Trish (not her real name) has a few signs in her yard, which I have recently seen sprouting up around our neighborhood in upstate New York. "BUSH LIED," says one; "BUSH OUT," shouts the other...
I felt I should stop and talk to this person who is ballsy enough to put such signs out in this conservative, church-going community. I'm glad I did. Not only did Trish appreciate me not yelling something obscene at her, but she was glad to share her feelings about the election. Trish will be voting with her emotions. In a way she is an ABBer: Her nephew is in the National Guard, going to Iraq and is no more qualified to go there than, well, me. Her nephew was lied to. He joined after 9/11 hoping to get some fire fighting experience, so he could eventually become a fireman. Well, that did not happen... "The loss of all those firemen in New York City made such an impression on him," Trish concluded. That was it, end of conversation. She may have been pressed for time or just felt uncomfortable talking to a stranger, yet before I left someone stopped and asked where she had gotten the signs.
Now Bill, on the other hand, had plenty to say about that asshole Bush -- "and I voted for the guy," said Bill. "Giving all that money to his oil buddies; hell, look at the price of gas, about the only time I'll feel good about paying for it will be on my way to vote." When I asked him who he was going to vote for, he answered matter-of-factly: ABB!
We will all be going to the next election for one reason or another, some as payback for what the Supreme Court did in the last one, some out of civic duty, others out of anger and some, just to tow the party line. But many will vote according to their emotions (fear, anxiety, and sadness); no deep thinking here, the last four years of this ass-end of the Republican Party has been too much, much too much. ABB may be the worst reason in the world to vote for anyone else, yet there has never been a time like this in this country's history. I cannot bring myself to denounce, or for that matter approve the ABB movement...I fully acknowledge the emotions that will play out in November.
So, you may ask, who will you be voting for, Frank Wycoff? Someone whose words and deeds acknowledge the needs of the sick, the poor and the downtrodden of this country and of the world. I'm leaning towards Rev. Al Sharpton -- he hit an emotion in me with one of his speeches!
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Frank Wycoff is a true friend of Swans, literally. Even more, he was one of the five crazies who launched Swans in 1996, and while not contributing his words for several years, he has helped in countless ways, quietly, in the background, to keep the project going. Frank Wycoff used to have a small printing business in California. He and his wife Nancy sold it in 1998 and relocated to Oneonta, New York, where he now works as an independent contractor around the houses, many of them in dire need of his expertise.
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