There is a long running joke among my friends about me being not just tall but freakishly tall. (it’s funny cuz it’s true)   Well I had forgotten where that came from or how it started…but I was bored and decided to watch a west wing re-run. (love the west wing)   And low and behold, in season 2 C.J. Craig is told “you’re a freakishly tall woman” just out of the blue by some shmuck she happened to be talking to.

The whole memory of watching that… the start of a joke that has followed me though 2 states: cracked up laughing pretty good.

Anyway, thought I’d share with the group.

This election has made me realize just how far outside the mainstream I must be. It is difficult to conceive the majority of Americans supporting Bush this election. Not when the democrats had a good man, weren’t massively outspent and Bush was a known quantity with a lackluster record. So difficult, in fact, that I’m almost willing to suspect some kind of mass-psychosis. But I know it’s not true.

The ideals I grew up with: that ethnic, cultural and religious diversity are good and promote a stronger, healthier society. That the personal freedoms of others take precedence over my beliefs as to how they should live their lives. That a person CAN be moral without having to appeal to the approval of a given religious institution. They just aren’t held by the majority of Americans. It’s not that America was tricked or mislead; the majority, from my current vantage point, just seems to be the same xenophobic, homophobic, illogical, bible/koran-thumping, fear-mongering, reactionary mass as the rest of the world.

And people like me are the one’s who are different. I’m in the minority.

I love this country dearly. But I’m losing faith that America has that something unique. Something intangible that separates us from the rest of this crazy, messed up, hateful, intolerant world. I fear this country has become drunk on its own power and self-righteousness, and is leading down the same path as every other superpower in the history of mankind.

And that there isn’t anything I can do about it.

The only poem I’ve ever written…

The Eternal Optimist

This man, he is not weak, passive.
He does not take what is handed to him,
and say “Wow, I sure am lucky”.
That is justification, from a coward.

This man is an idealist,
undaunted by the challenges of What Should Be.
The fight for his passion, his beliefs, his love,
he never expects it to be won.

To this man, the status quo is not enough.
He wants better, more, and he works for it.
And he must work for it,
for fate is an excuse for the lazy.

But where does this belief come from?
When Reason and Logic are the cornerstones of Truth?
I don’t know…
But it makes life interesting, worth living.

I live, I love, I fight, I bleed,
I like the pleasure… and the pain.
And yes, I know the bitter taste of failure.
So why do I not fear the darkness?
Because I am, The Eternal Optimist.

– Derek Anderson (12/15/2002)