What Can I Do?

                                                                                   

This was written before the presumed assassination attempt on the GOP candidate. Of course, I deplore such an act, but my feelings about the candidate have not changed. And the GOP 's attempt to blame it on Biden's inflammatory rhetoric (or worse) is laughable. Don't let this distract you from finding out about Project 2025. (Note: many of the page numbers cited in various memes re P2025 have been changed so that fact checkers may call foul when they're cited.)

The recent ruling from the Supreme Court, coming on top of Biden’s weak performance at thedebate and the ensuing pearl-clutching amongst Dem politicos, not to mentionthe growth of authoritarianism all over the world, and brutal wars in Ukraine,Gaza, and Sudan, and, oh yes, the downward spiral of our planet’s environmenthas left me . . . what?

I think I’mby nature optimistic but at the same time, fairly cynical. A difficultcombination to be sure.

When facedwith an unpleasantness, my first thought is to ask what, if anything, I can doabout it. If it’s dog poop on the rug, I can deal with it. If it’s the existential breakdown of life as we know it, my options are more limited.

At my ageand with my limited mobility, marching and protesting is right out. No onewants to be the elderly woman overcome by heat in the crowd. And in theseriously MAGA rural environment in which I live, going door to door in anattempt to change minds seems like an exercise in futility which would onlyendanger the live-and-let-live policy we’ve adopted with our neighbors for thepast fifty years.

I can writeletters or make calls to my congress persons, send some small amounts of moneyto progressive political organizations. (The cynical part of me doubts any ofthis does any good.) Of course, I can and will vote at every chance (no matterwhat the cynical one whispers.)

So, whatdoes one do in these perilous times, when our country seems to be lurching intoa quasi-dictatorship, when money buys SCOTUS justices, when the Republicancandidate promises tax breaks and deregulation in exchange for dollars, whenthe whole of the Republican party seems eager to embrace a man I wouldn’t havein my house?

At 81, Isuspect I won’t live to see the worst of these trends mature. But I worry aboutthose who will. Though I’d be okay with catastrophic flooding in Mar-a-Lago. Oh, wait, DeSantis is taking care of that by keeping climate changeout of the textbooks.

As for our81 year old president—he has accomplished more and still makes more sense than the red-hatted loon,raving about sharks and batteries and exploding trees. And should Biden prove incapable, Kamala Harris is an excellent backup. Query: Has the GOP forgotten that as Reagan sank into Altheimer's, Nancy Reagan's astrologer may have been running things?

As a matterof fact, the Democrats could nominate the proverbial yellow dog, or a wad ofbelly button lint and I’d vote for it rather than the anointed one of Project2025.

So I retreat into the precept of an unknown Zen master:

Brew the tea correctly. See that the house is warm in winter and cool in summer.

Breathe. . .