On being ruthless

Aren’t you tired? Don’t you want to rest? Wouldn’t it be wonderful to go a day without worry?

Doesn’t it feel as though we’ve been running as fast as we can, spinning endless miles on a tiny hamster wheel? Why are we surprised we’ve gone backward?

Did you ever imagine that the death of a single person - say . . . a petite jurist with tatted collars and a bead laser-focused on equal protection under the law - could endanger the health and well-being of millions of Americans?

Do you think I’m being hyperbolic?

Do you remember norms and decency? Have you become numb to the constant wrangling, the grinding down of wills from the sheer exhaustion of trying to convince those who will not be convinced?

Have you ever contemplated the idea that legislation the Grand Old Party couldn’t manage to erase at the ballot box they could potentially rub out with an untold number of cynical and predictable 6-3 decisions?

Are you ready to let go of ideals and replace them with ideologues? What will become of . . . Your healthcare? My healthcare?

Our children’s healthcare?

Our children’s education?

Equal rights? Human rights? Voting rights?

Our ability to assemble in peace and protest?

How much longer will we be able to keep a brave face? How much more pressure will it take to break us irreparably? How did it go so wrong? Have we been caught in this tit for tat loop going back generations?

When did the word “Democratic” become unspeakable in certain circles

How do you catch your breath when the so-called leader of the Free World said he wouldn’t believe election results unless he wins? How do you hold your dinner down with his faithless trolls stir the pot?

Are face masks the armor of an ailing nation or the emblem of a failing state?

Will it matter?

How will we remove him if he can and will toss our ballots aside?

How do we live with ourselves?

How do we live with our neighbors?

How do we go on without them?

When did you realize you didn’t want to know any of the answers?

How do we revive normal and still move beyond the status quo? Is that even possible?

Like why did RBG only have one black clerk in her 27-year tenure on the Supreme Court?

Did you know Breonna Taylor would have been 27?

Doesn’t it seem like glaciers are moving at a swifter pace than American jurisprudence?

Does that sound like an indictment of a trailblazing scholar and icon? What’s the saying about indictments and sandwiches?

Why do we think we shouldn’t be ruthless at times like these? Why do we think nine is a magic number?

Why should we calm down and clam up?

Do you really need an exit plan?

Isn’t this country, this democracy, this experiment in self-governance, worth the fight?

Could we be better ?citizens? Is such a thing possible?

Have you registered to vote? Do you know there’s still time?

Can you stomach being ruthless for just a while longer?