Dateline Aug 2, 2017
Lake Geneva

Opinion/Editorial

YOU ARE MY SUNSHINE

Is there any chance that some kind of good fortune will be showered down upon the United States? Ever since the press, the media, or whatever the monolith of this “news” thing is, took over the group consciousness of the country (started in the late fifties and then coming into full fruition during the sixties) the attitude, outlook and psychological existence of America has become totally bleak. The news uses bad news as its leader knowing people will be attracted to the awfulness, and then reflect on the fact that their lives are indeed better than what they are being shown others are living through. That initial boost of positive differential thinking, however, is soon overcome with a general feeling that everything sucks. That everything has crookery, corruption or thieving murder at its very heart. Ergo, life itself sucks, so why bother to even attempt to do anything good? Just join the bad band wagon. And that’s where we are today.

Lying is not only accepted and commonplace, but practically required at higher levels. Down in the seething pit of humanity the smallest infractions are still punished with the rack, i.e. the U.S. prison system, (if offered, take the rack, it’s less painful and doesn’t last as long). This whole Prozac nightmare, and half the population now takes that or something like it, is because of mental orientation. Once set in churches and by small social groups, the morality and attitude of the country are now controlled by a few wealthy schemers who remain out of the spotlight, but assure that black despair covers the country and the earth…and I am not writing about race. Depression is the state of my land, my people and almost every human I encounter. What’s to be done? How can we pick ourselves up and ignore the manipulator’s who’ve come to undermine and take advantage, like Trump? How do we pay attention to those things that matter again, like our family units and tribal structures? How do we get the sunshine back?

The sunshine comes with the clearing of clouds. Clouds of deception, evil and corruption, the three most common elements running against enlightenment and possible bliss filled social and cultural development. Bliss and sunshine have to be fought for. There is no ‘lonely warrior’ allowed to go off to some lonesome valley to spend time cavorting with the fauna and examining the flora for its beauty and enjoyment. That is not how human survival is organized. It may be possible for a rare few to find solace in abandoned places, and hidden away mountains and valleys where there are no other humans, but that isn’t how civilization was built, and it’s not how future human civilization will grow and prosper. The advanced human condition almost everyone lives in today, in first world countries, involves dependence upon technological advances. Things like cars that work and run all the time, heating, air-conditioning, communications of all kinds and even entertainment, are all linked to the results of what human beings have built together in cultural constructs of joint team endeavor.

It is the fight against evil and corruption that makes the advances of civilization possible. And this fight for bliss and sunshine has to be done on a never-ending, implacable basis at the local level. Those few individuals who rise up against the machine of unchecked padded development, over-charged construction, and windfall profit condoned public projects, are those who make the continuance of civilization’s advances possible. Those few dedicated, raucous figures that show up at council, commission and committee meetings are often unsung, and mostly unknown to the public. These figures are in search of bliss and happiness for everyone, although it may not sound like that is what they are in search of when they berate local leaders for more and more data about financial information that these leaders do not want to give up. Decisions are made from information that is available. Elected officials all seem to come to believe, while serving, that they were elected to review information and make decisions, not to share information for any opinions that might be offered by members of the public, even their constituencies.

If it is a measure of social bliss you are truly seeking, and helping build a stronger more powerfully advancing order of civilization your goal, then that can only be done if the resources of your local gathering of fellow humans (often labeled, villages, towns and cities) are collected honestly, held in a trustworthy manner, and then decimated in prudent ways that help everyone involved, instead of only a few of the leaders, contractors and others looking to profit from performing community bid work. A few names the public have almost never heard of, who fight for this community’ bliss and advancement on a regular basis, are Ed Yaeger, Dick Malmin, Terry O’Neill, Mary Jo Fessenmeir, Penny Rohrer; all of whom have worked without pay or compensation in any way. Many times, they are out there at those meetings with nobody next to them, or in support of them at all. Come out and join them. You will be astounded how simply being present can make you feel connected, and what the results you will have returned to you and the rest of the community may be.

“You are My Sunshine” is a song with lyrics entirely appropriate to those in search of finding ways to help make their own and other lives better, and more filled with bliss, “You are my sunshine, my only sunshine. You make me happy when skies are gray. You’ll never know dear, how much I love you, please don’t take my sunshine away.” As I write this I am thinking about the phrase “how much I love you” and all of Geneva Lake comes to mind. Let it come, as you hum along and read those words.

With the news, so under attack for being ‘fake,’ or the leaders saying that being fake themselves, come to local meetings where decision are being made every week about the community’s and your own future, and where your presence alone can have a great impact. Listening and watching national politics may play across your television screen, raucously filled with reality-show kind of infantile and phony behavior, but the local political meetings you might consider attending are not like that at all. If you feel powerless and want to have an effect or simply bear witness for whatever effect results, then attend the city council, town board, commission and committee meetings.

You will find a good bit of sunshine and yes, love too.