Doomscrolling vs Good Trouble

“Speak up, speak out, get in the way. Get in good trouble, necessary trouble, and help redeem the soul of America.” — John Lewis

Doomscrolling refers to the compulsive and often anxiety-inducing practice of obsessively scrolling through social media or news feeds, particularly for negative or distressing content, with the expectation that the news will be bad.

I stopped watching mainstream news the morning that the fake election results were announced. I’ll never believe that muckrat and the orange POS along with a foreign entity did NOT alter the results. I’m convinced that Kamala Harris should be president.

Instead of watching the news, I’ve participated in a few protests. While the Hands Off rally on Saturday in downtown San Diego is predicted to be HUGE, the Tesla Takedown Day in my little city wasn’t as big as some others around the country, but we were passionate and devoted to showing up to make a difference.

Photo by Enchanted Seashells

As the wonderful John Lewis also said,
“Nothing can stop the power of a committed and determined people to make a difference in our society”. 

This showroom is in an obscure business park with not too much traffic, but we were united in our passion to DO SOMETHING to save democracy and this country. Unlike other events in the area, this was peaceful. No one shot us with BB guns, none of the people at Tesla came out to intimidate us, and there were no shouting matches on either side.

However, if you count the cars that honked in solidarity as they drove by, it was a resounding success.

I’m not so sure next week’s event will be as tranquil or serene, but it’s definitely going to be exciting.

We don’t want Greenland or Canada; we want our Social Security (NOT an entitlement), health care, education, our data private, muckrat deported, the other one in prison, and PEACE.

Oh, and make sure to tell muckrat and his cronies that no one PAID us to attend; we’re participating to SAVE DEMOCRACY from people like HIM.

The Storm Has Passed…For Now

The nightmare of the last four years is almost over!

While the election hasn’t been officially called for Joe Biden as of 6:00 a.m. today, November 6, 2020, I have faith that it’s just a matter of time. The terrible black cloud we’ve been living under here in the United States for the last four years is dissipating, and there’s now HOPE on the horizon.

Democracy has been saved.

After we celebrate, we need to fix the Supreme Court and restore women’s right to choose what happens to our own bodies and hurry to repair the damage to our wildlife and our climate and our pristine wilderness. Get rid of the Electoral College!

Maybe the worst part of the last four years is the knowledge that there is still so much systemic racism here. It’s like a certain segment of society can’t get over the fact that the Civil War is over. Equal means EQUAL, no matter the color of our skin or religion, or whom you choose to love. It’s obvious there needs to be a lot more education. Racism and fascism shouldn’t be tolerated.

I’m here in California and we voted overwhelmingly for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, but I want to take the time to express my appreciation to Georgia’s Stacey Abrams for tirelessly working to uphold honor and decency and integrity and to fight the good fight for all of us.

My parting words for that failed reality show sociopath… “YOU’RE FIRED!”

Here’s a few words from the late great John Lewis that seem especially appropriate right about now:

“About fifteen of us children were outside my aunt Seneva’s house, playing in her dirt yard. The sky began clouding over, the wind started picking up, lightning flashed far off in the distance, and suddenly I wasn’t thinking about playing anymore; I was terrified…Aunt Seneva was the only adult around, and as the sky blackened and the wind grew stronger, she herded us all inside.Her house was not the biggest place around, and it seemed even smaller with so many children squeezed inside. Small and surprisingly quiet. All of the shouting and laughter that had been going on earlier, outside, had stopped. The wind was howling now, and the house was starting to shake. We were scared. Even Aunt Seneva was scared.And then it got worse. Now the house was beginning to sway. The wood plank flooring beneath us began to bend. And then, a corner of the room started lifting up.I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. None of us could. This storm was actually pulling the house toward the sky. With us inside it.That was when Aunt Seneva told us to clasp hands. Line up and hold hands, she said, and we did as we were told. Then she had us walk as a group toward the corner of the room that was rising. From the kitchen to the front of the house we walked, the wind screaming outside, sheets of rain beating on the tin roof. Then we walked back in the other direction, as another end of the house began to lift.And so it went, back and forth, fifteen children walking with the wind, holding that trembling house down with the weight of our small bodies.More than half a century has passed since that day, and it has struck me more than once over those many years that our society is not unlike the children in that house, rocked again and again by the winds of one storm or another, the walls around us seeming at times as if they might fly apart.It seemed that way in the 1960s, at the height of the civil rights movement, when America itself felt as if it might burst at the seams—so much tension, so many storms. But the people of conscience never left the house. They never ran away. They stayed, they came together and they did the best they could, clasping hands and moving toward the corner of the house that was the weakest.And then another corner would lift, and we would go there.And eventually, inevitably, the storm would settle, and the house would still stand.But we knew another storm would come, and we would have to do it all over again.And we did.And we still do, all of us. You and I. Children holding hands, walking with the wind. . . . “