I'm feeling my mortality tonight....

[Coventina]

I spent my young adulthood under Buchco.

I listened to Air America from start to finish, religiously.

When it went off the air, I was devastated. I was so happy, when years later I finally got cable and found Rachel Maddow and Ed Schultz on MSNBC. I became devoted watchers.

(RIP, Ed Schultz' brain - what the heck happened to him?)

Anyway, watching Rachel tonight, covering this situation in Boulder, I'm noticing the silver threads in her hair.....She still looks lovely, but it strikes me that we're all getting older. Of course, this is the way of things.

What is really tragic, is that poor Rachel is still covering the same sorts of stories: mass shootings, political corruption.....
You'd think we would have made some progress in the last 20 years....

Alas.

[MFM008]

2. who knows

we always watched his show.

[Coventina]

5. When he was fired and then brought back I started to DVR his show

So that it might show more support for him.

He was such a powerful voice for the working class.
Also, his Air America work during the Indonesian tsunami was so powerful and compelling!
It seemed he was a true champion of being a global citizen as well.

And then he just went nuts. I was so sad and disappointed.
Was it all a sham? I just can't figure it out.
I can't imagine that he was being paid big bucks on Air America, so it couldn't be just a money grab, could it?

[DanieRains]

13. I Knew Ed And Homie

Great people.

Helped them do their show when I was at Bush's Ranch.

Didn't ever watch RT so I don't know what happened.

[Binkie The Clown]

3. Invent a time machine. Go back 100 years. Find that the same stories are making news. nt

[Coventina]

6. Not mass shootings. Political corruption, yes.

There is a reason why I hate my species....

[wnylib]

9. And refusal to take precautions during a pandemic

[mackdaddy]

15. Yep, Mass shootings too.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_mass_shootings_in_the_United_States_(1900%E2%80%931999)

[Coventina]

23. They've increased exponentially in the last 20 years. n/t

[Xipe Totec]

4. If you really want to feel mortality,

spend a year presiding as Master of a Masonic Lodge.

And perform the burial ceremony on 40 to 60 of your brethren in that one year.

Spend a year at the border of that undiscovered country from whose bourn no traveler returns.

[Coventina]

7. .

[ChazII]

8. It is a beautiful ceremony

and one that my son will have at his celebration of life. My son passed at the age of 35 and was a member of Scottsdale Lodge #43 here in Arizona.

[Coventina]

18. Are we neighbors?

I live about 2 miles due east of that lodge.

[ChazII]

28. We could be.

I live within walking distance of Scottsdale #43 and am a member of the OES chapter.

[Coventina]

29. My heartfelt condolences on the loss of your son.

[bdamomma]

10. Losing

our moral core sadly.

[Shellback Squid]

11. Ed is dead

[Coventina]

19. I know. n/t

[herding cats]

12. I don't know if it's an explanation, but I got a lot of extra gray this past year.

Seriously, a lot more. Way more than I had. I'd been putting more on yearly since 2016, way more than normal for my lineage at my age. 2020 made it noticeable. It was a deeply bad year on many levels.

Stress took its toll on some of us I think.

[Straw Man]

14. I think ...

You'd think we would have made some progress in the last 20 years....

... you forgot a couple of zeroes.

[Laura PourMeADrink]

16. Yes. Sad for our world, and sad for her.

[BobTheSubgenius]

17. I feel your angst.

I've been feeling my mortality in varying degrees since Staph A made a damned good run at killing me.
I've looked at life differently since.

[Solly Mack]

20. Sending you hugs.

It does get tiresome. Same tragedies, different day/week/month/year/decade/century.

Seems like we take a step forward then take 100 steps back.

[Coventina]

21. Aw, thanks SM!

[Solly Mack]

22. I know it sounds trite but we just have to keep on keeping on.

Not fighting, not trying is worse.

But some days...

[Coventina]

24. Agreed. I was fighting mad in the Bush years.

I was out protesting, organizing, etc.

Trump for me, I have to confess, was different.

My anger was more diffuse, I was as angry at my fellow citizens as I was him. It made it harder for me to take action.
Plus, for the first time in my life, I was actually working a full time job that I cared about. And that really cut into my citizen activist time.

Instead of feeling up for fighting, it was more a sense of hopelessness and at times, outright despair.

I'm starting to crawl back out of it, but, like you said, some days.....

This mass shooting today really bothers me. My sister is a grocery store worker. I went myself today to my local Trader Joe's.
It could happen anywhere, at any time.

[Solly Mack]

25. That is truly the scary part - happen anywhere, at any time. No one is safe. No one.

I was doing women's rights advocacy until the pandemic curtailed movement. Won't really pick up again until more people are vaccinated. The need didn't go away but the ability to help went away. It was my way of fighting back against Trump and the rest of the right-wing wackadoodles.

Helped me as much as it helped others. Took away some of the despair.

I worry about some idiot trying to shoot up my husband's office. It's a possibility.

Really, it's a possibility for everyone. Like you said.

I hope your sister never has to go through such an experience. No one should have to face something like that.

And what really makes me angry is that we could do better as a country but for the sick-minded that think mass shootings are just a part of life.

[Raine]

26. I loved Ed ❤ I feel so sad about him. 😓 nt

[Hortensis]

27. We've made so much progress this century that THAT is what this is mostly about:

Backlash from the losers from change, who as a group and in various ways dropped all decency, humanity, morals, even religion to win at any cost.

Never forget also that enemies like Russia are constantly at work trying to undermine our strength and belief in ourselves, and their insidious effects are strongly reflected in social and other media. But we are still the nation who elected a black president twice and now another principled liberal Democratic president and our first woman VP, who happens to be black and SE Asian in background as well.

77% of Americans approved the #BLM marches for social justice last summer. A solid majority of Americans did and still do want us, via our government, to work together to take care of the unaccompanied children arriving at the border, bring our nation out of the pandemic crisis, AND take strong action to reverse global warming and rebuild our infrastructure, recreating the good jobs we once had in the process.

This is who we are also.