Happy Monday – November 14, 2016

Hell of a week, huh?

Since the election I have seen the blame (if such a term can be applied to an open election), for the outcome of the election, placed on several groups. Various sources in the media and socially have mentioned third-party voters, frivolous protest votes (Mickey Mouse, and Deez Nutz are not viable candidates), African-american voters, white women voters, so on and so on. I would have been inclined to just shrug and nod and go on shaking my head at all the finger-pointing.

Then it happened.

I got into an argument. With a complete stranger. Over the internet. About politics

Which is something I never do. Which is something I should have been doing all along.

In this case I called out a man who claimed that he voted for Trump as president, and did not cast his vote for VP. That his vote was not motivated by hate for the LGBT community and therefore should still be considered an ally of that community. I felt suddenly compelled to call bullshit on that. I am not going into the details, because the other people involved are not here to speak for themselves. But, when I made the decision to buzz in on that thread it was because I realized I had not been doing enough.

I guess what I am saying is that I am willing to shoulder my fair share of the blame, if it really is a matter of blame.

I voted, I voted against the Trump ticket. I voted for Clinton, but I voted in silence.

For years I decided to stay out of the fray. I liked to think “I was above it”.  I had taken an attitude over the years that people need to sort out their own screaming matches. I adopted a facade of general disinterest, “because it’s all going to hell in a bucket anyway.” I cowardly disentangled myself from the broader discussions, believing that I should only talk about those things with people who know me and have context for my thinking. I convinced myself that everything would be fine, so long I threw my ballot into the box marked “Human Decency”. That was a bullshit position to take, because over the years I wound up not jumping in when I encounter people spouting of in a hateful, bigoted manner. I’ve kept scrolling when I see a meme, possibly posted in jest, that spreads false, or misleading information about another class of people.

In short I have consistently failed to step in and stand up for the things that I tell myself I believe in.

I’m not saying that there’s about to be a shitstorm of preachy, political posts coming to this space. I am just saying my friends, family, and society at large deserved better than my apathy, pseudo-nihilism, and smug sense of intellectual superiority.

I need to do better, and I know I’m not the only one.

Anyway that’s what’s been on my mind this past week.

Happy Monday.

 

Guilt

I had my last drink that night,
And in the morning you were gone.
Only a note by way of apology,
for being how I treated you.

You came back home,
Even when we had no home left.
Now I still panic,
If I wake up in an empty house.

A Brief Letter of Apology for My Slackness

To those of you who have been following this blog,

I would like apologize for the erratic nature of my posting schedule; or lack of apparent schedule altogether as the case may be. Life and work (there is a difference) have gotten the better of me and I haven’t been able to devote as much time as I would like to writing. I do suppose I should be apologizing to myself mostly as I’m the daft fool who decided they needed to start a blog in the first place.

My dog Sammy feels bad about it too.

A part of me thinks I should close up shop for a bit, regroup and start anew once I get a few drafts backed up. This would seem a wise course of action. Sadly however, this isn’t really part of my nature so instead I am going to press on at a limping pace until I get caught up on projects and otherwise get my crap together.

Things are looking up however, if any of you have been following the conversations between Jerry and Mr. Davis that I have been writing in response to various challenges and have enjoyed them; it looks like that story is starting to take a shape of its own and might become a thing soon. No promises but I like where my head is with that. I should be publishing a new part to this soon and also plan to organize the scenes onto their own page and see what happens there.

I have seen a few new people interacting with this site through follows, likes, comments, and emails and I have been remiss in some of my follow-ups, I promise I will be responding to you and visiting your blogs soon.

 I guess if there is any specific content that I’ve written that you really like, now would be the time to let me know what it is and request more of it.

Anyway, thanks to all of you who have been patiently putting up with my nonsense. I hope you find some sort of pay off for it in the coming weeks.

Doug

 

P.S.: I plan to do some redesign on this site soon also, just because I can’t leave well enough alone.

P.P.S: Since you’ve been such good sports about this here’s a picture of me looking like a total idiot.

There are somethings I just can’t explain.