Goodbye Sticks of Fire. It's Been Fun.
Remember a year ago when I was supposed to move to Colorado? Well, we finally sold our house and I’m ending my long goodbye. This is my last post for Sticks of Fire.
Hold your applause. Please.
I’ve already said so long and those thoughts still stand. This past year has been tough, but an extra twelve months have been a blessing in so many ways. I got to meet more of you gems, participate in the governor’s race, and spend time with loved ones who will be mourned and missed.
Read it again. I meant every word.
Now - allow me to look forward for a moment. Colorado Springs…
My new home is known as the Evangelical Capital of the World. Most residents are to the right of Rove. My family of four will effectively double the Jewish population. This is a bit scary. Yes, moving next door to Focus on the Family is frightening to my liberal sensibilities. Yet such a move also provides me an opportunity to make a difference. To get in there and ruffle some feathers, convert conservatives and help out my fellow activists.
Because they are outnumbered, liberals in The Springs are a tight knit group. During my many visits, I’ve been welcomed with open arms and look forward to working on issues relating to tolerance, choice, and other ways to make the area a better place to live. My experiences with new neighbors, writers, activists and bloggers out west leads me to look back at my old peeps in Florida one last time and offer this bit of advice:
Get your act together.
Republicans are kicking your ass when it comes to organizing and fundraising. They hustle and recruit where you have ignored and neglected. Please move into the suburbs and get to know families who are making their home there. Don’t blow off rural voters waving confederate flags, such people are voting against their own self-interest because Dems have forgotten them.
Local liberals - stop talking and listen for change.
My party is catering to those who wouldn’t give Jim Davis the money he needed to win. Yet who can blame big donors? They opened their wallets for Betty Castor and Mel Martinez still walked away with a victory. I wouldn’t want to flush my funds down the toilet either. Not for a party that doesn’t know how to win.
Too many activists are waiting for calls that never come. Boston, up to its eyeballs in Democrats, excels at utilizing the talents of local players. Busy bees running the show for Ted Kennedy, John Kerry, and President Clinton opened the door and allowed me to walk in and participate. Local precinct captains couldn’t get enough of my wicked ways. Such inclusion shows. Dems run the show there. Florida Dems lose more elections every year and couldn’t care less about young movers and shakers. Republicans take them though. And again, it shows.
Unpopular war and unpopular President and we still didn’t do as well as we should have in the last election. Results were shameful. And a direct indictment of how our state party and local party conducts itself.
In the midst of all this - how do bloggers respond?
They’re too busy arguing over who is really progressive to give a shit.
Real productive, guys.
Hard-working writers out there who champion Democratic candidates are being booted out of the tent because they also write about their kids or art or love toys.
Lonely libs, in case you haven’t noticed, we can’t afford to lose any more people. Bloggers who attract those uninterested in politics or those who lean to the left but are unsure should be embraced instead of scorned. Make room for everyone who wants to help the progressive cause. Even if they only work for us part time. Stop focusing on what divides us and build a bridge or two. Wipe away the hate from your eyes and discover what we have in common.
Or continue to isolate yourselves from those who don’t tow the company line completely. Which makes you as bad as those neocons you rail against.
Pay attention, I’m almost finished - You are driving away potential supporters because you embody all that is ugly and distasteful about politics.
As you look around at a landscape that rejects your values because you can’t articulate them in a way that includes everyone, I gotta ask: How’s that working for you?
Oh, keep on keeping on, elitist Democrats, don’t let me stop you. Keep isolating yourselves and erasing all that is noble about the political process.
And keep crying the morning after elections.
There. I’m out.
***cross-posted at Sticks***
posted by kate @ 5:41 AM
15 comments
15 Comments:
This comment has been removed by the author.
Not sure why the above "author" removed her comment. Luckily for all two of you, I get the comments sent to me as an email and therefore can cut and paste them back quite easily.
So, without further delay, here are the removed comments in all their glory from everyone's favorite medicated marvel -
[ http://www.blogger.com/profile/13074487412168968962 ]Vox Populi has left a new comment on your post "[ http://www.outinleftfield.com/2007/05/goodbye-sticks-of-fire-its-been-fun.html ]Goodbye Sticks of Fire. It's Been Fun.":
Mrs. Robinson, this is droll. I recall you to your post not so long back where you started all this divisive shit. You started the nasty anonymous commenting.
Then you 'take the high road'.
Seriously --- how old ARE you mentally?????? Emotionally???
It's all here in black and white.
Can't stroke a stroker and all of that.
Michael Hussey is right. I had already started to notice when he pointed it out to me.
There's something wrong with your picture.
AND, you start shit and then don't like the results. So, you call on your four anonymous friends to help you.
Grow up and stop trying to pull the wool over peoples' eyes.
I know eleven year olds with better grips on right/wrong/fairness.
Born that way.
What's YOUR excuse.
There is no excuse.
Thacker is WHACKER than anyone I know...
Someone intervene, please. I'd do it but I'm too busy rewinding my DVDs.
Um kate, the only reason I removed it was to repost it at Sticks. LOL !!!
The only reason it was NOT at sticks EARLIER is because the comments weren't working and hey, believe it or NOT --- unlike YOU I am not being paid by the county (and who knows WHO ELSE??) to blog. I have a life outside blog-ville.
You should try it.
Oh, and I REFUSE to comment somewhere that has lost my respect ... I won't link to this site. LOL.
That was excellent... great writing and a great point.
It fits more than just the Democrats, I can think of many animal-rights groups that would benefit from your post.
Good luck on your move- there are some Jews in the Springs but as you joked, not many. The good news is that many of the christian right wingers are VERY pro Israel and pro jewish. And regardless of their reasons for it, its better for Israel to have support than hatred. Too bad so many of the lefties are such anti-semites- that's my beef with the left. Anyway, do let me know when you get here to the land of thin air- we'll have to have you over for dinner!
Kate
No matter how much we'd all like to deny it, blogs are predominantly selfish endeavours. Sure we convince ourselves that we have great ideas and can pass along nuggets of insight to the blogosphere at large, and even influence the world for the greater good, but we're deluding ourselves if we think that our online words are little more than digital shrines to our own egos. That is why I think the lefties have such a hard time with unity. Right-wingers are used to falling in line for what their talking heads claim is the greater good as taught by their leaders, that and the ideology of the right doesn't have a lot of room for originality. On the left however are folks of enormous egos thinking that each one has the answer to it all. By the very nature of liberalism, in it's pure form(not that what we have these days even comes close), it promotes individuality and freedom of thought. I think blogging takes that to extreme. Even the slightest disagreements in doctrine result in a splinter effect. Then the incessant infighting takes over. The more "progressive" a blogger considers him/herself the bigger the ego, and the less well they tend to play with others. Also many of them seem to have their pet(ty) projects keeping their attention. Vox(though calling her progressive is rather befuddling to me) with her blogger catfight. Michael with his Stick fight. Now Stogie with his bruised feelings from being shunned by the Ropers and this hard on he seems to have developed for Seminole Heights. It's become almost as bad as the mainstream news with the tabloid nonsense. Before long there will be no room on the party soapbox and all the lefties are yelling at each other from their own self-heaped pedestals while the righties are marching in step and changing things their way with little real resistance. It's sort of a corollary of my earlier comment a few posts ago pondering how the Net brings people together while fragmenting us at the same time(though I didn't quite sum it up that way in the comment).
Still not sure of the batshit crazy variable yet, though I think it's just a digital expression of the loony notes one finds from the local tinfoil hat brigade.
BTW Vox, would it interest you to know that the Tabernacle has had 14 acres for sale with frontages on Nebraska, Bird and the River for about 3 months now? Pity how those Firmen haven't bought that up to build the casino yet. Don't you know that real criminals don't waste time trying to intimidate people like on TV, they buy them, embroil them in litigation, or eliminate them. I think you might have watched too much Scooby Doo and A-Team. Maybe you should park the Mystery Machine in your yard and foil the gangsters with those pesky kids.
And, Kate, as you assemble folks for the fight in '08, don't forget us .... the Libertarian, the disenfranchised Republicans, who respected a country that let individuals be individuals, who let the markets work ... what Rove an Co. have done has driven some of us away from the GOP with a war that we can't understand, with invasions of our civil rights that we don't get, and with a disdain for working folks that has alienated us ... I voted Democrat for a change ... a chage.
Mostly, I want us to leave other countries alone. Quit being bullies. Quit picking fights. Quit charging me money to be a mean country. And quit taking my money and giving it to rich companies.
There's gotta be some room in your tent for us ... or I'll vote for Nader again ... at least I trust him.
People gettin' loose y’all gettin' down on the roof Do you hear? (the folks are flaming) Folks were screamin' out of control It was so entertainin' when the boogie started to explode...
- The Trammps
http://www.last.fm/music/Jimmy+Cliff/_/Scotty+%252F+Draw+Your+Brakes
>>dbb -- Right-wingers are used to falling in line for what their talking heads claim is the greater good as taught by their leaders, that and the ideology of the right doesn't have a lot of room for originality.<<
That's funny!! Has nothing to do with reality, but it's funny.
Kate -- I've read some of you experiences when you were in Boston and I would have to say it differs quite a bit from what I saw when I lived there. Yes, "Dems run the show there," but next to SF, Boston was the most racist city I've ever lived in. Sure they'll let African-Americans into and around the city during the day, but when the sun starts going down their ass better be back on the bus heading for Roxbury and Dorchester.
Other than that, Colorado Springs is beautiful, you have great people there with the Air Force Academy and all, and you've made references already how politics shouldn't get in the way of relationships with other people, in which case you'll have nothing to worry about and will have many friends.
This apolitical, apathetic, carnivorous Gentile will miss you. At least I'll be able to keep up with you through your blog. Best of luck to you. Hope your new local readership is fully medicated and/or a bit calmer.
rw-Couldn't you picture the goosestepping as you read that?
Sure it's a bit of a hyperbole for emphasis, but there's plenty of truth to it once you look far enough right. The more right you look the more unified and unoriginal the party line. Either way, we need the presence of the extremes on both sides to provide for variety, but we should never stray too far from the center in this tossed salad(it ain't a melting pot anymore) we call America.
Well, what to say… Ours is a special relationship of multiple keystrokes and caressing each other curiously, all the while building to the next climax, which inevitably left us wanting more and drained. In between our repartee, we puffed our stogies coolly, taking deep, relaxing drags at just the right time to look suave.
I with my little PC proudly paraded in your beloved domain, while you patiently put up with my fool-hearty endeavors. “I can do it, I know I can, why look at this, isn’t it impressive?”
“Yes,” you replied, “it is very impressive. How’d you come up with that?”
“I don’t know, I guess I was just born with it. It just comes easy with a rhythm of its own.” “Do you think it will get bigger?” I eagerly asked.
“If you want it and work it, yes it will get plenty big,” you replied confidently.
“I can’t wait till its big enough for you!” I barely got out between breaths.
You have taught me much in such a short time and I hung on your every word. You gave me the impetus to discover in me an inner correspondent. Within your secure site, my seed has spawned a brand new personality, one that has taken on a life of its own.
Sincerely, I want to thank you for allowing me to try my new wings and take flight—the view is awesome, as you know.
BTW, won’t your blog read the same out there as it does here?
>>rw-Couldn't you picture the goosestepping as you read that?
Sure it's a bit of a hyperbole for emphasis, but there's plenty of truth to it once you look far enough right. The more right you look the more unified and unoriginal the party line.<<
I just find the Nazi and 'fascist' references when some on the left speak of the right to be funny and inaccurate, that's all. You can find authoritarianism anywhere along the politcal spectrum. I'd just have to say that, as a conservative, when we hear some on the left try and label us with all these fascist tendancies and so forth, it's time to chuckle at them and realize we're not talking with someone who's playing with a full deck.
I suppose the equivalent would be someone who refered to those on the left as communists or lovers of Stalin. Someone does that to you and you've gotta figure something's not quite up to speed.
rw- People on the left usually call me a conservative, conservatives often think I'm overly left. It's short-sighted to think that, singly, either side has the best solutions for all of life's complexities.
For me the right's biggest fault is too much focus on legislated morality, with not enough regard for social responsibility. The left spends too much time trying to help those who make too little effort to help themselves because they the lefties know whats best for all of us.
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