A Harsher World

time to honestly address the battle between good and evil

This weekend has felt heavy. A three hour nap didn’t help.

We’re in a constant push of being on the verge of something terrible, temporarily avoiding the inevitable for only a moment. I call it the George Floyd Effect, where the country is being driven further and further into chaos until the dam breaks. If one crisis doesn’t take, simply wait for the next one.

I don’t care where you fall on the political spectrum or which party you think is furthering this trajectory into darkness. The end result is utter exhaustion. That’s by design.

Knowing that this is the status quo for the foreseeable future, how do we handle it? Do we adjust? Do we resist? How do we avoid constant anger or being engulfed by insanity?

It’s impossible to avoid, and the happy warrior ethos only takes you so far. The world has become harsher. Let’s not pretend this stays relegated to our screens.

Moving through life with a disability puts a sharp point on the shifts. Prior to lockdowns and social distancing, people held doors for me, smiled, and made eye contact. Now I avoid our local co-op. The looks of fear and disgust are unnecessary. My cane isn’t going to leap from my hand and infect them, but that’s certainly the impression they have.

The local shops with the most intense virtue signaling paraphernalia are the ones with the worst handicap parking. If you’re going to claim to advocate for minorities and the most vulnerable in our society, start with what’s easily within reach.

Lack of awareness isn’t an excuse. It’s a lie anyway. These folks are fully cognizant of their actions.

Take a business owned by someone with whom I socialized in my early twenties that’s managed by an individual I’ve known since high school. I have mentioned no fewer than four times that the flower planters barricade the handicap parking spot from the door.

For someone like me with mobility problems, it’s tricky enough. For a van unloading a wheelchair, it’s downright worthless. Did they address it? Sure, if you call adding more planters a fix.

A friend has been forced to explain to her seven year old daughter why protestors are out every Saturday in the town square making death threats against our president. No child should need to understand the meaning of “86/47” or why adults are lunging at cars in the street.

These are not stand alone examples. I’m sure each of us has a list of all of the different ways in which we feel the shift. We steel ourselves against them. Shrug them off. Raise our tolerance.

They render me more housebound. As someone with a nervous system that cannot handle unexpected stress, I limit my risk of volatile situations and unpredictable crowds. My choice is to remain home rather than experience spontaneous paralysis in public.

Let’s not gloss over what an incredible scenario this is that there’s even a consideration to accommodate atrocious behavior. We’re walking on eggshells for the most unpredictable among us. Adjustments are made for the most angry and unstable, not the disabled. As my dad keenly observes, they’re the wrong eggshells. When did that shift take place?

A more important question, how do we find our way back?

I was raised in a household where complaining without having a proposed solution in your back pocket was discouraged. Other than ceasing to tolerate this nonsense, I have no suggestions to bring to the table… or do I. We’re in an ideological clash of good versus evil.

While I may love the folks who are advocating for Leftism, they’re backing horrific ideas. The track record of Socialism, Communism, and Marxism is one of death and misery. Can we heed historical precedent for once?

There’s no middle ground in a spiritual battle. It’s time we call a spade a spade and start honestly exposing evil. Much of it is celebrated in plain sight. Time to put an end to that.

So where do we go from here when we’ve been forced into a corner where coexisting is no longer an option? Leftism has infiltrated every aspect of our lives. Ignoring it only accelerates the fester. Yet overly focusing on combatting it leads to burnout and sucks the joy out of life. If that’s the case, the darkness has already won. I still have more questions than answers.

To call out evil, one must first understand it.