Only 29 Points Down at Halftime Fellow Americans.
Look, things are bad in American politics. No question about it. And, just a few days ago, I was saying, ‘Five steps back, motherfucker.’ And, many of you asked where you can buy the tee shirt.
The divisions are real. The anger is real. Too many people profit from keeping us separated from one another while they consolidate power for themselves. And, fill their pockets with more money than anyone needs in a lifetime.
And we’ve got to take action. Yes, it’s true.
Voting. Organizing. Showing up. Paying attention. Refusing to surrender to cynicism or exhaustion. Helping those who are in harm’s way.
But there are also moments to celebrate our humanity and joy. That remind us of what we are capable of. What we are without ‘them.’
I marvel at other living things and how, as I examine them more, they often seem to be more evolved than us. It frightens me sometimes, because I was led to believe (yet another smoke and mirror in my education) that we are the most evolved of all the species.
Think about it.
We live on a planet where trees warn one another of danger through underground fungal networks.
Where octopuses appear to dream. Yes, it’s true.
Where elephants return to the bones of their dead and linger there, getting strength, solace and perspective maybe?
Where bees dance directions to food sources.
Where crows recognize human faces, remember those who harmed them, and teach that information to other crows, even their offspring.
Where ants build cities, with nothing for themselves personally in return.
Where cats purr at frequencies that may actually promote healing.
Where after a forest fire, the first signs of life are flowers.
Nature seems to understand something we struggle to remember.
Survival is a collective act.
Until a moment like New York City this week. A city of more than eight million people. Different races, religions, politics. Poverty and great wealth living within a great divide.
People who agree on almost nothing.
And yet, for a few remarkable days, they became one thing.
The New York Knicks have not won a championship since 1973. Entire generations of New Yorkers have lived their whole lives without experiencing one. And yet hope alone was enough to send people pouring into the streets. Together.
Strangers hugged strangers. People sang together. People celebrated together. People belonged together.
And it proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that if we can truly come together against the evil at the top of the food chain and celebrate something like the New York Knicks with such joy, abandon, and true communion, then they can never beat us.
The action item today is simple.
Remember the energy in New York City this week tomorrow.
Carry it with us over the coming months as we pick up the fight yet again to take back our country. Remind your neighbors that we are a nation that can do this.
After all, we’re only down 29 points at halftime.
And anyone who has ever watched sports knows the game is far from over.
"Carry it with us over the coming months as we pick up the fight yet again to take back our country. Remind your neighbors that we are a nation that can do this." For sure I will help carry that message to my neighbors on the South Fork of Long Island and where I can to the North Fork and the rest of Suffolk County. But it is our "National" neighbors that worry me. The DJT base may be a little fractured, but it sure isn't broken.