DoY 147.    (27 May 2021)

Who is us?

Us is amazing!  Us is mean as hell, and us is so generous we would flabbergast any alien that chose to land among us.  Oh, us wouldn't necessarily be generous with the alien, but we might be.  I posit that the same woman who kicks a homeless woman downtown goes home and bakes cookies for her kids and wears the nightgown that is her husband's favorite.  The same preacher who makes life nearly intolerable for his sons is adored by his congregation for his sympathy and thoughtfulness.  Us is magnanimous and warlike, torturing and gentle, loving and vicious.  Well, what the hell.  It's gotten us here and now when a lot of species didn't make it.

 Doy  140  2021   (20 May 2021)

Who is us?

When I returned to this country, I learned about how generous it was.  The kids I had grown up among in Brasil would have been surprised.  They knew Americans as loud people who smiled and made warm, friendly noises but always had battleships, or later, aircraft carriers, standing behind those noises.  Americans, more properly UnitedStatesians, invaded Central and South American countries when the direction of the breeze changed.  The United States claimed to protect Central and South America, but it protected them kinda like cops protect us.  Surely you've seen pictures of bloodied heads, stoved in ribs, and damaged feet?  That kind of protection.

Now, yes, we did have the Marshall Plan.  Britain, France, and Germany thrived with its help, and so did a few other countries.  And every year Congress made a fuss about how long we must support all those handout countries.  That's generosity, isn't it?  Until Vietnam came along and we spent ourselves deaf, dumb, and blind trying to liberate people who just wanted to be left alone.  In the end, all we had to show for that war was the debts we had accumulated fighting over there.  Oh, and pretty much the end of any Marshal Plan talk.

Except the talk about how generous we are.  Surely the rest of the world must see that and thank us, right?  Right?

 DoY 133 2021

Who is us?

Who *is* us?

Is us the people we see on TV?  The ones with freshly mowed lawns, new cars, unchipped fingernails, and a never-empty wallet?  The ones who are shocked to learn their neighbor screws his daughters?  That some cops are crooked?  That the principal found a way to move some of the school's budget into his bank account?  That a minister of the Lord sins?

Oddly enough, some of us are.  Most of us are wannabes, I think.  Most of us are not so surprised, just a little.  Or maybe a little shocked that someone finally said so out loud.  Some of us are those people getting away with whatever until some snitch makes a fuss.

But you know?  Several times in my life, I have learned that a few of us really do live innocently.  Those folks don't harm anyone and don't really believe anyone else does either.  Treasure them.  The rest of us don't deserve them, and some of us take advantage of them, but they help us believe in ourselves and in the potential of us.

 Doy 126   2021

Who is us?

Us is a very nice people, a very clean people, a pretty people.  Us is a people whose males take no advantage of their superior physical strength over their females.  Us is a people whose rich take no advantage of their ability to outbid poor people.  Us is a people whose powerful only seek power to improve the nation and make the rest of us more comfortable.  Us is a people of generosity, kindness, benevolence.  Us goona take good care of you.  Wanna buy a bridge?  How much?  How much you got?  No, sorry, not enough.  Borrow twice that, then maybe us can talk.

 DoY 119  (for 29 April 2021)

Who is us?

My running theme is Pogo's statement, "We have met the enemy and he is us."

I cannot speak for your neighborhood, but in the neighborhoods into which I was thrust when I was brought back to this country at twelve (in St. Louis, in Perryton, TX, in Clovis, NM, and in Albuquerque, NM), us believed a pack of lies.  Us believed men were basically decent and only occasionally erred.  Us believed the government was composed of representatives of us, instead of politicians bought and sold by the wealthy.  Us believed our government only did generous things in other countries.  Us got teary-eyed and indignant about us being "the most generous country in the world" and how people didn't appreciate our interfering in their governments.  (Us never said it quite that way.)  US fought a war for over fifteen years to show little brown men that they couldn't get away with fighting for independence from white folks (yes, Vietnam).  Us fought for years to delay granting civil rights to black folks, to women, or to non-cisgender folks.  Us is still waging surreptitious fighting to prevent their exercising those rights.  And us is still lying to ourselves about it.  Us don't like truth very much.