents (please read "White Conservatives" here). The on-going back-and-forth between those folks (including me) who saw through this ridiculous waste of time and oxygen and the brogressives has become, like so much else, tiresome. Both sides are reduced, now, to calling one another names, not least of them racist, and declaring the opposition apathetic to horrible crimes.
Then there is the gun debate. From the moment Wayne LaPierre took to the podium and insisted that nothing could change despite the massacre of children in Connecticut, I was aware the direction the discussion would take. Helpless in the face of the spittle-flecked rage the NRA has managed to stir up, all hanging loosely on some weird fear of imminent societal collapse, I have chosen silence because there is not even the possibility of getting a hearing for all the shrieking going on.
Then there are our elected officials. Good Lord, but we have a crew this Congress, don't we? If it isn't Louie Gohmert wanting to arrest the President, it's Ted Cruz insisting Harvard Law School is filled with commies or Don Young calling farm workers wetbacks. It makes one yearn for Newt Gingrich. Almost. Even Michelle Bachman's psychosis seems whimsical these days. Of course, the fact that the biggest foe of immigration reform right now, Ted Cruz, happens to be an immigrant is just luscious. That and his mansplaining the Constitution to Dianne Feinstein. We got rid of Joe Walsh, but he's been replaced by an even bigger joker.
Finally, there's the marriage equality debate. The consensus, both left and right, seems to be that marriage equality either has won or will win. Liberals and the left seem happy; the right, while conceding the loss, is nevertheless indignant that America is making a choice that paints opponents as bigots. When the debate suddenly shifts to the tender fee-fees of people who favor discrimination rooted in bigotry, it does seem time to move on and let them nurse their self-inflicted injuries in peace.
So why the silence? My oft-stated preference not to repeat myself is part of the reason. There are only so many times I can write, "What the hell is wrong with people?" before I get bored. The perch I currently occupy is tiny, the noise around me far louder and stronger. Sometimes silence is the best option, if for no other reason than one more voice in the chorus adds nothing.
With Easter here, and spring forcing its way through the cold air and frozen prairie, while I have much to do what with packing for yet another move, getting our daughters enrolled in yet another school, and dealing with the emotional issues arising from losing my pastor of 19 years, I do foresee more blogging in the near future. Just as there is a time for silence, so, too, is there a time to speak up and out, despite the din around all of us.
