I’ve been walking my dogs in this hoodie sweat shirt for over a year now. Other walkers, encountered, used to split 50/50 between congratulating me on it and asking me what the numbers meant.Since sometime last midsummer, no one has asked me what the numbers mean. No one.
Most people want to look ahead; hopeful for competent leadership, faithful in our unique Constitution, and confident in our economic comeback. Most want to look toward dawns and sunrises as opposed to twilights and sunsets.
I like dawns. I’m somewhat hopeful, faithful and confident. And I agree with the people who wear shirts which say, “Yes, We did.” I totally like Barack Obama. I totally can get fired up and ready to go!
But I also respect sunsets. I will not forget the last eight years. Neither will I forgive. Forgiveness is for Christians.
Thank God 2008 is over. Happy New year to you Vigil and Trophy Wife. Been listening to the pundits a lot lately, just because my schedule has been really screwed for the last two weeks, and everyone feels the same way in that the last eight years will never be forgotten.
ReplyDelete2008, Get outta here! You gave us a terrible economy and the lamest of lame duck presidents to do anything about it.
ReplyDeleteVigil, I think you're off base with that last sentence.
ReplyDeleteI get it: you're pissed off, as are a whole bunch of us, at the terrible and unnecessary loss of Iraqi and American lives squandered in the name of political gain so that "W" could parade himself as "A Commander-in-Chief; and at the enormity of the reckless damage inflicted upon our country, our Constitution, our economy, our cherished American values, our standing around the world, and our ability to solve the many issues confronting our polarized-politicized country.
But holding onto the anger and resentment I feel when I think of the divisiveness "W" and Company have helped to institutionalize in our Body Politic, I feel helpless and mired down in despair. Christians are not the only people who are capable of forgiveness.
I want to give myself the gift of forgiveness (which is NOT forgetting) so that I can let go of the despair and stuckness that accompanies holding onto anger and resentment. I want to be a part of the solution, not just a complainer. America needs all of her citizens working to restore, reclaim and renew her.
Emily, I genuinely admire your comment and your ability to forgive. You are right. Forgiving is not forgetting. I don't know if I have that kind of strength within me.
ReplyDeleteMy ire at Bush started when he and Rove took over the Texas governorship from Ann Richards. I knew there was something crooked about him even then.
He bankrupted Texas, as much as the U.S. According to Ann Richards in 2003:
Richards also criticized President Bush, saying that the U.S. economy, schools and the environment are all suffering under his administration. She said Bush's tax cut has placed the nation in "hock" just as it did in Texas when he took over as governor.
"When I came in as governor, we were $6 billion in the hole," she said. "When I left office, we were $2 billion in the black. If I'd have known I was going to lose to George Bush, I'd have spent every dime."
The scenario in Texas sounds all too familiar. Here's an abbreviated list of Bush lies.
That does not mean I don't want to be part of the solution. I feel my inability to forgive this administration at this time will remind me that I need to work hard to help in any way I can in rebuilding the nation.
My comment is not a criticism against you. I simply don't have the ability to forgive the wretched state of America. MacDaddy calls him, "the lamest of lame duck presidents."
To me, he's worse.
Emily, I feel so busted. You're right. That line is so 2008. All I can say is that I wrote it last year.
ReplyDeleteHere's my truthiness: I could learn something from the both of you, Emily and Vig. I'm working on forgiveness this year.
ReplyDeleteMaybe after the inauguration...?
Stella, for the record, I have only rescinded my zinger about Christians; I have not reneged on forgiveness. I will never forgive them. (Not that it matters and not that they care.)
ReplyDelete18 days before D Day! Happy New Year to one and all at Vigilland!
ReplyDeleteBack atcha', Hills!
ReplyDeleteStella, thanks for your very kind words, but I am no paragon of virtue. And, with hindsight, I can see how my words suggest that I have succeeded in forgiving “The Great Decider”, for his contempt for our Constitution, our People, and our American values. Sadly, I am only at the beginning of what I fear will be a long and difficult, if not impossible, journey toward forgiveness.
ReplyDeleteI WANT to forgive him and his sycophantic enablers so that I am not poisoned by endlessly ruminating over all the needless suffering these ideologues have inflicted upon our nation and its citizens, as well as upon too many others inhabiting this planet with us.
That I am struggling in my attempt to forgive is what I intended to say - with the unspoken hope that others might share their thoughts and feelings about undertaking, and completing, such a journey.