1202009

I decided to stop into Boomerang’s on my lunch errands today. I thought to see if their recycled inventory included any funky skewers I can use for my Friday night gathering. As I wandered over to the wall of glasses and boxes full of utensils, my eyes couldn’t help but rest on a framed image of the date 1.20.09.

My mind had to register in its half hearted glance until the text beneath it reminded me why those numbers were emblazoned on my memory once. The day Bush left office.

I had a party. I was going to burn him, but my environmental conscience stopped me. I loathed George Bush. He made my skin crawl as my blood simmered through my veins. I did not like anything he said or did… because of the things he was constantly doing and saying. Nothing. Nothing. Nothing about that man ever redeemed his humanity in my eyes.

I forgot that anger. I forgot how much rage I felt just looking at that man, just thinking about what he did to this country… what he let happen to this country. And then I started watching all this footage about Katrina. I saw that president, with his cocky cowboy stance and beady dark eyes… and all that neglected hate made my gorge rise once again.

But it got stuck in my throat. Because… well, look at this country. That language of hate is strewn across our headlines, our Facebook feeds, our airwaves, our book covers… it is polluting the atmosphere at every single turn. Only now, it isn’t so much about Bush… it’s about Obama.

I like Obama. Duh. You must have figured that one out by now. Certainly, there are things I wish he would do or stop doing… but well, hey, the guy has a lot of work to do. A really TOUGH job to do. I get that with him… because I like him. I also know when I say these words, I reveal my hypocrisy.

I’ve tried to understand the Obama haters. I have tried to remember how I felt about Bush.  I saw the clip of him talking with Michael Brown and his obnoxious heh, heh while the people of New Orleans were left to die in a stadium… God, I don’t understand why anything Obama has done is on a par with that. I don’t. I’m sorry. I fail to make myself consistent as a human. Maybe my motives for human goodness and kindness lose credibility with my double standard… but I. JUST. DON’T. GET. how anything Obama does comes even remotely close to that.

But… well… I don’t get the Red Sox either. So… maybe my brain is wired funny with regards to the rest of the human race. Maybe my deck is short a card or two… or maybe… I just have a different set of priorities. And I’m not saying that it is better than those with whom I disagree. But… we have to agree here that we disagree… and then get over it.

Because… really… at the end of the day… it isn’t about them. Well, it is… and yet it isn’t. We elect our presidents. And then they have powers (and certainly money) that we peons of the average classes will never know. But, that doesn’t mean our hands are empty or paralyzed to prevent us from fixing the problems we love to foist on their shoulders.

No, I’m not saying we could have prevented a hurricane. Or an oil spill. But, come on, we still had a hand in New Orleans, even if it was just one piece of straw on the camel’s back. We didn’t demand our government fix a levy. We didn’t stop buying oil. We just pointed fingers.

We didn’t wreck the economy… or did we? How many things have we financed? How much crap do we own that isn’t necessary? How much stuff do we throw away that pollutes the atmosphere and warms our oceans so there are more powerful hurricanes?

I know this is another one of my odd ways of seeing the world and not ‘getting it.’ But, isn’t that what they teach us as kids? To just stop fighting with one another? That maybe… maybe if we stopped fighting, we might find out we like one another? That maybe… maybe at the end of the day we really all want the same thing. And if we stop filling the air with the noise of anger, maybe our friendship will reveal the strength of cooperation. Maybe… maybe… well, a girl can dream.