I am mainly hopeless.

[FourScore]

When I look at all of the deceptions of our government, I feel such an array of emotions:

I AM ANGRY that they remain in power and unpunished. That the media allows the government to decieve it's own people so unabashedly.

I HOPE the whole powerful cabal's arrogance and distorted view will soon catch up with them so that they will reveal themselves as they truly are, for all to see.

I FEAR that they will get away with their crimes against humanity and the destruction of my beloved country's Constitution.

MY HAPPINESS and ability to laugh and joke as way to heal has oddly disappeared. My greatest personal weapon, the healing quality of laughter is lost in the storm. This is no longer a joking matter.

I AM OVERWHELMED:
--that more people do not understand what is happening right before our eyes. I find myself remembering the fascinating conversations I had in the 1980's and 90's with the elderly in Berlin when I lived there. The way they spoke-- of trusting their government and never believing their own government would be responsible for such atrocities; and how they were never informed by the media about what was really happening because it was controlled by those performing those atrocities--it reminds me so much of my own country today.

I FEEL TORN inside:
--am I the one who has it all wrong? Am I the lost soul who has drifted into a delusional world, where all I see is evil and hate and greed by those in power? Am I "one of those" CT whackos? Will people continue to look at me as if I am speaking of alien chips in my head? Have I gone off the deep end?
--should I stop reading the blogs and liberal websites? Should I stop listening to intelligent people who speak of PNAC and 911 in one breath? Who link to University videos of how to hack an election? Who write condemning articles of torture and the Geneva Conventions?

I AM SAD that I am so alone with my beliefs:
--that the media is no longer free to do it's job
--that the 2004 election was rigged and stolen using electronic voting machines
--that Bush was wired during the debates and it was so painfully obvious
--that 9/11 was a conspiracy of proportions far beyond what our nation and much of the world has been led to believe
--that we are even DEBATING the use of torture
--that the Democrats will still lose the House and Senate because they are either powerless to what is happening (or complicit?)
--that the Constitution is being eroded, and the checks and balances so carefully crafted by our forefathers are being destroyed
--that our precious environmental balance is dying in such a way that my own grandchildren will never have a chance for survival, much less admiring the grandeur of an elephant
--that the economy is headed for disaster
--that my countrymen condone illegal wars and the deaths and injuries of so many Arabs, Muslims and American soldiers
--I could go on and on

I AM GRATEFUL to those at DU for their support and insight and vigilance.

[Warren Stupidity]

1. Me too. K&R nt.

[villager]

2. You are not alone with your beliefs

It will be a hard time, yes, but we have little choice but to meet what's in front of us.

And then there's this:



http://www.floatingneutrinos.com/Message/toward_a_new_paradigm.htm

Date:
21 Sep 2001
Time:
03:39 +0200

Comments

A HOPI ELDER SPEAKS

"You have been telling the people that this is the Eleventh Hour
Now you must go back and tell the people that this is the Hour. And there are things to be considered...
Where are you living?
What are you doing?
What are your relationships?
Are you in right relation?
Where is your water?
Know your garden.
It is time to speak the Truth.
Create your community.
Be good to each other.
And do not look outside yourself for the leader." Then he clasped his hands together, smiled, and said, "This could be a good time! There is a river flowing now very fast. But it is so great and swift that there are those who will be afraid. They will try to hold on to the shore. They will feel they are being torn apart and will suffer greatly.
"Remember the river has its destination. The elders say we must let go of the shore, push off into the middle of the river, keep our eyes open, and our heads above the water. And I say, see who is in there with you and celebrate.
"At this time in history, we are to take nothing personally. Least of all, ourselves. For the moment that we do, our spiritual growth and journey comes to a halt.
"The time of the lone wolf is over. Gather yourselves! Banish the word struggle from your attitude and your vocabulary. All that we do now must be done in a sacred manner and in celebration.
"We are the ones we've been waiting for."
Oraibi, Arizona
Hopi Nation

[OwnedByFerrets]

3. I am with you nt

[Nimrod2005]

4. Many of us share your feelings...Time to stay focused and continue the

hard work. We have less than 60 days left to reverse this downward spiral.

[Solly Mack]

5. Me too...but I'll keep pushing that damned rock

not for America....for me.

I can't just not fight against what is happening....even if I do think Bush will walk free.

[rzemanfl]

6. Kicked, recommended and agreed with 100%. n/t

[The Backlash Cometh]

7. Absolutely. We have no where to run to.

On a local, state and federal level, corruption abounds. We have to educate people to understand how endemic it is, but how do we do it when the media is not in favor of publishing the facts because of the pillars of the society that will punish them?

[ananda]

8. O god, you are NOT alone!

I'm so pessimistic these days that people have to tell me to buck up
and have faith in humanity.

But mainly I think humans have gone as far as they can go and it's
time to say goodbye to any hope of reversing global warming and
over population that is going to lead to utter devastation and possibly
extinction sooner rather than later.

Sue

[Dems Will Win]

36. Actually I have come up with a plan to save the world

It's so real in fact that a film producer wants to make a documentary in part about my plan. A sneak peek for DU:

Clearly the most pressing problem is global warming and the release of methane through our agricultural methods, which greatly contributes to global warming. The solution is to switch to renewable energy and regenerative agriculture, lowering carbon emissions and methane releases at the same time. Renewable Energy economics used to not be feasible but four great energy breakthroughs in 2006 have transformed the landscape, with reliable, concentrating solar photovoltaics at around $3 a watt rather than $8 a watt, along with now-inexpensive wind, mini-hydro and a powerful new breakthrough in tidal power.

With the Four Great Renewable Breakthroughs, energy conservation and a new way to actually cool the Earth with sulfur aerosols, solving global warming is suddenly more a matter of markets and will than technology or economics. Eventually, we can even shut down the dangerous nuclear power plants. They won't be needed anymore.

Economics will make the change in large utilities from this point onwards, politics, rebates and tax credits won't even matter, as solar power and wind power will cost the same as fossil fuel and nuclear. This cost-competitiveness is especially true if all the Big Picture costs such as poor health from coal pollution and tritium releases from all nuclear power plants are added in, not to mention all the scandalous subsidies Big Oil and Big Nuclear receive from governments around the world.

The 4 Great Renewable Breakthroughs and the economics behind them are nothing short of astonishing. They are literally going to change the world--and soon.

The Tesla Electric Car - Burn Rubber, Not Gasoline: Designed, built and tested by Silicon Valley billionaires and Venture Capitalists, Tesla Motors has a 21st Century sportscar that goes 135 mph, 0 to 60 in 4 seconds, and gets 250 miles to the 3 1/2 hour charge off of 6,138 laptop batteries. If everyone gets the sedan version of this electric breakthrough and charges at night, 85% of all passenger miles in the US could be replaced with nighttime base load energy that is there anyhow. This means we wouldn't have to build extra plants or burn extra fuel to charge the whole fleet (there is 30% extra off-peak capacity in most regions, except maybe Southern CA).

Tidal Power - There are now companies starting to field-test new powerful tidal power machines that rest on the ocean floor and work like wind turbines. The blades can be geared so they move slowly and still make lots of energy--so fish are not killed by the devices.

Wind Power Breakthrough - Clipper Wind now has a 16-gear turbine that has its own crane built into the tower for much cheaper maintenance. The blades are geared so they move slowly and still make lots of energy--so birds can not killed by the devices. These are 25% more efficient and can economically be placed in medium wind areas.

Concentrating Photovoltaics - One company is now out of R&D and will be producing in volume soon. They use a lens and optics system to concentrate 400 Suns on a special multi-junction chip. Rather than 11% efficiency, as with silicon panels, the device get 40%. Huge solar farms will soon be contracted out for this technology, which will quickly dominate the solar industry. The old obsolete silicon panels need 5 acres to make a Megawatt, while the new "CPV" at 40% only needs 1 acre, 80% less land.

Neighborhood Conservation Drives - Using Community Development techniques with block parties and regional newspapers, neighborhoods are organized to get everyone to pitch in, conserve and save the planet. This can produce 20% reductions in electricity and water usage very quickly and it is sustainable. Many positive benefits come from community development. Energy and water conservation are just two of the many actions that an empowered and awakened neighborhood can accomplish.

On top of all these great breakthroughs, there is the very real and inexpensive potential of mini-hydro and big hydro-electric power, with about 400 more Gigawatts worldwide. Based on the Four Great Breakthroughs and the available 400 GW of hydro-electric, a new Global Climate Stabilization Plan becomes possible. The Plan would have three main efforts:

1. All world leaders declare a state of emergency in energy use and work together to gear up and manufacture the above breakthroughs and others on a war footing. Rationing would have to be implemented if people don't change their ways and conserve.


2. Deploy Breakthrough Technology Globally Over The Next 15 Years - In a crash program lasting 30 years, there can now be Global Installations of 300 GW of CPV solar farms in the Southwest, North Africa, desert areas in India and the Gobi Desert, 400 GW of mini-hydro and retrofitting dams, 150 GW of wind power, 100 GW of tidal power and switch to the electric car. All of these technologies now exist and need only to be manufactured in volume. The resulting 950 total GW is more than current US installed capacity and will stabilize and then reduce carbon. In the following 15 years, 400 GW of CPV, 200 GW of tidal and another 200 GW of wind, so add another 800 GW to account for all new energy use by the emerging world. There would not be many more hydro sites left to install, so that would not happen in the second 15 years.

3. Seed Stratosphere with Sulfur Particles to Buy Extra Time and Cool The Earth - This strategy, from the leading atmospheric scientist Paul Crutzen, costs $25 billion to $50 billion and immediately cools the Earth by a half-degree Celsius for 2-3 years by reflecting sunlight and thus heat. Repeat if necessary. The sulfur cooldown theory should be tested as soon as possible to gain more time, lessen hurricane strength, and reduce glacier melt and peat bog melt.

There is hope, there is still time. Now we have the tools and the plan. We know what to do about global warming. We must have the will to act.

This is Dems Will Win and I approved this message...

[marions ghost]

45. products

we can develop. But pulling together as a community is a bigger obstacle.

[JanusAscending]

9. Wonderful essay of your feelings!

I just want you to know that you are in good company. I for one, am feeling exactly the same as you, and maybe more so. Maybe not, but in addition to all these feelings of helplessness, I am slowly spinning into a downward spiral, like one being "flushed down the toilet" as my bills can't get paid, lost my car so I can't supplement my S.S. widows benefits with a part time job anymore. I feel like I have less, and less to live for. The one thing that keeps me from ending it all is my new baby grandson, and wanting to see him grow up. In this America that we live in today, I even have my doubts that he will ever know what it "used to be like" !!! I keep telling myself to hang in there, 'cause you never know what tomorrow may bring, but I'm running out of faith, and as you stated HOPE. It's an awful thing to feel both HOPELESS and HELPLESS,because it makes one feel USELESS!!!:cry: Thank God for DU and all the good people I've met here. k/r

[FourScore]

10. I am so sorry discerning christian

that you are suffering in so many ways. I had some hard times once. It's a terrible place to be. Things did turn around for me and I hope they will for you as well.

[JanusAscending]

12. Thank you!

They have for me,.... in the past. My close friends have always told me "you can fall in a bucket of shit, and come up smelling like a rose"!!, but things are not only catching up,they are getting ahead of me this past year. I can no longer see the light at the end of the tunnel. And I'm on anti- depressants and anti- anxiety meds. I can't imagine what suffering there is out there for folks going through what I am , without medical assistance from a compassionate and understanding Doctor!!????:shrug: I guess if they have DU to vent, it IS THERAPUTIC !

[ninkasi]

33. I am so sorry

You are not useless. You have a new baby grandson, and one of life's treasures is a child content in a grandmother's love. Your circumstances are not your fault, and never let anybody make you feel less than worthy, or inferior, because of your financial status.

Your situation, and the situations of so many others in our country, are what keep me willing to fight, and to break the stranglehold they have on our government right now. I wish there were a way to reach out through the internet, and give you a hug, and even if it doesn't change anything for you, it might make you realize that you are a valued member of humanity.

So yes, hang in there, easy to say, harder to do, but I'm willing to bet that after reading your post, you are going to have a lot of prayers said for you tonight. We will continue the fight, and we will win. We have to, because this might be the last chance for a long time, and I think enough of us are willing to stand together to do it. :hug:

[JanusAscending]

37. I felt that hug!!

Thank you, and I hope you are right, because I need prayer above all else. I am ashamed of myself because I am a Christian who has just about lost her faith. No one to blame but myself, and refuse to make excuses for my feelings.

[ryanus]

11. Definitely not alone

And I would dare say that more people than you realize feel the same way. But the truth is winning. More and more people are waking up that something is seriously wrong. And more and more people are willing to say it. Hang in there.

[lonestarnot]

22. Nope not alone, but I still laugh.

[midnight]

31. Good for you- Keep laughing.....

I have a feeling that the district that I live in, Sennsenbrenner's, that something is changing. Brian Kennedy is going to be the first challenger, to this Republican in 28 years, that will give him something to think about. Yep I think something out there is a changing. Look at how many people are now willing to contemplate that the election was stolen. My god, the dem's I talked to in 2004 said it didn't happen.

[Swamp Rat]

13. They will NOT get away with crimes against humanity.

It may take a long time, but they will eventually meet their doom in a court of law.

[toymachines]

14. Do Not Feel Alone

I know the pain you speak of. But spread the word; inform everyone you know. It is all that can be done to fight the lonliness that results when you think on a different level than most around you. Slowly and painfully bring those near you to your level. It is amazing, because I can see it happening around me. Run, run, run, tell them a revolution a come. Peace bretheren.

[FourScore]

15. Thank you

for reassuring me that I am not alone in my views.

[Golden Raisin]

16. You're not alone.

Many of us feel just as you do. I try to ward off the feelings of sadness, anger and hopelessness by trying to proactively do things (small as they may be) to help in the restoration of our country to what it was before Bush, Rove, Cheney and the Neocons began gang-raping it. Action is what is called for now and I do what I can do. If there were gigantic, popular peace marches (as in the Vietnam era) I'd be there again even though I'm no longer young --- but so far there really aren't large, organized demonstrations in the streets (which is part of the problem!) So I follow close elections on the Internet and contribute what $$ I can afford directly to candidates, rather than to official Democratic organizations (in which I have lost all faith). I speak up with Republicans and freepers where I used to just keep quiet for fear of blowing my top and just screaming at them. We still have freedom of speech in this country, despite the best efforts of the current Administration and its supporters. The other day at the office I even opened my big mouth to my boss (big time Republican) about how I thought Bush was destroying our country and Constitution. I'll probably end up paying dearly for that, but I don't care anymore. Every little thing I can do, I do. It does make one feel a little better.

[EFerrari]

17. Still here and still fighting. K&R.

:hi:

[HughBeaumont]

18. They will get theirs in the end. ALL of them will.

[marions ghost]

19. It's difficult to see and accept ...

Someone here recently was describing how they had "B*sh-induced PTSD" (only it's not exactly post-trauma yet). But the effects are similar. When you are not used to being abused and having your country hijacked, it comes as a shock. I believe that literally millions in this country are suffering some degree of depression about what we are witnessing now. Everywhere there is worry and unhappiness.
You capture that feeling in words very well.

There is strength in this list you have made, OP. It takes a certain bravery to even write about such despair and the reasons for it. At least you SEE. To see negativity is stressful. To reject the path of comfort and denial is painful. Nobody wants to accept that they have been mistreated, through no fault of their own. But it is always the turning point, the necessary step to acknowledgment and correction.

You are not lost. We are not lost. We have found each other and we will see this through. Already we have seen some changes, some significant victories. The wheel is turning. We will create a new world. But we will have to do that on the ashes of our former illusions of trust and security and pride in our country. This is a great challenge, overwhelming. Only people who have lived through some other bad shocks can convince you that we will survive it. It's not about "hope" so much --it's about belief that we WILL do it. Try to control the generalized fear. Do something positive every day, no matter how small. We will overcome this, we will build a new and better America, brick by brick. This is a daunting task and often I think...I just want to live in peace and forget about this political mess. But if the current regime teaches us anything, it's that we cannot hide from them and denial isn't working. We will be trampled like ants. There is no choice once you realize this. It is our task, our lot as a group, to knock these arrogant abusers off their lofty perches.

So rather than being depressed by your post, I take heart that yet another among us has arrived at the
point of no return.

[FourScore]

20. Wow! THis is motivational!

It sorta reminds me of Wallace's speech to his army (in Braveheart) right before the first big battle against Longshanks! Chaaarrrge!!! I think I'll print this out and read it when I start to feel depressed by it all. Thanks, mg!

[marions ghost]

30. LOL you are right

I guess I was waxing rather dramatic. But you know this battle we face now seems every bit as pivotal as the Wars of Scottish Independence --in a virtual sense we are fighting for the survival of this country as we know it. Anyway glad you got a little energy to keep the spirits up from my 'speech.' Funny you should mention Braveheart. Maybe I was chanelling some of my fiery Scottish ancestors who also got in big trouble with the king a little later in the 16th C., during the time of Mary Queen of Scots. One of that family --our American ancestor --was a political exile who didn't want to end up dead like his brothers in Scotland. I come from a long line of fighters. No way I'm gonna sit still and hand this country to the Neocons on a silver platter. No way.

:patriot: :grouphug: :patriot:

[Stevepol]

21. The American people never elected this guy, either time.

So you've got the majority of the American people on your side. If somehow we're able to get a fair vote count this time, it will be a landslide. But the Dems have got to be ready to challenge elections where the results are way out of line with the polls. They can't just concede the next day.

If I'm hopeless about anything it's that many Dems still think Bush won the 04 election.

[marions ghost]

35. we don't have

functional mechanisms for challenging elections in many states. In order to challenge elections, we must have a more transparent system, so that evidence can be gathered.

We are still in the dark ages re. elections but I think the light has dawned on more Americans after 2000-2004, that the system is completely dysfunctional and wide open to corruption.

[blue cat]

23. I can't tell you how angry

and despondent I've been over what has been going on, but It sounds like you understand. I lay at night and think about it every night.

[Peggy Day]

24. I fear marshal law nt

[BluePatriot]

25. K&R

You are not alone, and hopefully someone out there with power feels just like us...

[mmonk]

26. So am I. Everything seems quite surreal at times.

[Jim Warren]

27. My wife asked me today what's wrong?

Said I dunno, I'm sick but I don't know how.....that's why and when you see a doctor right....but there is no doctor for what I got.

[FourScore]

28. When I wrote this post

I truly expected it to drop away -- I doubted it would even get noticed. So I was surprised to see it get such heartfelt and warm responses. Thank you DU! Clearly, I am not alone. You hae no idea what that means to me.

[Skittles]

32. you are not alone

but, you are surrounded here by many others who also feel alone - I live in North Texas and it kills me the way it takes 3 dollar a gallon gas to see any outrage in people

[Name removed]

29. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[wiley]

34. We need you. Move ahead fiercely!

Everything you say is true.

[mirandapriestly]

38. The worst thing is to see how easily laws are ignored

and broken. How many future politicians are going to realize that there are no consequences for their actions? that they can literally get away with murder, no one is going do anything, because the media is owned by a few who are also the beneficiaries of these actions so they bury information or never report and concentrate on meaningless sensational stories.

[marions ghost]

39. agreed

I think politicians already expect no serious consequences for their actions. Duke Cunningham is one of the few who ever gets a comeuppance. You can see it on the local, state, and federal level. We do not have enough legal recourse and the penalties are not nearly strong enough for white collar crime. The average citizen is very vulnerable because of this lack of effectiveness in an antiquated and inaccessible legal system. At the same time there is less integrity, less morality, etc. --the old-fashioned obstacles to corruption. The justice system in general is a complete mess. It's all about pushing drug offenders through, making money for lawyers, with very little attention to cleaning up corruption. The media is complicit in this. And the powers that be like it that way just fine.

Read 'The Cheating Culture' by David Callahan for a look at how bad it is at every level of society. Federal offenders cut their teeth at the regional level. White collar criminals are running amok and we are paying a heavy price for their exploitative policies. This is the bottom line IMO, and the reason we can't get any good government except from a handful of representatives. We also need legislative solutions. Campaign finance reform and curbing the corruption of lobbyists would also help allieviate the massive problems.

All this is fairly obvious to you I'm sure. I'm just expounding. But some people actually don't know how little the legal system can be relied on as a deterrent to political corruption. It comes as a shock to them how few safeguards there are.

[blues90]

40. I feel about the same way

In the last year I have gone from hopeful to hopeless and it is not a pleasent feeling .

I try to focus on other things but this no longer works , I can't stop thinking about all the things that are wrong and getting worse all over the world .

I can't sleep and when I finally do I wake up in a start with the world rushing back in , there is no relief from this .

Many times I think there is something wrong with me for feeling this way , i don't know anyone personally who feels like me , they just go on as if nothing is wrong , I can't talk to them about this , when I do they change the subject of tell me to watch this tv show or that and us that to be positive . Right , that will help .

Perhaps mans existence has come to the end or will soon . Maybe all of us have taken advantage in our own small way and now it's time to pay the price . This is the only way I can justify the horrors that go on unchecked and all the murders and wars .

This certainly does not feel like the america I knew at all , not one thing feels real now if I choose to look at the truth .

[marions ghost]

41. When the truth hits

it can really hurt. It's a psychic shock. It requires a period of adjustment afterwards. There's (probably) :) nothing 'wrong' with you. And everything right with you, others around here would say. A lot of people are feeling this malaise exactly as you describe it. Right, people APPEAR to go around oblivious. I, like you, am somewhat envious of those who apparently can just deny (or distract) and carry on. But this Bushian Era IS taking a toll on many many people, even at a subconscious level. I see evidence of that everywhere. There is a profound sense of loss for the America we knew (or thought we knew). However that America is still worth fighting for. We have made some progress and the way will be hard. But we would have made no progress if we didn't allow ourselves to see the painful truth. Give yourself time to process. Take this new reality a day at a time. You are on a rock face looking for a new toehold. You will find it.

------------

<Your cheap online psycho-analysis by Lucy Van Pelt.>

(PS--I only know Lucy's last name from playing Trivial Pursuit the other day).

[Jcrowley]

42. Beyond Hope

Frankly, I don't have much hope. But I think that's a good thing. Hope is what keeps us chained to the system, the conglomerate of people and ideas and ideals that is causing the destruction of the Earth.

To start, there is the false hope that suddenly somehow the system may inexplicably change. Or technology will save us. Or the Great Mother. Or beings from Alpha Centauri. Or Jesus Christ. Or Santa Claus. All of these false hopes lead to inaction, or at least to ineffectiveness. One reason my mother stayed with my abusive father was that there were no battered women's shelters in the '50s and '60s, but another was her false hope that he would change. False hopes bind us to unlivable situations, and blind us to real possibilities.

<snip>

We've all been taught that hope in some future condition—like hope in some future heaven—is and must be our refuge in current sorrow. I'm sure you remember the story of Pandora. She was given a tightly sealed box and was told never to open it. But, being curious, she did, and out flew plagues, sorrow, and mischief, probably not in that order. Too late she clamped down the lid. Only one thing remained in the box: hope. Hope, the story goes, was the only good the casket held among many evils, and it remains to this day mankind's sole comfort in misfortune. No mention here of action being a comfort in misfortune, or of actually doing something to alleviate or eliminate one's misfortune.

The more I understand hope, the more I realize that all along it deserved to be in the box with the plagues, sorrow, and mischief; that it serves the needs of those in power as surely as belief in a distant heaven; that hope is really nothing more than a secular way of keeping us in line.
Hope is, in fact, a curse, a bane. I say this not only because of the lovely Buddhist saying "Hope and fear chase each other's tails," not only because hope leads us away from the present, away from who and where we are right now and toward some imaginary future state. I say this because of what hope is.

http://www.orionsociety.org/pages/om/06-3om/Jensen.html

[marions ghost]

43. Thanks for posting this

I just happened to go back to this thread since I'm interested in the topic and found the thought- provoking article by Derrick Jensen that you posted.

So maybe the state of hopelessness is a stage to recovery, or shall we say rebirth. Certainly puts a more positive spin on that kind of despair. I really relate to the idea that as long as you cling to "hope" you will continue to be a victim. Jensen explains this difficult concept well.

From the article:

"When you give up on hope—when you are dead in this way, and by so being are really alive—you make yourself no longer vulnerable to the cooption of rationality and fear that Nazis inflicted on Jews and others, that abusers like my father inflict on their victims, that the dominant culture inflicts on all of us..."

[Philosoraptor]

44. I hear ya.

Some days are harder than others, but its one at a time.

We hang together!

[deaniac21]

46. I don't think bush was wired in the debates. He looked sleepy.

[JanusAscending]

47. Are you being serious,

or is this "tongue in cheek"???? I think when the poster said "bush was wired" they meant that he was "wearing a wire", a mike plugged into his ear so his handlers could feed him his talking points!!! You're jerking our chains, right???:rofl:

[kilgore65]

48. Beginning in 2003, I really started to get depressed about the situation

in the USA... then I lost my job in 2004... I began to be seriously phyically ill in 2005, right about the time Katrina hit ... I am only now just now getting back to normal. I seriously believe that a large part of my illness was due to depression about how things are going politically. For about 4 or 5 months, I just turned it all 'off' and focused on spiritual inwardness and a highly disciplined nutritional regime.

[FourScore]

49. I have been away

from my computer since last Saturday, so I only now had a chance to read through all the posts on this thread. My spirits are quite lifted. Just knowing that at least here at DU I can express the feelings I have regarding the state of the US. Sometimes, like tonight at my childrens school, I will stand in a group of people and wonder whether or not anyone in the room has entertained the notion that maybe things are not as they appear. That maybe 911 is LIHOP or MIHOP. How many of them know what the ISI is or what Diebold manufactures? What would these parents think if I began a conversation with them regarding a phony 2004 presidential debate? Are they harboring a deep sadness inside, do they feel alone and afraid to tell a room of people what they really think about things--because someone may misconstrue what they are saying? Do they just play the role of a pleasant, cooperative parent like I do? I guess I won't know the answer to that unless they start "the conversation", because I sure won't. Not yet. Maybe someday. But not yet. For now, I'm a closet CTer. I wonder how many of there are?