Dimensionally Barrett

How are you doing? How are we doing?  Personally, I don’t know whether to cry or throw up. Or both.  I have refrained from saying the most acerbic things about the U.S. electorate over the past however many years I’ve been saying them. I refrained because I want to see the best in people. I refrained because I can’t relate to how fearful and dark your view of the world has to be to support a man so grossly inadequate, petty, and small masquerading as a tough guy or even more laughable, an intelligent one. I refrained because I tend to operate from a space of hope and caring. I tend to care about and for the marginalized, the oppressed, the Other. We have all, at some point, been bullied, threatened, subject to anger, if not hatred. Many of us more than others. The positive outcome can be greater empathy, sympathy, and a desire to understand the person who bullies, threatens, hates. The positive outcome is not giving into, much less returning bullying, threat, and hatred with m...

Originally, I wanted to write up a piece about the participatory aspect of democracy and how, if you want to see change around you, one very important way to be that change is to be involved. Voting, sure. Advocacy, sure. But also, to avail yourself of meeting your representatives on issues that matter to you. Emails are fine, but depending on your reps, mileage may vary according to how accessible they are; I’m lucky, my House Representative is very accessible and I was able to promote some legislation on Burma/Myanmar while I was in DC recently. That was something else I wanted to write about; updates on what’s transpiring in Burma and the attendant issues surrounding the military’s continued oppression.  However, like many around the world, I woke Sunday morning to horrible and horrifying news out of Israel. There will be more tragedy to come out from the region and I do not look forward to it. I am not, by any means, a fan of Netanyahu and his hard move toward further authorita...