RTP-area local music and culture

[Jbtroy1 AT aol.com]

Day 5.  still unhinged.   

I consider it a measure of one's intelligence and worthiness as a human being 
to devise healthful responses to tragic events.    Even among the 9/11 
victims there were many voices affirming the value of seeking strength 
instead of 
vengeance, of renouncing bitterness by working with and for one another.   
When 
faced with overwhelming grief, the credo that hate demeans and depletes us 
and 
that the pursuit of loving ideals will enable us to thrive isn't just a nice 
idea; it's a survival strategy. 

So I'm trying, very hard, to figure out how to implement this strategy. Since 
election night, I've been staggering under the weight of anger and denial.  
And more anger.   It's like being covered with shit.  How can you embrace 
your 
fellow human being if you're staggering around covered with shit?  I'd be 
doing neither of us a favor. 

So maybe I'll hold off on the embracing my fellow human being part until I 
can shed some of this baggage. 

It will first be necessary to move past the denial stage, which I haven't 
quite managed.   I don't understand why the question of accuracy on 
electronic 
ballots hasn't received more scrutiny; I really don't understand why the 
suspicion of chicanery from this administration should be regarded as 
"paranoid" in 
this day and age, given what we've seen thus far from this administration.   
(We should question whether they're capable of theft when the GOP sent out 
fliers advertising that "God speaks through George Bush?")   I'm fairly 
alert, keep 
up with the news, read the usual stuff.  Have I missed the articles that 
explained that there was no credible way for Bush/Cheney to steal the 
election 
through manipulation of those electronic voting machines? 

I'm also having trouble accepting that the election was close.  Is it really 
possible that a fundamentalist mindset -- one that is still suspicious about 
evolution, one that rejects the concept that women should have the right 
*not* 
to give birth, one that regards homosexuality as a threat but treats the 
slaughter of thousands of innocent people as unworthy of concern -- has 
overthrown 
the values and principles that made this country worth fighting for?     

Dear God, please let it be that the election was stolen, and that the country 
I love could not harbor such massive ignorance and such smallness of heart.  
And please God, give me the strength to love any human being who could ratify 
the viciousness, the calumnies and the bloodlust represented by George Bush 
and Dick Cheney. 

Joan