Listen Up
2004-11-04, 12:30 p.m.

In honor of The Boss, who went to great lengths for Humankind in this past election, I give you this:

Woke up this morning my house was cold
Checked the furnace she wasn't burnin'
Went out and hopped in my old Ford
Hit the engine but she ain't turnin'
We've given each other some hard lessons lately
But we ain't learnin'
We're the same sad story that's a fact
One step up and two steps back

Man, I used to love me some Tunnel of Love. Reminds me of my freshman year in college when this guy that used to bang me that I truly thought I loved would play it incessantly. Said he loved Bruce Springsteen so much that he wanted people to think of him whenever they heard a Bruce song. Well, I still do, Glen Colthup, so be proud. Boy, I sure had some crappy taste and low self-respect back then.

Anyway, yesterday I was acutely disturbed into paralysis. After developing a nervous tic by staying up the night before until 230am, I was devastated to learn when I woke that Kerry was off in Ohio. Like I said in my last entry, I did truly believe there would be a change in these United States and I was dumbfounded that it looked like Bush would be re-elected. Against all odds, though, I hoped against hope that there would still be a miraculous turnaround, and I wouldn't have to abide The Sock Puppet for four more years. But after Kerry's concession speech, I became filled with The Furious Anger and no swear word or insult would be enough to convey my despair. Not that I didn't try. But after a vicious spew and several pinches to make sure I wasn't nightmaring, I followed the words of The Wise (I couldn't find the correct entry because she is very prolific and very wise) and I took to my bed. It was the only thing I could rightly do. Cuz sometimes you gotta moan when nuthin' seems to suit yer but nevertheless you know you're locked towards the future. Ok, I'll stop already with the lyrics. So, yeah, I hunkered down in my bed, listened to the rain come down, and senselessly flipped through the channels for hours looking for a proper explanation as to how and why all this happened. It boggled the mind. And then Matt came home, and climbed into bed with me, and we ate a bag of Veggie Crisps together (which, by the way, are magically delicious)and bemoaned the fate of Humankind. It was not, how do you say?, hopeful. John Kerry said this was a time for unity, not division, but I just couldn't see how that could happen.

But I imagine that many, many people (well 48% of people anyway) felt and still feel that way. It's not that it was totally inconceivable that Bush could be re-elected, but I just didn't understand it. At all. I mean, I get it, all those sideshows who voted for him considered "moral issues" most important. Well, yeah, I considered moral issues to be most important, too, but I was thinking more along the lines of poverty, healthcare, and the environment. I mean, isn't killing innocent people a moral issue? Isn't destroying our water and air and nature preserves a moral issue? Mistreating the less-fortunate and the elderly isn't immoral? Don't get me wrong, I am adamantly and relentlessly in favor of reproductive self-determination, gay rights, and advances in medicine. These are issues that I simply could not and would not budge on. But my point is one of intolerance: many of the fundamental right wingers were voting based on their intolerance of these specific issues, and simply ignoring all the other basic human rights. I felt like Up was Down to them, Heads was Tales, Fiction was Fact, Fascism was Freedom, Demagogy was Democracy. The Red/Blue could have simply been Black and White because it was that fundamentally different and there was nothing in between. And this, this is what I simply couldn't understand. But to be fair, I stopped trying to understand a long time ago.

I feel strong in my opinions, you might even say, I have Faith that what I believe is good and right. And so whenever I've heard someone start to say "Abortion is killing," or something of the like, my immediate reaction, if not always vocal, has been "SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP you ignorant fucking redneck Christian freak." I have never been more sure that they are wrong, and likewise, those who hold such beliefs are convinced that I'm an unethical heathen. Ofttimes, they, too, don't wanna hear a word of what I have to say that is contrary to what they hold to be true. And I think that's become the major problem here in the United States. We've stopped listening to each other and allowing the expression of others beliefs, without either trying to stifle it, disrespect it and the persons who hold them, or trying to shove our beliefs down their throats. "Liberal" has become an insult and "Christian" has become "blind, tyrannical fool." Neither side feels understood and respected. See, I feel like I respect human beings to do what works for them, as long as it isn't hurting or repressing anyone else, but very often, I feel the Christian right is so (in)secure in their beliefs that they don't afford me the same luxury back. I understand the need for human interdependence, for mutual respect, and the kinship of all humanity--though, in truth, I haven't always practiced it.

But this is apposedtabe America, home of the Free and the Brave, no? Freedom for all, and for all, a good night, yes? The legend is about The American Dream, right? Not the Indian Dream or the Mozambique Dream or the Christian Dream or the Muslim Dream, but the American Dream. And we seem to have forgotten that sort of "all for one, one for all" mentality. But more importantly, I think we've forgotten the one lesson that we've been taught since grade school, the one axiom that can be found in nearly every religion's text from Christianity to Judaism to Islam to Buddhism to Hindu, the one maxim that should unite all Human Beings, a rule-of-thumb so absolutely true but often forgotten in the midst of passionate beliefs: "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you." It may sound pithy and naive, overly simple and optimistic, yes, I know. But how else can we stop drawing such hard lines in the sand? I honestly don't know. I think that individual and social problems can only be resolved by means of human reason and intellectual effort, joined with compassion and empathy. So to be understood, I must first understand. And to be tolerated and respected, one must first allow others their own beliefs. This all sounds great in theory, but in practice, I don't know. I do know that I am afraid not just of my own future, and the future of the United States, but the future of the world. Something's gotta give. So let it begin with me.

How else can we move one step up-- towards each other, towards unity, towards freedom and understanding--instead of continually two steps back?

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