LEAVE IT TO PEEVER

Another election. More yawns.

-Bumper sticker of the week: Can I teach evolution in your church?

-Quote of the week: “It doesn’t work to leap a twenty-foot chasm in two ten-foot jumps.”

“I put a dollar in one of those change machines. Nothing changed.” George Carlin

-Being a therapist, I am troubled by the talk I hear coming from the right-wing, Republican crowd. In only sixty days, they are demonizing Obama, characterizing him as a demon, a socialist, a traitor, careless, unworthy to fix the mess their boy left us with. They take no blame, have no plan, only cast doubt on those who are trying to fix this mess. From their talking heads on radio, to their think tanks, to their politicians, including Palin, Jindal, Bachmann, all they got are cries of "The sky is falling, the sky is falling." It is a pathetic thing to witness. I can understand they want a right-wing President in office. They have a doomsday agenda to carry out, Dark Age science to spread, mythological tales to teach as science, and wars to fight. But at least use some kind of sane, rational argument to build your case. They made nary a whimper when their King blatantly lied to the American people, when he involved us in an illegal war, allowed prisoners to be tortured, and when he, not Obama, gave billions of dollars to the banking industry without any conditions attached. Obama tries to fix the mess, and suddenly he is evil. Suddenly he is the cause of it all. These are people who are not reasonable and who do not have the best interest of the United States at hand. You would have a hard time persuading me that it is not insanity. We gave Bush the benefit of the doubt for way too long. The revolution is on. Our work is not done.

-Stalemate: Suicide. I've thought about suicide a lot over the years. Professionally, that is. I worked in the field of mental health and substance abuse for over 25 years. My first job in mental health was on an emergency response team. I saw someone shot himself in the head. It's one of those things you don't forget. Over the years I've wondered about people who kill themselves. Over the last couple of years, we've had 4 or 5 people kill themselves in the area. The bottom they must feel themselves in. The loss of hope that things can get better. The nerve they must have. Is it a courageous act? An act of desperation? Selfish? Sane? Insane? I don't pretend to understand it, but I do accept it. People have that right, however wrong we might think it to be. In the end, it's you and your life. For better or worse. It always comes down to you, no matter how we'd like to change it, or what we think about it. It is always you. Wrong, cowardly, thoughtless, sinful, whatever words we put to it, none of them are deep enough, or sufficient enough, to meet the emptiness that the person must be feeling. It is a hollow feeling we are left with, filled with sorrow, regret, lose, and the presence of an unfulfilled history. We may not have done what we could have, or said what we should have, but in the end, it was not our life to make or take. Always, in the end, it is your life to live or end. Some twenty-five years after I witnessed that suicide, I still cry at the thought and fumble for the words to describe it. But it was his decision, not mine. I have to live with that. The game ended. There was no winner. Stalemate.

-The election. Some afterthoughts: Things went pretty much the way I expected. Dennis in Ward 2, and Allen in Ward 6. Payton lost in Ward 4 , which was a surprise to me. Sal Garza is our new mayor. I missed this one, but Garza winning was not a surprise. He should do ok. I don’t expect a whole lot any different. My average: 50%. Not very good.

I forgot about the City Treasurer, maybe because this is a position that is not really needed. Traditionally, in Galesburg, the treasurer has not done much of anything, except go to the bank and keep the amount of our surplus money secret. We haven’t got near the information we are entitled to. It is said Galesburg has a bank account of around $50 million. I wonder what they are saving it for? Anyway, I would not anticipate much changing with Dahlberg. The status quo is not likely to be fiddled with.

Another election. We’ll see. I don’t hold out much hope. Maybe next time.