Such an arduous compilation. In black and white it feels like a horror show that you want to close ur eyes at worst parts and then realize most of it wld fall there and u wld have to exist blinded most of ur days and struck deaf.
My shortened version is the following
After three generations of expanding America’s social safety net, the current administration is fundamentally and detrimentally changing course. Through their policies, Congress and the President are jeopardizing the lives of the most vulnerable—Our poor, Our elderly, Our military veterans, and Our children.
In addition, under a smokescreen of unprecedented, unrelenting chaos, the government has apparently legalized the crimes of kidnapping, unadjudicated imprisonment, and human trafficking. These actions are directed against another defenseless population, Our immigrants.
These are all examples of “social murder.” The term was coined in the mid-nineteenth century in reference to the exploitation of the industrial working class and their families by the political and social elites, resulting in unsafe working conditions and squalid living conditions, in turn leading to disease, injury, and premature death.
You may be shocked by this term, but clearly these are the inevitable results of the actions undertaken by the present administration and consequently the loss of Our Own Humanity.
Under these conditions, Silence Is Complicity. Organize. Criticize. Give Voice to the Voiceless. Let anyone who will listen know that: This Government Does Not Represent You, and We the People Are Not Okay.
Thank you, Jan. That stark term is sickenly apt. Yes--Can we, will we, consciously, constantly, collectively hold onto, give voice to, and act from our humanity? Moral Majority leader Bishop William J. Barber, in a sermon today in Charlotte, NC, spoke of this staggering rejection and rollback of achievements made over decades. He held out faith that, if we can, "Inside the rejection is the revival" of the best we are capable of as a society. May it be so.
Have written and erased two tortured responses 😩 in answer to a slower second reading. In some ways it feels like there is little difference between a chronological collection of headlines/snippets and an alphabetical one. The result either way is one of randomness and the chaotic state we are in, which makes me think I am in Winslow Homer’s “Gulf Stream.” A long-ago memory keeps popping up, of wading into the ocean and looking down at my feet in the sandy bottom and actually being able to see them. The light refracted on the surface to create the same correction that I thought only my very thick glasses could do. You never know where a moment of clarity will come from. Also all this madness is driving me much deeper into confronting basic values and beliefs, about courage, democracy, love, justice, our planet, practicing unconditional positive regard….Will I have the strength to hold fast?
This made me cry. Grieve. An alphabetical avalanche of horrors. But it sums up the last six months. Disorienting mania. The firehose laid out for our review, trailing behind us. Who knows what lies ahead? No wonder I am exhausted.
Anand, I heard you describe the creativity used for your Trump Alphabetical Diary, and I read some of the comments from your subscribers - but it’s not working on me. It’s too many words that are pasted together that do not relate to each other. It doesn’t have any poetic structure like a lyric. It doesn’t have a cadence or rhythm - not like the flow I feel when I read, say, a Mario Puzo paperback. Maybe we need you to convert an excerpt of the Alphabet Diary to audio or video
OMGOSH! - Overwhelming in every way! May I suggest a re-organization of the quips to also illustrate 1) How many times has Biden been slandered? 2) How many times has T chickened out? 3) How many times has T lied? Etc., etc., etc.
Such an arduous compilation. In black and white it feels like a horror show that you want to close ur eyes at worst parts and then realize most of it wld fall there and u wld have to exist blinded most of ur days and struck deaf.
My shortened version is the following
After three generations of expanding America’s social safety net, the current administration is fundamentally and detrimentally changing course. Through their policies, Congress and the President are jeopardizing the lives of the most vulnerable—Our poor, Our elderly, Our military veterans, and Our children.
In addition, under a smokescreen of unprecedented, unrelenting chaos, the government has apparently legalized the crimes of kidnapping, unadjudicated imprisonment, and human trafficking. These actions are directed against another defenseless population, Our immigrants.
These are all examples of “social murder.” The term was coined in the mid-nineteenth century in reference to the exploitation of the industrial working class and their families by the political and social elites, resulting in unsafe working conditions and squalid living conditions, in turn leading to disease, injury, and premature death.
You may be shocked by this term, but clearly these are the inevitable results of the actions undertaken by the present administration and consequently the loss of Our Own Humanity.
Under these conditions, Silence Is Complicity. Organize. Criticize. Give Voice to the Voiceless. Let anyone who will listen know that: This Government Does Not Represent You, and We the People Are Not Okay.
Thank you, Jan. That stark term is sickenly apt. Yes--Can we, will we, consciously, constantly, collectively hold onto, give voice to, and act from our humanity? Moral Majority leader Bishop William J. Barber, in a sermon today in Charlotte, NC, spoke of this staggering rejection and rollback of achievements made over decades. He held out faith that, if we can, "Inside the rejection is the revival" of the best we are capable of as a society. May it be so.
Have written and erased two tortured responses 😩 in answer to a slower second reading. In some ways it feels like there is little difference between a chronological collection of headlines/snippets and an alphabetical one. The result either way is one of randomness and the chaotic state we are in, which makes me think I am in Winslow Homer’s “Gulf Stream.” A long-ago memory keeps popping up, of wading into the ocean and looking down at my feet in the sandy bottom and actually being able to see them. The light refracted on the surface to create the same correction that I thought only my very thick glasses could do. You never know where a moment of clarity will come from. Also all this madness is driving me much deeper into confronting basic values and beliefs, about courage, democracy, love, justice, our planet, practicing unconditional positive regard….Will I have the strength to hold fast?
Whoa. A to Z. Restacked. Right on. RESIST
This made me cry. Grieve. An alphabetical avalanche of horrors. But it sums up the last six months. Disorienting mania. The firehose laid out for our review, trailing behind us. Who knows what lies ahead? No wonder I am exhausted.
Anand, I heard you describe the creativity used for your Trump Alphabetical Diary, and I read some of the comments from your subscribers - but it’s not working on me. It’s too many words that are pasted together that do not relate to each other. It doesn’t have any poetic structure like a lyric. It doesn’t have a cadence or rhythm - not like the flow I feel when I read, say, a Mario Puzo paperback. Maybe we need you to convert an excerpt of the Alphabet Diary to audio or video
OMGOSH! - Overwhelming in every way! May I suggest a re-organization of the quips to also illustrate 1) How many times has Biden been slandered? 2) How many times has T chickened out? 3) How many times has T lied? Etc., etc., etc.