Does It Matter If Things Go Kablooey?

 

"I realized that this was the big secret to democracy...

 that change can occur by starting off with just a few people doing something."

~Michael Moore

Here Comes Trouble

Are you going? This Saturday, March 28th, will be time to get off my butt get over to the college, and let my voice be heard at the, No Kings Rally, Stockton! I have a little peep voice, but I am sure Mark Ruffalo and Robert Di Nero would be proud that I am doing my part. I'm joking, of course, but frankly I'm proud we've decided to go! We are getting our chance to take a stand! I've been struggling with whether it really matters, in that we are basically in a cold WWIII? Does it matter if we never know when a miscalculation will occur, and kablooey... boy wasn't that a nice life we had? Does it matter if... WAIT... stop brain of mine, you know the answers to all the questions running through your head! The answers are EXACTLY why it matters! We have a madman in the White House. We have endured his behavior for over a decade. He has taken years off all our lives, without anyone brave enough to stop him! Folks have tried. Jack Smith tried. And we all know where we ended up.

But it didn't defeat us, and we can take our country back! We can! Thank GOD those who never backed down are still helping the rest of us fight back. Heroes every one of them. One such hero is Robert Di Nero. He keeps fighting. Recently, he was a guest on Nicolle Wallace's podcast, The Best People, with Nicolle Wallace, and I found his words about the times we are in inspiring! He sets a profound example of how we should be engaging regarding these unprecedented times we are in. Towards the end of the interview he talks a little about why he doesn't count on the word, "hope" anymore. I agree with him. Hope is one of those words we are taught from childhood to use as a crutch, or too ease our feelings. Hope doesn't work. Action works! So off I go, ready to do more than just hope! You know photos will come soon! 

Thank you, Nicolle Wallace and Robert Di Nero, for fighting the good fight!

The Car With Three Messages

"Crying is all right in it's own way while it lasts.
 But you have to stop sooner or later,
 and then you still have to decide what to do."

~C.S. Lewis

The Silver Chair

While on our way to Lake Tahoe, last Monday, I spotted two very distinct vehicles, that caught my photographers eye. Both of which contained very different messages. This was the first one, so in that we had an election day on Tuesday, I thought I would share it first, and give give my regular blog visitors, a much needed break from the autumn overdose I tend to engage in this time of year.

Of course, now that I think about it, it does have a connection to autumn, just not this one. It was all about the election of autumn 2016, and the sentiments are still baring witness to the insanity of nearly one year ago to the day exactly. Decisions, decisions.Would it be Hillary or Bernie in the primaries? We already knew that Trump had locked it all up for the GOP as he set about destroying  the field of establishment Republican candidates will bombastic rhetoric and frankly, character assassination.

Alan and I debated, for about 25 miles, about what this person was actually trying to say. He and I never came to an agreement about what it was, the combination of possibilities was too great, and we began to dwell on the depression of the reality that the far right candidate actually won, but that depressive/oppressive thought gave me what seems like the most likely possibility about the message. 

Hillary. Bernie. Trump.

Was it as simple as Hillary Clinton was the actual Democrat, Bernie was an Independent, and Donald Trump was a Far Right candidate? Could it have been NO deeper than that?

Now lately, and by lately, I mean in the past couple weeks, I have gone through a bit of a political awaking of sorts. A while back, I told a pal of mine in the Twitterverse, that I believed we needed to pay attention to the Democratic side of the mess we find ourselves in, because this doesn't belong mainly to the Republicans.

 If Putin was planning on doing a thorough job of invading and disrupting out democracy, like the brilliant ex-KGB agent he was, we need to pay close attention to both sides, no matter how painful it might be. If we find ourselves as a divided nation, it's because there is one more mole burrowing in the garden of good and evil. I paraphrase myself there, but you get the idea!

I never thought I would lose so much respect, for so many of my Democratic party heroes, as I have in the last week.

Donna Brazile. Elizabeth Warren. Bernie Sanders.

Now, I gave up on Bernie Sanders a long time ago. At times, his "Bernie Bros" have seemed as bad as the far-right Trump supporters that attack anyone who doesn't walk in lockstep with the Nazi or Nationalist beliefs and propaganda nonsense that was well on it's way to destroying what America was built on. We weren't perfect in the beginning of our democracy, and we still aren't, but we have evolved in logical ways that furthered out reputation on the world stage, and in society, so selfish agendas for personal ambition, are not something I take kindly to.

Where was Bernie Sanders, when his "bros" were trying to degrade the Democratic party after his loss to Hillary Clinton? Nowhere! Accept maybe off pouting somewhere about his loss in the 2016 primary, and plotting his next move in his attempt at relevance, as a viable presidential candidate in 2020, or perhaps preparing Elizabeth Warren for her rise to the presidency. Don't know. Don't care. What we needed last year was less... ME... and more...WE. Or is that asking too much in the fast food information age?

I have NO idea what the person who owns that car is really trying to say, but I know it provoke a reasonably passionate discussion between Alan and myself, and I did a lot of thinking about my expectations politically and socially. Are there heroes anymore? Did I fail to grow up about that? When "Deflategate" happened a few years ago, it was easy to think of it as a one off. A stupid situation of blatant cheating, that Tom Brady got away with. It was sports. Who cares... right? Stupid shit happens in sports. Who could imagine that it would flow over to the most important thing in our American existence... our democracy?

And if all this going on this week hasn't shaken me enough, Anthony Weiner is officially off to prison this week for engaging in an illicit communication with an underage Trump supporter! The idiot had a brilliant future in the Democratic party. He passionately worked for his constituents, and stood up for health funding for 9/11 first responders! Then he took a road he should have been smarter to not take. He will have 21 months to think about how HE was his own worst enemy, and how he gave Breitbart news not just relevancy, but, indeed, in his case, credibility. Hey, at least he pled guilty, and owned it! Thanks hero, I'm older and wiser now! I hope you are too!

So, if you care to speculate on what the person with, the car of three messages means, feel free to leave me a respectful response. I would love to hear some ideas! As for me, I think I have finally grown up about heroes, and villains, maybe they are simply the shortest route, to the easy way out of thinking it all through, when deciding what the hell to do!

#9 Leaf Of The Day

November 9th, 2017

Carson City, Nevada

Mood: Introspective

~Me

What Constitutes A Hero?

"As you get older, it's harder to have heroes, but it is sort of necessary."

-Ernest Hemingway

Well, I am officially back from my 3 week vacation, and ready to tackle yet another issue that's been on my mind. What constitutes a hero? I ask this because of an article I read online yesterday in the New York Post. It seems there was a retired New York City detective, James Zadroga, who worked at ground zero, for over 400 hours to be exact, as a New Jersey ME. During that time, he was susceptible to inhaling all of the toxins that was associated with the collapse of the twin towers. Zadroga died in 2006, but the official medical examiner's report, which was released in early October, indicated that Zadroga's death was a direct result of the misuse of prescription medication. Medication which had been apparently prescribed to him, because of the work he did at Ground Zero. So, according to the current New York City Mayor, Michael Bloomberg, science has showed, "this was not a hero."

So, tell me, when you think of what a hero is, what comes to mind? Is a hero someone who puts the safety of others above their own well being? Is it the sports figure who has an unbeatable record of play, and still tests negative for performance enhancing drugs? Is every soldier in the military a hero, even if they have been suspected of wrongdoing? Is a hero the guy who jumps to the aide of a stranger who has just fallen from a subway platform, to shield that stranger from an oncoming train? Is it a father, who runs into a neighbor's house that is on fire, to save the family inside, while not stopping to think of his own mortality?

If you have been reading Ellipsis for a while, you probably know that my father did just that. One August night, in 1968, my father and his carpool friends, turned the corner onto our street, to see our neighbors house fully engulfed in flames. I will never forget dad running in and out, carrying the unconscious bodies of my friends and their mother. I was sure dad was going to die... but instead he, and his buddies, saved their lives. Dad was a lot of things. He could be and was quite abusive, both mentally and physically, but on that night he was very simply one of four heroes. Let me tell you, it's a complex thing to consider when I think of dad, and all that he was in my life. All the bad stuff between us has long since been dealt with and forgotten by me, but I continue to have nightmares about that night, and the sight of him running into that house.

I expect that most heroes have complex lives. As far as I know, most heroes are also human beings. Humans make mistakes, sometimes big ones, but mistakes all the same. So, if most heroes are humans, what exactly do we look for in the ideal of a hero? Do they have a certain way they must have lived their entire lives, or face losing their hero worship? Do they have to die while aiding another, to truly be called a hero? Can they have a flawed past, and should their future be up to judgement? Is it possible that the word hero actually has very little meaning? Or does it really mean everything? Can it be like how I have come think of my father, a deeply flawed human being, who also knew when and where to do the right thing?

Sometimes I wonder, when some previously held hero falls from grace, what we had really expected of them to begin with. We put pressure on athletes to out preform the next guy, and then gasp in horror when it is discovered that they have cheated to reach their goals. We seem to have a hero for everything from sports figures to teachers, to military personal to pop stars. Anytime we want to feel better about being America we hold another person up to the light we create for them, and then look away when their humanity becomes inconvenient. I happen to think Mayor Bloomberg was wrong in his assessment of James Zadroga, because no matter what else happened in his life, there is 400 hours of selflessness that he gave to New York City, that simply cannot be denied.

Opinions, opinions. Who do you consider to be heroes? Do you have a personal hero in your life? Tell me what you think.

-OndineMonet
"Yellow Ribbon Trees"
Carson City, Nevada
October 24th, 2007
Late Morning