You have to face the bitterness if you want to go for the sweet.

[Jackpine Radical]

These past 40 years have not been good years for a progressive, a liberal. America hasn't had a lot of years that were good for my kind, I guess, but the years since '68 have been among the worst. They must have put something in the drinking water that blinds the working people to their own interests, that makes them turn against their own unions, against the politicians who would advance their causes, against their own brothers and sisters, that corrupts their natural generosity and perverts it into petty hatreds driven by a perverted understanding of morality, while the moneyed interests are left free to drive the planet to the edge of extinction.

It ain't easy being outraged for this long. I wonder if I can remember how to set the burden down and turn my whole soul to life-giving thoughts and actions, with a spring again in my step and uncontainable joy in my heart. I want that. I want to feel my whole being reverberating to the hum of energy in an America with a renewed soul.

[bain_sidhe]

1. Have to kick this because

it's so true. I'm tired of being outraged. Bitter, maybe, maybe not. I guess it depends on how you define "bitter." But definitely tired of the sense of beating my head against the brick wall that is the clueless half of the American electorate.

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

2. "They" put corporate-sponsored television in the water.

Pure poison.

[hiaasenrocks]

3. You can only make yourself happy.

And perhaps those closest to you (family, close friends, etc.)

Anyone who is "outraged" for years and years about beating their heads against the wall is wasting their time and wasting their life. Have fun. Create something. Laugh. Smile. Paint a picture. Take your kids to a park. Feed the ducks. Make money. Buy something that makes you smile. It's nobody's business but your own. Do whatever makes you happy and better off. That's the only way to live life. If more people did that rather than sitting around, beating their heads against the wall and blaming everyone else for everything, they might find that they can make themselves a little happier, a little better. But I have a feeling this will fall on deaf ears to many people who would rather bitch and moan and point fingers rather than actually do something for themselves. Oh well.

[Jackpine Radical]

4. Thanks for the therapy. How much is the bill?

You presume to know a great deal about me, considering that you know nothing about me.