Since the crazies were flushed out from under the floorboards in 2016 with the election of #45, I have tried to maintain some sense of sanity in this insane place. Each time I witnessed a bit of sunshine and hope, the dark clouds of bigotry, racism and suppression/distortion of facts created a billowing schadenfreude masking any rays of hope I grasped. I am not a pessimistic person by nature and will, of course, continue to hope and work for a brighter, smarter and more compassionate world.

Despite this, the signs are not promising. This post would be too long to iterate the insanity of this administration and the ineffectual, money grubbers in Congress. Plus, there are literally hundreds of journalists and a few brave politicians working hard to reveal the corrupting enzymes embedded in this administrations’s greedy gut. No amount of Facebook posts of editorial cartoons, memes and rants will change one mind that has decided to forgo logic and truth in order to maintain their doctored and unfair world order. Our system is really messed up. The power in Washington, sadly on both sides of the aisle, are so beholden to money that we are likely to never fully complete the destruction of the capitalist system—as we know it.Thanks to Phil Rockstroh for his ever vigilant writings about the dysfunction and self-delusion of citizenry. To name a few of the viruses infecting our collective body:

• There is a vast wealth inequity which is getting worse.
• Our infrastructure is collapsing before our very eyes.
• Mother Earth is working overtime to clean up the mess left by the consumer culture.
• As of this post, 24,950 species have gone extinct just this year (source: The World Counts).
• Healthcare is at a near breaking point and is totally inadequate and un-affordable unless you are well off financially. Universal access to healthcare should, course, be a right—not a privilege of class or financial status.
• Mass shootings have become normalized and we have become insensitive to their destruction of lives and families. The apparent randomness of these tragedies, coupled with the frequency, has desensitized us. We feel powerless. We seek to blame others and the system rather than have the courage to change the laws.
• There is no national interest in a living wage—all the while millions can not afford the basics of life. Massive capitalist corporations like Wal-mart suck money out of the government system by paying employees a below-living wage—all the while masking their funding of politicians who are keeping the status quo in place. These employees, in turn, have to rely on government benefits to exist. This is just one example of the reflective insanity of one group working to minimize government intervention in their capitalist oligarchy while at the same time depending on the very government that it despises.
• Housing is generally unaffordable and fast becoming unavailable for the majority of people. The “haves” are scarfing up and gentrifying any piece of affordable infrastructure that exists.
• This number of people without homes is growing; and the sickening “blame it on the victim” rhetoric towards these folks hurts. I hear people yelling, sanctimoniously, at these unfortunate folks to “get off the streets and get a job.” The capitalist system, and lack of social investment, created this underserved population that is now banished to the fringes and marginal spaces within our cities.
• We have the largest prison population, both in number and per capita, global wide.
• The news business has bifurcated into a yelling match between super-conservative and faux liberal systems.
• The few “left” leaning and recently elected congress persons and senators are only palliative. When the express and reveal inequities and hypocrisy they are denied as “out of touch.” Suppression of the truth is a full-time job.
• Racism is increasing—or at least the racist are becoming more bold and enabled by this administration.
• Male privilege and arrogance is more prevalent.

I don’t really know how many years I have left on this planet. My father died at 76—I will be 71 this year. My energy is diminishing. My love of life is not waning but the well of energy that sustained me in the past is drying up. In other words, the clock is ticking faster-and-faster. This leads me to the end of Phase IV of my involvement with Facebook.

I am shifting my energy to self-reflection, working on local issues here in Portland (related primarily to the arts and library scene) and, of course, focusing on my art. The noise in Facebook, at least politically, is too deafening. I have decided, based on the many nice personal requests, to keep my account open for now. I will post from Instagram and will focus on art, beauty, our travels, the natural world, books, my beloved Miss Gemma and our daily walks. I have decided that connections with long-loved friends and family is essential. The older I get, the more these connections matter. Thanks to everyone who have encouraged me to remain on Facebook. It is very humbling.

P E A C E

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