I got my first vaccine. Second one coming next month.
By the end of May I’ll be fully vaccinated.
Bring on the Roaring Twenties.
The End Is In Sight
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Tag Archives: current events
Song of the Moment: A Long December
I’m going to post more about this awful year and my experience with it. But for now, I’m going to post the song that I’d be posting on my AIM away message if this were the early 00s: “A Long December” by the Counting Crows.
It’s been a long December and there’s reason to believe
Maybe this year will be better than the last
This year has kind of felt like an eternal MARCH, so really it’s been more like a long March.
But we have vaccines that work. Trump is leaving the White House in 20 days.
There is, indeed, reason to believe that maybe this year will be better than the last.
Why I’m Not Watching Sports This Year
My friend texted me today to say that BC was leading Clemson, the #1 college football team in the country, during their game, although Clemson ultimately did win.
But in another universe, Clemson’s starting quarterback would have been in, because he hadn’t tested positive for the coronavirus.
Back in March, all sports were suspended at first. Then gradually, they resumed again, with talk of testing and “bubbles.” But there’s been constant talk of players testing positive, particularly in baseball and college football, which happen to be the two sports I care the most about. After the Dodgers won the World Series earlier this week, this happened.
I know a lot of people who’ve welcomed the return of sports after a spring where ESPN had to show reruns and that Last Dance documentary series about Michael Jordan. It’s certainly a distraction from all the awful stuff going on. But I feel super weird about it. There’s the obvious issue of players and team staff being exposed to the coronavirus, but aside from that, there are players who should be playing who aren’t because they opted out. And it is so hard to ignore that the fans aren’t there watching the game in person. It all just feels…like it doesn’t count somehow. Like it’s a weird, practice season.
I don’t really know why THIS is what I decided to blog about this month. But here it is.
Song of the Moment: Live Your Life
Some very sad news today- Nick Cordero, who played Earl in Waitress when I saw it on Broadway in 2016, has died after suffering from COVID-19-related complications for three months. He was only 41, and was healthy before contracting the virus. I’ve been following his wife Amanda’s Instagram updates about Nick. She was always so upbeat and positive throughout the entire horrible situation, and one thing she would do is encourage people to play and/or sing Nick’s original song “Live Your Life.” And she’d repost all of the videos people sent on her stories. Nick’s friends from Waitress made a recording of all of them (separately) singing it.
Rest in peace, Nick. Everyone else- wear a mask. Don’t be part of large gatherings. Continue to be vigilant so that this virus doesn’t spread any further.
Live your life.
Black Lives Matter
Being on Earth these days really sucks.
There is not much I can say about the murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and so many others by police officers that hasn’t already been said by others who are more eloquent than me. For now, I’ll just share these:
https://medium.com/equality-includes-you/what-white-people-can-do-for-racial-justice-f2d18b0e0234
https://minnesotafreedomfund.org/
Infographic by by Safehouse Progressive Alliance for Nonviolence (2005) and adapted by Ellen Tuzzolo (2016):
March Has Outdone Itself with Awfulness
I’m not sure if anyone’s still reading this blog. I don’t really promote it anywhere anymore. With what is currently going on in the world, I’m not sure I can really offer anything valuable or interesting for anyone else. My perspective isn’t really unique. But we’re in the middle of a scary, stressful, historic time. I’ve said that I think one day, historians will read our group texts and social media posts as artifacts. Whether or not that’s true, I want to write about what’s going on for myself.
I’ve been social distancing for over two weeks now. I live alone, so I have not touched another person or had a face-to-face conversation with anyone other than cashiers and delivery people at all during that time. But I really can’t complain- I am healthy, my family and friends are healthy, and I’m not in a high-risk group. I’m working from home and have been repeatedly assured that my job is safe.
March has always been my least favorite month. It’s long. There are no days off, or major holidays. We turn the clocks ahead an hour and it feels like winter should be over, but it never is. But March this year has absolutely outdone itself. The month began with Super Tuesday, and a couple of days later, I grieved for Elizabeth Warren’s presidential campaign. And then came COVID-19, and the mass of tragedies, big and small, that came along with it.
I’ll write more. I want to write about what it’s been like to go through this day by day. For now, I’ll just end with…eff you, March.
What’d the Horse Do, What’d the Horse Do?
To quote another John Mulaney bit, I think about this every damn day.
Mulaney's (@mulaney) "horse in the hospital" riff was dubbed the best political joke of the Trump era for calling out the "constant panicked drivel of the 24-hour-news cycle" https://t.co/KFANYrn6yV
(His Radio City Music Hall performance (on Netflix) is a comedic tour de force) pic.twitter.com/IU3tVD9WDN
— Khanoisseur 🐶🤦🏻♂️🌎 (@Khanoisseur) May 5, 2018
Everything
I am so, so sick of the news always being bad.
I hate wondering what each day will bring: mass shooting? Hate crime? New Trumpian atrocity? Sexual predator being put in a position of power?
It feels, so much, like evil is winning. Even inside myself.
I feel hatred every single day.
I don’t often feel love.
I actually took an VIA Assessment on Character at work over the summer to see what my strengths were and, I kid you not, I scored lowest on “Love.”
I have always leaned on the optimistic side, but lately, I feel my hope about EVERYTHING slipping away. About the world, and about my own future.
So what’s good? Well, the Red Sox won the World Series. That’s pretty awesome. Unless you live in Delaware. (WTF, Delaware?)
In Praise of the Echo Chamber
Something I’ve realized over the last year and a half: echo chambers are underrated.
When it comes to this Trump administration, I’ve heard the other side’s reasoning. I disagree. I don’t need to hear it again.
And there is absolutely nothing in the world that could justify separating young children from their parents and putting them in cages. My God.
I am very likely preaching to the choir here, but I don’t care. I’m going to say some things that might sound more extreme even to those on my side, but I sincerely hope you’ll understand where I’m coming from:
Anyone who still supports Trump, anyone who has no problem with the harm caused by his zero-tolerance border problem, is not only evil but subhuman.
If you can’t see any humanity in small children who happen to be poor and Latin American, then frankly, I can’t see any humanity in you.
There are actual concentration camps on the border. If you’re okay with that, it is not an exaggeration to compare you with the Nazis.
I don’t mean “you,” because if you’re reading this, you probably aren’t one of them. But you might have relatives, acquaintances, or, God forbid, friends who are. And if that’s true of you, you need to start applying the word “Nazi” to them.
Your dad is a Nazi.
Your brother is a Nazi.
Your grandmother is a Nazi.
Your old friend from high school who’s not very smart is a Nazi.
Your coworker is a Nazi.
Your friend’s friend is a Nazi.
Et cetera. I was never on board with treating Trump supporters with civility, but we are WAY past that point. The government is committing crimes against humanity, and the fact that it’s gotten to this point means that we’ve spent far too much time being civil.
Trump supporters are not people. They are Nazis, and it’s time to start treating them as such.
Every time you’re polite to your Trump-supporting friend/relative, every time you let their views go unchallenged or let them think that their views are valid or acceptable, you are letting them know that their views are socially acceptable- which, of course, they should not be.
If you had a friend or relative who was guilty of sexual assault, you wouldn’t think twice about cutting off contact with them, right? You wouldn’t keep that person in your life because it would be disrespectful to the victim.
Keeping Trump supporters in your life is disrespectful to the kids in cages, as well as everyone else who’s been hurt by this administration.
Don’t concern yourself with WHY they support Trump. The “why” doesn’t matter any more than why a rapist rapes matters. There’s no justification whatsoever for supporting Trump.
Remove them all from your life.
Embrace the echo chamber.
When Love Doesn’t Trump Hate
“Love Trumps Hate.” People started chanting it almost immediately after the election, and it’s a nice thought, that the hatred that now seems synonymous with Trump and his supporters could be overcome.
I wish I could feel that. Instead, ever since the election, I’ve felt absolutely overwhelmed with hatred. Hatred for everyone—like, literally EVERYONE, no exceptions—who supports Trump. And that feeling has only intensified in the aftermath of Charlottesville. I truly, honestly cannot see any value in the lives of those who support a president who says, completely seriously, that there were “some very fine people” MARCHING IN A NEO-NAZI RALLY. It’s hard for me even to think of them as people.
The logical antidote to hatred would seem to be dialogue and attempts at understanding. Unfortunately, every attempt I’ve made to try to understand where Trump supporters are coming from results in me hating them even more. When I read Arlie Russell Hochschild’s Strangers in Their Own Land, about white conservatives in Louisiana, I felt zero sympathy for the people she portrayed—just frustration at their stupidity and inability to look at actual facts that disproved their beliefs. When some of my more patient friends engage their Trump-supporting friends in dialogue on Facebook, I am, again, aghast at their friends’ willingness to believe “alternative facts” if they support their pre-held beliefs. For the life of me, I can’t imagine why my friends don’t end those friendships. And I hate it when people bring up people from struggling, economically depressed areas when the evidence actually shows that the majority of lower-income people did not vote for Trump. From my viewpoint, Trump voters are my dad’s businessman friends and my friend’s younger brother, who graduated from a good college. They’re just selfish, stupid, and awful.
I know nothing productive can come from this intense hatred and anger. From a religious perspective, I know it’s the opposite of what I should be doing and feeling. But, as the Charlottesville events demonstrated, there seems to be no difference between Trump supporters and Nazis—and if you wouldn’t love or defend Nazis, why would you do that for Trump supporters?
I don’t know what to do. Channeling rage into supporting worthy causes doesn’t do anything for me, either. The anger and hatred remain. I don’t like feeling this way, but as long as Trump supporters continue to exist, I can’t imagine feeling any differently.