Sunday, October 31, 2010

Rally4Sanity - Part 2 (Reasonably Satisfied... & Disappointed)

If you look over at my "shared items" list you'll see the same article listed twice. One of those contains my comments on an article, actually. I decided I'm going to post it here, so as not to lose it entirely... I said I was going to explain what I said on Twitter-- for all the hype- meh. i'm reasonably satisfied (and/or disappointed...)- so here it is (Warning- semi-irritated, yet hopefully rational rant to follow):

Finally, someone said what I was thinking while I was standing there, waiting for it to end... Not exactly my first ever rally, but a) I really didn't like that Kid Rock song (um, dude, you can & should do SOMETHING more than just care! Seriously, even a tiny donation goes a long way. Caring is NOT enough. Simply caring gets us nowhere unless someone is willing to take action or say something. "Oh yea, I totally care about ________, but I don't do anything to change it or help." Uh, yea, thanks for being useless. That's all that song says to me - I care, but not enough to even make the tiniest attempt to try to change what I don't like. It doesn't even take a huge action, something small counts too. Change happens, but only when we care enough to do something to make it happen. Just pointing it out doesn't make things different. We can't all be passive, and we certainly can't be passive forever. That's the "definition" of insanity- doing the same shit over and over again and expecting different results every time. Things don't change unless we actively change them.

and b) Part of my frustration with it all - I mentioned I didn't feel like there was much engagement. When I left, I didn't feel encouraged. I wanted to feel like we were actually going to DO something to end the craziness. Not just point and laugh at how insane we are, but actually discuss what we can do to get things back to civility. There wasn't as much of that as I had hoped. (Way too much music. I didn't spend 10 hours on a bus, 2 hours driving to Queens, & an additional 3 hours lost in Northern NJ for a concert of musicians I don't particularly enjoy.) Ignoring problems doesn't make them go away. I get that they are comedians and not politicians. I've always known that. But seriously, sometimes I wonder if Stewart really understands just how much influence he has (really, around 250,000 people showed up to see this) or how much potential he has as an agent for real, legitimate change and progress in this country. It's because of him, and Colbert, that I even ever took an interest in politics. It's because of him that ever even though to challenge my own (Church-&-parent-instilled) beliefs. If he ran for President, he would absolutely have my vote, even against Nader or Gore or Grayson or Franken-Weiner. (Ok, maybe I'd have to think about that...) I am all for promoting civility, and peace, and disagreeing without being a total ass about it; but at the same time, I think it's also important that we encourage people to get involved in changing the things that we can influence. We can work together to promote civility, we can work together to achieve change, and we can find common ground - if we're willing to get engaged in the process, and change the process when the situation requires. This rally felt like it was all about "caring," when I (and many others) strongly desire and need "action."

So like I said, reasonably satisfied, yet still somewhat disappointed. Enjoyed the comedic parts, but for all the hype, I expected to get more out of it than I did. Guess I feel that way about a lot of things, huh. But one of them still has 2 years, and I know that it will eventually get done, whether it's because of him or not. I can be patient now, and still fight for what I believe in. If we can compromise to get progress, that's great too. As long as it works. It will happen, we just all have to pitch in. Caring isn't enough if it doesn't lead to action. I can't stress that enough... That really, really bothered me. "I can't feed the poor." Uh, yes you can!!! Grab a few sandwiches and head outside. Donate a few cans to a food bank. Bring lunch for a friend who lost their wallet. Little actions add up! If we all wander around acting like we're helpless and can't solve anything so we shouldn't bother to do anything except care about it, then yea, we can't solve shit. Useless. Grr.YES WE CAN.  
Take the T off of CAN'T, and you CAN. 
I used to hate it when Mr. Foster said that to me, because sometimes, yea, we can't, no matter how hard we try. Often it's just because we have yet to find a way around the barrier. But you know what, fuck that, I'm still going to try my best. Fake it til you make it. So thank you, Mr. Foster, & President Obama. I do have hope that things can and will change. It's kept me alive when I wanted to die. It keeps me going, even when things get hard and I feel like everything is going wrong. Things will change. Even if you can't do it, that doesn't mean we won't stop (politely) trying.

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