After the Gold Rush
"There was a band playin' in my head
And I felt like getting high
I was thinkin' about what a friend had said
I was hopin' it was a lie
Thinkin' about what a friend had said
I was hopin' it was a lie" -- Neil Young
Sunday morning started like many mornings do. My cousin called to complain about the price of a push-lawn mower he bought to tend to his mother's lawn. A cup of coffee later, the dog and I ventured out to feed the cats, chickens, new chicks, Guinea fowl, wild birds, and the fish in our pond.
The dog is fine with the large Koi -- well over two feet -- swimming around her legs as she wades in the water. But when a school of small sun fish come to investigate, she jumps out and runs back to the house. It takes me longer, of course, to make my way back. It is becoming the warmest day of the year, and so I will work in the medium garden, where I grow herbs and spices for cooking and canning.
While re-setting some of the stones, I find some flint artifacts I had placed there to decorate 27 years ago. I question why I put a number of good quality, whole projectile points there, before remembering a former inhabitant complained I had too many artifacts and books in the house. The dog gets excited as my younger son drives up the driveway.
He and I went out to walk two small fields, where he found four projectiles, and I found two. While the ones I found were complete, two of his were not. However, they were both Kirk serrated points, a very old (9000 to 6000 years before present) type that I have only found one of, back in 1987. We talk about how amazing it is to hold something that old, a part of the human history of this land.
Being old and feeble, I'm ready for a nap when he drops me off. I had just got comfortable with the dog getting comfortable laying her head on just the right spot on my legs, when the phone rang. It was my older daughter, calling from Boston. She said that she had to run something by me, to get my opinion.
She had just come from a rally to celebrate the growing strength of unions. There was a good sized crowd, consisting primarily of people in their late teens and early twenties. There were also city and state politicians attending -- all Democrats -- who she said appeared to go unnoticed by the crowd. Now, my daughter knows them, as she has worked for one, and has worked with several others. She's currently volunteering with a couple of their campaigns.
She enjoyed listening to the speeches while interacting with the politicians and their staff members ..... until one union leader on stage -- who she knows and likes -- said, "It's time that we recognize that the Democratic Party has ignored us. We need to look in another direction." That upset my daughter, who is on the left wing of our party. What did I think?
My daughter knows that I am at the very left of the Democratic Party, and that over my decades of life, I have broken bread with figures from Angela Davis to Abbie Hoffman to Mark Rudd. And that, among many other social-political activities, I've invested a heck of a lot of energy in campaigning for Democratic Party candidates at all levels. Indeed, since she was a little girl, she and her younger sister often joined me in campaigning door-to-door.
I reminded her that, in my opinion, it is not just a matter of what you think about issues, it is a matter of what you -- and those you work with and support -- can actually accomplish. Now, that includes a recognition of what forces you are up against. That I doubt any party member has been 100% satisfied with every Democrat in office in the county, and that even the very best ones have flaws and imperfections. There is an old Irish saying, I reminded her, that a saint is but a dead sinner who's life has been edited and revised.
Yet to accomplish things -- including both advances, as well as defending against the opposition to progress -- the Democratic Party is the best option available to us. That "looking elsewhere" is not a rational option at this time. I noted the states seeking to deny women their right to health care, specifically abortion. And how the Democratic Party provides the only option to the madness of the conservative christians who want their religious beliefs imposed upon others.
"What can I do?" she asked. I told her that what I do is to try to serve as a bridge between the Democratic Party and the Left. The Iroquois word is "ahskwa," meaning in this context the human bridge that unites people of like mind on important issues. She laughed and said, Now don't die any time soon, Old Man. I need you around to remind me to trust my own instincts." I told her I plan to live to 125, and we ended our conversation.
The next phone call I got was from an old friend, who is a Hubert Humphrey Democrat. A Walter Mondale supporter. So you know he is delighted that Joe Biden is president. "Have you seen the news?" he asked. I hadn't. He told me to turn on the news right now, to see the horrible news about a leak regarding the Supreme Court.
I was hoping it was a lie.
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About that image…
https://www.popspotsnyc.com/afterthegoldrush/
Truth, H2O Man. It’s the glue that holds all the love together.
I’m a Kennedy-King-FDR-Thomas Jefferson liberal Democrat and no amount of propaganda, peer-pressure or pimply bottomed Pampers-wearing TikTok wannabe swill will change my mind.
