Just as I thought I was over my doom-scrolling addiction after managing to make it through both the election and the Georgia run-offs without sitting in a bathtub, hitting refresh on the Washington Post website twice a minute, along comes an insurrection.
And suddenly, that special kind of anxiety-mixed-with-dread is back and bolder than ever.
But this time, there's an added bonus.
Whereas during both elections, there was plenty of coverage all about how everything could--at least, potentially--be fine, allowing me to get one or two hours of sleep a night, this time around, the news seems to be--
We're freaked out and nobody is making us feel any better.
Woohoo!
Now listen, it's clear that part of coming up with a plan for a safe inauguration would be keeping a lot of details private. I laughed reading the Huffington Post article that was all about how they spoke with Congressional representatives about what was going on and all they could say "They didn't want us speaking with you for our own safety."
(Please learn to follow instructions, folks.)
Then again, maybe not, because up until Wednesday, I was the schmuck thinking--
It's fine. No matter how much these people hate the other side or all of us, they're at least worried about self-preservation, and so they'll make sure there's a plan in place to protect them, and therefore, the government.
Turns out?
Nope!
So now, you're seeing people continue to follow the appropriate procedure for securing an inauguration as though procedure wasn't lit on fire in the middle of the rotunda less than a week ago.
Did you read all that press about Mayor Bowser asking the outgoing administration to up the security at the event?
Let me copy and paste that for you.
"... Mayor Bowser asking the outgoing administration to up the security at the event..."
You know, the outgoing administration that incited the riot.
The same administration that we believe worked with white supremacists on every level to make sure it was as deadly and destructive as possible?
The Mayor thinks they might be able to help out a little bit more.
What...on earth?
I get it.
Maybe asking them for help is all she can do.
Maybe there is nobody else to ask.
But at that point, why even ask?
If you're trapped at the bottom of a well and there's a pigeon staring down at you from the top of the well, you can beg the pigeon to fly down and carry you out as much as you want, but I think you also know you might as well save your voice.
It seems as though people want us to feel better by showing us how everything is business as usual.
That is not making me feel better.
That is making me hyperventilate every time I hear about how President-Elect Biden is going to ride a train into DC and then stand on the steps of the Capitol instead of just doing the damn thing on Zoom like it's a play reading nobody wants to watch.
I get it.
We don't want the domestic terrorists to win.
But there is that expression about living to fight another day?
Maybe we can let them win on the inauguration, keep our democracy, and then spend the next few years creating the socialist utopian wonderland that will make them hate living in America as much as the rest of us do.
If you've ever taken part in a tech week, you know that feeling that's in your chest right now.
It's that moment when there's a lot to do, and the stakes are high, and it feels like nobody is doing anything and there's no sense of urgency.
And if there's one thing we all know about that feeling, it's that it's always right on the money.
I'm not sure what the answer is here.
Everybody on social media keeps screaming at Democrats to do something, because apparently cracking a civics book at any time in the past couple of years is asking too much from them, and they don't understand that removing the President still requires a Democrat-controlled Senate, which we won't have until they seat the new Georgia Senators, and even if we did remove the President, that might only double the number of wackos showing up in Washington, or all over the country.
Right now, it seems like politicians believe the inauguration to be this solemn event that must occur regardless of current events, while us normal folk are screaming--
It's a CEREMONY.
There are TERRORISTS.
There is a PANDEMIC.
People are DYING, Kim!
It's like a wedding.
Nobody has ever cared about going to a wedding and finding out that the ceremony is simple and over in five minutes and right this way to the reception.
The inauguration is the wedding ceremony, and getting to work on fixing some of this s*** is the reception.
We want the reception.
The reception is all we care about.
Please, let's just cut to the reception.
It's fine to disagree with me on this.
I disagree with myself most of the time.
But it's disconcerting to go looking for a plan and find nothing from people who, for decades, have assured us, there's a plan, only to demonstrate at crucial moment after crucial moment, that there's never a plan, and if there is, and it doesn't work, there's no back-up plan.
Until I find one, I guess I'll just keep...
Hitting refresh?
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