insurrectionists

Gilded With Sadness – Day 1019

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So much potential – Photo: L. Weikel

Gilded With Sadness

I’ve been sitting here feeling a similar sense of that ‘stuck in waiting’ I mentioned last night, only tonight’s is gilded with sadness. I’m speaking, of course, of the suicide bombings at Kabul Airport targeting our evacuation efforts. It was only a matter of time before awful people made a desperate situation exponentially worse. And speaking of worse, the reactions of those in the insurrectionist party back here in the U.S. are simply disgusting.

But I don’t want to go down this road, especially since there’s nothing I can do to make the situation better. I guess I bring this latest tragedy up at all because it’s part of our shared reality and it’s impacting each and every one of us, whether we want to admit it or not.

I’d rather focus my (and hence our) attention on higher vibrational subjects – things that make us lean toward smiling rather than scowling (or weeping) (or collapsing in a rage).

Glissando of Life and Color – Photo: L.Weikel

Sense of Humor

I’m sharing some photos of a lovely pink wildflower that caught my attention the other day. I couldn’t shake the feeling that these blossoms (and the buds so tantalizingly close to bursting forth all along the stem like some quivering glissando of potential) were a symbol of the potential still available all around us.

I’m sure I’ve seen these flowers before but for the life of me I had no idea what they were called.

But sure enough, Mr. Google came through yet again and I believe – saucily enough, Universe! – this is called an Obedient Plant.

Hmm. Yeah. That’s not what I was expecting. But it did make me laugh.

And boy did it feel good to at least feel a chuckle.

Am I the last person to hear of an Obedient Plant? Probably. And I suspect Karl will be clamoring to plant them in abundance around our property. He can dream all he wants – and plant them, too! I find them to be absolutely lovely.

Obedient Plant buds closeup, with an ant making a cameo – Photo: L. Weikel

(T-92)

Smackdown – Day 989

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Who’s Fenced In? – Photo: L. Weikel

Smackdown

Well, so much for all the good feelings I was experiencing last night when I wrote about being an Olympics geek. Yeah, I do enjoy watching them and welcome the inspiring stories as a distraction from the utter insanity that’s unfolding all around us. But wow, I don’t know about you, but tonight I felt like a pro-wrestler on the receiving end of a smackdown – and no amount of distraction can help.

Of course I’m talking about the testimony that was given by the four police officers present and defending the Capitol on Insurrection Day. I’m not going to discuss that testimony nor am I going to link to any clips.

Suffice it to say, it’s heartrending to hear their first-hand accounts of the despicable behavior heaped upon them by their fellow Americans.

Appalled

And while I did watch the Olympics tonight, there was a sadness in the air, which made it much harder to use them as the distraction I’d hoped. I’ll probably write a separate post on the maturity, wisdom, and grace exhibited by Simone Biles. The lessons on our humanity just keep on coming.

But I’m sad to say I’m sitting here trying to write this post and my heart is fluttering a mile a minute. I just made the mistake of looking at Twitter, which had a clip of one of the officers who testified today, Michael Fanone, appearing with Don Lemon on CNN just this evening.

The clip contained an unredacted telephone message that was left for Fanone while he was testifying. And it is horrific. I’m linking to it here because we need to know that this is the type of stuff that’s happening in our country now. We need to face this head-on. This is how a police officer who testified to his personal experience of being brutalized, tased, and threatened with his own gun, all while defending our elected representatives, is being treated. And know this: this behavior is being actively stoked by Fox, among others.

It’s appalling.

A Gentle Reminder

I’m literally feeling short of breath as I write this. Never would I ever have believed people would feel comfortable doing what they did on January 6th, and worse, feel even more emboldened six months later. These home-grown terrorists feel so self-righteously empowered that they feel free to to heap this threatening and unhinged diatribe on an officer. For testifying to the truth as he experienced it.

Where do we go from here? I’m not sure.

But as simple-minded as it may seem, I keep seeing in my mind’s eye a photo I took just the other day of a deer standing right beside me as I walked along the road. It was probably the fifth or sixth deer I’d seen that day – two earlier had literally been ‘young bucks,’ with gorgeous furry antlers budding from their crowns.

Perhaps I keep seeing that deer in my mind’s eye because I need to bring gentleness to myself. I need to breath into my pain at witnessing such shocking hatred and ask for the wisdom of calmness in the face of abject fear. Not my fear. Their fear. The fear being stoked every day by right wing media and morally bankrupt politicians who will do anything for power.

Gentleness. Wisdom. Oh – and maybe I (we) should also call to mind the Protection offered in the card I chose for us the other day.

(T-122)

Accountability – Day 788

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Watching and Waiting – Photo: L. Weikel

Accountability

I don’t know about all of you, but I’m exhausted. I’m also disillusioned. Disillusioned, but sadly, not surprised. Given a day to reflect on what I watched unfold on my television screen yesterday, I realize that what we witnessed was not a fluke. And the word that haunts me is ‘accountability.’

Sadly, both my reflection on yesterday’s events and monitoring of today’s leads me to the depressing realization that pretty much everything I’ve believed in all my life was a ruse. A fallacy. Accountability is apparently only for suckers; only applicable to people of meager means or those whose lives are so unremarkable as to be unconnected to those who wield power and influence.

I’m sure most of you know exactly what I’m feeling in the pit of my stomach right now simply by reading that one word title of this post. I bet most of you are feeling it too. That’s because most of us believe in there being consequences to our actions. And I am not talking about the potential long-term consequences that undoubtedly exist (I’m looking at you, karma), because I don’t actually doubt the inevitability of those.

No, I’m talking about direct, foreseeable, inescapable consequences to our choices, actions, and behavior. Accountability – being held responsible or answerable – in the present moment.

Stunned

Were you, like me, rendered nearly speechless when the masses of mostly maskless rioters were simply herded out of the Capitol building and allowed to walk away? Did you see anyone being arrested? Did you feel nauseated by the impunity with which these insurrectionists desecrated the House and Senate chambers, sitting in the seats of power with their feet up, rifling through papers, scrolling through laptops in lawmakers’ offices, destroying wooden nameplates, smashing windows and doors, even carting off the Speaker of the House’s lectern?

These acts were conducted without consequence. Sure, some of these people will be tracked down and arrested – eventually. But let’s face it: what we witnessed yesterday was an unprecedented violation of personal and public space by marauders intent upon disrupting the work of our democratic government – and there was essentially no accountability. In fact, it sure looks as though there was aiding and abetting going on by those tasked with the exact opposite. That, my friends, should scare the hell out of all of us.

Not only were the insurrectionists allowed to storm the Capitol with very little resistance, it appears that those who stoked this may get away without being held accountable as well. And the reason this took place in the first place is because there has been a lack of accountability for at least the last four years.

There is a gross disparity in our nation regarding accountability. Compare this activity with what we saw yesterday. We talk a lot about accountability in this country, but it is rarely applied to those in power or in the favor of those who are in power. Is that really what our country has come to stand for?

Failure to hold to account results in emboldened action.

We are in great peril.

Photo: L. Weikel

(T-323)