The cure for soulsickness is activism

[undeterred]

Whether you believe in a soul or not, you know what I mean by soulsick. That horrible wrenching feeling that things are going from bad to worse, that we are on a course of destruction that leads to one disaster after another... the feeling that came over us on November 3 when Kerry conceded.

We are not powerless. But we need to exercise all the power we still have by organizing for issues and campaigns, by fundraising, by speaking out as never before. In the last few years many people have stepped up to run for office, work on campaigns, and try to confront this corrupt system that threatens to totally destroy our freedom. A few of our elected representatives have been true to us, only a few, but enough to give me hope: Feingold. Conyers. Boxer.

I believe it is within our power to take down this corrupt administration. I have hope. I did not have the hope until I stepped up and became more involved and saw how many other people were doing the same. I am still soulsick, deep down, but I have found the cure.

Never give up.

[Dogmudgeon]

1. Yes!

--p!

[FogerRox]

2. Damn straight- fight back and you will feel great

If you dont fight back-- you will have to live it down for the rest of your life.

[cally]

3. I find that political demonstrations are my medicine

I do other things that probably have more impact, but I love attending the demonstrations. They help me remember that so many believe what I do and are willing to do something about it.

[undeterred]

4. I am relatively new to this

The first and only large demonstration I have been part of was last September in Washington DC... but it has led to much more. Being part of it changes the people who are part of it and the people around them- its a snowball effect which ultimately creates a larger movement. It works for change, but not in the direct way that some people look for.

[mntleo2]

5. Taken The Cure And It Works, However...

...now my relatives, friends and coworkers think I am too "obsessed". I want to yell, "Which is worse, being so depressed you want to jump off a bridge, or being excited about being part of making change?" Also they tell me "It is too dangerous to speak out, you have a family, etc., ..." I tell them, "Yes I have paid that price and sometimes I have regretted that my children have suffered because of it ~ (a lost job, some harrassment otj, my consequencial depression because of it all). But now they see a mom who is excited about life, and they tell me how proud they are of me when I make a speech, and they brag about my friends to their friends (rap artists, rock musicians, theater people, locally famous politicians, policy makers, business connections,etc).

I will ask again, "Which would you prefer, that I am depressed, feeling hopeless and helpless, or that I am excited about what I am doing, whic makes me energized, engaged and effective?"

Then I rest my case!

Cat In Seattle

[BeFree]

6. "Which do you prefer"

Depressed or excited?

Good going, mntleo2, you've lifted yourself up and will be a great benefit to our country.

& To all....

Lets all remember the Activist's First Commandment - Never speak ill of a fellow activist.

[undeterred]

7. Good for you for doing this when you have a family

I am single without kids and have control of my time (just a dog who gets lonely!) and it does make things easier. Your children will live life differently because of what you are doing and their world will be better.

Making their world better is the ultimate show of parental love.

[JeffR]

8. Kicked and nominated

Bravo. That absolutely nails it.

:patriot: :patriot: :patriot:

[MuseRider]

9. There is no better cure,

you are absolutely right about that and I am living proof. Du was the catalyst for me, I learned enough here to go out with confidence and have never looked back. I get tired but it is a good tired.

[RazzleDazzle]

22. What are you doing, if I may ask?

Might be of interest to others to know more of what your story is (and I'm just plain nosey).

[MuseRider]

23. LOL nosey is good!

I started working on a local ordinance, fighting the Fred Phelps proposed ordinance that was anti GLBT rights. I went from that campaign (we won by the way) to the board of the Equal Justice Coalition. After 2 meetings with them I jumped into the steering committee to form a state wide GLBT rights group, was elected to be one of my local reps on the state board and now we have 6 chapters in the state. Our web site http://www.kansasequalitycoalition.org/

It is the best thing I have ever done.

[AuntiBush]

10. Thank you, undeterred.

We have to believe, and have hope. You are right. A soul-sickness is overtaken many of us, but its beatable on many levels.

In a small way, I've volunteered to become an Election Judge, will receive training as well this coming November. Its a start and at least I'll be there to witness first-hand what goes on, and it gives my soul a sense of feeling better. The only catch (no biggie) is I can not post here during that period, other than that I'm free to do as I wish.

Never give-up, is right. :kick:

[crispini]

11. amen.

ain't nothing better than hanging out with a bunch of dems and blockwalking and kicking ass and then going out and hoisting a few. :D

[undeterred]

12. Thank you DUers for all that you do...

I would not have known where to begin if it were not for DU and the incredibly hard working people who are part of this community. :grouphug:

[pstans]

13. Amen

:kick:
:patriot:

[globalglobalglobal]

14. activism

 

this is a post you will not like - but it may be truth - and
truth is essential to happiness - you are totally dependent on
realism for your happiness - you should mine this post for
nuggets of truth regardless of the pleasantness or otherwise
of these points - is the pleasantness of a point a good
criterion of the truth [=happiness-potential] of a point? - if
you are hospitable only to pleasant points, will you get the
truth and all the happiness that is possible for you, when
happiness is totally dependent on truth?  - there is no unreal
happiness - the circle or set of happiness is totally inside
the circle or set of truth or reality

are you working on a problem or only on a symptom? - will you
be swept away in the flood of the problem even if you succeed
at your goal of taking down a corrupt admin?

a long way from the leaf of the corrupt admin, but the source
of it, is the super hyper extreme overpay/underpay - pay from
$1 to $1,000,000,000 a fortnight - the 1% overpaid stealing
US$70 trillion a year, and the violence and anger that that
theft naturally, inevitably generates

the problem wont go away just because you dont feel like
dealing with it - reality is inexorable - do you feel:  hey,
im doing something good, why criticise? - only because i know
[or am going to assume] you want to maximise your happiness -
chop down a poisonous tree or tug at a poisonous leaf on the
tree? - 'there are a 1000 [a billion] striking at the branches
of the tree of problems for every one who is striking at the
root' [henry thoreau, america's greatest thinker] - this is a
human tragedy - condemned to suffering from the tree of
problems forever because you put your energy at the branch or
leaf - the same energy put at the root would bring the whole
tree down permanently - 

if all the nuclear bombs and the possibility of making nuclear
bombs, and the corrupt admin, disappeared today, we will still
be buried under the endless and  ever-escalating violence
generated by superoverpay and superunderpay - money is good,
very very good, it is the means to obtain all necessities, as
well as satisfy millions of desires, so war over theft of it
is never going to stop till the legal supertheft is made
illegal, until there is a counterbalance to the richgetricher
and ever more tyrannical and corrupt and heartless - by a
simple law making superoverfortunes go to the most
superunderpaid [robbed and disempowered]

take the trouble and pain to see the tree, and you will save
yourself vast, giant endless troubles 

chopping the tree is effective, it is safer, it is permanent

tugging at leaves like the corrupt admin is ineffective in
removing the tree of millions of problems that spring from
superoverunderpay and its violence, is dangerous, is
difficult, is not permanent [difficulty is proportional to the
ratio of their power to hide their deeds and your power to
reveal their deeds, which is proportional to the ratio of the
money they and you have - enormous difficulty - remove their
super-overpower first by limiting fortunes to the maximum one
person can earn and save in a lifetime [around US$2 million] -
and give that to the most underpaid, destroying both tyranny
and underpaid anger/violence/revenge -  

pay from a million times to 1000th of the average pay! - it
has to be faced - it is the root problem, source of all
problems [99+% of problems] - result of 1000s of years of
uncontrolled richgetricher and more powerful - why would any
sane people allow any one of themselves to get a million times
more powerful than the average? - money is power, power
corrupts - no one can work more than twice as hard as the
average [there are only 100 working hours a week, or less] -
why be blind to the enormous danger of paying up to a million
times the average?

the american dream was based on limitation of fortunes - the
first thing the founding fathers did after the decl of indep
was take steps to prevent unlimited fortunes - defeated by the
lack of consciousness/vigilance/awareness of the people of the
absolute importance of limiting fortunes in order to limit
power and corruption, tyranny and undemocracy - i say: return
to the essence of the american dream of a land of the free:
limited fortunes, because contribution of each by work is
limited not unlimited 

overpay makes underpay makes violence makes bombs makes
extinction soon

are you going to get rid of a corrupt admin in only one
country and watch the world dissolve into global snowstorm,
nuclear winter? - will failing to look big enough kill you? -
yes, it will - ants in a tree take steps to save their tree
from the effects of a flood, but do nothing to stop the flood
- they are swept away

would anyone in the world design a social system with people
paid from X to 1,000,000,000X units of money per unit of work?
- no - so everyone already has enough sense not to approve of
the present state of things - so it shouldn't be impossible to
get majority agreement on this, to prevent the vast
unnecessary suffering of underpaid and overpaid, and
extinction getting inevitably closer

attack [from both overpaid and underpaid] is proportional to
the size of the overpay - the bear who collars all the honey
in the forest gets visited by all the bears, who are angry -
the overpaid fall fast and far - so history shows - save the
overpaid from the misery of trying and failing to prevent
their fall fast and far [ceausescu, french aristocracy around
1800] - save us all - get smart - 

[undeterred]

15. Welcome to Democratic Underground.

:hi:

[yorkiemommie1]

16. you're right

i worked on a local campaign last summer and gearing up to work on more this summer. it was my first experience and an excellent one!

PS. we WON !

[EFerrari]

17. Nevah, nevah, nevah!

:hi:

[kainah]

18. absolutely

No matter how rotten my week has been, I always know that Fridays will bring a lift. For more than three years, every Friday afternoon from 4:45-5:15, I have joined other members of Stand Up for Peace on a downtown Laramie (Wyoming) street corner with our HONK FOR PEACE (and various other) signs. It may not seem like much to do but it's amazing how many people have told us how important it is to them to have the opportunity to honk and express their dissent and how much they appreciate us doing it. Take it to the streets, people. It's the only way we can make sure that people know WE DISSENT!

[undeterred]

19. thats great! especially in a red state like Wyoming!

I do some peace activism too- in Madison there are a lot of us and a couple who faithfully plan something for just about every week. Sometimes they read the names of the soldiers who have died as well as the names of Iraqi civilians. One day some Saudi students were walking by and they joined in by reading the Iraqi names.

[xiamiam]

20. and to keep learning here on the net in order to share info with so many

who have neither time, inclination, or abiity to do so...i learn a lot here and from other progresssive sites both social and political...and i just take it from the screen to anyone who will listen..or i send emails...its one of my jobs right now...

[undeterred]

21. Nearly all of my activist connections started with a post I read here.