Of all the questions I'm asked, I get one far more than any other. With the news that Scott Jensen is being granted a new trial on a technicality, I got it again. How do you put up with all the BS?
Different people ask it different ways, but it's the same question. How do you get up in the morning and go to work day after day, knowing you'll run into more brick walls? How do you stay hopeful? Doesn't all the nonsense in politics drive you flipping batty?
My standard answer is birth defect. You see, I am a Chicago Cubs fan, so I'm used to waiting until next year.
My love of the Cubs is not a choice, it's in my DNA, inherited from my parents as sure as my eye color and skin tone were. For those who think I can't possibly be serious, let me ask you this: Would you choose the torment the Cubs have inflicted on their fans all these many years?
OK, OK, enough.
In my book, the real secret of stick-to-it-iveness is defiance.
When we respond to political corruption or some grave social injustice or other outrage by throwing up our hands and turning away from the democratic process, that creates a vacuum that lobbyists and special interests and the politicians they own thrive in. Succumbing to feelings of apathy or cynicism or hopelessness is the greatest gift you can give to those who are abusing our democracy and subverting it and twisting it to their advantage. They feed on those feelings. They need us to say what's the use.
Knowing that, why give them what they hunger for, what they live on? They can take and take and take until they've taken most everything. But don't ever let them take your hope.
3 comments:
This is the most shockingly self-important, childish drivel I have seen in ages.
A better question, is: How, O majestic warrior, do you continue your battles, your fund-raising and membership drives, without learning that bumpersticker-simple slogans are not the same as policy when it comes to complicated issues?
Igor: You know, I'll never forget my old dad. When these things would happen to him... the things he'd say to me.
Dr. Frederick Frankenstein: What did he say?
Igor: "What the hell are you doing in the bathroom day and night? Why don't you get out of there and give someone else a chance?"
When people ask me if Mike McCabe works for a 501c3 non-profit and non-partisan organizaition.
I laugh until I cry.
The liberal tripe that spews forth from McCabe is goofy. What a wimp.
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.