Six years of hatred. How are you dealing with it?

I had a revelation today. I've spent the past six years filled with hatred.

Hatred of Bush, Cheney, Rove, Rumsfeld, and so many other Republicans, their never-ending wars on Iraq, Afghanistan, and us, their torture chambers, their ignoring of the New Orleans hell caused by Katrina, their destruction of the constitution, their tax cuts for the wealthy and destruction of the middle class, their power to do whatever they want while we can't do a damn thing about it, and my hatred of the imbeciles who gave them enough votes to steal the last three elections.

And all of this hatred has accomplished absolutely nothing but self-induced misery. I've marched, written many ltte, faxed and called my congressman, contributed to the good guys, yet here we are, six years later, and the situation only gets worse.

So my self-assigned project is clear. Find some way to channel this hatred into something that will produce a positive outcome. How are you dealing with it short of giving up and walking away?

will have to pay for what they've done.

but it doesn't really help. The daily assaults are more than I can channel away.

Good luck. :hi:

I was not to happy with Nixon either but I was not in tuned so much then.

regardless of what is going on with other people. To try and escape in some way or other just means you have to come back and go through the same lessons until you learn. Your mind is powerful if you can use it in the right way.

there are thinking people out there, other than the intellectual elite in the Northeast.

Any time I hear someone I know spouting off the usual everyday freeper spin, I like to chime in for a little debate. They hate that.

I don't hate them. I have no feelings towards them whatsoever. In ambivalence,
i am free, for what would otherwise be a consuming acid to pour on ones heart.
I give them up, they are free, and so am i. I will vote them out, write them
out, innovate them gone, but i am beyond any feelings. It is who i am to
oppose evil, not even a moral question, it really comes natural.

Hate? They piss me off if i give them the benefit of my attention, but if i
don't they are powerless to turn my heart against myself. They are an evil
gang of thugs, not americans, and i don't offer such degenerate felons even
the time of day... get thee to prison, murderous filth. The civil war is
still on, and we are union, they are confederates.

Unplug the TV. The hate is coming from them. DOn't let it in and you won't
feel any.

I don't feel bad about it either. With their arrogance and in your face attitude.

allow me to quote from the obituary of Richard Nixon, written by that odd-looking guy in my avatar box:

"I have had my own bloody relationship with Nixon for many years, but I am not worried about it landing me in Hell with him. I have already been there with that bastard, and I am a better person for it. Nixon had the unique ability to make his enemies seem honorable, and we developed a keen sense of fraternity. Some of my best friends have hated Nixon all their lives. My mother hates Nixon, my son hates Nixon, I hate Nixon, and this hatred has brought us together.

Nixon laughed when I told him this. "Don't worry," he said. "I, too, am a family man, and we feel the same way about you."

It was Richard Nixon who got me into politics, and now that he's gone, I feel lonely. He was a giant in his way. As long as Nixon was politically alive--and he was, all theway to the end--we could always be sure of finding the enemy on the Low Road. There was no need to look anywhere else for the evil bastard. He had the fighting instincts of a badger trapped by hounds. The badger will roll over on its back and emit a smell of death, which confuses the dogs and lures them in for the traditional ripping and tearing action. But it is usually the badger who does the ripping and tearing. It is a beast that fights best on its back: rolling under the throat of the enemy and seizing it by thehead with all four claws.

That was Nixon's style--and if you forgot, he would kill you as a lesson to the others. Badgers don't fight fair, bubba. That's why God made dachshunds. "


Hope that makes you feel better.

I am ready to kick their asses out, how much more abuse can we take? People in Europe and other eastern block countries would have had their asses gone along time ago. These thugs must go.

:grr:

that show progressives have an agenda unlike the Republican neocon cavalcade of death and destruction. The R's love to deride progressives about 'doom and gloom' ( I guess since that's the only thing the R's have managed to produce during these six years ).

The two books are

1. Plan B 2.0 by Lester Brown

http://www.earth-policy.org/Books/PB2/Contents.htm

which shows that the earth can't withstand China and/or India mimicing the US's automobile and ecolocigal mistakes.

2. Winning The Oil End Game by Amory Lovins

http://www.oilendgame.com/ReadTheBook.html

along the same lines as Plan B 2.0, shows the US how to get out of oil dependency and leave the Middle East to its own devices.

Add the (at least 2 years) relentless stalking and trashing of the Clinton's by these scumbags, aided by the "liberal media" and it's been a rough decade. Add to that the Reagan years and most of Bush 1, and it becomes fricking exhausting!! So I approach it as if I have ADD. Break it down into small tasks and keep plugging away.

....

I live out in the country on twenty acres. It is like my own personal vacation retreat, except I don't have to do the whole vacation travel thing. I simply go home, and enjoy the sounds and sights of nature. I dig my hands in the dirt, and plant for the future. It keeps me sane and grounded in the midst of all this chaos and misery.

There are no positives in what they have done, but I look at them as a rotten element in our society and government that had to come to the surface and reveal itself so we could recognize and get rid of it. For six years we've seen more and more of the worst of our system. At this point, fully 2/3 of Americans revile what they see and are experiencing. Until now, most of them would have never understood what's wrong with this element. I believe in justice. "The wheels of justice turn slow, but exceedingly fine." "What goes around comes around." "As you sow, so shall you reap." Etc.

A disease has to surface before it can be healed. So far it has been our job to point out and describe the disease. Ultimately, we'll be engaged and aware and able to help this country finally grow up and evolve.

It is really calming and helps me feel strong when I think that I am not. We have a memorial to the soldiers in the front yard that is a constant reminder of the madness of our world. I know that I need to do more but am uncertain about the next venture. peace, Kim

We need to put an end to it. We need closure. The only way I see that happening is to hold these criminals accountable for their crimes against humanity.

The scary part about the whole mess is that the most serious consequences of allowing ChimpCo to rape this nation, this world, is probably yet to be seen. I have yet not viewed "An Inconvenient Truth" but I fear just how bad the consequences will eventually get. Unfortunately, it is going to take more serious catastrophic events to punctuate what many of us already accept as the truth to wake us all up. I really fear for what we have all left our children and our children's children.

Our hate is very well placed. Of course, the operative question here is, with all the lunacy in the past five-plus years, why do approximately one-third of this great nation not join us?

That's something that I really hate.

supreme court judges that do NOT believe in seperation of powers, an illegal Iraq war, the patriot act, a flawed medicare prescription drug plan, illegal spying without going through the FISA courts, and I ask where are the Democrats, aren't they suppossed to be fighting for us?

I am more upset with the Democrats who have rubber-stamped everything this administration has sent to them

I have been contributing to those candidates that STAND FOR DEMOCRATIC VALUES, NOT those who are political opportunists

I am fighting to get my party back, AND MY COUNTRY

What bother me the most was no one seemed to care about the scandals, corruptions, secret wars, etc.
I remember a poster for some rally in DC with a picture of Oliver North in uniform with his hand on a Bible and the caption, "America Where is Your Shame?"

Then and now, I find myself tunning out of the news and society. I read more, spend time with family and close friends. I find myself completely avoiding repubs and treat them like the fools they are. When a freeper at a water cooler starts going on about something, I usually just call him a dumbass and laugh at his feeble justifications. I donate to candidates I like and help out at a few local organizations, but avoid politics for the most part.

to be. After having done all of your aforementioned activist "exercises" to no avail, I have become proactive for my family. I am preparing for recession, soaring prices of every commodity and other possible disasters since we are being warned every second by MSM and by the actions of this administration that we won't be getting any help from THEM.

This sounds almost crazy because we are pacifists but we are also realists:
I asked for and received a chest-type freezer for Mother's day and am loading it up. I have begun buying food and storing it in my huge new pantry
(which is in fact the original Cuban Missile Crisis bomb shelter that was built into my house!!! :) )
Our property is not good for a garden, but I'm working on that one...
I'll be sending in our applications for gun permits early next week...

You catch my drift. It's sad that I feel I have to think this way, but better safe than sorry. Every time I literally put on my tinfoil hat - I have one I like to wear when I'm working on these projects ~ like to keep some sense of humor about it - my partner reminds me that if everything works out alright in the end then I have an awesome pantry and freezer etc. and if it doesn't,
I may end up saving us.

It feels good to be doing something I know will benefit at least us - and perhaps others if it comes to that.... God Forbid.

I'm not ready to back down... I'm still mad as hell and it's too late to make it right... I'm mad as Hell!

Payback's a bitch.

I haven't any patience for anyone now, I can let small things slide off my back like I once did. I'm turning mean and fucking ugly, I don't like it, nor want it to be that way.
I'm one thin hair, one more outrage away from seriously losing control.
I think I need to sit back for a little while, but, this isn't the time, the big push is starting we have just a few months to convince the braindead and uncaring amongst us to get off their goddamn couch and help put these monsters in the hell they deserve.
How am I holding up? I really can't say that I am.

not ready to make nice yet!

I've learned that even the little lies people tell destroys your credibility and respect.

I've learned that you DO need to take your job seriously.

I've learned that people DO need to be politically involved.

I've learned that I musn't be complacent, and must always be informed and vigilant.

I've learned to be more discriminating about the information I get.

I've learned to question why people say and do what they say and do.

I've learned to judge people by their actions - not their words.

I've learned to walk the walk - not just talk the talk.

I've learned that government really does affect your daily life.

I've learned that we need to live more modestly.

I've learned that I need to listen more.

I've learned that how you treat others is the most important indication of your character.

I've learned that being religious guarantees nothing.

I've learned that the guy you want to have a beer with is not the same guy you want in charge.

I've learned to be more like the guy you want in charge.

I've learned that the rat race is stacked against you.

I've learned that the lifesyle sold to us on TV is crap made in China.

I've learned that I have to be "that other guy" who will stand up and fix the problems.

I've learned that there are no great countries - only great people.

Thank you.

My despisement of the Bushistas has jaded me toward all things Republican, corporate, business, right-wing, neo-con, fascist, and Christian.

I've grown to distrust all things white, middle-aged, and male. AND I'M WHITE, MIDDLE-AGED, AND MALE! :crazy:

Its all relative.

They suck!

Which is something because I can't stay mad even when I should.

My recurring failure as a parent has been an inability to follow through on disciplinary action because I just can't stay mad. Early parole was the norm -- "you can come out now, I made popcorn." A couple of times I thought I had an enemy at work, but it never panned out. Even with the weaselly types I usually find something positive about them to focus on.

Back in 2000 when I perceived the media was protecting Bush by not discussing or acknowledging his many lies and indiscretions, while casting Gore as a compulsive liar, is when I felt the beginning of what became a sustained hatred. How quick they were in the aftermath of Bush v Gore to start pushing the commandment "now is the time for everyone to heal" -- translation: STFU.

If it hadn't been for those first small outposts of reality that popped up on the internet I would have thought I was out of step with the whole world. Bush is manly. A cowboy. A man of the people, a real Texan, a compassionate follower of Christ, honorable, straightforward. The adults are in charge now. The values crowd that will return our country to greatness after the last 8 years of nightmarish peace and prosperity. Thank god it turned out there were many others who were seeing through this bullshit.

The hatred I continue to feel is unlike anything else. I was out jogging one time and peered into a plastic bin as I passed by. The contents were buried under a giant mountain of swarming, wriggling maggots. I'd never seen or smelled anything like it before or since. The feeling of revulsion was so strong I almost fell over. That's the closest comparison I have for how I feel about the Bush administration. It's a visceral reaction to their essential rottenness, their greedy feasting.

I know it's not reasonable. It's like feeling hatred for a destructive, life threatening virus. A virus is an organism that doesn't think, it just does what it's programmed to do. And I'm convinced Bush and his cronies are like viruses programmed to steal and loot, feeling no remorse or pity for the host they are destroying, for any suffering or death that occurs in the process.

I do know I'll continue to feel this way until they're gone.

vile description of them, I can't. You've described them for the disease they are. And you've done it without missing much of the posion they've spread across the human species.

It really hurts to say "you're right" given that these people are a 21st Century plague. But, geeez, you've nailed these people for the malignant germs they are.

and that feeling of possible sanity when I found a few outspoken voices on the net back when it was sooooo taboo to say anything against this bunch of thieving sleezballs. Thats why the Dixie Chicks are resonating so clearly for so many

My anger has been joined by MOST OF AMERICA.

>How are you dealing with it short of giving up and walking away?<

I have found since the Katrina coverage that I have to walk away from it once in awhile. There was nothing that could contain my rage after seeing those pictures, and I realized that there has to be balance. I have to take care of myself. I have to get enough sleep, eat foods that are good for me, spend time with my DH, laugh with my girlfriends, give someone else's kid a hug or read them a story, or I'm not functional.

It is my every hope that I can look at this as something I grew from instead of letting it consume me. To quote William Rivers Pitt: "Anger is a gift." Sometimes, it's the only thing that spurs some of us to change the world around us.

Julie

DU helps tremndously.

but I have been trying to spend more time in the DU Lounge of late. And there are threads here that I totally stay away from. I don't watch the major news-Barbies on the tee-vee nor do I watch any of the pundit critters.

I nod, say "good morning", smile, make jokes, whatever, to complete strangers.

I have to remind myself that we're all just human and generally respond to friendly, polite, gestures, and respect with the same.

my hair is falling out... I cannot help it.. It is the not knowing, and the terrible danger I know he is in.. Boy am I angry... I am so mad at this PNAC group of shit-holes who drew up the plans for this war and are willing to sacrifice my son to do it...

I will probably be bald at this rate :banghead: :rant:

Even DeNiro couldn't solve what we're facing today. Anyone who thought the Mafia, or the "Drug War" was the source of all our problems was an idiot.

As Walt Kelly's "Pogo" said many years ago, "We have met the enemy and he is us." Today's Republican party is the enemy of every living human being on this planet. They don't care who lives or dies, or why.

Every generation has to deal with its Attila, Caligula, Alexander, Napoleon, Stalin, Mussolini, Hitler, Milosovec, Cheney, or Bush.

And Cheney, Bush and their whole corrupt bunch of garbage are talking to us and telling us to shut the fuck up or else.

And our response so far has been somewhere between mild and non existent.

It makes you want to, don't it???

But as the lyrics of the Moody Blues remind us, "Timothy Leary's dead..."

:(

Hopefully you have grieved the loss of the country you once loved and have built up the strength to fight with might, empathy, intellect, discernment ..like an adult... come the election.

That would be joining in the dark force.

"Bitterness contaminates the vessel which contains it." -- Rubin Carter

I'm so consumed by anger and growing hatred that I have to stop and give myself a timeout sometimes

It's horrible. I'm doing as much "charitable" work as I can and trying to work for change, but that hasn't diminished the hatred.

meditation on Buddhist principles: Taming the tiger within by Thich Nhat Hanh is really nice...

Catholic prayer and the rosary...

joining a CSA and eating fresh vegetables...

getting my meat from a farm where I know they dont fool with it...

re-reading democratic literature... especially stuff on FDR...

writing some stuff about what my values are...

gardening and getting myself in tune with nature's cycles...

finding really nice clothing at cheap prices...not crap that falls apart...

Understanding that anger and bitterness will keep me from achieving my potential

researching good causes to devote my energy to...

supporting progressive candidates and causes...

and smiling as I watch Republican poll numbers sink and understand that people are turning just as the aspens did...

because I follow nature's cycle's I understand that we are just at that point between winter and spring, when there are a few sprouts poking their heads out of the barren earth to remind us of the glorious spring and summer to follow...

keep hope alive, my friends... you will not sink into anger...

tap into the power that lies within you and dont be afraid to release it...

Or, in the archbishop's Tutu's words: "Each single one of us is said to be of infinite worth... each one of us is a god carrier, each one of us god's viceroy. Can you imagine if we really believed that?"

I've marched, written many Lotte, faxed and called my congressman, contributed to the good guys...

That is channeling it in a positive way...you could be standing on corners with a baseball bat...but yer not.

I hear ya, on the hate for 6yrs. I have never before felt like this. I too wonder if it is healthy for me. I think it is healthy if we do as we are. Placing it positively.

Keep doing what you are doing, we have too. America deserves no less. We can deal with the lasting effects later.

:::salute::::

days at a time.

I have to immerse myself in positive things before I can face more of what's going on.

Starbucks coffee and go out on my front porch (I live in the country) and I listen to the birds sing, watch the antics of the squirrels and rabbits and swing in my swing. Sometimes I just have to say "screw it" and think on something else.

Anger is not a negative emotion IMO, but hatred is. Hatred doesn't hurt the hated, just the one who hates. So, I express my anger and do what I can do and then let it go until the next time. To obsess about bush and gang would be giving them space in my head, rent free.

http://movies.crooksandliars.com/Larry-King-Dixie-Chicks.wmv

The hatered these people spewed was discusting...The Chicks rule!!! They speak for me.

I still have to deal with it though. Every day I deal with watching the US sink ever lower.

I do have to say though.......I am not as consumed with it as I once was.

Let me also add before the usuals jump on me.........I left the US for a lot of reasons, and yes what the country has become was one of them......but life is complicated and it certainly wasn't the only reason....so don't start with the preaching or the lectures to stay and fight. They are just childish and for the most part a bunch of bullshit.

You lost your right to do so the moment you emigated - that's even more childish.

Just like people who don't vote are told not to speak their minds.

So don't tell me what to say.

Come on back if you care about the US.

It's people like you I don't miss at all. :eyes:

Oh and what have you done other than bitch like hell and not accomplish a thing because of it lately. :eyes:

are in my same social/status/peer groups.

It's easy to survive. Just let me use my brain to the best of my ability and be allowed to live and I'll be quite content.

I've lived without people because I got tired of the hate. Hell, I'm even starting to write a book about it - no doubt somebody can learn from it; it's the best way to change peoples' lives. Sharing experiences and mine are so far "out there" they would be ratings-worthy and therefore profitable.

I'm a survivor. And I've got qualities that the coupled don't. And I will be proud of that.