Stalking the Shadows: Apolitical Blues

shadowknows69

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Thu Dec-31-09 12:50 PM
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Stalking the Shadows: Apolitical Blues

"Well my telephone was ringing
And they told me it was Chairman Mao
You can tell him anything
'Cause I just don't wanna talk to him now

I've got the apolitical blues
And that's the meanest blues of all
I don't care if it's John Wayne
I just don't wanna talk to him now"
-“A Apolitical Blues”, Lowell George

I, shadowknows69, of fractured mind and ailing body, do hereby quit this shit. I resign my post as a watchman of “The Powers That Be” that no longer listen to me. Of course I have no money or power so that could be the problem you see.

I shall remain a registered Democrat and vote religiously every primary and election assuming there are candidates that hold the ideals I think Democrats should fight for. No friends, I won’t quit the exercise of our Democracy, though I’m not sure how strong that particular institution is these days. I’m still an ardent believer in the words our forefathers wrote to birth this country. I just don’t have much faith left that we’ll ever get back to those core ideals in my lifetime.

So I’ve decided to stop raging on about it and look inward and work on repairing my spirit, which the bleakness of this world causes significant damage. I no longer feel connected to this silly civilization we’ve built and I think it is overwhelming us. We have created the Monster that we can no long control, like Frankenstein’s “experiment”. A country built to be a perfect union, heart twisted into a greedy and hatred filled thing due to the corrupt influence of its stewards throughout the years.

And “So it goes” if I may borrow a line from the late great Mr. Vonnegut; our government cares for us less than it’s imperialistic pursuits, money for warfare, but not the welfare of the “Homeland” despite thunderous claims to the contrary, particularly around election time.

As we’ve learned recently from Rachel Maddow and Richard Engel, the timeline that President Obama has set for the training of the Afghani Army is a farce and underestimated by years. The wars aren’t meant to end. We will always occupy permanently whatever country we invade from this point on and I just can’t watch it happen anymore.

This puppet show about the health care reform continues to disgust me as I know there will be no meaningful help for people like my family who have fallen through the cracks all these years. We will be made to feed the insurance companies or our national treasury through fines when we can’t afford what someone in an office somewhere decides that we could. We will be gouged on meds and care as we’re being done now by paying our own cash. We are already being fined for not having health insurance, but to decree it by law is unconscionable.

I can’t square with the fact that the former war criminals that further tarnished this country’s reputation for decades to come are still walking free. What a joke we must be to much of the world, and considered nothing less than a rogue nation that has no more respect for international law than the “terrorists” we are fighting. The GLBT community will continue to be second class citizens as long as “God” infests our government as it does, as will intolerance of anyone who is “different” or questions the will of the Great God of Abraham. The divisions in this country will increase, not improve with our allegedly diplomatic President, as he should know better than most that civil rights should never be up for compromise, but has failed to take a strong enough stand on it.

The “Change” we could have seen, nay needed to see, in this country will not happen quickly enough. We needed a “sea change” and we got a babbling brook, albeit a very charismatic and intelligent one. I’m not saying President Obama wasn’t a man of great principle when we went out for the office, but he didn’t use his political capital well enough once at the job. In the speeches I saw of candidate Obama, I saw a passionate man of great vision. Whether he campaigned from the middle or not, you got a sense that this man knew what had to be done to fix our ills and that started with standing up to the status quo. I hear our President speak now and I’m saddened to say I hear a man reading a tired old script. “Same as it ever was”.

Thus, I have no faith in our country anymore. In the people that lead us. They aren’t us and stop being so the minute they cross the threshold of their Washington office. Obviously there are exceptions to this, but too few and too intentionally marginalized.

I have no faith in even humanity anymore. I didn’t ask to be part of this silly self destructive species and frankly I’d rather be a dog. At least I’d be put down before my suffering gets too bad. This world affords the downtrodden no such luxury, save by their own hand or the quick death of war. We hurtle toward potentially catastrophic climate change, worldwide overpopulation and eventual civil breakdown and the ruling class don’t seem to be in any hurry to demand that industry help us do anything about it. They are protected. Being “blessed” with money and power buys them safety, or at least ignorance apparently, because they need to realize that the shit storm eventually finds their doors too.

So, I’m turning in my “I give a shit” card. I’m looking inward and going numb for the sake of my own sanity. My outrage is harming me physically and psychically and all I can do is steel myself and try to be a light in the gloom to come. People like to make predictions about an upcoming year. My only one is this. Things will get much, much worse. Someone wake me from my hibernation when the revolution is televised. Then I’ll pitchfork up and turn the TV back on.
-S