Thank you for writing this. It echoes much of what I've been feeling all week--what can be done? It seems, nothing will change this ongoing attack of groups such as Hamas. As such assassins as Putin. But I can't close it out and pretend it isn't happening. I have friends who don't want to hear it, don't want to consider it. Because it's true, what can we possibly do?
Hi Ramona, As Susan and others have said thank you for writing this. I couldn't find the words to
express my anguish. Everything has stalled for me this week - even writing - I'm too busy trying to process the unbelievable and the world of horror we seem to be living in right now. I remember as a youngster not having to lock the front door when we left the house and taking the bus downtown by myself to go shopping. Now people get killed going to church or sleeping in their beds. How did we get to this place? Or the more important question is how do we fix the seemingly unfixable?
Thank you for writing this, Ramona. I have nothing much to add besides agreeing that we must continue to speak out, that we can't just ignore this hate. It feels like so little but it is, in fact, important. When people are silent, others assume they agree. And we most certainly do not.
Hate’s not the problem, it’s a symptom and a result of masse manipulation. Through leftist propaganda pumped out in sync over nearly all existing forms of media, people, who mostly think themselves among the smartest, too often don’t think at all and are easily, throughly, un-retractably convinced standing against actual effective solutions, is the solution; then vote accordingly. So now we have what we have, and its just getting started. The hyper measures of horror coming at us, in what many are calling WW3, are likely to mushroom around us all before the puppet currently in the White House gets justifiably replaced by the second coming of the mean-tweeter.
Hate, is generating that heat you’re feeling in back of your necks at that very notion, it’s a creation of manipulation skillfully crafted by the very demons most of you voted for: Democrats and RINOs.
Voting, to feel-good in the company of the herd, is like lighting a house on fire to feel warm. It’s not until the horrifying very real screams of children, trapped inside the confines of 81 million votes, burning to death, that some may stop to ponder, perhaps they made the wrong choice.
This so much. Thank you for writing this. I have privilege to live in a safe place (for now. At some point, will no where be safe?) and the dissonance of looking out at trees and rain and knowing that this brutality is going on somewhere else is almost too much sometimes. I don't have a solution (other than the people doing the killing should just stop it?) We are on a dark path and I am trying to see the light at the end and I just can't.
I try not to look away, but still do the things that bring me joy and hopefully bring joy to others.
It is comforting to read your words and also all the comments. I have to hope and believe there are more people who feel this way than not but it is not always easy to keep that hope alive. I’ve been struggling and feeling so disheartened lately. This helped.
When I was a child, I was sure that by the time I was, say, 35, I would know everything I needed to know. This was how I saw adults at the time. Now, well past that presumed halcyon age, what I see is that there are no adults—just people of different ages. And there is no one who really, truly, knows what to do. And I see this: We fear what we don't understand. And we hate what we fear. And if there are people who are negatively affected by that hatred—well, c'est la vie. But I wish it were otherwise.
I’m reminded of one of my favorite TV shows as a kid that dealt with this issue. “A sickness known as hate; not a virus, not a microbe, not a germ - but a sickness nonetheless, highly contagious, deadly in its effects. Don't look for it in the Twilight Zone - look for it in a mirror. Look for it before the light goes out altogether.” ― Rod Serling. It’s telling that we seem to have an outbreak of this contagion after the world is shaken by upheavals in disasters. The most recent being COVID. Coincidence? Hear me out. It was just after WW II when the fear and hate of Communism led to the McCarthy Hearings leading to black listing anyone rumored to be associated with that ideology. We know hate is driven by fear and ignorance, as Arthur Miller showed us in The Crucible. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that there’s a parallel rise in rigid authoritarianism in the world and doubt around the flexibility of democracy. As you say, we need to speak out. In therapy, we say that the only way out, is through.
Thank you for writing this. It echoes much of what I've been feeling all week--what can be done? It seems, nothing will change this ongoing attack of groups such as Hamas. As such assassins as Putin. But I can't close it out and pretend it isn't happening. I have friends who don't want to hear it, don't want to consider it. Because it's true, what can we possibly do?
Years ago, a dear friend said to me, "If we humans learned from our battles, we'd be a super race by now."
There's a bazillion jillion reasons for the present chaos. And there's nothing we "little ones" can do about it. But vote. And write.
Keep writing, Ramona - I felt an odd solace in reading your words, discovering I am not alone.
Thank you.
I'm going to echo Melanie's comments - thank you putting into words something of how I feel. There is comfort in knowing that we are not alone.
Hi Ramona, As Susan and others have said thank you for writing this. I couldn't find the words to
express my anguish. Everything has stalled for me this week - even writing - I'm too busy trying to process the unbelievable and the world of horror we seem to be living in right now. I remember as a youngster not having to lock the front door when we left the house and taking the bus downtown by myself to go shopping. Now people get killed going to church or sleeping in their beds. How did we get to this place? Or the more important question is how do we fix the seemingly unfixable?
Thank you for writing this, Ramona. I have nothing much to add besides agreeing that we must continue to speak out, that we can't just ignore this hate. It feels like so little but it is, in fact, important. When people are silent, others assume they agree. And we most certainly do not.
Hate’s not the problem, it’s a symptom and a result of masse manipulation. Through leftist propaganda pumped out in sync over nearly all existing forms of media, people, who mostly think themselves among the smartest, too often don’t think at all and are easily, throughly, un-retractably convinced standing against actual effective solutions, is the solution; then vote accordingly. So now we have what we have, and its just getting started. The hyper measures of horror coming at us, in what many are calling WW3, are likely to mushroom around us all before the puppet currently in the White House gets justifiably replaced by the second coming of the mean-tweeter.
Hate, is generating that heat you’re feeling in back of your necks at that very notion, it’s a creation of manipulation skillfully crafted by the very demons most of you voted for: Democrats and RINOs.
Voting, to feel-good in the company of the herd, is like lighting a house on fire to feel warm. It’s not until the horrifying very real screams of children, trapped inside the confines of 81 million votes, burning to death, that some may stop to ponder, perhaps they made the wrong choice.
This so much. Thank you for writing this. I have privilege to live in a safe place (for now. At some point, will no where be safe?) and the dissonance of looking out at trees and rain and knowing that this brutality is going on somewhere else is almost too much sometimes. I don't have a solution (other than the people doing the killing should just stop it?) We are on a dark path and I am trying to see the light at the end and I just can't.
I try not to look away, but still do the things that bring me joy and hopefully bring joy to others.
“Peace is an ugly word to haters.” I’m going to hold onto that one. Thank you for this whole essay. I needed to read it.
It is comforting to read your words and also all the comments. I have to hope and believe there are more people who feel this way than not but it is not always easy to keep that hope alive. I’ve been struggling and feeling so disheartened lately. This helped.
When I was a child, I was sure that by the time I was, say, 35, I would know everything I needed to know. This was how I saw adults at the time. Now, well past that presumed halcyon age, what I see is that there are no adults—just people of different ages. And there is no one who really, truly, knows what to do. And I see this: We fear what we don't understand. And we hate what we fear. And if there are people who are negatively affected by that hatred—well, c'est la vie. But I wish it were otherwise.
I’m reminded of one of my favorite TV shows as a kid that dealt with this issue. “A sickness known as hate; not a virus, not a microbe, not a germ - but a sickness nonetheless, highly contagious, deadly in its effects. Don't look for it in the Twilight Zone - look for it in a mirror. Look for it before the light goes out altogether.” ― Rod Serling. It’s telling that we seem to have an outbreak of this contagion after the world is shaken by upheavals in disasters. The most recent being COVID. Coincidence? Hear me out. It was just after WW II when the fear and hate of Communism led to the McCarthy Hearings leading to black listing anyone rumored to be associated with that ideology. We know hate is driven by fear and ignorance, as Arthur Miller showed us in The Crucible. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that there’s a parallel rise in rigid authoritarianism in the world and doubt around the flexibility of democracy. As you say, we need to speak out. In therapy, we say that the only way out, is through.