Newscoma

In the midst of sounding morbid this week, it’s been a doozy. My friend Paul passed away and I went to the visitation. When I got there, his wife came to me and we talked a moment about what a wonderful man he was. But here’s the thing that was just so shocking to me that it’s taken me a few days to process it.

Her grandmother died three hours before her husband did. Paul was on one side of the funeral home, her grandmother was on the other.

Next time I whine, you are allowed to call me an asshat.

She is one of Mainstreet. In her grief, she could have given two poops about what is currently going on in Washington.

I’ve thought a lot about being in this small town. So much has happened this week and to put it in a blog post is difficult, thus this annoying autobiographical pause as I try to wrap my brain cells around it all.

Yesterday, I was in contact with one of John Tanner’s people and he told me that John voted for the bailout, I just sighed because a verbal riot ensued within the doors of the paper within just a matter of minutes once the news was given. Business people were waiting to hear.

Let’s just say, it wasn’t Tanner’s best day in the minds of some of those “Mainstreeters” that everyone keeps talking about.

So I hit the street and I heard more angry diatribes that would make my grandmother blush if she was still alive. Disillusionment and confusion followed by foul words that filled the air followed by the big question “Why?”

“There not explaining it to us,” one man said. “They just shoved it down our throats and they talk about mainstreet and saving middle class Americans but I don’t see it that way. What was Tanner thinking?”

“I lost $85,000 dollars in the past two weeks,” another man said. “I’ve been a Republican my whole life, but this isn’t a political thing. This is a matter of that I see the republic of this country destroyed.”

“I don’t have anything anyway,” one woman cited. “But it’s the principal of the matter that makes me angry.”

I tried to find someone who supported the issue and believe me, I tried.

I didn’t find one.

Not one, and I went to several places. Not one “Mainstreeter” I talked to supported this measure.

Not one.

And I talked to dozens.

In this day of instant information, we have none. We hear catchphrases but very little valid explanation on why. The failure lies with our elected officials not listening.

And as I referenced at the beginning of this post, day-to-day life goes on. There isn’t a choice.

But to reflect these words that are floating around the ‘tubes right now:

Dear Con. John Tanner,
As a taxpaying, voting citizen of this great nation, you have failed me. Over the course of the past two weeks, you have chosen to divert more money from my child to benefit those who have worked off of my back to get to where they are today.
I grow weary, not from the constant burden that has been placed on my shoulders everyday by those who claim to work in my best interest. No, I grow weary because I look at my two-year-old daughter who hasn’t a clue what is going on this country right now and I see her begin to slump over. She slumps because of the burden that she unknowingly carries at the hand of people that pretend to care about her future.

The failure is more than that though. We looked at pork attached to this bill. They voted for it anyway. We watched panic. Blue Dogs weren’t very blue, were they?

We are told it was the best thing to do.

I ask “Why?”

With that said, I’m hanging up my boots with the Democrats and the Republicans.

I just became an independent.

And I will answer “Why?”

Because the lot of Washington has forgotten “Mainstreet” but that’s where I live. I live on the ground and in the trenches. Mainstreet no longer exists after the past eight years and it is more than a catchphrase.

Mainstreet is filled with people. Forgotten people.

And thus I direct you to this post by Sadcox, who has posted an image that explains it all.