Sleeping a Lot Better These Days

I know it’s premature, but I sure am sleeping a lot better already, now that I know Biden and Harris will be in the Oval Office on January 20th (or soon after).

 

I’m not sure the Bidens can actually move in on the 20th unless Trump and his fellw residents leave before then, because the place will certainly have to be sanitized against COVID and possibly searched for Russian spying apparatus (just sayin’…), but at least they’ll be in charge of the nation’s affairs at that point.

 

It’s just amazing how little I think of the orange menace already. I refuse to look at anything in the news about him, so that has lowered the number of amygdala-induced RED ALERT  warnings I’ve been so accustomed to receiving on a  daily basis for the past four years.

 

Yeah, I see what his Supreme Court appointees are doing to keep COVID on the rampage by allowing large church gatherings when no other venue is allowed that much latitude to operate. (So much for separation of church and state.) I wonder how many churches will continue to safeguard their parishioners by having virtual services.

 

If I were still a Christian, I sure wouldn’t attend any church that opens its doors to any number of people. Being safe is most important to me right now.

 

I won’t even meet with my two best friends in an enclosed space without wearing a mask, washing my hands and social distancing. And even those interactions are almost rare as hens’ teeth.  As close as we  are to being able to get vaccinated against COVID, I’m not taking any chances of catching or spreading it to vulnerable people.

 

But the “worry” of catching COVID has never been a sleep-stealer for me. I’ve always followed the recommended protocols, so I know I’m as safe as I can be from catching it. On the rare occasions when I go out to buy groceries, I use hand sanitizer in abundance, social distance, wear a mask, and shed my clothes and take a shower as soon as I walk in the door after putting away my groceries, even if I haven’t gotten within eight feet of another shopper.  It’s just what I do to assure myself I’m being a responsible citizen.

 

The sleep-stealer has been you-know-who, since he never seems to sleep and can tweet a hundred times a day, which the press followed and dispensed as though they were addicted to his musings, tirades and lies.

 

If I’m going to follow politicians on Facebook or Twitter, it’s going to be Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, Bernie Sanders, Alexander Ocasio-Cortez, and Barack Obama.

 

Bernie and AOC  are brash and urgent, but they don’t lie and they’re holding people in power accountable.  That’s good, because it’s hard to do the massive amount of research that’s required to keep track on one’s own, and they have researchers and policy experts on their staffs who keep track of the dodges and feints of corporation-serving Democrats and Republicans.

 

I voted for Joe Biden because I think he’s willing to be as liberal as he believes he can get away with, given the political realities in D.C. IF the Georgia Senate races go to the Democrats, Mitch McConnell will lose his Majority Leader status (HALLELUJAH!!!) and VP Harris will be able to break any ties that occur in the Senate, so Biden should be able to get help to the unemployed relatively quickly and the COVID-19 pandemic on an even keel.  He has a lot on his plate just keeping the American people alive and on an upward trajectory during his first year or two in office.

 

He’s also going to be working on things to address climate change in a very real way, and systemic racism in our so-called (in name only) justice system. So, yeah, he’s going to be very, very busy on a number of fronts.  But at least we know his administration will be working on them, and for all of us!!!  What a concept!

 

If the Supreme Court disables the Affordable Care Act, that will open the door for a Medicare For All push, because no way in heck do we want millions of families put at risk of bankruptcy during or following COVID. Every other advanced nation on earth has health care that covers everyone (at less cost than our system is currently costing us while leaving millions as yet uninsured); we should, too, and it will SAVE money, according to the Government Accounting Office, so there is really no excuse not to have it. (Yeah, health insurance companies and their salespeople will have to find new jobs, but that happens in most industries eventually, so they’ll adapt, retire, or ???  The ball will be in their court to decide how to make a living. The rest of us won’t be in thrall to health insurance insurance companies and salespeople anymore.)

 

Anyway… it feels good to know that (in Fred Rogers’ words) “everything human is mentionable, and everything mentionable is manageable.”

 

We can dig ourselves out of any hole we find ourselves in as long as our representatives truly represent us and realize they must have our backs. We’re fully awake and aware now, and watching what unfolds from now on. Only in this way can we be sure we’ll never ever get this close to losing our political clout again.

 

I think we’re going to see voter turnouts from now on that will make greedy, unrepresentative politicians retire or get voted out.  It didn’t happen this time for McConnell, Graham or Collins, but their time will come. Educating the people in their states via free community college and/or college for all will cure the problem of fearfulness. Educated people are rarely fearful; they know what they can do to bend the moral arc of the universe toward justice and fair dealing for all.  It’s the less educated who are brainwashed by far right agents to fear others.  It’s time we stopped being afraid of each other and realize that we’re all in the same boat and that a rising tide will lift us all.

 

(Only rich male white fascist supremacists should abhor that fact!)

 

I’m hopeful again. Sleep comes easier when hope is onboard.