“Humanitarianism is the expression of stupidity and cowardice.” Adolph Hitler

I am in good mood, which is kind of unusual for me. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not some morose dude, dragging his ass around. I tend to live in the huge middle, a kind of level path through life’s inevitable peaks and valleys. No, I am not some lobotomized puts either, impervious to what goes on around me.

The question is, why I am bothering to tell you this now? The first thing is I tested positive for Covid last Monday (7/1), which is definitely not the good news. However, the world around me has once again become totally familiar and the fog has lifted. Now, if you have ever had the pleasure of being introduced to and kidnapped by Covid, you can definitely appreciate what it feels like to finally be on the other side. 

I just got back in from rucking and for those of you who don’t know, it’s about going through as strenuous a regimen as you like, wearing a 20 lbs. vest, while you do it. As for me, I am thrilled to pound the pavement up and down and back again on German Hill. When I peel off the vest and casually drop it on the chair, I am feeling pretty good about myself.

I also just about completed a story I have been working on, part of my paid gig with the County. I don’t think the new site is up yet. It is called Kui Kaua’i and to me, it is a real breakthrough for any government to share stories about its people and their work. I consider it both an honor and a responsibility to tell other people’s story in a respectful and compassionate manner. I really labor over them and when I get to place where I am within a paragraph of done, it is a very fulfilling feeling.

My relationship is wonderful and to call it an unexpected gift from heaven, is an understatement. My grandson is in the midst of a writing workshop with the New York Times, exploring the City as a journalist. I have no words to tell you what that means to me. No, I take zero credit for it and consider it a beautiful accident.

This is all really funny to me, because when I thought about the story that I felt needed telling, it was not pretty and I was about to bag it, until I saw the above photograph and story about it, which drove it home hard. 

This “parade” occurred in downtown Nashville last weekend. Dozens of protestors, with their faces concealed behind white cloths and sunglasses, marched through the streets of this city. They were chanting “Sieg Heil” and “Deportation saves the nation.”

“Reclaim America” one banner at the front of group read. Behind it, uniformed marchers in dark shirts and khaki-colored pants hoisted a plethora of Confederate and historic U.S. flags, with some of the American flags turned upside down. Why is this just OK and some passing story with no significance?

A Texas-based company has developed vending machines that sell bullets and installed them at a handful of grocery stores in Texas, Oklahoma, and Alabama, with plans for expansion into other states, according to news reports this week. We would sooner outlaw birth control remedies than bullets for sale in a machine. I guess that’s OK, too.

Have any of you heard of Project 2025? If you haven’t, you ought to check it out. This 900 page document would give Hitler a boner. It is Trumpf’s Mein Kampf. It is the handiwork of the Heritage Foundation, a group that is so far to the right, they have flipped the corner to totalitarianism. It is the bible for the White Male Evangelical. 

The goal is to purge the ideologically impure from all facets of government, rewarding loyalty above all else.  In the minds of its perpetrators, it is the second American Revolution, returning to a mythical time that never actually existed. The Justice Department and the FBI would be nothing more than State Police, enforcing the rules of a tyrant, who is now immune from all wrong doing. 

All of the above and more is what will happen if Trump runs unopposed, which is the current state of affairs. One aging man’s ego is the meal ticket for a disaster of unimaginable proportion and nobody gives a shit and he won’t stand down. Plain and simple, Project 2025 is truly terrifying, a genuine threat to all we take for granted and that’s the goddamn truth. It is where we are headed.

Initially, I wanted to write about hatred and how incredibly easy it is to bring to life by word and deed. What the hell is it about us that makes us want to strike out at others, blaming someone else for the cause of our private misery? It becomes a chorus in no time at all and learning the lyrics is easy. Then I saw that photo and grabbed the quote from Adolph to make my point and I was off to the races once again.

How could anyone in their right mind actually believe that being a caring, humane person is a sign of stupidity and cowardice? A shining, fascist boot heel, crushing our hearts is the right course for us? Yet, it seems to happen time after time after time and we are steamrolling in that direction right now.

One, lone voice is easy to mute in the beginning. For so many of us, our simmering anger explodes, as if that one voice is a match, igniting the embers of dissatisfaction within. Ultimately, it ends up producing an all encompassing strangle hold on the breath of freedom. In this case codified by Project 2025.

I don’t know who the fuck ever said being human is easy, requiring no introspective effort on our part. Letting other people do to that work for you is counterfeit living,  abdicating responsibility on the most basic level imaginable. A true leader should be behind us and not out front, with an agenda solely serving his loyalists or just himself.

I don’t know how many times I have written that these stories always take a few days to put together and it works out well to do it this way. It gives me a chance to revisit what I’ve put down, allowing for mood changes, etc. I am not into a lopsided diatribe, repulsing instead of embracing, which is my true goal.

So, this one started off with me being a bit happier than usual. While I am not in that exact place now, I am feeling pretty good. The real challenge for many of us is going to be living with what could likely happen to this country, as a result of the next election. I have certainly made my feelings clear regarding the risks ahead. While we’re there, I think Biden will step aside.

Is it possible to separate your life from what is going on around you? I pose the question, not because I have the answer. I believe it is a challenge we face plenty of the time, some more pronounced than others. Honestly, if I can sometimes have moments like I did at the start of this story, I think I can manage.

How about you?

LISTEN TO THE STORY RIGHT HERE:

https://www.buzzsprout.com/1292459/episodes/15406466-the-canary-died