Sad

I started out scared, went through fury, and now I'm just sad.  Anybody else out there feeling that way, too?  

It's hard to tell from the talking heads or the letters to the editor or the articles online and in the paper (yes, the hard copy, newsprint all over my fingers, actual newspaper.  I'll do anything I can to support local journalism.).

I see "leaders" inciting violence and no armed, shielded, baton wielding law enforcement officers holding them in place.  I see one Capitol policeman luring a mob of white guys up the stairs and away from the open door to the Senate floor and I cry.... for his bravery, for his quick thinking, and for the sheer awfulness of these thugs roaming the people's halls.

For they are our halls.  They embody everything that's wonderful about this country, everything that my parents drilled into my head with almost yearly visits to DC, to our Senator's office (so Daddooooo could thank Mr. D'Amato for the skating rink and fishing pier and swimming pool he funded and named for himself).  The doors were open - to the building, to the hallways, to the Senator's office itself.

It didn't seem foolish or unsafe or unusual to me.  Not then, not now.  Our open democracy made me happy, made me feel as important as the people behind the desks, made it obvious that we were all in this together.

We.  

We, the people. 

Does America have a We now?  It used to be that We could at least agree on some facts.  

Mr. Trump (I agree with Michael McFaul that the orange menace has lost the right to the title) has done that in.  Lawmakers who don't live or vote in my state took the stage to demand that my vote be uncounted, thrown out, discarded, based on lies and misrepresentation of the facts.  

The Arizona legislature's contribution to this situation, Mark Finchem, represents the District just north of us.  The proximity makes my skin crawl.  Our State Rep,  Dr. Randy Friese, was called to service after a right wing wingnut opened fire on our US Representative.  He saw guns and violence and incivility as issues to be addressed through governing.

He did not opt to raise an impromptu army and storm the Capitol

Driving home from the bagel store  (one of the two establishments I allow myself to enter these days) I decided to avoid NPR and more angst.  I switched to KXCI, our community station, and smiled... the first one in a long while.  I turned the volume way up and sang along, loudly, lustily, with feeling, lots and lots of feeling, to this

 the Brockington Ensemble's rendition of God Bless America.

Try it..... we're all isolated and no one can hear you... and if someone can, perhaps they'll join in.