Senior Momentum: A Series of Situations! By Zoe Tummillo - June 2017

For murky, elusive reasons, I feel mentally pushed around and pulled apart by an angry alter ego that keeps arguing for

Nutty words and images collaborate inside my head increasing the confusion: there’s a log-roller whose feet cannot keep up; a game of Pin-the-Tail but the donkey is a jackass that keeps moving; a Diva in mid-aria suddenly voiceless; a woman’s nimble fingers frantically trying to stitch the flag whole again; the country tricked onto quicksand... Fragments converge, and expect me to sort thru them, make some sense and figure it out.

Am I really seeing red or has the rainbow also changed? Do I now doubt even the true colors of my roses or the difference between stratus, cumulus, nimbus? It’s not funny anymore – it’s not just a weird happening on a flaky political front. Vital things – democratic concepts, philosophies and “national truths” -- are tumbling and thrashing around in a grand confusion and frantic dialogs.

Actually, I had great intentions! I had outlines drafted from which to choose and build June’s column, and I planned to get it done well ahead of deadline, too. But – damn! The minute-by-minute news has been enough to make me crazy, and I just couldn’t pull other themes together. So, here I am, writing about that, and having that conversation instead.

I’ve always enjoyed reading history, knowing that even the least of us is history as we pass through.The history we are making now makes blood run cold. In so many people, I have noticed that anger builds quickly, recedes slowly and returns again, too fast. What comes to mind is the increasing importance of one person, one voice, one vote, and the need to act and stem this dark tide.

In the space of three days in May, several states’ Attorney Generals spoke out – on behalf of their citizens – expressing outrage about a chief executive “...who places himself above the law!” From Hawaii to DC, they characterized this executive as “overreaching” into the other branches of our government – as if there is no separation, as if he can do so with impunity! (Remember? “Question authority” ?)

More troubling, in the same three days, Russian media was admitted to the Oval Office for a meeting between the chief executive and Russian dignitaries --while our US media/press core was excluded! What? That awesome transgression and insult was closely followed by a new, bizarre and arrogant threat to possibly cancel the White House press briefings! (So he can operate entirely underground?)

A wise historian (whose name escapes me) pointed out that “take-overs” begin with audacities like silencing the free press. Unfortunately, we must own this whole mess; it’s ours. It’s one huge, glaring, disgusting, opportunity laid on us to test and challenge what it means to each of us, each in our own ways and from our personal perspectives. The lines are already blurred. We can no longer afford (during this national crisis) to stubbornly separate ourselves by rigid party habit patterns. It seems to me it’s a point in history where a dangerous following sea is looming, and we better decide where we stand.

People I have known for years, not usually political junkies, are suddenly questioning, worrying, noticing. Who is this man and his friends; and how did they get into our House? I’m not asking anyone to answer questions for me. I just think it’s important to know that you are definitely not alone if you are asking them, too!