i have much traveling through my mind these days. i am trying to figure out how we, the people, are going to be able to live with each other- or if the coming days will show that we won't. there has been much media coverage of the racist innuendo and incitement of the mccain/palin campaign's rallies but the media doesn't focus too long on the people at the event- they focus on the politicians who whip them up. or the talking heads who plant the seeds. my bigger question is- who are we, as americans, that we are so very easily duped and manipulated time after time after time? our entire way of life is crumbling around us and a large swath of the population is more frightened by the color of a man's skin and his religious affiliation than they are his economic plan or his views on warfare.
how can we live alongside each other? do we keep it hidden in the basement of political correctness? or do we let the ugliness see the light of day? and that being the case, how do we counter the ugliness with light when we feel so very ugly inside ourselves these days? the left gets accused by the right constantly of painting the picture of america as a 'bad' place. i think a better description is broken. how do we fix it? any other house in this condition would be condemned and torn down. should we? al gore suggested we do just that with our infrastructure and build it back with cleaner, more efficient technology. but can we do that with our ideologies?
dark daughta wrote a post that i am taking the time to mull over and digest because it is just so full. this passage, in particular, spoke to me- and i think about, not just american or canadian peoples, but globally:
"I want a collective move. I want men who are completely invested in a collective move that stems from their commitment...NO...their visceral need to fucking transform patriarchal relations inside our communities rather than simply relying on wimmin who are strong, wimmin who are feminist, wimmin who are dykes, wimmin who are brave to take the risk to set the tone time and time again."
let me repeat- "simply relying on wimmen who are strong, wimmin who are feminist, wimmin who are dykes, wimmin who are brave to take the risk to set the tone time and time again."
here in america, we sit back and rely on others to do for us- what we should be taking responsibility for- on everything from the national economy to raising our children. so, for the blame for these rallies to be placed on mccain and palin's shoulders only- i think it's misleading. the blame rests with us- the rightwing racist mobs and the left wing closet bigots and the folks in between who do nothing and say nothing about both.
we need a 'collective move'- huge, sweeping changes in the way we live our lives and what we stand for. it needs to be a ground swell- a tidal wave of people standing up against the broken system and saying 'no more!' voting in this election is merely a beginning. we must change the fundamentals of our entire notion of america and rebuild what has been destroyed. we will not ever be the same country again- and we shouldn't be. it is time for the second revolution of we, the people.
