Flagging Upstate New York

[H2O Man]

"If I am what I have and I lose what I have , who then am I?" -- Erich Fromm

He stood, bent over the railing of his deck, in between his Trump flag and his X-mas light American flag. I could not see his face, of course, because of the distance between my property and the place he rents downhill from me. More, his head hung as if he had been disgraced in an athletic competition that he had entered overconfident of victory.

Despite the pleasant weather we know as "Caucasian Summer" in the northeast, last night marked the first time in weeks that his extended klan had not had a loud, drunken party on that deck, complete with contests of who could be the loudest in predicting Trump's re-election. Hang-overs, as I recall, are less pleasant when you have lost. And, as long as he remained motionless, I feel safe in assuming he was hung-over.

Being more likely to be reading Q-anon than Fromm, he may not be ready to take his Trump flag down. And that is okay, at least from my perspective. It serves as a reminder of exactly why I enjoy keeping to myself. I head back up to my house.

[intrepidity]

1. Beautifully written nt

[H2O Man]

4. Thank you!

I only have to see these neighbors when I take the dog for a walk in that direction. We wave the few times when we see one another. I do not think they are aware that I can hear their voices at night when they are highly intoxicated and identify my sons and I as "enemies" because we are not republicans.

[SheltieLover]

2. I love Erich Fromm's work!

Very nicely done!

[H2O Man]

5. Fromm is as valuable today

as he ever was. His books are among the most important in my library.

Thanks!

[Clearly fogged in]

3. always liked the area

In fall of 23 I'll drive through Catskill up to Hunter, Woodstock another day. Last time there the acid rain killed the lakes. How are they?

[H2O Man]

7. Woodstock.

I haven't been there in years. I used to meet up with David Peel there. But I've been largely a hermit for the past two decades.

Most of the lakes around here seem to be doing pretty well. My younger son likes swimming across local lakes as part of his training. He also enjoys running 30 miles on the hilly backroads. Ah, to be young! I have some fading memories of when I was his age!

[Clearly fogged in]

10. I believe he was just getting started then

I think we were talking about Tyson training in tannersville at hurricane Carter's camp. How is everything?

[H2O Man]

12. Things are good.

My boy was disappointed the the finals of the NYS Golden Gloves were called off due to the virus. He's trained almost every day since then .... in fact, he is training right now, in one of the rooms he has turned into his gym in my house. If the virus allows for amateur boxing to start up again in time for the 2021 Gloves, he'll head the best team I've had since the mid-1970s. It's a small team, but every fighter I've brought has placed at least second over the decades.

Yeah, there were some outstanding camps and gyms back in the day! We used to be able to go to at least four between Binghamton and Oneonta to get sparring that was as high in quality as most fights. From north of Albany to Catskill was good, too. Bob Miller, who actually promoted Tyson's early pro fights (though his wife's name was used), kept the sport alive for years, including when two of his sons were solid regional fighters. And there was a good gym in a small town on Route 17, where a number of NYC fighters would come for sparring. But these days, Syracuse is the closest good gym, and work schedules make it hard to get there frequently.

[Clearly fogged in]

15. We're still in a lousy fight

It sounds like things are good. No one needed the last four years and I wasn't sure we weren't out. My vision is a little bad, what round?

[ARPad95]

6. As I read aloud to my husband, I pronounced Trump as Flump. By golly! I think I

inadvertently coined a new nickname for the LOSER! Fl as in FLOP.

[H2O Man]

8. I like it!

In fact, I love it! "Flump!!!" Perfect!

[ARPad95]

24. I think I know what happened. My brain got a little ahead of my mouth and "Trump flag" turned into

"Flump..."

[Me.]

9. The Journey Is Not Yet Completed

WE can breathe again but we're still walking uphill.

[H2O Man]

11. Correct.

We are entering a new phase of the struggle. But we are uphill, and the opposition is heading downhill.

[malaise]

13. Beautifully done

Rec

[H2O Man]

14. Thank you!

[BobTheSubgenius]

16. The massive amount of idiocy on display since 2016 has been staggering.

It's been with us forever, of course, but the depth and breadth of it has been monumental since then.

[H2O Man]

18. Yes.

Trump helped bring them out from under their rocks, and issued them license to be aggressively ignorant. My 90-year old aunt says that upstate New York morphed into Mississippi since 2016. While some of them will fade away, I think that we have our work cut out for us in the future.

[fierywoman]

17. I went to college in Potsdam ... oh, those North Country winters!

[H2O Man]

19. That's a good college!

A decade or so ago, one of my nieces from CA came here to attend Syracuse U. Now, winters are more brutal at Potsdam, but certainly Syracuse experiences very cold weather with plenty of snow. I asked her if she came prepared for that, and she said yes, she had brought a sweater. Yikes!

[fierywoman]

21. OMG! Thank you for the first belly laugh of the morning!

[mountain grammy]

20. Love this. 🇺🇸❤️

Thank you. Thankfully, our neighbor didn’t put a Trump sign up this year.

[H2O Man]

25. My cousin and I

talk every day. Some of the people on his road had numerous Trump signs up. He is keeping track of how many have been taken down daily. A good sign was when a couple neighbors took their signs down before Tuesday.

After I finish my coffee, and feed the cats and birds, I'll venture down to the section of my property where I can see if the people across the highway are still flying their's.

[birdographer]

22. To respond to a small part of your great post...

I have been wondering how long these trumpers will keep their signs and flags up. We think they will be up until they rot from the weather. They will always support him, even when he is in prison. And should he keel over, he will be god-like to them.

Love your post, particularly the perfect quote at the top.

[H2O Man]

26. The deprogram of the Trump cult

will be a slow process. There are numerous overlapping levels of cult members. That will require more time and effort at different levels. Sad to say some Americans will be like those few members of the Manson cult who keep the faith -- because it is all that they have to add meaning to their lives.

I suppose I date myself by quoting Fromm -- something I tend to do frequently. The guy was genius.

[coeur_de_lion]

23. As happy as we are

The deplorables are completely miserable.

Some of the deplorables are my siblings and cousins. I’m torn between wanting to poke them and chide them for supporting 45 — tell them to wake the hell up, their criminal president is soon to be history. The part of me that still loves them wants to comfort them once I have beat them senseless.

My sane sisters are attending the inauguration together. Sister 1 is retired because of the virus and sister 2 works in DC at the DOJ. I am so tickled that they are going together.

6 kids in our family and only 3 of us are sane enough to be happy right now.

Be glad you’re not on speaking terms with your 45 flag waving neighbor. Something tells me you two would not get on at all.

[H2O Man]

27. In my extended family,

from Ireland to CA, only two individuals were Trump supporters. One of them accepts that Biden won fair & square. That leaves one who thinks that the election was stolen. Yikes!

It's a curious thing -- at least in my opinion -- that this election has brought both the best and worst of America to the surface.

[coeur_de_lion]

28. It is curious

It’s as if 45 is another Hitler and 70 million people can’t see it. This phenomenon will be studied for years to come.

[H2O Man]

29. Right.

In my opinion, a large % of them are unaware of that reality. But I think an equally large number were aware of this, and supported the Trump program's attacks on the democratic foundations of our society.

[coeur_de_lion]

30. If course you're right

And it breaks my heart.

Never knew there was so much evil in our country.

[H2O Man]

31. It's like looking

into a mirror .... everything is at an equal distance within as without. That's something I learned over the years when I was public in social activism -- just as many people hated me as loved me, disliked me as liked me.

[coeur_de_lion]

32. Thankfully there were enough of us

who know how awful 45 is for the country.

We overcame the others on the opposite side of the mirror.

[H2O Man]

33. Room Full of Mirrors ......