After the Ball is Over

Well, the elections are over and I've had a good depression (and several other oxymorons). So I'm taking a break from important personal business to share a thought (no sense holding onto it until it spoils).

So here's the thing, my fellow Americans: we've taken the wrong approach to this political message business. Same as you, most likely, I voted for people who took positions I agreed with and sponsored legislation I liked. And if they said or voted for things I didn't like, I remembered them prattling on about public service and representing all constituents. So I kept supporting them as long as I liked most of what they said and did.

How last century was that?!!

What we should have been doing all along, besides paying attention only to those who share our opinions, is thinking up ways to contradict, befuddle, mystify, and silence people who don't share our opinions. Like the majority of our elected officials and news commentators have been doing.

So here's the new me (and you, I hope, when you add your own provisions and slogans):

** Women and gays have been getting all our attention when it comes to personal choices. This is sexist and genderist. Men should insist on equal,or even better, treatment:
!! Unmarried men must refrain from any activity that could lead to the loss of viable reproductive material.

** Persons of color and women have been getting most of the attention when it comes to protecting our right to vote. White male adults should insist on better-than-equal treatment:
!! White men must prove their eligibility to vote by reciting the first four sentences of the Declaration of Independence and the entire Preamble to the Constitution before casting their ballots. If they want to use mail-in voting, they must re-register and complete their eligibility requirements at least 12 weeks, but no more than 40 weeks, before each election.

And here are a few slogans we've been using indiscriminantly, that I've modified a bit:

** Hatred is a family value.

** Better dead than well read.

** No taxation. (adding more words is unnecessary and probably anti-American)

** You can fool most of the people most of the time, and that's how you win elections.

Vote, Please

...because if you are a citizen of the United States of America and any of these:
### young
### female
### non-white or not non-Hispanic (also known as non-non-Hispanic)

...because if you prefer not the be judged by:
*** your sexual orientation
*** your religion or lack thereof
*** your opinions about what health decisions should be available to whom
*** the color of your shoes
*** whether you wear hats for no particular, or some specific, reason
*** the size, or lack thereof, of your book collection
*** your views, if any, on personal hygiene

...because if you are disillusioned by:
!!! the Democratic party
!!! the Republican party
!!! the President
!!! the news media
!!! rich White men
!!! life in these United States for any non-rich-White-man

...because the ONLY way you can do anything about it is to (A) hold office somewhere in the US of A or (B) vote. I voted and, while it wasn't great, it felt better than holding office.

Vote. Please. It's your right, your privilege, and your JOB as a citizen of this forever-trying-to-live-up-to-its-ideals-and-principles-and-generally-not-doing-so-well-at-it nation. And your nation needs you.

Random Questions for Thursday

Have you ever had an epiphany? No, me neither. I've thought about it, but I'm not sure these things can be planned. We've all have had ideas that seemed brilliant to us at the time. But when I came down, sobered up, stopped laughing, and/or woke up most of them didn't pan out.

But concern over epiphanies is just one of the questions I have about life in particular. Here are a few of the others:

When we worry about the role models that might be harmful to our children, which should bother us the most:
> purveyors of second-hand e-smoke,
> cannibalistic breakfast cereal,
> or the United States Congress inaction?

Has everyone forgotten about how to use their turn indicators, or are they just saving up for really important turns?

What are the mystical generation-naming conventions that gave us "the baby-boomers" and "gen-x" and "the High-Fructose-Corn-Syrup Generation" (or some such), and how can we avoid them?

When other people living in the US of A register on the "do not call" list, do they all start getting several calls every day that start out, "Hello Seniors..."?

And cycling back to drivers who drive you insane, do the people who drive with their arms out the windows - sometimes straight out, sometimes bent up from the elbow, sometimes hanging down by the car door - realize some of us are old enough to think all that might mean something about their immediate motoring plans and become even more confused than we were already?

Did my college friend Bobby tell very many other people about his favorite saying, "Sure happy it's Thursday" and is that why more an more people are using the acronym today?

I clearly don't have the answers, but maybe something I wrote will lead some of you to an epiphany. Or can epiphanies be a group activity?

Sorry I Didn't Write

Sorry I've been so out of touch. I've been having some health difficulties that, I want to say up front, had nothing to do with Obamacare (formerly, if infrequently, known as the Affordable Care Act).

Indeed, after 12 surgeries in less than 4 years, including 7 with general anesthetic and not insignificant recovery periods - the last two of which were further complicated by my previous extreme adverse reaction to ultram, codiene, any codiene derivative, and most other pain medications (a reaction that, in the last instance, persisted for more than 12 hours, even though I'd taken Zofran - also known as the pot pill – and included, but was not limited to, loss of all stomach contents, the incipient high, and the ability to keep down anything, even water) - and after the resulting-not-unexpected difficulty with alleviating post-operative pain effectively, or sleeping much, I asked the Diety,

"Why me?"

There was no great booming voice from the sky.

I did hear a gentle voice of indeterminate gender saying, "Your plea is very important to us. However, all of our representatives are currently busy with other supplicants. Please hold and be assured that we will deal with each supplicant in the order that the plea was received."

After that, I heard the most beautiful choral music, almost like Tallis and Bach had gotten together on it.

After several days, I lost the connection.

I thought of trying back, but I've lost my place in the queue, so…

Anyway, how have you been?