Wow! What a night. And a day.
And we're back to the day.
I put my life on hold for two weeks to devote myself to the PUSH. It paid off; Lane County landslided for Barack and Oregon put him...not over the top, but to the penultimate peak. And we are two decimal places from the nomination. Contrast that with Hillary's mid-10 decimal places in debt.
And as of now, that's the last mention I'm going to make of her. The primary season ended back in February when we took the lead, and it's effectively all over but the shouting.
And in the cold light of morning, Life™ hit me with two rude phone calls that reminded me...that I'm dirt poor, and I live in Oregon.
I haven't contributed to my fundraiser because, quite simply, I can't. I'm living on $100 a week and that goes to groceries and gas. Oregon is the brake shoes of the nation: whenever the economy slows down, we're the first to feel the heat. I could give up the car and take the bus, but the buses don't go everywhere I need to go in a Quixotic attempt to find gainful employment. And bus trips aren't direct: they take an hour to get where a car can hop to in fifteen minutes.
I'm thrilled that Barack won Oregon handily, but I have to get back to my life. My horse probably won't recognize me, and the Regionals are coming up. I'm in nothing like shape for that so I won't be riding him in them, it'll be his trainer and the stable girls. The first Regional is at the Idaho Horse Park in Nampa, about four weeks from now. I'll go out with the contingent and hopefully do some gold panning on the way back. That's the only good thing about this recession: gold is up and even a day's work in the stream could take care of me for a week when I sell it. Why not? I'd have to work my ass off anyway, and this way I don't have to deal with co-employees and a boss; all I have to do is find an assay office to turn those glimmering little yellow flakes into cash.
I just talked with Mom on the phone. She's scraping together pennies for the basic necessities, too. This isn't Beef Burgundy and pheasant-under-glass, and we're not talking marble tiles either. This is things like milk, orange juice, toilet paper. Here's the irony, she voted for Bush TWICE, because she thought he was a good man. This election, she has no hope. She doesn't care anymore, and she's never missed an election. What scared me is what she said: "Barack will get us out of Iraq but that doesn't help my situation here."
Part of me understands and wants to believe her. Another part reminds me that she voted for Bush twice and to keep the faith in Barack. "Help is on the way," that part tells me. "Don't give up now!"
I won't, I'll keep plugging away. The nomination will go to my candidate and the McCain camp can't come up with anything stronger than race-baiting. Shallow, spurious, without substance. Last night, I had a dream, where I mulled over the concept of racism: I summed it up in an axiom, "Racism helps none and harms many. It should be dispensed with. Cut it away, it serves no worthwhile purpose and we do not need it."
I've developed a zero-tolerance for online haters. They can squawk about freedom of speech but as they have the right to speak, I have the right to call it out as bullshit. Please pardon the verbiage but I can think of no better term, particularly after that hectacomb in the comments for the WaPo blog covering the latest PDX rally. The only good thing about that is that we know what we're up against and where they are.
The general election will be harsh. West Virginia (25% race-motivated) and Kentucky (21% race-motivated) taught us that yes, there are some people in this country who think the KKK are just fine 'n dandy and are doing great work. Just remember: Racism helps none and harms many. Don't stand for it.
Okay...I'm off to squeeze some more juice out and try to pay bills. Life, it doth continue...
Comments are closed for this post.
