Posts Tagged ‘unanswered questions’
Unanswered Questions
Most U.S. political opinions in 2024 are locked in two opposing camps with very different views of reality. On Sunday morning, CBS presented a segment with Ted Koppel that was recorded at a rally in Pennsylvania back in April. Koppel and crew provided a handful of supporters of the Republican candidate for President an opportunity to express themselves without challenge.
It left me with questions. These are not new questions for me, but each time I re-hear the heartfelt lamentations of people who sound so aggrieved, I become more curious about what is causing their suffering.
Bless CBS’s media heart for not asking for explanations. I can only imagine how quickly they would have lost willing interviewees among the crowd if they had displayed any judgment about the group’s logic.
When asked why they would endure cold and windy weather all day long to support their candidate, one person expressed, “We want our freedoms.”
My question: What freedoms are being denied them? They freely gather at a rally where they freely speak their minds. What rights have they lost in the years since their candidate lost the 2020 election?
“Nobody cares about the working class. …You want your ratings on CBS and you want to lift up that idiot in the White House. …You have been lying to the American people long enough.”
My question: Nobody cares? What is their candidate doing to help the working class? Does this interviewee know anything about The American Families Plan announced by Biden in 2021? What is the media lying to the American people about?
The rally interviews were recorded long before the 34 New York guilty verdicts were announced but Mr. Koppel asked about opinions regarding the trial.
“He’s not guilty. If anybody is guilty, it’s Biden.”
My question: Out of anybody, what is it they believe Biden to be guilty of?
Not being able to ask for a logical explanation of the emotional gripes held by people who seem to approve of the violent January 6, 2021 insurrection leaves the same bad taste as listening to the inflamed untrue rhetoric spewed at the rallies that become media sound bites with little in the way of verifications for accuracy.
Luckily, I don’t lose too much mental energy to these types of questions because I’ve got more pressing immediate issues that remain unanswered. Case in point: When will the ground around here dry up enough to stop my riding mower from leaving behind muddy tire tracks?
One of these days, I hope. So many questions that might never be answered.
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Words
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If there were words
that would stop political corruption
what would they be?
If there were words to end unethical behaviors
what would you say?
If there were words
that could end climate catastrophes
would anyone listen?
If there were words
that teach how to think critically
would all people be learning?
If there were words
to eliminate corporate greed
would shareholders allow it?
If there were words
written about love
could they convey the full feeling?
If there were words
more important than mass media
how would they ever be heard?
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Not Knowing
If only we knew. Have I been infected? Do I have antibodies? Will illness strike someone I know? Will the economic depression last very long? Will the food supply chain normalize? Will hospitals near me become overrun? When I get the virus will I have no symptoms, or will I need to be hospitalized? Will there be a second wave?
Thus far, the COVID-19 pandemic has barely impacted my life. I could avoid contributing to the oversaturation of media information on the topic and only write about home projects and the weather as if there is no life-altering virus outbreak disrupting the world all the while. I’d prefer that, actually. But the reality is, there is an undulating ripple that is disturbing the universal foundation of how everything used to work, which makes pretending there isn’t seem conspicuously disingenuous.
Of greater distress to me than not knowing the answers to all the questions in my first paragraph is the growing reality that I no longer have plans on the calendar for going out with friends or family for dinner to celebrate events, or for going to see live music performances, or to go to the lake this summer, or take a week off work to go biking and camping with friends.
We don’t know what we are going to be doing next week, next month, all summer, or next year. That puts a real crimp in the realm of feeling hopeful and inspired.
It’s just not very sexy to replace that kind of hope with the more realistic desires of hoping we all get through this alive and with some semblance of our incomes, assets, and health still intact.
I struggle with a little guilt over feeling like I would prefer to just get the virus and be forced to stay home and do nothing for two weeks just so I could have a few days of certainty and also a little justification for allowing myself to lay in bed until I honestly didn’t want to anymore.
I’m tired. I don’t want to simply appreciate the sunlight shining on the newly blossoming flowers. Dewdrops on the grass. Pond frogs starting to sing again.
I don’t want to meditate on the zen of not knowing.
Well, maybe I do want a little of that meditation, especially in place of hearing one more government briefing about how they are going to ramp up testing or whether or not it is wise to speculate about injecting disinfectant that works on hard surfaces into human bodies.
Is it possible to inhale UV light? That might work.
I’m sorry, I shouldn’t be sarcastic.
I feel for those who suffer every day with the fear of getting infected and for the people who are already suffering significant financial disruptions. As well, for those who are needing to work long hours for days and weeks on end at higher risk of infection to care for seriously ill patients.
Here’s to achieving the art of finding peace with not always knowing.
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Relative Something 