I'm gradually tucking away topics for a year-end two-parter, reviewing the news for this year and the major issues for the next... but I keep coming across items and thinking "Wait, that was THIS year? Really?!"
It's been another long, long year, mi gente - and I don't feel at all like the same person who entered it. I feel irreparably changed, and I have a sneaking suspicion the same is true for many of you.
Take good care of your well-travelled hearts, eh? Who knows what 2024 has in store.
@MLClark I’ve been numb to news since 2016.
For good reason. My trust in other people plummeted that election season. Even in Canada, what was happening in the US emboldened racism, xenophobia, and sexism in a way I will never forget. It was always there under the surface, but that was the year I saw how much many people were just waiting for a public speaker to give them license to be more openly awful. 🫂
@MLClark It’s like the 60s never happened.
I’ve never had a lot of trust in humans, 2000 destroys what little got through my childhood, but 2016 and the horrors it birthed just have me covering my ears and eyes most days. I can’t listen to Rumpy’s voice, just as I had a hard time listening too Baby Bush only multiplied by 1000x. I know I’m supposed to have faith but it’s hard, almost impossible some days.
I'm not a person of faith myself, but one thing we secular humanists share with religious humanists is the understanding that there is *work* to be done, & that we can't rely on a passive faith in change without our presence in it.
We might not live to see a heaven on earth--but we can & must keep the dream alive through how we live every day.
And I don't doubt that a person of conscience like you always does. ❤️ I hear you. I'm so thankful we're in the fight together, come what may.
@MLClark And whatever faith I might have in a higher power gets negated by a belief that greed, ignorance and fear in humans can tear down any good that higher power might try to offer us.
Never underestimate the power of greedy rich people to get the ignorant and fearful to do their bidding.
Wholeheartedly agreed.
I don't know what comes next.
I dread 2024 for the US, too.
All I have is affirmation that you're not alone with the horror.
In 2016, we had a trans person from Michigan in our US election view-a-thon.
We'd thought we were going to watch Clinton make history.
We ended up consoling the inconsolable US citizen in our midst until dawn.
You will always have friends in your grief, horror, and outrage, whatever happens on the campaign trail from here on out. 💙
No@MLClark Yes, I know I’m not alone but living in the middle of willfully ignorant MAGAts, I sometimes forget. 😉
@MLClark I used to believe our system would handle whatever came along, and now I’m feeling like a damn fool. To be honest I’m scared what this next election might bring.