We live in the heart of the beast.

"I envy you. You North Americans are very lucky. You are fighting the most important fight of all - you live in the heart of the beast."

-- Che Guevara (1964)

Every sentient, honest American knows we are living through an Event. I post this to suggest that we all take care of ourselves -- re-resolve to stay as physically and mentally healthy as possible, to stay in communication with loved ones and our support network, and to rededicate ourselves to growth and the acquisition of wisdom and skills. Times like these are guaranteed to magnify our personal flaws, but we don't have to help that along. It's never too late to adapt, rise up to and conquer these times, not until we're all face down in the dirt, and that is an important fact human beings tend to forget in the face of the Overwhelming.

I don't think any of us living have been though any experience remotely similar to this one, but our ancestors certainly have. Consider an early tribe of humans or even pre-humans betrayed and given over to a competing tribe by a member seeking more power. Such betrayal has always depended on sowing demoralization and despair to succeed. The individual resolution of the remaining loyal members to regain and recommit to a cohesive social order is the bane of the betrayer, and the measure of the true strength of the tribe.

Mueller notwithstanding, this is going to be tough. Destructive self-medication, withdrawal and isolation, storing stress in the body, and allowing anxiety-driven certainties of doom to take hold serve only the betrayer. We're not the Greatest Generation; we're probably going to have to be better than that, because the lines aren't clear, the enemy is inside the gates, the task does not present itself, and that's what's going to make it all the more difficult to overcome.

Still we Resist. Democratic Underground embodies and strengthens the myths and rituals of my tribe. I hug you all.