This essay made me cry - with relief, oddly enough. Outside of my immediate circle, people look at me like I’m crazy when I say the Biden era depressed and demoralized me far more than Trump did. From the first wave of women’s marches on, the Trump presidency was a pageant of resistance, springing up where least expected - older white ladies radicalized! - and finally seen where it’s nested for centuries. The failure of the “grownups in the room” to protect us only confirmed what we already knew: no one will save us but ourselves.
Then came Biden, who promised to uplift us and our existential need for a functioning democracy. This time around, what got confirmed is what we knew was true but hoped was not: the Democratic gerontocracy “represents” us in only the most cosmetic way, i.e., it will pantomime concern for some of our issues, but reject any policy that might over time alter the racial and economic status quo.
So not only are we on our own, but unlike our foes, we have virtually no representation in government, and the few elected leaders who truly reflect us are subjected to unrelenting ritual abuse, bipartisan at that.
Wow. What an incredible piece. So glad I am a subscriber. Thank you for the big effort to put together this sequence of what is in so many of our memories, but still so hard to accept and make sense of.
Perhaps it's just my age. Maybe it's because I've been a history junkie (recreationally & professionally) for over 60 years. In any case, I can't shake the feeling that where we are now is where America was ALWAYS headed. Just as Greg Grandin wrote "The Trail of Tears was always headed to Vietnam," so, too, it seems to me, was America always headed to this tragic (non-) choice in November, 2024. America had two main origins: in Massachusetts and Virginia. The first was settled by religious fanatics. The second by wealthy slavers. Both were murderous ethnic cleansers. And that launched our trajectory. Any progressive advance (eg Civil War, Reconstruction; New Deal) was met with fierce resistance, and then massive roll-back (1876-1950s: 1980s-present). After murdering our way across a continent, we turned our psychopathic violence South and across the Pacific. We have been, virtually constantly, at war. And we have institutionalized, enshrined and celebrated an economic system of unbridled greed, a culture of selfishness, and a centuries-long penchant to demonize "Others." We are like the Greek myth of Erysichthon, whose greed was so great he died in an act of auto-cannibalism. Or as the Indigenous writer Jack D. Forbes put it, we have a system ruled by "Wetikos" (a kind of insatiable cannibal.) Given all this, I am not very surprised by where we are. As Ta-Nihisi Coates wrote, "The story of the United States of America very likely does not end well." I'm too old to see that end--and I hope I am wrong. In any case, as Ms. Kendzior wrote back in 2017 (?), all we can do is "be brave if we can--and it is often not easy to be brave--and be kind, always."
Twenty-nine years ago this week, I sat at my desk in The Los Angeles Times editorial library eating a plate of cafeteria chilaquiles, and drinking a cup of lukewarm coffee while a truck packed with explosives was detonated in front of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in downtown Oklahoma City. Where my teenage son lived with his dad. My son who helped free bodies from the wreckage. Not what any mother wants her son to have to do. And we are still here. How new is this in a country where my Missouri cousin responds “ you’re so funny” when I remind her about the separation of church and state. When those separations are wedges driven between us deeper and deeper as the years go by.
I can feel your fury through my phone. It burns through my eyes into my brain. Slow walked justice is not justice, it is betrayal. Hope is a wish with no action behind it. There is a fierce fire in your words. I am here for it. Powerful writing!
Sarah’s posts have me checking Substack to see when her next post is showing up relentlessly so I can read it with a mixture of joy and sadness. She is so good at documenting how a lot of us are feeling. I have low-level dread of the rest of the year but she keeps things in the right lens as none of us can predict what is going to occur. All I can say is your writing is a gift.
Tennessee State Congress under Sexton is utterly corrupt. Libertarian Fascists—and they don’t believe in (re)building infrastructure. That “hole” in Nashville should be held up as the utter failure of Libertarian Fascist beliefs. It reminds me of a bombed out district in the Hunger Games. So long as Tennessee keeps sending corrupt fascists to represent them, they will stand as corrupt people.
Went for a walk in the woods listening to Downtown on repeat. I like that song because my Mother would also play it on repeat (on a 45). I was a child and it reminds me of when I knew no one with an agenda. In the mid 80's in college I started paying attention to politics and realized all politicians had an agenda that did not include me. In the mid 90's on my 3rd engineering job, I realized all corporations had an agenda that did not include me. The woods I walked in today will be a housing development next year and I realize that society has an agenda and it does not include me. Thankfully nature has no agenda, it's something I can trust without any doubt.
I’m embarrassed to admit the bombing went right by me. Thank you for recounting it. When I was a freshman in college at Truman State in 1972 (many of us still prefer to refer to it as Northeast Mo. State) I had a political science professor who would tell us how, when Lyndon Johnson was president and the war in Vietnam was not going well, he had some advisors telling him that his generals were feeding him s—t with a spoon. I feel that way today with regard to our elected “leaders.”
Thank you again! You always have the human touch in your pieces with the absolute clarity of the truth. I wish the majority of the public would get off the idolatry pot, drop out of the futile outrage machine, and wipe their you know whats with some common sense practicality of why “things are going the way they are”. It's not only hideous, it's outright diabolical in the most horrific sense.
The failure to get rid of Louis DeJoy has been one of the biggest failures of this administration.
Did you know that as of April 13th, third party mail stores are no longer allowed to accept anything but cash or check when using USPS services?
I found this out while attempting to mail a package...the lady who owns the store is justifiably furious about it. I've seen nothing about it from any news organization. He's just going to be allowed to completely destroy the post office, isn't he?
Although I'm miles away from Nashville the destruction of our society is still evident. Every year, every election and every legislative session seems like an assault on the decent ordinary citizens in this blood red state. Yesterday I was crafting a return volley, a verbal ultimatum in my mind to my congressman but the hope tank was showing empty, again. My cartoon brain keeps me laughing but part of my grey matter is a refugee mind that has made the same observation of society, the trajectory and is taking notes. The undertow of money, obscene sums of it with politicians lined up suckling on the teat of the dark money hog causes those lips to spew illogical nonsense. My experiences in door knocking leaves me blinking as though I'm witnessing an autopsy. People crave, demand a restoration of faith in our system and the desperation of that erupted in 2016, which reminds me that a return to Yellowstone is long overdue. Have safe travels, be happy, be healthy and smile.
Sarah, I haven’t read this whole article, I’m still processing my own gap in memory. I read the first paragraph and cried, because I totally forgot this horrible event happened. The feeling in my gut when I remembered it happening was almost nauseating. How did I forget? This is me in 2024. I have been diving into the Nick Bryant podcast and unpacking abuse and how it causes us to form psychosis and DID. I’m going back to read it, but I felt like I needed to admit my own amnesia. How we forget about great tragedy when it gets piled on other tragedy daily. It’s really sad.
One of the more important subplots of GOT is the desire of Death (Night King) to eliminate Memory (3 Eyed Raven). Without memory, Death rules all. I am always moved, haunted and educated by your vision Sarah! Keep a young woman with a knife nearby.
This essay made me cry - with relief, oddly enough. Outside of my immediate circle, people look at me like I’m crazy when I say the Biden era depressed and demoralized me far more than Trump did. From the first wave of women’s marches on, the Trump presidency was a pageant of resistance, springing up where least expected - older white ladies radicalized! - and finally seen where it’s nested for centuries. The failure of the “grownups in the room” to protect us only confirmed what we already knew: no one will save us but ourselves.
Then came Biden, who promised to uplift us and our existential need for a functioning democracy. This time around, what got confirmed is what we knew was true but hoped was not: the Democratic gerontocracy “represents” us in only the most cosmetic way, i.e., it will pantomime concern for some of our issues, but reject any policy that might over time alter the racial and economic status quo.
So not only are we on our own, but unlike our foes, we have virtually no representation in government, and the few elected leaders who truly reflect us are subjected to unrelenting ritual abuse, bipartisan at that.
Wow. What an incredible piece. So glad I am a subscriber. Thank you for the big effort to put together this sequence of what is in so many of our memories, but still so hard to accept and make sense of.
Perhaps it's just my age. Maybe it's because I've been a history junkie (recreationally & professionally) for over 60 years. In any case, I can't shake the feeling that where we are now is where America was ALWAYS headed. Just as Greg Grandin wrote "The Trail of Tears was always headed to Vietnam," so, too, it seems to me, was America always headed to this tragic (non-) choice in November, 2024. America had two main origins: in Massachusetts and Virginia. The first was settled by religious fanatics. The second by wealthy slavers. Both were murderous ethnic cleansers. And that launched our trajectory. Any progressive advance (eg Civil War, Reconstruction; New Deal) was met with fierce resistance, and then massive roll-back (1876-1950s: 1980s-present). After murdering our way across a continent, we turned our psychopathic violence South and across the Pacific. We have been, virtually constantly, at war. And we have institutionalized, enshrined and celebrated an economic system of unbridled greed, a culture of selfishness, and a centuries-long penchant to demonize "Others." We are like the Greek myth of Erysichthon, whose greed was so great he died in an act of auto-cannibalism. Or as the Indigenous writer Jack D. Forbes put it, we have a system ruled by "Wetikos" (a kind of insatiable cannibal.) Given all this, I am not very surprised by where we are. As Ta-Nihisi Coates wrote, "The story of the United States of America very likely does not end well." I'm too old to see that end--and I hope I am wrong. In any case, as Ms. Kendzior wrote back in 2017 (?), all we can do is "be brave if we can--and it is often not easy to be brave--and be kind, always."
Twenty-nine years ago this week, I sat at my desk in The Los Angeles Times editorial library eating a plate of cafeteria chilaquiles, and drinking a cup of lukewarm coffee while a truck packed with explosives was detonated in front of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in downtown Oklahoma City. Where my teenage son lived with his dad. My son who helped free bodies from the wreckage. Not what any mother wants her son to have to do. And we are still here. How new is this in a country where my Missouri cousin responds “ you’re so funny” when I remind her about the separation of church and state. When those separations are wedges driven between us deeper and deeper as the years go by.
I can feel your fury through my phone. It burns through my eyes into my brain. Slow walked justice is not justice, it is betrayal. Hope is a wish with no action behind it. There is a fierce fire in your words. I am here for it. Powerful writing!
Sarah’s posts have me checking Substack to see when her next post is showing up relentlessly so I can read it with a mixture of joy and sadness. She is so good at documenting how a lot of us are feeling. I have low-level dread of the rest of the year but she keeps things in the right lens as none of us can predict what is going to occur. All I can say is your writing is a gift.
I will reference George Carlin because he nailed it:
https://youtu.be/-54c0IdxZWc?si=sLtM0crt8o6hX7Up
Tennessee State Congress under Sexton is utterly corrupt. Libertarian Fascists—and they don’t believe in (re)building infrastructure. That “hole” in Nashville should be held up as the utter failure of Libertarian Fascist beliefs. It reminds me of a bombed out district in the Hunger Games. So long as Tennessee keeps sending corrupt fascists to represent them, they will stand as corrupt people.
Went for a walk in the woods listening to Downtown on repeat. I like that song because my Mother would also play it on repeat (on a 45). I was a child and it reminds me of when I knew no one with an agenda. In the mid 80's in college I started paying attention to politics and realized all politicians had an agenda that did not include me. In the mid 90's on my 3rd engineering job, I realized all corporations had an agenda that did not include me. The woods I walked in today will be a housing development next year and I realize that society has an agenda and it does not include me. Thankfully nature has no agenda, it's something I can trust without any doubt.
I’m embarrassed to admit the bombing went right by me. Thank you for recounting it. When I was a freshman in college at Truman State in 1972 (many of us still prefer to refer to it as Northeast Mo. State) I had a political science professor who would tell us how, when Lyndon Johnson was president and the war in Vietnam was not going well, he had some advisors telling him that his generals were feeding him s—t with a spoon. I feel that way today with regard to our elected “leaders.”
I am very glad to be one of your subscribers.
Thank you again! You always have the human touch in your pieces with the absolute clarity of the truth. I wish the majority of the public would get off the idolatry pot, drop out of the futile outrage machine, and wipe their you know whats with some common sense practicality of why “things are going the way they are”. It's not only hideous, it's outright diabolical in the most horrific sense.
The failure to get rid of Louis DeJoy has been one of the biggest failures of this administration.
Did you know that as of April 13th, third party mail stores are no longer allowed to accept anything but cash or check when using USPS services?
I found this out while attempting to mail a package...the lady who owns the store is justifiably furious about it. I've seen nothing about it from any news organization. He's just going to be allowed to completely destroy the post office, isn't he?
Although I'm miles away from Nashville the destruction of our society is still evident. Every year, every election and every legislative session seems like an assault on the decent ordinary citizens in this blood red state. Yesterday I was crafting a return volley, a verbal ultimatum in my mind to my congressman but the hope tank was showing empty, again. My cartoon brain keeps me laughing but part of my grey matter is a refugee mind that has made the same observation of society, the trajectory and is taking notes. The undertow of money, obscene sums of it with politicians lined up suckling on the teat of the dark money hog causes those lips to spew illogical nonsense. My experiences in door knocking leaves me blinking as though I'm witnessing an autopsy. People crave, demand a restoration of faith in our system and the desperation of that erupted in 2016, which reminds me that a return to Yellowstone is long overdue. Have safe travels, be happy, be healthy and smile.
Excellent article, again.
Sarah, I haven’t read this whole article, I’m still processing my own gap in memory. I read the first paragraph and cried, because I totally forgot this horrible event happened. The feeling in my gut when I remembered it happening was almost nauseating. How did I forget? This is me in 2024. I have been diving into the Nick Bryant podcast and unpacking abuse and how it causes us to form psychosis and DID. I’m going back to read it, but I felt like I needed to admit my own amnesia. How we forget about great tragedy when it gets piled on other tragedy daily. It’s really sad.
One of the more important subplots of GOT is the desire of Death (Night King) to eliminate Memory (3 Eyed Raven). Without memory, Death rules all. I am always moved, haunted and educated by your vision Sarah! Keep a young woman with a knife nearby.