The Coalition of the Swilling

You know ~ the folks in the neighborhood who have a son, or daughter, or grandson, or niece or best friend's kid ~ in uniform somewhere they send letters and cookies to. Emails and Vienna Snausages. Baby wipes and stupid birthday packages. Those Un-Cindy folks work. They go to church and volunteer afterward for Sunday school, or just sit home watching football games until it's time to help a neighbor with his fence. Maybe even watch their 2 year old so neighbor and the missus (who also has a job) can go be a 'couple' for a few hours. (While you get to enjoy a baby and THEN give him back. Now, that's Heaven.)

I don't know. It seems to me that 'protestors' live in a different world than I do. I know that, for all the money and free MSM coverage they were getting, not too many 'protestors' showed up compared to what they expected. That had to be a bummer, but I'm sure they found a way to spin it. Kinda like the 'Million Man March' wound up being a hundred and fifty thousand or so. I just don't think your average American has time to wisk on down to D.C. He says what he has to say by the flag hanging off his brickwork, the ribbon on his Toyota, his voter registration card, just the time he spends being a good citizen. I feel strongly about a bunch of stuff, but think my time is better served by actions, not activism. The blog here is a vanity project ~ you all are subjected to my opinion in spite of Bingley and Crusader's best efforts and I am proudly the bleeding heart liberal of the bunch. But it's also a community, a neighborhood. We've all got 'stuff' we're doing that feeds the fabric of the nation. Lisa's D is off to Iraq, New Orleans; wherever they need him. Wherever we need him. JeffS wears tacky Sod Off T-shirts in one of the God forsaken armpits of earth, alongside intrepid fellows like Skylar Rentner and Cpl. Tim. Mr. Summers goes to work everyday and does his best to keep things honest. Bingley counts beans (literally!), Crusader is a bean counter, I'm a has bean and Major Dad is a 'bean there, done that' veteran, like Sharps. Cullen watches the parade of human beans through the front gates, Kraut wonders about what has bean and what's to come, while Diptera strings beans and sees the mystery in God's order. We're all busy, we all have stuff to do, we're all on the crusade of living LIFE. And if you live life to it's fullest, the best you can, that takes work. And dedication. There's a conviction there that doesn't need your photo in Newsweek for validation. Or a hand lettered, dork-ass 'F@ck Capitalism' sign for proof of commitment. WTF is that? No one understands that. So who are these people talking to? Each other, I guess. Not to anybody I know, that's for sure, because we don't have time for 'out there'. We're all busy. We're all working on life.

That's the disconnect, I think. I see these 'protestors' on Gateway Pundit, etc., and all I see is Clare, from 'Six Feet Under'. A caricature. Written to be so clever and tortured and privileged and cutting edge; and so far from anything remotely connected to real life, that it renders serious consideration moot. I don't mean to sound like an apologist for the lack of sign wavers for, um...my side. But I think I know why there weren't huge red, white and blue crowds. We're busy. We've got things to do, friends to support and a way of life ~ of living ~ we cherish and defend. Who we are doesn't need a rally, a parade or a public face. I'm not rushing to buy a bus ticket to D.C. because Mother Sheehan's in town. That happenstance doesn't begin to meet the threshhold of galvanization ~ of a call to action. She and her buddies are hardly worth notice, less mind airfare and an ulcer. We're busy with better things to do. And are better for it.