Thursday, September 11, 2008

Worry

One of the people with whom I used to work had a tagline on her email. It was usually the same one. I tended to change mine according to my mood -- one, that a person told me about caused him to fall off his chair, was 'I live to serve.... and sometimes to volley'. Hers was more direct - 'Worry is interest paid on the debt you may never owe'. I've been paying a fair amount of that lately.

I am really worried about the upcoming election. I fear that we're going to tapdance into yet another Republican administration, and that in one or two years, people will say Oh, we shouldn't have done that, things are worse now than they were before - and at that point, God Himself won't be able to run and get elected, because most people will just be burned out on politics.

I wouldn't be so worried if I knew that at least the people who want this Republican in office are thinking about it, but I don't believe that they are. I believe they're sleepwalking into a catastrophe, and taking the rest of the country in with them. I recall that people in Ohio said, about two years ago, Oh, we shouldn't have done that, we made a mistake -- but then it was too late. It wasn't just Ohio that elected Bush again, and if the Republican gets elected, it won't be just them this time -- but thats how it feels -- like we're hostage to people who are so scared, they aren't willing to change. They'd rather believe the pretty lies than the grim truths.

I feel for them, but I feel for me, too. And I'm worried.

2 comments:

Tabor said...

I heard in the last election that it was all about fear...I understood that intellectually but not viscerally. Now I understand that very well. It is about fear that people will make you read things you don't want to read, make you listen to music that is dangerous, make you pay for the lives of lazy and ignorant citizens with your honest hard-working money, fear that you will have to live next door to people that are very different than you...Fear freezes the brain and we have more frozen brains in this country than I thought.

Cerulean Bill said...

Thats *very* interesting, T. I first read your comment as sort of the classic 'oh, people are afraid of change, those poor people' -- but upon rereading it, I thought 'she means ME -- that there is the fear that *I* have someone's going to force ME into doing things I don't want to do'. Which, if I'm reading you right, is kind of an anti-change statement. Its not 'don't change because everything is pretty good right now'; its 'don't change because as foul as things are (or might be) now, change COULD make them worse. Lets not take that chance.' Which means 'go with the solid, safe, secure candidate'.

Very, very interesting.