(no subject)
How to Cope with the Death of Democracy
An open letter
by,
Sara Ribar
To whom it may concern,
November 2nd was a devastating day for true Americans from coast to bloody coast, and a day of victory for Fascists (unaware of being such due to high amounts of propaganda and the lowest levels of competency ) all over the country. For those of us who are aware of what’s going on, or at least those of us who can cringe and whisper about such things as peak oil, an unprecedented war, and even in the back of our heads, somewhat carry the thought that maybe Dick Cheney and the highest levels of our American government had something to do with the attacks on American soil. I am sure your first thoughts after finding out who Mr. President was again, were to flee the country. Now, that democracy has truly died, the actual grieving process can begin. And as we are all aware, there are 5 steps that all people coping must endure (denial, bargaining, anger, despair, acceptance):
1. Denial, as we have seen everywhere, posters, banners, t-shirts, even documentaries, people protesting their feelings throwing out voices screaming in pure agony, “Bush is not MY president!” It’s ok to be in denial, nobody wants to be wrong, and denial is a way to cope through the loss of an electoral process we will no longer hold dear to our hearts. We use magical thinking, hoping ANYTHING will bring that bastard democracy back to life. We’ll soon float off to dream land, enjoying copious amounts of drugs or alcohol, or hell, why not both? We might as well be brain dead since 51% of America obviously already is! Our minds will soon regress to their previous states and we will soon go back to our day to day living, sewing, reading, playing sports, huffing paint, hopefully avoiding the television set or mainstream newspapers for the next four years. And we will continue to reject the fact that there is no such thing as an electoral process anymore, we’ll keep stored in our barrage of thoughts, a glint of hope, that maybe we can resuscitate something my God, anything! Also, those of us who understand the travesty that has just walloped this country, will go into a pattern of wishful thinking, exclaiming, we are not now or ever were a citizen of the United States of America.
2. Bargaining, “Please God, I’d do anything to get Clinton back in office.” Now, I’m sure the lot of us would give up our very own souls just get see some change in the White House, but it looks grim and I don’t think any sort of bargaining will do. Except maybe the bargaining the Bush administration does with Satan-- but that, is an entirely different story all together. We can look up to that big sky of ours and try to cut deal with God all we want, but nothing can be done. I wouldn’t mind bargaining though, relieve my family and I of all debt, and you’ll never have to hear my griping opinion ever again, because I’ll be high tailing it at least three thousand miles away from this desolate waste land of a country. I am sure you’ll look for a cure, an answer, some sort of way out of this mess! Bargaining really gets you nowhere.
3.Anger, well this is an obvious one. “WHY GOD WHY?? You sick son of a bitch!” Of course we are angry that Bush got office, and mad that our votes that were cast, were not votes counted. We will pound our fists and cry for our milk like a bunch of toddlers because that is the intelligence level that our country has been reduced to. A lot of us will take the blame on ourselves, kind of like what the middle class did during the Great Depression of ‘29. This is wrong, please, you know it’s not your fault, I am sure you bastards tried to fight the man as much as you thought you could. But, then we will all begin to point fingers and shout out “It was those rat bastard Republicans, it’s all their fault!“ Now, can we really just shift the blame on them? What about mass media? What about the messy mudslinging from both sides? What about those assholes who sat in front of their television and said “that darn Bush, I sure wish I would have voted!” Then we can shift the blame to the victims of this tragic death, “Well if the Democrats would have made more of an effort to try to get people to vote!” This is also wrong, we are all angry, and we all have ways of dealing. Punching a Republican in the face will not get you anywhere except your local jail. We resent the fact that Bush got elected a second term, and we are going to hate the Republicans even more than we already did, but, we must clench our teeth and try to smile during such tragic times. We cannot let them know they are under our fingernails like dirt carrying pinworms ready to invade our intestines at any moment.
4. Despair. Oh woe is us, we all sing in unison. The world is definitely reaching it’s end, and this is coming from me, not some apocalyptic preacher swinging a bell on 5th avenue in NYC. It is a sad, sad day to see at least a disguised Democracy turn into a militaristic fascist capitalistic breeding arena. We feel like we are swimming against the tide, that everything has become dark and unclear, that we can’t get ourselves out of a muddled situation, there is no bright future anywhere we turn! We believe it is our fault, and beat ourselves up mentally , keep morose ungodly thoughts in our head, put the cold barrel of the gun to our lips. It is factual, it is truly a discouraging time to call ourselves American. We feel sorry for ourselves, we feel sorry for our good friend we called democracy, we are truly disheartened by this loss. For she could have led us to great things, instead we are now led to oil wars, an incompetent leader, and more reverse robin hood -ism. We have lost all faith in America, we have lost faith in ourselves, and mostly we’ve lost all faith in most of humanity. May God have mercy on our poor souls and may we be forgiven someday.
To be honest, I don’t know if I am ready to write about acceptance yet. Because I doubt any of us will ever accept such a tragic turn of events. Maybe we will rise up, and conquer the evil-doers. Or maybe, we’ll relieve ourselves of all debts, and run for our lives out of this mess of a country. That’s all I can say for now. To accept this would be giving in, and we cannot give into the pleas of fascist America, we cannot let this die. Maybe we will forever remain in denial, or maybe, we’ll find our way of the darkness and reassemble what hope has been taken away from America. I hope this has been of help to all of you suffering during these times of dire need.
Sincerely,
Sara Ribar
An open letter
by,
Sara Ribar
To whom it may concern,
November 2nd was a devastating day for true Americans from coast to bloody coast, and a day of victory for Fascists (unaware of being such due to high amounts of propaganda and the lowest levels of competency ) all over the country. For those of us who are aware of what’s going on, or at least those of us who can cringe and whisper about such things as peak oil, an unprecedented war, and even in the back of our heads, somewhat carry the thought that maybe Dick Cheney and the highest levels of our American government had something to do with the attacks on American soil. I am sure your first thoughts after finding out who Mr. President was again, were to flee the country. Now, that democracy has truly died, the actual grieving process can begin. And as we are all aware, there are 5 steps that all people coping must endure (denial, bargaining, anger, despair, acceptance):
1. Denial, as we have seen everywhere, posters, banners, t-shirts, even documentaries, people protesting their feelings throwing out voices screaming in pure agony, “Bush is not MY president!” It’s ok to be in denial, nobody wants to be wrong, and denial is a way to cope through the loss of an electoral process we will no longer hold dear to our hearts. We use magical thinking, hoping ANYTHING will bring that bastard democracy back to life. We’ll soon float off to dream land, enjoying copious amounts of drugs or alcohol, or hell, why not both? We might as well be brain dead since 51% of America obviously already is! Our minds will soon regress to their previous states and we will soon go back to our day to day living, sewing, reading, playing sports, huffing paint, hopefully avoiding the television set or mainstream newspapers for the next four years. And we will continue to reject the fact that there is no such thing as an electoral process anymore, we’ll keep stored in our barrage of thoughts, a glint of hope, that maybe we can resuscitate something my God, anything! Also, those of us who understand the travesty that has just walloped this country, will go into a pattern of wishful thinking, exclaiming, we are not now or ever were a citizen of the United States of America.
2. Bargaining, “Please God, I’d do anything to get Clinton back in office.” Now, I’m sure the lot of us would give up our very own souls just get see some change in the White House, but it looks grim and I don’t think any sort of bargaining will do. Except maybe the bargaining the Bush administration does with Satan-- but that, is an entirely different story all together. We can look up to that big sky of ours and try to cut deal with God all we want, but nothing can be done. I wouldn’t mind bargaining though, relieve my family and I of all debt, and you’ll never have to hear my griping opinion ever again, because I’ll be high tailing it at least three thousand miles away from this desolate waste land of a country. I am sure you’ll look for a cure, an answer, some sort of way out of this mess! Bargaining really gets you nowhere.
3.Anger, well this is an obvious one. “WHY GOD WHY?? You sick son of a bitch!” Of course we are angry that Bush got office, and mad that our votes that were cast, were not votes counted. We will pound our fists and cry for our milk like a bunch of toddlers because that is the intelligence level that our country has been reduced to. A lot of us will take the blame on ourselves, kind of like what the middle class did during the Great Depression of ‘29. This is wrong, please, you know it’s not your fault, I am sure you bastards tried to fight the man as much as you thought you could. But, then we will all begin to point fingers and shout out “It was those rat bastard Republicans, it’s all their fault!“ Now, can we really just shift the blame on them? What about mass media? What about the messy mudslinging from both sides? What about those assholes who sat in front of their television and said “that darn Bush, I sure wish I would have voted!” Then we can shift the blame to the victims of this tragic death, “Well if the Democrats would have made more of an effort to try to get people to vote!” This is also wrong, we are all angry, and we all have ways of dealing. Punching a Republican in the face will not get you anywhere except your local jail. We resent the fact that Bush got elected a second term, and we are going to hate the Republicans even more than we already did, but, we must clench our teeth and try to smile during such tragic times. We cannot let them know they are under our fingernails like dirt carrying pinworms ready to invade our intestines at any moment.
4. Despair. Oh woe is us, we all sing in unison. The world is definitely reaching it’s end, and this is coming from me, not some apocalyptic preacher swinging a bell on 5th avenue in NYC. It is a sad, sad day to see at least a disguised Democracy turn into a militaristic fascist capitalistic breeding arena. We feel like we are swimming against the tide, that everything has become dark and unclear, that we can’t get ourselves out of a muddled situation, there is no bright future anywhere we turn! We believe it is our fault, and beat ourselves up mentally , keep morose ungodly thoughts in our head, put the cold barrel of the gun to our lips. It is factual, it is truly a discouraging time to call ourselves American. We feel sorry for ourselves, we feel sorry for our good friend we called democracy, we are truly disheartened by this loss. For she could have led us to great things, instead we are now led to oil wars, an incompetent leader, and more reverse robin hood -ism. We have lost all faith in America, we have lost faith in ourselves, and mostly we’ve lost all faith in most of humanity. May God have mercy on our poor souls and may we be forgiven someday.
To be honest, I don’t know if I am ready to write about acceptance yet. Because I doubt any of us will ever accept such a tragic turn of events. Maybe we will rise up, and conquer the evil-doers. Or maybe, we’ll relieve ourselves of all debts, and run for our lives out of this mess of a country. That’s all I can say for now. To accept this would be giving in, and we cannot give into the pleas of fascist America, we cannot let this die. Maybe we will forever remain in denial, or maybe, we’ll find our way of the darkness and reassemble what hope has been taken away from America. I hope this has been of help to all of you suffering during these times of dire need.
Sincerely,
Sara Ribar