by Garrison Frost

So have you had enough? Are you done? Are you way past the point of sticking your head out the window and shouting, "I'm as mad as hell and I'm not going to take it anymore," and perhaps in some quieter place, less angry, that just might express itself by your sitting down on the floor and just refusing to move?

Have the trappings of modern life put you on the verge of, well, something? Is it the traffic, with its mind-numbing obliteration of your ever-diminishing supply of time and individualism? Or is it the ridiculous food they keep serving you, or the people thanking you for your patience when you've never actually offered it in the first place? Or maybe it's the fact that even though it's still cold outside you can't buy a decent jacket after February because the department stores have restocked with their lighter spring lines?

Or maybe it's just the people who pass for important these days. Maybe you've had enough of being told by your magazines and television to adore people who have never taught anyone anything, or saved anyone, or fought any real injustice or overcome any real obstacle. You tell me. How do you feel about having to suffer the opinions and doings of someone whose only claim to fame is being famous, or even worse, that they made an online sex tape or were in a movie where they got to hold a fake gun and say clever things that someone else wrote for them?

And what about the selling? How are you with that? Do you have any room for more commercials, phone solicitations, elevator video, billboards, airplane banners, newspaper pull-out sections and magazine ads that make it impossible to simply turn the pages without just wanting to rip the thing into shreds and throw it in the nearest trash can? Have you had it with always being asked to give money to people who are richer than you on the chance that they will do something with it that might someday benefit you or your kids? Can you stand another person who doesn't merely want your money, but wants your time, your vote, your support, your heart, your political will, your undivided attention or simply your name on this clipboard?

How are you with the creeping lack of privacy? Are you anywhere near full of that feeling that somebody is watching you, tracking your movements, purchases, library books, political affiliations, website visits and attendance at any public gathering? How are you with the crowds, the fact that it seems that no matter where you go your movement is impeded by dozens, hundreds, thousands of other people trying to do the same thing at the same time?

Have you had it with your leaders and the their talking and talking and not doing anything but promising that if you vote for them this next time everything will be better and it never ever is? Have you grown weary of giving these people millions, billions, trillions of dollars and yet being told that there isn't enough money to do anything important? Are you tired of their key messages, campaign donations, talking points, focus groups, push polls, sound bytes, campaign mailers, slush funds, television commercials, billboards, lawn signs and endless, endless hypocrisy? Are you tired of their political parties that fumble to make every issue into a black and white dichotomy, that have forced this country to ignore Right and Wrong in favor of Us and Them?

And how about the wars – the War on Terrorism, the War in Afghanistan, the War in Iraq, the War on Drugs? How is the daily carnage sitting with you? How about the nagging impression that, regardless of how many new wars we start and how many new names enter the lexicon, none of these wars is any closer to ending? And how about the doubletalk and obvious misrepresentations that accompany each conflict? And how about the argument many make that in order to win any of these wars, we have to be more like our enemies and less like the nation that we fight to defend?

And forget the fighting abroad, what about the fighting here? Sure, actual violence abounds, but what about this yelling? What about this angry shouting that greets you every time you turn on the radio and the television or walk into a neighborhood bar or try to show your support for anything you believe in? Have you had enough yet of the invective, the extremism, the straw men, the divisive marginalization, the talking spitting hate-mongers who are really after nothing more than ratings? Are you tired of constantly being told who to hate, oppose, denigrate, dismiss? And you tired of being so adamantly against?

So, what is it? Have you reached your limit? Have you had enough?

(May 13, 2006)

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