Making America Great Again

Eddy Gilmore Nov 18, 2016 10 Comments

It wearies me to see hordes of people so downcast from something as small as a presidential election. Your time and energy can be put to better use where you may be of real influence: your neighbors and community.

I’m taking a two-pronged whack at getting some of you folks out of your funk. I wrote this column in the Duluth Budgeteer for you, because What this country needs most is you.

imgresFinally, I made a nice circuit through the surrounding countryside yesterday, and believe that many of our country’s problems can be fixed if we’ll simply focus on feeding and entertaining ourselves as a community. Our city and surrounding rural area need one another to thrive. Read more about Making America Great Again at Ed’s Big Adventure.

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10 Comments

Robert Lillegard

about 8 years ago 

So much respect for you, my man. Well said.

Helmut Flaag

about 8 years ago 

PDD, are you able to reinstate my comment about the American balls that became denuded and dissolved in the reality TV acid bath pool of a washed up orange clown?  It had a wording I liked and I forgot to save it.

Edward-  You are correct. It ain't about dying, it's about living.  But there's a reason stocks like Boeing and those of private prisons doubled the day after the election.  And while this may not affect you or I, or our ability to stuff our pie-holes/achieve satisfaction with the amazing entertainment options of the Twin ports, it most certainly will have implications of the human flesh kind.  Ignorance is Bliss.

New shit has come to light man- Jeffrey Lebowski

bhall

about 8 years ago 

Eddy, yes the country (neighbors and community) need us, but the presidential election is no small thing.  As Flaag suggested, the implications Trump's election are real.  It will affect real people's lives.

As a friend reminded me, the "it can't happen here" mentality is a dangerous one.  Just look to Trump's cabinet appointees to see that the regression of voting rights, reproductive rights, and racial equality CAN happen in the US.  And they likely will.  Just look to the spike of racially-motivated violence to note that bigotry has been emboldened.

Eddy Gilmore

about 8 years ago 

Y'all bring up good points. Thanks for sharing. I do still believe that this is the best opportunity for our people to be thinking globally, but acting locally. Both left and right are disenchanted with the elites, and we never should expect somebody so far away to fix all our problems anyway. If we fail as individuals, or as a community, it'll be our fault. 
So protests or demonstrations might be in order for you. However, if we can get this level of engagement locally, we'll be a whole lot better off as a people. It's pretty incredible to think about how much we can all agree upon at the local level. We also have the opportunity to get to know our elected leaders as friends as I did with the Mayor just by asking: https://eddygilmore.com/2015/12/04/meet-emily-larson-duluths-next-mayor/           
That said, most of what we do, and need to do, can happen outside the political process. As we build stronger local communities that aren't so dependent upon the elites, who frankly do not care about us or our land at all, our country can't help but be made more beautiful in every way. I really believe positive change will begin from the ground up in your neighborhood, community, city. This process of decentralization will result in more control here on the ground, and less power for distant elites. There are valid concerns out there, but I think all of us can make more of a difference where we actually have the capacity to be of influence. 
Mr. Flaag, you're one colorful dude. You bring up good points about a nation dumbed down on reality TV. This is why I'd like to see more of us looking to local storytellers for entertainment, and more. It's not just about supporting bands and artists, but about creating an actual sense of place that isn't all flattened out by a corporate agenda bent upon making us all into mindless consumers. There's so much more that could be said here, but we really do need local communities that are fully alive. These will then string together from one end of this country to another like a string of pearls. Perhaps idealistic, but it's crucial to have relationships with the people and businesses we do business with. That there be a give and take relationship marked by mutual respect, care, and even love. Even looking at things more pessimistically, you'll be less likely to take advantage of others (or be taken advantage of) if you're regularly looking them in the eyes. 
I deleted your comments, because I was pretty discouraged about the previous ones, and wanted to reset things. Maybe I did the wrong thing. I'm not sure. I don't know how to bring them back. It does seem like anonymity causes people to say the sorts of things they never would in person. Although, I'm positive everything you say here you'd speak publicly, and I don't begrudge you of that. I was just discouraged at the time. Nothing personal.

hbh1

about 8 years ago 

You were discouraged by being called out for speaking from your privilege? Yeah, well, I'm discouraged at the vast number of white straight dudes (which was the worst thing I called you in the post you deleted, BTW) who have taken the opportunity in the last few weeks to figuratively do that pat on the head and tell me everything is gonna be all right. If you think I wouldn't say the same things I said in public, you vastly underestimate my outspokenness and capacity for bad language. Witness the Red Herring last Saturday. 

You know what else I'm discouraged at? People who have all kinds of white/male privilege acting like they've been dick-punched when someone disagrees with them. How distressing.

hbh1

about 8 years ago 

P.S. As I also said in my response that you deleted, I agree with acting locally. I am all about acting locally! However, pretending that creeping national fascism doesn't affect us here is minimizing, and you might--might!--expect some pushback from those of us who see people we know all around us whose lives have been declared lesser by those in power. The huge burst of school-based hate crimes--in Duluth, even!--concerns me greatly, even if you don't think it affects you.

Eddy Gilmore

about 8 years ago 

We catch more flies with honey than with vinegar. What I am seeing here is a lot of judgment on the basis of race, gender, and sexual preference. I don't enjoy being judged by such basic categories that say absolutely nothing about who I am. I fail to understand how such things could cause a few words about loving your neighbor and becoming fully alive in all that you do to be irrelevant, although for some reason the same words by a white female might be ok. This is 2016. I deleted the comments because they were inappropriate. Be careful not to take on the traits you are working to abolish in society. You can't wave your middle finger at nearly half of Duluth's population and expect to get anywhere. Indeed, the very forces you oppose are empowered through such speech, because it repudiates the beneficial message of reconciliation and equality you espouse.  
That said, I wish you well in your efforts. I very likely said more than necessary here. I mean, what am I hoping to accomplish in this response? Obviously these sorts of forums for comments can get ugly fast, whereas a genial conversation over a beer tends to be less likely to devolve so quickly. Please understand we want many of the same things. Blessings to you. I'm sorry for any offense. Be assured that it's unintended.

Helmut Flaag

about 8 years ago 

While not fast enough for my taste,  and not before incredible damage has occurred, Trump will implode for many of the same reasons Hitler did.   Indeed, it's enlightening to study how that implosion took place.   Mistrust of potential allies, heavy drugs, ego,  and the all around 'bat shit crazies' are what caused us to narrowly avoid hailing Hitler in America 1942, instead of 2016 like we are now.  It was only because Hitler wouldn't combine forces with Japan as he believed they were genetically inferior, and foolishly attacking Russia that any of us are left to talk about it.  You look at how slow and lazy the world was to respond, the appeasement, not reading between the lines/writing on the wall that led to the 60 million worldwide deaths in WWII.  The parallels of nationalism, egotism, and resource hoarding to name a few are striking.  It's a real slap in the Johnson though that many white women voted for the guy.  You gotta wonder what the appeal is of a bigot rapist who goes on record saying he's the most perfect dude of all time? Reminds me of a Bob Log III number called, 'My Shit is Perfect."

 But that god damned Clinton family.  I don't care if she was most qualified, this was obviously a protest vote against her.  She should be tarred and feathered.  For that shoulder wag during the debates.  For 'taunting the crocodiles before she crossed the stream.'  For helping derail Bernie.  For Hillbot.  This whole thing is just so mental, its hard to put into words.  I'm tired of how complex shit is, and yet so simple.  Yet how lazy and pathetic Americans have become, while they turned out to vote in droves for a human Jackass.  You look at how quickly the balls can be bred out of us in a few generations, it boggles the mind. 

"Buckwheats, all of them..."

Dave Sorensen

about 8 years ago 

The topics of race, gender and sexual preference came up because you said you felt "absolutely zero angst" about a misogynist white-supremicist entering the White House, along with his intensely anti-gay fundamentalist vice president. You also said "elites … do not care about us or our land at all." Well, they seem to care about privatizing our social security so as to funnel those billions through the Wall St casino. And they care about extracting whatever resources exist, consequences for the locals be damned. And you say, "If we fail as individuals ... it will be our fault." On what level playing field does this meritocracy play out? There is no solidarity in a meritocracy, and the playing field is tilted to no end. I'm all for decentralization, but denying the power of the powers that be seems out of touch, to say the least.

Eddy Gilmore

about 8 years ago 

Sound points all, and the history of the last century backs you up.  However, I'm with Gandalf:  

Saruman believes it is only great power that can hold evil in check, but that is not what I have found. I found it is the small everyday deeds of ordinary folk that keep the darkness at bay… small acts of kindness and love.

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