Just Saying Thank You

Having succumbed to rubbernecking against my better judgment and supposedly my superior character at far too many diary battles, I would like to extend my heartfelt thanks to every single individual that does his/her part to help me to be an informed and active citizen.

Daily Kos is a lifeline; it is hope, it is informative, it is passionate and it is where I go everyday for any semblance of normalcy, relief and fortunately, most of the time, for a bit of comic relief (healing).

Jump, jump (Kris Kross will make ya ...)

I spent the last three days in southern Illinois at the in-laws. Can you believe they didn't talk politics not one time? What are they alien? To top it off, they have satellite TV, you know that one reeceiver controlling both TVs in the house and the entire time it was on Lifetime Movie Network except for a couple of hours when I got some ESPN classic and saw the last of 'Enter the Dragon'.

So what did I do? I sneaked off as often as possible and stole a wireless signal from a coffee shop [that closed at 4PM] in this one-street, cobblestone paved downtown hoping one of the three police officers didn't wonder what this Volvo with FL plates was doing parked on the street with a laptop. So Kossacks, thank you.

Yesterday I was saddened by the fact that I couldn't attend my great uncle's homegoing service in Piedmont, AL. My Big Mama lost her sister, my Aunt Ora and her brother, my Uncle Jimmie Lee, five days apart. This was six brothers and sisters in three years and  her husband, my Big Daddy in January 2007.

So what did I do? Jumped on Daily Kos and found that fellow Kossacks were experiencing the same and I was comforted. So Kossacks, thank you.

Later on that afternoon/evening, we went to senior citizen mental facility and visited my wife's uncle. I saw the concern in my mother-in-law's face as I chatted with "Uncle Ezekiel"; I saw her wondering if I was suffering from his fantastical stories, his breaks with reality, his accusations of everyone around him stealing, his tales of fixing computers in thirty seconds, of him helping put out fires or getting diseases from the nurses immunizations. I saw the pain in the face of my father-in-law, knowing that his brother wanted him to testify at a hearing for his release, knowing that his brother will never leave there, that even staying at their house, he only allows others to con him and take his disability. And when my father-in-law confided in me on the way home, that he had asked the good Lord to take him, before someone had to change his diaper, before he could no longer cut his own lawn or drive up the road, I sat without words. In the driveway, I assured him that his daughter and I would take care of them as well as my parents not knowing that earlier that day, he and my wife had gone to sign papers giving us executorship.

So what did I do? I laid in the bed and read Daily Kos on my Blackberry until I could no longer make sense of sentences at 2:30 in the morning. So Kossacks, thank you.

And when I talked to my little brother at Ft. Hood after the assassination, as he thundered in disgust at the McCain politicking while the lady was barely even dead, I thought about this community and how hard we work to champion, expose, keep alive and inform. When he went on to talk about a first seargeant that shot himself in the head because he refused to take his men into a situation that was a suicide. He went on to say that all of those men refused the order and that all of them are now subject to no more promotions but that they would rather be 'dead in the water' than actually dead, I could only listen. And when he railed on about a stalled investigation of soldiers being killed by the Iraqis they had trained, I could only listen. And when he said that if they were over here, and he had to choose between a paycheck for his family and the hated occupiers, he would do the same, again, I could only listen.

So what did I do? You know the answer.

I don't care how many candidate diaries, meta discussions and troll hunts, this is the best place in town, bar none. I'm here when I'm up; I'm here when I'm 'middlin'; I'm here when I'm struggling. For every healthcare diary, fallen soldier remembrance, parliamentary procedure explanation, action item and planet saving effort, I say thank you. For every tracking off this adminstrations illegal, amoral, unprecendented act of death to our Constitution, our citizens and to those beyond our borders, I say thank you. For that, and so, so, so much more, a heartfelt thank you from a fellow citizen just trying to tread water.