We pray for the willingness to remember that we are children of God, divine souls in human form, and that are most basic and urgent life tasks are to accept, know, love and nurture ourselves. As we accept ourselves, we are accepting God's will. As we know and love ourselves, we are knowing and loving God. As we nurture ourselves, we are acting on God's guidance.
We pray for the willingness to let go of our arrogant self-criticism, and to praise God by humbly accepting and caring for ourselves.
The machine has always been around, of course. It would be naïve to say it hasn't. . But it sort of went into snooze after the New Deal and the Second World War as people-friendly policies became the norm. During the Reagan years, it slowly kicked back into gear. The farm crisis. The Bushes and Clinton accelerated it with NAFTA and China. Obama held serve, but in 2016, Trump and a Republican trifecta at the capital in Des Moines, what with their anti-union policies refusing to let municipalities to raise the minimum wage, put the machine into overdrive.
What is this machine, you may ask? Well, it's like this big giant garbage disposal, and it sucks people, every day, more and more people. Nowadays most of Iowans are in there. Pretty much if you make less than $100,000 as a household you're in there, or damn close to the lip. I'm in there and so are most of my friends and family.
It's not like a normal garbage disposal, where the blades are right at top; the blades are further down, so the people go down this tube for a while before they actually get chewed up.
Today, November 3, 2020, the machine paused. A giant button appeared on the side of the tube and everyone in the tube could see it. Big and bright. We look. And the button starts talking.
"Listen, I'm a button. Should you choose to push me, the air movement in this tube will shift. The downward force will lessen to a large degree. For example, we could try to take such measures as cutting student loans or stabilizing the cost and availability of quality health care. Also, the air will start pushing up--we could raise the minimum wage, for example. Most of you, though not all of course, will be able to avoid falling into the blades. A large majority will actually be able to climb out of this tube and resume normal life, perhaps even plan for the future. If you don't push me, well, things continue as they have been.
"So, talk amongst yourselves. Let me know what you want to do. You have 14 hours to make a decision, from 7:00 AM to 9:00 PM."
The Iowans begin to talk amongst themselves. The button thinks it's a no-brainer, so he's surprised that they just keep on talking. A good ways after 8:00 PM, a voice comes from the crowd of Iowans.
"Mr. Button, if we push this button, will some of the people who pull themselves back out of the tube...will some of them, like...not deserve it?"
The button blinks, which is really hard for a button, and says, "I'm not sure I understand your question."
"Well," the voice of Iowa explains, "let's say some of these people who get out--even if it's just a few--might not do it on their own. You know, they might grab on to the ankles of someone who's really working. and so even though they got out, they had help from someone else. Or maybe they get some benefit they don't really deserve, and they get out that way. So, I guess that's what we're worried about. That someone who really isn't deserving manages the climb their way out after we use this button."
The button blinks again. "Well, yes, I suppose that could happen. But I'm not sure you're getting the big picture here. I'll emphasize, again, that should you choose not to use this button, many of you--the vast majority--will continue to be sucked down, moving ever closer to the blades whether y'all "deserve it" or not. In other words, you'll be hurting a lot of "deserving" people just to make sure a few "non-deservers" don't make it out."
"Got it. Thanks for the clarification," the voice of Iowa explains. "We'll get back to you shortly." And we huddle back up.
A few minutes later, the voice speaks up again. "All right, we've made our decision. We appreciate your offer, but we're just gonna keep sliding and hope for the best. Well, 'hope' really isn't the right word. We gave up on that a long time ago. Now, we pretty much just want to own the libs."
The button stutters. "But...but...I could help so many of you. Just use me. I WANT TO HELP!"
"Help?" the Iowan snickers. "You're not really a button. You're a FUCKING SOCIALIST, and you're trying to push your socialist agenda unto us. You just don't want the strongest among us to win. Even if you could "help" us, we don't really give a shit. Face it, bitch--we own you!"
The crowd whoops and hollers. Thirteen seconds later, the disposal whirs back to life. Slowly at first, then more quickly, the people continue their descent into the bowels of the machine. The blades hum. The disposal rumbles.
The button shakes its anthropomorphic head and says to itself, as it fades to existence until November of 2022, "Socialist. Goddamn. I'm just a freaking button", as the crowd before it, sliding downward, grows steadily thinner.
Just a few thoughts before the numbers start pouring in, as I try to take a break to de-obsess:
--Joe Biden is up by at least 8% nationwide. Let's say he only wins by 5%. In an election of 150,000,000 votes, that means he wins 7,500,000 more votes than Donald Trump. But Donald Trump would still have a legitimate shot at winning the election. I know it's fashionable to criticize the Electoral College...but this is why. That's seriously fucked up.
--If Biden can win Florida (he's up by a little over 2%) by a decent amount--say over 1%--this thing could be over by 9:00 Iowa time. Max 10:00. If, on the other hand, Trump wins that state, it probably gets decided in Pennsylvania, and that could take days. That's when the crazy, disturbing shit could start.
--Biden should win. He should. God, may he win. But here's the really depressing thing, even if he does. After all the crazy shit Trump and his acolytes have done, over 60,000,000 are still going to vote for that version of America. We are far--very far--from being a healthy society.
--Florida, please? Please? Florida? Just this once...
