this is who I am

[jodymarie aimee]

Someone wrote a post asking new ones to introduce themselves. I write letters to my local papers 2-3 a month since 2010. Living in Wisconsin, I've got plenty of material. I just resigned from my county's DEM Exec Bd. because they are way too wimpy for me. Rummage sales, fish fires, when we've got so much work to do here. It will take decades to undo all the crap Walker has done in 6 years. Please to enjoy my June letter to local Gazette. Making a pitch for the young ones. Jody Hurrish.

Sometimes I feel like I went to party in 1969 and it sort of spilled out the door and into the street and covered the world. Hundreds of thousands of us became united by peace love and freedom. Our political issues were war, civil rights and the planet. Governor Reagan viewed us thusly "Someone who dresses like Tarzan, has hair like Jane and smells like Cheeetah". But, we prevailed.

Last week as the Vulgarian was draping himself in ermine, brave Democrats "sat in" led by the magnificent John Lewis. As I heard him speak I got the 1969 shivers. On Fox, Greg Gutfield played that clip and his reaction was "Oh barf". In the 1960s when Lewis marched for the vote and state troopers fractured his skull, do you suppose Gutfield's Daddy said "Oh barf"?

Americans are crazy in love with a girl named Capitalism. Our worth today isn't measured by how many people we help or how much we progress as a people. It's measured by our income, our home, our automobile, our stock portfolio. Our National Credo: "What's good for business is good for America". Yes, and slavery was a real cost cutter, too.The Civil War was the original "It's the Economy, Stupid." Americans, we've got to stop bogarting that joint. When you advertise as a melting pot, it's polite to melt a little.

We are disengaged from each other. Television marvels at the levels of anger in present day American politics. But anger is what pain looks like when it shows itself in public. We can't connect on the basis of anger, but the subjective experience of pain is more promising terrain for civic reweaving. How can Americans fall back in love with one another as a people with a common fate? Stop being a citizenry who are not of interest to one another?

Some people say I'm apolitical as if it's a hobby like skiing or gardening. It shouldn't be a bragging point. "I just don't get involved in politics" as if that makes them somehow cleaner. No, it makes them derelict of duty. Our ball bearings have become rusted.

Young ones, don't allow yourselves to be victimized by society, a habit that produces a neurological imprint. Switch on the blender and mix up that black cocktail and it's extremely difficult to override that brain chemistry. By then it's playing by physical rules and that's a whole different ballgame.

I'd like to give you the optimism and love and passion we had. I'd like for you to sit in cafes that smell of comets. I want you to carry luggage that reeks of the neurons of Einstein's brain. Become your government. Join the Democrat party, because austerity is not where it's at. Run for office and never ever stay home on Election Day. Spill out the door and cover the world.

[guillaumeb]

1. Welcome and well said.

Agreed on the spirit of the 60's, even if that spirit was never accepted by so many who were/are greedy and self-centered.

Your last paragraph:

I'd like to give you the optimism and love and passion we had. I'd like for you to sit in cafes that smell of comets. I want you to carry luggage that reeks of the neurons of Einstein's brain. Become your government. Join the Democrat party, because austerity is not where it's at. Run for office and never ever stay home on Election Day. Spill out the door and cover the world.

And part of that running for office is joining the struggle to make this a better place. Sitting at home because any particular candidate is not your perfect candidate leads only to apathy. And apathy, coupled with ignorance, is what makes Reagan and Walker and Trump possible.

[pamela]

2. Welcome to DU!

Wonderful post, jodymarie. So glad you joined us here at DU.

[BlancheSplanchnik]

3. How poetic you are!

That is one serious piece of creative editorial writing!

The people who need edumacatin won't grok it at all, of course, but they wouldn't grok what their pukidates have done even if it were explained by Dick and Jane and Bunny in an airplane.

Please! Keep sharing with us!

[jodymarie aimee]

4. here is the one I finished yesterday

Here is the one I submitted yesterday. And for once I don't mention you know who. I hate that I have had to write about him for over a year now. Jody.

EYES


Mike May lost his sight in 1957 at the age of three in a chemical explosion. He became a successful businessman with a wife and two little boys. When he was 46 a specialist gave him back his sight in a unique two part transplant operation. The next day May had a check up. He thought it was a routine change of dressings. The Doc kept mum, removing the bandages. May could see. Leaving the doctor's office stepping into the reception area, he slammed to a halt. "Look at those shapes! Look at those colors! Are they on the carpet?" "They're part of the carpet", his wife replied, "It's the carpet's design." May could see people waiting for their appointments, none of them moved or seemed the least bit excited. He could not believe they were just sitting there ignoring the carpet. How could a person just sit there when such a carpet was happening?

I tell you this story because it is beautiful and to remind you that we must use our eyes to see. I give you our state. We took for granted Universities, teachers, K-12, roads, eldercare, courts, womens' rights, voting, open government and one day in 2010 it all vanished. Why didn't we see this coming?

That nite at supper, May reached for his water glass with the nonchalance of James Bond. Vision was Power. In our own Democratic group, Dan is the climate guy, Jeri does K-12, Michele voter registration, Kent's the sign guy. I do the elderly/disabled. If I were to tell the climate guy a single senior on Food Stamps in Point gets a maximum of $16. a month, he would be dumbfounded. Going over the Golden Gate Bridge, May saw shards of sunlight that staccatoed like Morse Code through the gray metal spires supporting the bridge. No one had ever told him about broken pieces of light. We know little outside our own field. Broken vision.

A few months later, May went to his first play, RENT. The actors came wrapped in colorful costumes, ricocheted off massive props and matched their arms and legs to the music. May had to close his eyes, he felt exhausted. The legislative work we have to do is overwhelming and the helping arms of the gods remain folded.

When May looked into his wife's eyes he locked in and discovered her eyes were no longer a color or shape or a movement. They were a voice, and that voice seemed to say "I'm with you". Brothers and Sisters, let's use our miraculous eyes to see each other, really see each other and connect. I'm with you.

[kag]

5. Nice piece of writing!

I am a letter-to-the-editor writer too, though not as prolific as you. But I would love to have your gift of metaphor. And I very much like your message. Nicely done.

[oasis]

6. Welcome to DU and thanks for your optimism.

[lillypaddle]

7. Welcome!

You're a keeper! LOL.