can you believe this shit? i am still stunned i survived reagan, but now, as i emerge from eight years of dubya, on the tails of that terribly conservative clinton, i am going to attempt to straighten up and assess the physical and emotional toll.
it can't be pretty.
speaking of pretty, i was at the cosmopolitan with a couple friends last friday night, listening to the roxi copeland band, and my friend's wife, who is maybe in her early thirties [sorry, dorth, if you're still 20s], and she said she was looking forward to feeling patriotic during the obama administration. it made me think: to commemorate election day, i got a new tatto, an old-school pinup wearing a brooklyn cycling team skinsuit, complete with its stars and stripes motif. that's about as openly patriotic as i've ever allowed myself. let's see: born in 1953, near the end of the second year of the first eisenhower term. still ahead of the mccarthy hearings. end of the korean war. i remember the nixon-kennedy debates, and everyone feeling euphoric and hopeful. i remember the marches in the south, and the pervasive racism. i remember the nasa optimism, john glenn, alan shepard, and then gus grissom, et alia...and april, 1968...kent state...and june, 1968...and the chicago democratic convention...and all the anti-war and race riots during the summer and fall of 68 and beyond...and nixon/agnew...and the war, and agent orange, and trying to end war in my own little ways, and fighting for a deferment [and losing], and mcgovern, and losing, and and watergate, and ford, and pardons, and on and on, and always being hopeful and always feeling disenfranchised. oh, in iowa, we had hughes, clark, culver, harkin, smith, and more, but it didn't happen. i felt that despite all my efforts, i could not really help affect the re-righting of the ship of state. could it get worse after reagan? the constitution i studied disappeared as quickly as a sand castle on the coralville reservoir during summer school [study at the beach? right], but still i stayed hopeful and involved: mondale, dukakis. is the country really this fucking stupid? clinton? well, it's not bush, nor dole, but wtf? but the last eight years, i think the masses discovered that, well, when they PERSONALLY are affected, THAT'S a tipping point. so fucking selfish we've become. and yet, still i'm optimistic, hopeful, and perhaps i'll feel patriotic.
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