The appalling acts in Charlottesville played across my TV screen (and my laptop and my smartphone) for a whole weekend but, on Monday, no one at work even mentioned it. At Monday\u2019s happy hour, friends who I consider to be intelligent, informed, and plugged in didn\u2019t even know what I was talking about. \u201cWhat? What happened in Charlottesville?\u201d That after the pause to try and place exactly where Charlottesville was.
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The DC area has long had the ability to insulate itself against the happenings in the rest of the country. You have to literally bus people in to march through our streets before DC residents take notice of what everyone outside the Beltway is thinking and, even then, we just retreat to our favorite bar and watch it on TV. Look at \u2018em, Steve-o, they\u2019ve blocked off Massachusetts Avenue. That\u2019s gonna fuck up the commute. Guess I will have another.<\/p>\n
I know this is a generalization. I know there are plenty of residents here in my hometown who are outraged and trying to do something. I know that, if the chips do fall, then there are many great people here who will rise up in their expensive condos and march down the bike lanes. I\u2019m just a little disappointed that they\u2019re not doing it now\u2026because now\u2019s the time. Now is when we should do something. You have to hit shit like this when it begins. Instead, we make the same mistake we\u2019ve been making throughout history. The madman who will undo everything is elected and we shrug. Not our problem. Meet the new boss, same as the old boss. Above our paygrade. Whatever. <\/p>\n
Then, when it starts to get nasty, we think about leaving. I have friends who have fled to Canada, to the isolated beach town of Chincoteague, and, in one case, to Mongolia. At chez Nacho, we\u2019re thinking about moving to Santa Fe (and, sadly, a large motivation for that decision is that Santa Fe is also a weird, insular community that rarely considers the larger world beyond its city limits. We\u2019re creatures of habit.).<\/p>\n
I hate to draw that old Hitler parallel but, man, it sure sounds like I\u2019m talking to you from early 30’s Berlin. From \u201cI\u2019m alarmed but\u2026nothing will happen,\u201d to \u201cLet\u2019s bug the fuck out,\u201d to \u201cAnd then they came for me.\u201d<\/p>\n
When Trump was first elected, the front page of this site was on fire with words of protest, but it all died as fast as the Lannister army in the face of Drogon. We just don\u2019t have time for this shit. I\u2019m running my own company, trying to turn myself into a stupid fucking author, and working a full time day job. Everyone else I know is equally scattered to the winds trying to make ends meet and pay off the bills. Or maybe they\u2019re just in the hunker-down state of mind. Live and let die. <\/p>\n
Mind you, I understand. I\u2019ve spent almost 17 years on this blog establishing that I don\u2019t actually give a fuck. Bring it on. Give me the apocalypse. If I don\u2019t die in the first blast then, baby, I am ready to go right down that Lord Humongous path. Fine by me. But I worry about my friends who are struggling with the reality of The Big Darkness. I worry about this sickness that\u2019s spreading all around us. America has been sick before \u2013 occasionally explosively so \u2013 but this current sickness has a different sort of feeling. Packing people on a bus and protesting on the Mall won\u2019t help this disease. This is blood simple and bone deep. This is the sickness that kills you. And I think we can see it and we just don\u2019t know what to do because there\u2019s no one out there who will speak for us.<\/p>\n
Or, worse, maybe we don\u2019t all see it? Maybe you\u2019re reading this now and shaking your head. Poor, stupid Nacho. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The appalling acts in Charlottesville played across my TV screen (and my laptop and my smartphone) for a whole weekend but, on Monday, no one at work even mentioned it. At Monday\u2019s happy hour, friends who I consider to be …<\/p>\n