The Sensory Dispensary

I, like a lot of others, am struggling today. Today is the day we normally join our friends in celebrating our Independence, and yet, many of us aren’t in a celebrating mood. Donald Trump’s disastrous bill passed the House yesterday and we are confronted with a changing America, one we don’t recognize, and don’t particularly like.

I want to be angry at everyone who voted for this bill, and for everyone who voted for anyone who voted for this bill, and for everyone who voted for Donald Trump – but instead I am sad for them, full of pity for them and their cold dead hearts.

There is a lot more to be said but I found that Author John Pavlovitz has already said these things, and more eloquently than I could. He usually does, his insight and perspective is exceptional.

Here are some key points as taken from some recent newsletters:

F*ck the fireworks and flip the flags.

Most of all, we should be embarrassed… no, mortified, that no matter how it happened, Democracy has all but died on our watch here.

Nearing the quarter-century mark in our nation’s life, we have collectively failed those who came before by allowing the ascension of the very fascism millions of our forebears courageously fought, bled, and died driving back into the sewers of history.

Our essential liberties have never been more at risk, our electoral process never more assailed, our national sovereignty never more tenuous, our elemental freedoms never more in doubt—and yet the patriotic fervor by this felonious, soulless narcissist, his twisted cadre of cosplaying Christian ghouls, and in their mouth-breathing, flag-waving rank-and-file has never been greater.

I Don’t Grieve His Hatred, Trump Supporter, I Grieve Yours.

With your silence as much as with your volume, you show me you are more with him than you are against him, that you are more like him than different from him, and that you and I are increasingly morally incompatible.

So yes, his ascendence has been a raking light illuminating everything hidden, and I am seeing you and so many of those who share this country with me with heartbreaking clarity.

The greatest tragedy is how many Americans he now represents—and that he represents you.

That’s where the sadness is and why I mourn the loss of the people like you, whom I once thought I knew.

An American Lost in America

I’ll keep seeking out those compassionate, generous, open-hearted outliers who also no longer feel at home here, and together we will shepherd humanity through these days—and we will be rebuilders.

We will make an America where our diversity is our greatest aspiration.
We’ll make an America where religion isn’t wielded like a weapon.
We’ll make an America that is big enough for everyone who wishes to call it home.
We’ll make an America that requires no one to go elsewhere to find refuge or respect.

Right now I’m an American who is lost in America right—but I am not yet ready to lose America.