Don't get me started on politics How are we to live in a world like this Greedy politicians, present and past They wouldn't know the truth if it bit 'em in the ass”
~Dolly Parton, World On Fire.
...
Under the wide and starry sky,
Dig the grave and let me lie.
Glad did I live and gladly die,
And I laid me down with a will.
This be the verse you ‘grave for me:
Here he lies where he longed to be;
Home is the sailor, home from sea,
And the hunter home from the hill.
- Requiem, Robert Louis Stevenson
...
When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory:
And before him shall be gathered all nations: and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats:
And he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left.
Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world:
For I hungered, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in:
Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me.
Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungered, and fed thee? or thirsty, and gave thee drink?
When saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in? or naked, and clothed thee?
Or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee?
And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.
Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels:
For I hungered, and ye gave me no meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me no drink:
I was a stranger, and ye took me not in: naked, and ye clothed me not: sick, and in prison, and ye visited me not.
Then shall they also answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungered, or athirst, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister unto thee?
Then shall he answer them, saying, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me.
And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal.
~Matthew 25:31-46
I found out when I got up after I took my nap. My partner mentioned it when she texted me to see if I was up.
There's a reason for that.
In East Tennessee where she lived for a number of years, Dolly Parton was freaking worshiped like a goddess on a bipartisan basis.
Because she helped people.
Because she was a positive representative of those people, of their communities and their struggles. Because unlike so many people when they get money, she still fucking got it.
But it's not just there. They changed the lights on the Empire State Building in New York City to pink to honor Dolly tonight.
And it's been all over social media.
And rightly so.
A leader takes people where they want to go. A great leader takes people where they don't necessarily want to go, but ought to be.
~Rosalynn Carter.
Dolly Parton will be missed.
Other people, when it's their turn? Not so much.
Remember when your High School History teacher said "The course of human events changes because of the deeds of great men"?. Well the bitch was lying. Fuck Caesar, fuck Lincoln, fuck Mahatma Gandhi. The world keeps moving because of you and me: the anonymous. Revolutions get started because people don't have enough bread. Wars start over a game of checkers. ~Augustus Hill, from the HBO Series "Oz" S1, E8 "A Game Of Checkers."
East Tennessee (like lots of other places in Rural America) is loaded with Trumpers.
Of course, last I looked at the numbers, even in Tennessee Trump's numbers were underwater.
A lot less so than his numbers are here in Michigan but they're still in the negative.
And I can't help but notice that These Fucking People never define themselves by what they are for, but only by who or what they are (or think they are) against.
They seethe with resentment of places like New York City for their cultural relevance and diversity even though, really, places like East Tennessee have no less of their own, if only the people who lived there chose to focus on that. And what of it they have is in no small part thanks to people like Dolly Parton.
Sorry, not to be that guy but nobody gives a shit about Kid Rock, not even Kid Rock. Look at the man.
Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: ~John 11:25
Some goddamned MAGA meathead was trying to say the "Left" was "Spiraling" because Trump waved a green flag for that bullshit car racing thing in Washington DC.
Granted, I'm barely "Left" and that mostly in the sense of policy positions rather than mentality and I could give a rat's ass about Trump waving a flag. I don't give a damn. I have enough other objections to this bullshit so that one doesn't even register.
But more than that, I don't define myself solely by what I'm against, whether I was told to be so or simply arrived at that conclusion on my own (and yes, this Trump shit is in the latter category. I didn't like him when I was a Republican either.)
And I get it, these motherfuckers would rather squat in the dark in their bunkers with their guns and shit on their own shoes, seeing the world only through a rifle scope, than see anybody else get any light.
That sounds depressing, and is a strange way to act for people who claim to follow a Holy Prophet that said "I am the Light Of The World" and commanded His followers to act likewise, and not hide their light under a basket, or in a bunker.
For fuck's sake even the Dukes Of Hazzard eventually had that commemorative special movie where the Boys went to the City.
Then spoke Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world: he that follows me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life. ~John 8:12
And people continually try to offer These Fucking People a better way than that. They refuse it. Hell, a lot of people like that, the ones I'm aware of anyway, don't even want to help themselves or even fucking work.
But people like Dolly Parton kept offering them a hand up anyway.
Because that's what you do. You don't have to like it. It's still the right thing to do.
And even New York City honored her for it.
Remember that.
Be the light, not some Remora in the dark, attached to Trump's ass.
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There is clearly much left to be done, and whatever else we're going to do, we had better get on with it. ~Rosalynn Carter
Democracy's great recent successes — in India, Portugal, Spain, Greece — show that our confidence in this system is not misplaced. Being confident of our own future, we are now free of that inordinate fear of communism which once led us to embrace any dictator who joined us in that fear. I’m glad that that’s being changed.
For too many years, we’ve been willing to adopt the flawed and erroneous principles and tactics of our adversaries, sometimes abandoning our own values for theirs. We’ve fought fire with fire, never thinking that fire is better quenched with water. This approach failed, with Vietnam the best example of its intellectual and moral poverty. But through failure we have now found our way back to our own principles and values, and we have regained our lost confidence. ~Jimmy Carter
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