A Chill in the Air
Today I am wearing two long-sleeved shirts, the one underneath a mock turtleneck with the MOA logo on the neck (that would be Motorcycle Owners of America) and on top I have a RESIST t-shirt. Someone asked me what I was resisting and all I could think to say (since I thought it demanded a rapid answer as it was such a bold and simple statement of intent) was “everything.”
The weather went from two weeks of mostly sunshine and warmth to a day today that was bitter and cold. No one felt particularly well today. Kim started with a migraine and then felt lightheaded all day. She spent most of the day curled up on the sofa with a blanket over her. Cecil was by her side. He is often very sympathetic to her sense of well-being but he too was not particularly spry today. Cecil is getting old, but he seems to have lost more than a step lately and seems to treasure his long naps in the sun more than ever. And today, on a cold and rainy day, both Kim and Cecil were inclined to lay in and let the cold winds blow.
I had spent the morning buying a home battery to supplement my solar system. As I mentioned yesterday, I figure that solar saved me $8,000 or more last year and the effects of wildfires over the whole state in the last two years has made the need for backup energy greater than ever. As we’ve all heard, the large California utilities (most notably PG&E) have been legally blamed with not maintaining their power lines well enough to prevent the starting of wildfires and the subsequent significant loss of property and life.. As Global Climate Change is imposing its will on every part of the globe, each area has its cross to bear in one way or the other. Miami will flood. The Midwest will flood and suffer endless storms of all sort. Temperate zones will go cold and cooler zones will warm mercilessly. Here in California we will have wildfires. The ten plagues of the Bible seem to be close at hand. I read recently about a plague of locusts in East Africa that some say will find their way to China. This while the Coronavirus risks spreading across the globe from China to all the corners where people have been trying desperately to garner a piece of the Chinese economic pie.
The world does seem to be in one of those moments when anything is possible. While the wild winds raged and whipped the live oak tree outside my window and the rain pelted the deck, I watched my friend Bernie Sanders building impressive momentum in the electoral process of the Nevada caucuses, While I make no secret of my concern about the divisiveness of a Sanders candidacy and my fear that there will be no healing of the wounds than rend our country if he achieves the nomination, I saw something that grabbed me in a most interesting way. With Tesla batteries on the brain and the squalls sapping our lovely hillside of its warmth, with stacks of boxes in the garage calling for unpacking and two thirds of the residents of this home decked out on the sofa, I watched Bernie make more sense than I’ve heard from any candidate so far.
He spoke of the global embarrassment of the U.S. being the only major country where health care was not treated as a human right. He reminded us of our obligation to the earth. He reminisced that once we were a beacon for those seeking an education and that now our youth could not afford the debt burden to learn. And he raised the roof in a purpling state like Texas at the mention that a living wage was the only sensible economic and humane policy that we as a civilized nation could afford. Every single thing I heard Bernie say with calmness and avoiding wild-eyed fervor was being said with a new confidence of a front-runner. I don’t recall ever seeing Bernie so clearly or taking him so seriously. Four years ago, I bought a few Bernie t-shirts as a Joke. I did that almost in the same way I might have bought a Trump t-shirt (thank God I never did that for Trump has proven to be anything but a joke). I find my RESIST t-shirt taking on a new meaning to me. Maybe I had resisted Bernie too long.
I feel fickle and am struggling, feeling buffeted mercilessly by the storm of the moment. But it has never been Bernie’s progressive (not socialist, but progressive) agenda that concerned me. It was his madman demeanor and my worry that like Trump, he played only to a small subset of the population. As I listened I found myself thinking that this message delivered in this way should appeal to every American with a conscience. I think what set the stage for this moment of clarity was the message we all got that Putin and his trolls are not only helping Trump in their social media push, but have now also been pushing for Sanders in order to sow the seeds of more disruption. The contrast of Sanders standing up and denouncing Russia and Putin by name and telling them that when he is president he will insure that their interference will not be tolerated, stood in direct contradiction to President Trump. Trump did not just go radio silent as he has done in the past, he actually stood up at one of his western rallies and declared the accusations to be another weaponization of fake news by the “do-nothing” Democrats. A starker contrast between the character of the two men could not exist. It was a reminder that despite Bernie’s strong rhetoric and occasionally reddened face and flying skullcap of a hairdo, he is a principled and good man who has the courage to stand and do the right thing. Trump, on the other hand, remains spineless in the face of whatever favor he owes to Putin. He cares more about what others are doing to him than what those people are doing to our country.
It is indeed a chill in the air today that has finally made me see what we are all up against. This is a fight for the life of our country more than any we have fought for the past 159 years. I recall reading stories that the literati of Washington D.C. went out to the hills around Fort Sumter, South Carolina in early April, 1861 decked out in their finery. This was not a serious business, but just a show to entertain the wealthy patrons with the means to picnic on the back of the prosperous times underway. The South had more value tied up in slaves than the entire nations’ industrial or transportation infrastructure ( the railroads mostly). Prosperity was being chosen and, indeed, flaunted despite that it was almost entirely at the expense of an entire race of oppressed people. No Nazi gold or artwork thieving was more oppressive than the impact of a small group of privileged Southerners (about 2.3 million slave owners or 0.2% of the global population and 7.4% of the U.S. population.).
How strange that we are 159 years more advanced as a civilization. We have 6.5X the population of the world with vastly improved standards of living. And next week we will see all our hopes and dreams to cut the chill in the air of the country by doing battle against tyranny and oppression once again on the battlefield of South Carolina as it primaries our leading candidates. I will resist the things I should and not resist the gathering will of the people, whether that be Bernie or another. And mostly, I will try not to sit on the hillside and merrily laugh about the goings on below as I picnic away my granddaughters’ legacy.