It’s REAL!
A Note from the Publisher:
Zida Borcich.
You know, sometimes it’s necessary to count blessings just to get through the day. It’s nothing new, the duality of everything, but it’s extra-poignant right now. In the end, I reckon the core of love and gratitude we carry, despite our dismay, is what holds the world together. That’s a quote from this column from a few years ago when fires were burning up the northwest and turning the sky the morose color of ash. That was a bad time, and we are counting the blessing of all this rain in the unlikely rainy month of May, which we hope will make this summer less volatile. There are so many blessings to count around here, and at the same time, so many completely impossible-to-understand other things. How people can get so addled that they think a mass shooting might be just the ticket to hype their conspiracy-theory-fueled racism and sexism and anti-Semitism, and that more—and ever more powerful—guns and an unfettered path to their acquisition are the answer to how to maintain order. How people who are supposed to be neutral, nonpartisan defenders of Democracy and the Constitution can gang up on the vast majority of the people, who trusted the justice system, to pretzel up specious arguments to take freedom away from half of the people who share the world with them, after they promised not to. How one little, sick man can destroy vast swaths of a country, kill and kill, bomb cultural treasures to rubble, drive five million innocent people from their country, throw the entire world into a chaos of fear, and not have anybody in place who can talk some sense into him or take his toys away. How so, so many people can be bamboozled into supporting corrupt, power hungry, ignorant men who spout gobbledygook and selfishness and cheating and lying and violence as their guiding principles. What happened? What happened to our systems of checks and balances—to common morals, even—that whole systems can be broken down by such wrong-headedness? If you are flummoxed by it, are demoralized by it, you are not alone. People have risen up before to restore rationality and this is a moment for that again. Vote. Yes, please. And drive your friends to the polls, to boot these charlatans out of power. And donate to causes that protect, really respect, the founding principles of this country. But don’t just vote and donate and demonstrate, run for office. People have been talking to me about running for city council and after a lot of thought, I know that is not something I would be very good at. But if you have the fire in your belly and are on Facebook preaching to the choir, please consider this. You are needed and you can effect change at the local level, which translates to other changes at state and federal levels. To that end, Grassroots Institute is hosting an opportunity to learn what is involved in running for office. C.V. Starr Community Center Multipurpose Room, June 2, from 5:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. Former Council member, County Supervisor Dan Gjerde and former Fort Bragg Mayor, Dave Turner will lead the conversation. More information at pmcnamee@sbcglobal.net. We need YOU! Really
