continued from previous post:
... At one point i also thought, "You know, maybe the system's so screwed that burning it down and starting over again is the only way forward... so let it burn, right? Better with a bang than with a whimper". I knew, as i do now, that we're far past peak oil anyway, and that if we had wanted to switch from fossil fuels to anything remotely renewable, we would have had to create the jobs and build the infrastructure years ago. That part is still worryingly true... but i know now what i hadn't even thought of then. That if the system falls apart because i was cheering it along... that would be a death-sentence for millions. People i loved who needed even one pill per day to stay alive, or stay sane. People I loved who needed access to assistive devices, or insulin, or inhalers, to stay alive. People who need access to doctors, and who couldn't for instance join a farming commune, like i hoped to do. I was naive. I lived on rural property where i might've made a go at it, with the people around me. I'm glad to say it didn't even take becoming one of the myriad people who need a pill a day to survive or stay sane (though that did finally occur, because we are all just a health-step away from depending on the system to survive, and pretending otherwise is the province of the young and the ableist). It didn't take Cheeto Voldemort telling us he was turning LITERALLY EVERYTHING into a pre-existing condition. It just took realizing that... i didn't want to lose all these people i loved who actually needed the system. My mother, with her heart meds, my friends, my chosen family. That we couldn't all just prance off to create a commune, because most of us are autistic, or have ADHD, or mental health struggles, because i surround myself with beautiful (God Bless The) Freaks. So, now I know. And i'm passing this truth on to you, if you weren't there. If you are too young to remember. Something it took me till 38 to realize, somehow. That IF WE WANT A THIRD PARTY OPTION, WE HAVE TO CREATE IT IN *BETWEEN* PRESIDENTS, WITH A SITTING DEM... and NOT just a few months from the Presidential election. We can't just blithely wish a plausible third party option into being by voting it and crossing our fingers. And, more importantly, I can't survive another of his Presidencies. No one I love can. At least one person YOU love can't, and won't. THE WHOLE WORLD CANNOT SURVIVE IT. Don't make the mistake i did in 2016. THIS IS HAPPENING, the WAY it is happening, whether we like it or not. It's too late to change it this time around. So, VOTE; and vote KAMALA, not Kennedy or some other impossible longshot. Don't stay home, don't screw this up. Your life, my life, their lives in the wider world? LITERALLY depends on it. No second chances.
I promise you. Not being melodramatic. You don't want the remorse. And you don't want to die. And neither do I. Sooner or later this will touch us all. Vote while you still can. You literally may never get another chance.
