A Positive Message

Posted on March 14, 2005 in Blogging Citizenship Courage & Activism

How important it was — those first few days following the crush of the actual November election. What I note is how we all let our feelings of defeat overwhelm us, how we failed to follow through just because some pundit at the Washington Post blamed us for the alledgedly faulty exit polls. Since the election, most bloggers have fallen into silence about the continuing shenanigans of the Bush Administration and the Destroy-Everything Republican Congress. It’s as if we believe that our speaking out lost the election.

I’ve seen a few articles out there castigating the Bush Administration or warning us of the worst horrors still to be perpetrated by the Republican Congress such as the privatization of Social Security. I am seeing the country which finally got civil rights straight, sent a man to the moon, knew the importance of building a society on education, cared for the disabled, gave the elderly a chance to live out their lives to the fullest, and figured out that getting involved in foreign wars was a bad idea now reverse its lessons. I’ve seen a false Christianity replace the real one which eschewed jealousy of those less fortunate and the drive for riches. When I was young, news stations had to grant time to those with opposing views. Now we listen to a melange with only one ingredient: rampant fascism.

I mourn for America and I mourn for blogging. I mourn for blogging because we believe that we lost the election. I do not think the election was lost, for one thing. For another, I believe that our voices are still powerful and compelling. Yet I confess I don’t know how to speak anymore or towards what end. Last year we were about reclaiming the nation. This year, we are called to be in constant opposition. We need a positive message to give. No one wants to be the Jonah.