Giving Thanks

In response to the sorryeverybody.com website, some "wanderers of the world outside the US" have created this site. As someone who has obviously been very unhappy about the election result, I thank them for their understanding. My hope is being restored . . . slowly.

One Ring to Rule Them All

Well folks, the Northwest Babe has been deeply troubled since The Election. There have been altered states nearly every evening and a trip to Las Vegas to try and forget what nearly 30% of the "voting eligible" American Public did on November 2nd. If they actually understood what they did, they would be altered too.

Everytime I sat down to write anything over the last few weeks I came up empty. Not knowing exactly what to say or knowing what to say but struggling with where to begin. There is a wonderfully amazing website where people feeling as I am are expressing their sentiments. Worth a viewing if you're interested.

For some reason I've found myself thinking of the same thing since the election:

One ring to rule them all
One ring to find them
One ring to bring them all
And in the darkness bind them
~JRR Tolkien, "Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring"

I feel like America has chosen to keep the ring of power with its fear, cruelty, hate, and malice. It's not just about the re-election of George W. Bush, it's about the votes to ban gay marraige (and in some cases, the right to civil union), the complete domination of the Republicans in the House, Senate, and White House. It's about the fact that Bush will definitely be appointing at least one Supreme Court Justice, most likely more.

It's frustrating and downright maddening! I really thought people were beginning to understand what was really going on here. I was so terribly wrong and I think that's part of what bothers me so much.

Do Americans really want to be represented to the rest of the world by BushCo? Do we really want to support a leader who tells us that meaningful consideration of and questions about his decisions makes us unpatriotic? Apparently I'm living under a complete fallacy because I thought that's what a democratic society was all about - the right and the responsibility to question leaders when you believe they might be rushing into a decision without the facts or when you believe they are making decisions that will ultimately damage the country in some way.

Yet at the same time, I truly believe that this outcome must be necessary for some reason. The pendulum has swung so decidedly to the right that it is burried somewhere over there in Jesusland. I'm a bit curious of how far it will have to go before people finally wake-up and say, "Ohhhh, I understand now." Unfortunately, I don't have much confidence that it will happen before our credit with the global community, financially and otherwise, is completely obliterated (not that that hasn't happened already IMHO).

Before I turn this into an even longer bitch-fest about the idiots I share a country with, I better close it down. I want to wholeheartedly thank Laziest Girl for virtually dragging my dead ass off the couch - thank you for motivating me to get back to it, if I was smart I would have realized that writing is therapeutic.

I Just Can't Look

I'm going to bed. It doesn't look good out there at the moment, they're saying Bush won Florida and Ohio. If the people of this country actually re-elect President Bush . . .