Tuesday, July 14, 2020

So long, it's been good to know you.

Well, I'm up. Let's do this, or at least get it started. You can't expect everything.

 For whatever reason, I'm not completely in the funk I was in this weekend. I'm not exactly dancing on tables, no, but that gloom & doom that was sitting on my head has more or less dissipated. I admit I've been bad about taking my meds as of late, both the ones for my head and the ones for my heart, and that's no doubt had an effect. Yes, I do know better, but I got in a downward spiral and it's sometimes hard to pull out. I still don't know exactly what caused the start, but that's part of the fun living with chronic persistent depression.

Again, something I don't usually do, but check out yesterday's News. I think it's a pretty righteous deep-ish dive into the whole "Washington Redskins are finally changing their obviously racist name". It's not as deep as some of my other dives, but there is some neat stuff there. The situation isn't as black and white as one might think, but all in all, this is a good thing and a positive step in this country no longer being run by complete bastards.

 Some are saying the name change isn't legit because it's not being done for the "right reasons". That is, instead of a genuine come to Jesus moment about how wrong it is to name a football team after a racial slur, Dan Snyder's doing it because the people that hold the purse strings are leaning on him. They recognize that the times, they are a-changin' and aren't up for a middling football team to cut into their profits.

 Well... so? If that's true, and it probably is, it makes the name change no less legit and important. Besides, and let's be honest here, America rarely does anything for the "right reasons". If that were the case, the Civil War would've never had to happen, much less the Civil Rights movement. Or seat belts or fair working hours or women's suffrage or, hell... I really can't think of anything we've ever done solely because it was the "right thing to do". Is there? I sometimes think the only thing we as a people do with vim and gusto is go to war and/or blow someone up.

 Which is a nice transition to today's inability to act like we're from somewhere. The COVID-19 epidemic is spirally more out of control to the point where Trump-friendly governors like Dan Abbott of Texas and Ron DeSantis of Florida are having to weigh the choice between upsetting The Boss by defying him and being disloyal with the possibility of killing off a large number of their state's citizens because they refuse to budge from reopening. Plus, the ding dongs who're convinced wearing masks is somehow unmanly or ungodly or the first step in total domination by the Illuminati are doubling down on their dumbness to the shock and amazement of absolutely nobody.

 I really can't get inside their heads, especially over the whole "they're trying to control us" stroke. Control us to do what? Consume and spend money we don't have on absolute useless junk that's designed to fall apart within five years? Work ourselves to death for not enough money at a job that will happily replace us at the drop of a hat for any reason at all, even if it's no reason? Support thieving authoritarians who scream bloody murder if they're the least bit criticized as they give even more of the pie to the richest one percent? Keep us scared and under the thumb of an out-of-control police force whose first inclination is to fill us full of lead and then maybe ask questions a couple years later? Put ourselves in harm's way and at the mercy of a deadly, still-unknown virus, threatening the lives of our loved ones, just so the richest of the rich can keep getting richer? Then, I say mission fucking accomplished, there.

 Anyhow. Today's is Woody Guthrie's 108th birthday. I've always been a great admirer of Woody's music and his place in American history. His stuff resonates maybe even more these days, and I'd be down with making "This Land Is Your Land" the National Anthem. Another favorite is "Do-Re-Me", so is "Hard Travelin'", and I've always enjoyed the dry humor behind "Talking Hard Work Blues". I've always dug his songs about historical figures, too, like "Jesse James" or "Pretty Boy Floyd". I don't know if there's a single song by Woody that sums it all up, but this one - "All You Fascists Bound To Lose" - at least gives a little hope in a dark world.


 Let's show 'em what some hillbilly boys can do, indeed.

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