Leaning Toward Disengagement
If you've been paying attention recently you have noticed that I have been conspicuously absent. Well, maybe someone noticed. My life is a whirlwind, what with buying a place in the country, vacations and the myriad of summer activities involving a nine year old. That being said, I have stopped blogging without a word to you people reading or to Libby.
This decision was not actively made, but happened through a loss of inertia by going to a speech by and a rally for Cindy Sheehan. She brought her little caravan to my little city and I thought that I should as least go and see what she was about. Well, she's about a lot of nothing. The same old tired anti-war leftist crap. I was pretty depressed by the fact that she actually thinks she is someone that any reasonably intelligent person would listen to. I listened to her and then just left before it was over. She had nothing to say.
She has gone from being a grieving mother to someone that seems to be a little opportunistic. I'm sorry her son is dead, but he wasn't drafted. He was a man who signed up using his own free will. Life is a bitch. Then she proceeded up the road to Washington and got arrested, again, for making a nuisance of herself to a democratic congressman by demanding he start impeachment proceedings against Bush. What a dumbass.
I figuratively stepped back and looked at the entire spectrum of politics in this country from leftist Ms. Sheehan to the "around the bend past the right" George Bush and realized that between those two, there is a vacuum. There is truly no other position that matters. Ms. Sheehan wants us out, period. Not gradually, just out, now. Mr. Bush and everyone else wants us to stay, we have to. It's just arguing over the calendar.
Know this, though. We will be in Iraq for years. George Bush will be long gone before we are out of this mess.
When I realized this, I realized that for me, I had to disengage. I have not read a blog or watched the news for over two weeks. I don't miss it. It just pisses me off.
I don't care about the politics, period. I see no candidate that I can support or even mildly like. I guess I still like Gore, but mainly because he doesn't seem to want it. I realize that could be his tactic.
What to do? I don't know right now, but for this day and tomorrow, I'll stay disengaged.
Maybe I can blog about something else, I'll ponder it.
Jim Martin
This decision was not actively made, but happened through a loss of inertia by going to a speech by and a rally for Cindy Sheehan. She brought her little caravan to my little city and I thought that I should as least go and see what she was about. Well, she's about a lot of nothing. The same old tired anti-war leftist crap. I was pretty depressed by the fact that she actually thinks she is someone that any reasonably intelligent person would listen to. I listened to her and then just left before it was over. She had nothing to say.
She has gone from being a grieving mother to someone that seems to be a little opportunistic. I'm sorry her son is dead, but he wasn't drafted. He was a man who signed up using his own free will. Life is a bitch. Then she proceeded up the road to Washington and got arrested, again, for making a nuisance of herself to a democratic congressman by demanding he start impeachment proceedings against Bush. What a dumbass.
I figuratively stepped back and looked at the entire spectrum of politics in this country from leftist Ms. Sheehan to the "around the bend past the right" George Bush and realized that between those two, there is a vacuum. There is truly no other position that matters. Ms. Sheehan wants us out, period. Not gradually, just out, now. Mr. Bush and everyone else wants us to stay, we have to. It's just arguing over the calendar.
Know this, though. We will be in Iraq for years. George Bush will be long gone before we are out of this mess.
When I realized this, I realized that for me, I had to disengage. I have not read a blog or watched the news for over two weeks. I don't miss it. It just pisses me off.
I don't care about the politics, period. I see no candidate that I can support or even mildly like. I guess I still like Gore, but mainly because he doesn't seem to want it. I realize that could be his tactic.
What to do? I don't know right now, but for this day and tomorrow, I'll stay disengaged.
Maybe I can blog about something else, I'll ponder it.
Jim Martin
posted by Libby Spencer at 4:31 PM
4 Comments:
Hey Jim. Good to see you're okay. Good post. Not to worry, we all go through burnout. Politics is a stressful hobby.
Agree with Libby. I get totally burnt at times or feel like just spraying the lot of them with M60 fire. As far as Cindy Sheehan, she just doesn't have the charisma that a good protest leader requires to gain a following.
What's missing most with the anti war left is a. good anti-war music by the most popular artists and, b. the draft.
I was paying attention and wondered where you disappeared to! I totally understand Jim, especially about being in Iraq for years. The war has me burned out too. That's why I've been focusing on issues where I think we - as voters - might really have a chance to make a difference, like universal health care.
If you find yourself fired up about something down the road, blog about it. It's cathartic if nothing else. ;-)
Kathy
Thanks for the kind words, but I'll be fine. Too much stress. Buying a new place, raising a nine year old at the age of 55.
Having George Bush as president. How much is one person supposed to tolerate?
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