I want to help.

[OldBaldy1701E]

But, between my health, my lack of wealth, a complete lack of hope for anything anymore, as well as my ever-growing fury over what is happening in this city/state/country, plus the fact that I will NOT stand idly by when someone is being attacked (I do not care about their accoutrements, without proper ID, they are criminals engaged in criminal activity).

So, it is probably best that I sit in my living room and slowly waste away. I would not be of any use in the current mindset that is being applied here. (I doubt I would be of any use in any mindset, to be honest.)

But, I am finding it increasingly hard not to do something, even if that something would not be... popular?

[senseandsensibility]

1. It sounds to me like you are being too hard on yourself

Cut yourself some slack, as we used to say. It's easy to feel hopeless and I share that sentiment sometimes, but if your age and health are contributing factors to you not being able to do more, just do what you can. Even small things like contacting your reps and of course voting make a difference. We all do what we can, and if your heart is in the right place there's no reason to feel guilty!

[OldBaldy1701E]

10. That seems to be the issue.

Some think that it is not.

Because, for some reason, my disgust and calls for action over letting those thugs run amok without any response in kind is not considered being 'in the right place'.

My guilt is the fact that I have failed in every way, and this is just another failure. No one wants to listen and no one wants to change what it behind this. Changing it would, in fact, help us remove the current regime, as well as making sure we never get another one.

But, I am wrong about all of this, according to everyone, so...

[applegrove]

2. Look in Blue Sky, and other websites, for content to

put up in the DU as Original Posts. Is some issue being missed? Is something off to the side interesting? We have to keep people with a wide scope even though their instincts would be to narrow the focus to a few things that scare them the most about what is happening to the USA. Tunnel vision is a trap. You can do it!!!

[OldBaldy1701E]

7. Thanks.

I have been. Its is just that my position on the causes of this and what we can do about it seems to be at odds with what others here are thinking and what they see as 'the best way forward'.

As I have said before, those who are in the socioeconomic position to ride this out are the same ones telling us to not do anything other than whine like little children. I just find that silly advice, since they don't seem to understand that this is a war zone. But, they are our leaders, so we are supposed to die off while they wait for the right moment to do something that will not remove the system that gives them their power as well. But, sorry folks, if we really want this to never happen again, that is exactly what has to be done. But, it won't happen. Because we are programmed to believe anyone with a large bank account and to not mess with anything that might change or remove that equation.

It is insulting and disgusting to me.

But, I guess I am alone in this position.

It is hard to watch the train wreck when you were warning it to watch out a long time ago. It I even harder knowing that we will be among the first to die in said wreck. That tends to make one very... irrational... at times.

And very angry.

[applegrove]

17. This is a favourite of mine. It is hopeful.

https://thejenniwren.substack.com/p/to-the-naysayers-youre-wrong-were?utm_campaign=posts-open-in-app&triedRedirect=true

[OldBaldy1701E]

18. That was very interesting.

However, that is all based on a properly working social system.

In my opinion, we don't have one.

I will be reading it again. I do find it funny to read his attacks on other methodology right after he had just finished saying that his was attacked.

[CTyankee]

21. This is why I have turned to ART in my life! For some reason, art always saves you.

I study, and write about, artists: their lives and how their lives have played out in their art. Some were sucking up to rich people who paid them to paint a great scene from the Old or New Testament and whammo, there it is! In full color, really big, suitable for hanging in your palace, country villa, or better yet, your church. Now, if possible, we got it in our secular museums. Still, it lives its life.

That's what saves me and with the Internet I can have most of it at any time of day or night. It's a help. Not a cure but a help.

[OldBaldy1701E]

23. As a former artist, I agree with you.

But that is part of my problem. I seem to have lost any desire to do anything again.

My muse has left me.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

3. I bet you know enough people that if you asked five of them to pitch in five bucks and each ask five friends to do the

same that you’d come up with a nice lil chunk for a ball fund or rent relief or legal aid.

[OldBaldy1701E]

6. Unfortunately, you would lose that bet.

I don't know anyone around here outside of our former landlord, whom I wish to stay away from because I am still willing to knock his teeth out for lying and misleading us for years. That is about it. There is myself and there is my husband. I have struggled immensely with trying to find a friend up here. It had been my experience that no one up here is interested in being around me. I find that very wild, as this decision is usually made without even meeting in most instances. Apparently, people here can just lay eyes on someone and immediately know everything a bout them as well as discerning the fact that I would certainly not make an acceptable acquaintance. I cannot explain it, as this has never been an issue in my entire life... before moving here.

There is also the fact that I am not alone in this struggle, and I guess my ability to connect with rich people has never worked because all the people I know (from where we used to live) are in the same boat. They don't have five bucks to spare.

But, thanks for being positive. That is something that I cannot do anymore.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

15. You've got 11 hearts on here. If you made a post asking people to throw five bucks at their local food shelf in addition

Last edited Sun Feb 8, 2026, 02:08 PM - Edit history (1)

to donating a heart to you, even if only half do so, that's a nice pile of groceries for people who need it. Are you still in touch with people online?

[OldBaldy1701E]

19. Barely.

And, everyone that I am in touch with are basically in the same boat.

No help there.

[1WorldHope]

4. It sounds like you are toying with ending it all.

Am I reading you correctly?

[OldBaldy1701E]

8. I have been toying with that for most of my entire life.

But, this time it is different in that there is nothing to be done. There is no help outside of each other. There is no relief in sight for anyone who is not already wealthy. People like me are the fodder. We are what they use to build the roads and the buildings. We are the ones who die working for those who could care less.

And, we were given the chance to address it all with this regime coming into power. But, we won't. Because to remove what put the slime there is to remove what put all of them there.

And, we just won't do it. So, the system that wants me to defend it is the same system that caused all of this and is why I have nothing and can hope for nothing.

Knowing all of this... is it any wonder that part of me wants to get the hell out of here?

[1WorldHope]

12. I hear you. I feel hopeless much of the time myself.

You are a good writer. Keep writing and remember you are not on this ship alone and before it sinks, you might be able to save someone else.
You are so right about us being fodder. We are the labor and the grease that keeps their cruel machines going. I think since Reagan/Bush some real nasty shit has been happening that they have been able to cover up until now. They are fighting like hell to keep it buried, but that is harder to do in the age of computers that are now in our hands. I think we have broke open some of the secrets that have been keeping a lot of these greedy fuckers quiet.
When I realized the sex trafficking of children was going right to the top and spilling over into the governments of other countries, I came to this conclusion:
They aren't against abortion because they love fetuses. They are against abortion because they want to, torture, rape and kill those kids. If there are no homeless kids or dirt poor kids on the street where will they get their supply?
It's pretty hard to live with these truths.
There are 3 places I go to get a little relief, #1 protests. Find out about local protests, contact the organization and tell them you need a ride.
2nd I talk to my sister and girl friends on the phone. 3rd I come here to see that I am not alone.
People on earth have always struggled, in many cases much worse than we have, they still are. Imagine living in a cardboard box along the RR tracks in India with the other untouchables. I'm going to guess that you are white like me, just imagine not being white in this country.
There is an artist I think would help you to listen to, his name is John Trudell. He was a native man who was a poet and put his words to native music, chanting and drums. He speaks about the white man's ways destroying not only them but us as well. He's not angry at us even though the FBI burned down his home in the winter on the reservation and killed his wife and 3 or 4 children, during the modern day Wounded Knee. I'll try to paste the URL here without losing every thing I wrote. On second thought, I will add it on edit. I'm always here to talk. Thank you for reaching out and saying what many of us are also feeling. ❤️✌🏼🤟🏼
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLxabnVY97eqrjFnSyZuhIAypSRFFV10Zv&si=ytdUA9crguehB4ai

https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL1-HFByaINkLSe1VlPVDXlpRoPFJQ2sF6&si=K_CInCZ27mS-61X-

[Ocelot II]

5. You can help. Everyone can help in some way. You don't have to be on the front lines.

You don't need to be a hero and obviously we don't need any more martyrs. If you can't afford to offer financial assistance, you can go to one of the helping groups and do something like sort clothing and food to be delivered. You can just stand or sit on a street corner with a sign - those groups are all over now. If you can't leave your house, write letters to your state and federal reps and letters to the editors of newspapers. Everyone can do something, and you would absolutely be useful. Here's a list of ways to help. https://files.constantcontact.com/922451b6901/1adc2445-c7ed-4823-80a8-d0b2924b1990.pdf

[OldBaldy1701E]

9. What is interesting is that I am also in need of most of what is listed there.

For now, the main issue is that I cannot find it within myself to do much of anything, as the cause of all of this is not going to be addressed, nor even acknowledged.

I am not sure I want to help retain the current system. I want it to change. No one else seems to want to.

So, there is quite the struggle inside at the moment as to what I can do, when I still hold the position that we are not going about this in the correct way, nor trying for the goal of making sure this does not happen again. I want to help, but I don't want to help keep the reason why our citizens are being attacked in place.

The majority of the list are things that I have said that I cannot do. Which is rather deflating, I must say. I also love how money is pretty much the main thing needed to do anything. Both sides are practically begging for it. For those of us who do not have it, we don't offer much other than 'grunt' physical labor, and I cannot do that anymore. Hell, I cannot even clean my bathroom in one day!

[Ocelot II]

11. You can write! You're good at it.

The pen is mightier than the sword and all that. Use that sword! Write to all the politicians you can think of. Paper mail gets more attention than email, but if email is all you have, use that. Call their offices, too. Write letters to newspapers and blogs. Put posters up in your windows. Even staying home, you have the power of your opinion and your voice. Don't believe for a minute that you have no power.

[haele]

13. Even a small act of kindness helps and can be enough to get someone moving.

And your writing, providing reasons and cogent arguments to do better may inspire someone who may be stuck in a rut of dissonance.
We all do what we can.

[OldBaldy1701E]

22. Thanks. Unfortunately, I am the one stuck in 'dissonance'.

Because people are dying and being hauled away and I don't see much in response other than the idea that chipping away at a mountain with a toothpick is going to solve this.

And, it may well work... in about a hundred years. Sadly, we don't have a hundred years. I know that Alex Pretti does not. Neither does Rene Good. Neither do the many people who are now standing on foreign soil with nothing and no way to begin to find their way home. Neither do the masses of people being treated as little more than chattel in detention, being tortured and dehumanized, while we stand on street corners for a few hours and yell at passing cars.

That makes me angry. Very much so. I know if I were treated in this manner, and I found out that those who I thought were on my side were standing on a corner waving some paper signs as opposed to forcing those idiots to release me, I would probably feel pretty let down. And, betrayed. And angry.

How do those people feel, I wonder? Do you think they are cheering this crap on, or are they feeling deflated and betrayed because 'ain't no one coming to save them'? (I know that for some of them, that reality must hit really hard, as this is the second, or third country that has treated them in this manner.) I know I cannot fault them if they do feel that way.

Because I know how I would feel.

[haele]

24. I feel like my 3x collective Greats who in the early 18th century, settled in hollars in

In eastern North Carolina out where Fontana Lake is now.
They had all come from semi-literate people who had fled indentured servitude; they hung out with the local Natives, were neutral during the Revolutionary war, (though always expressed preference for Democracy and fair application of Law) and during the Antebellum period, ended up part of the Underground Railroad.
While they weren't Quakers (they had no problems with fighting if they saw a need, associating with smugglers or turning a blind eye on what they considered minor crimes for survival), they had absolutely no truck with slavery or bullies of any kind. They weren't radicals, but they did what was in their moral comfort zone to stand up against what they saw as evil and I think that's kind of the point you are talking around.

The average human cannot wrap their minds around being individually radical, to stand out and risk targeting or death unless it's to protect something or someones immediate to them.
Most people just will do what they can to further their while protecting their families or friends and the ability to take care of them. Like taking food and medications to neighbors afraid to go out, or acting as clinic escorts or medics. Writing to their representatives. Protesting, boycotts, and lawsuits. Organizing to blocking access to bullies.

And while all that seems rather useless and cowardly, it's human. And yeah, we have to live with it.

[usonian]

14. I have been living alone for over 10 years.

Friends and family are at least 50 miles away, and the chores csn seem overwhelming.

I live on a ridge with glorious views and offer homemade baked ziti for guests. And nobody visits.

But I feel somehow connected because my philosophy is one of connectedness rather than the western one of isolation and conflict.

I won't preach. I think you know what I am talking about. 🪷 It works.

Peace.

[OldBaldy1701E]

20. It seems as though you are connected to the land. I have known others in your position.

I applaud them.

They found something that they wanted and they got it.

Some of us never got that chance. Some of us never will.

And, some of us found it, but never were able to make it happen. That hurts most of all.

That line from 'Men In Black' resonates with me so much.

"Try it." That really hits me. Like him, I did try it. Like him, I am the worse for it. Except, I am not part of a multinational agency that offers me protection, aid, and succor. I just get to wallow in it.

Good on you for finding your 'spot'.

[usonian]

25. Thank you, I say, especially about tech: "It's still a world of people. Just not here."

I try to make the best of every day. Last evening, I walked down the driveway to get some photos of Indian Warrior plants.



I'd rather say "close to nature" than the land, because I capture beauty everywhere I go, and it's time to move on from isolation.

I happened on this place after a divorce, and had half the proceeds of the home sale. Seeing how beautiful it was, I thought for sure that lots of old friends would visit, especially since it's on the road to Yosemite. Well, that never happened.

I'm supposed to drive, at age 77, at least 50 miles to "let's meet for coffee"?

People are really nice but lazy. It's human nature and I am not the kind to kick asses.

I'll make the 50 mile trek today to the nearest Trader Joe's. shop for new pillow covers and maybe get some prints made of my photos. Kiosk? No kiosk here. I've got maybe a couple of friends here, which is a large percentage of the population.

People stayed away from the marriage feast at Cana in the Bible. 500 followers walked out on the Buddha when they were comfy in their own skins and not feeling much for others, which is exactly what their teacher did for them.

A mystic wrote: Life's a game; one of giving and receiving. You get what you give, and I see that spirit here, where we try to encourage others and work for their betterment, not for any expected reward, but because "it's the right thing to do"

I share photos now and then, but they have to be shrunk to post, and lose quality, but nothing shrinks the concern and wishes I have for people I've befriended here who are in need. It just doesn't come with coffee and a muffin. I can make that happen in my sphere, even if means moving the sphere 'cause "it's too far to drive" for everyone but myself. (and my amazing daughter, who drives the 200 miles to visit)

Cheers. It's still a world of people, and I'll get there yet.

[MagickMuffin]

16. Walk for Peace videos are an Eye Opener

These Venerable Monks have been Walking for Peace since late Oct 2025. They started from Fort Worth, Texas and have been traveling thru various southern states and are making their way to DC. The reception they are receiving brings tears to my eyes, because they are drawing 10s of thousands of people, all walks of life.

Even the Enforcers are providing escorts for them and giving them pins from their departments. And they have expressed their profound gratitude to the Venerable Monks and their message Walk for Peace

"May you be well, happy and at peace!"