Outrage & Moral Indignation Addiction

Am I the only one who would like to take a break from outrage and moral indignation?

Yes, there is injustice in the world.

True, George W. Bush is a bad mother-bleeper who needs to go sit on a ranch and think about what he’s done for a while.

Yes, there are still homophobics in California. They love marriage and monogamy so much they don’t want to share it.

There are also gays in California and some of them want to get married so they can have all the legal rights and responsibilities marriage provides.

And yes, there is a crazy group in Colorado who hopes to declare a fertilized egg a legal “person” to trample Roe v. Wade.

Yes, the auto industry needs a bail out though they appear to have “set aside” millions of dollars in “bonuses” for their executives to have a Merry Christmas, even as they didn’t have the foresight to retool their factories for a new generation of environmentally friendly and economical cars. Of course, it defies logic. But, are we that surprised?

Yes, lay-offs are immanent and it might be you (or my husband) this week. It was my cousin last week.

Motrin dares – how dare they – suggest that carrying a baby in a sling or other contraption might actually hurt a mother’s back (hello, Chiropractor, did you say my insurance is pretty much making me pay full price now?)

Yes, health insurance premiums are up and benefits are down and no one can afford to pay full price for healthcare.

Yes, people are going to lose homes they couldn’t afford to buy in the first place and mortgage brokers intentionally sold them those loans knowing they couldn’t afford to pay them and effectively crashed the economy.

Ditto credit card companies and auto makers.

What I find most interesting is that the Obama Celebration only lasted about a week before people found something new to be incensed about. Or they didn’t know how to give up the negative emotional feed they were getting off their moral indignation that people would dare to see things differently in the first place.

Even the people who WON are still furiously incensed – I can’t tell you how livid a friend of mine was that California would dare give gay people the right to marry.

Except, they didn’t, so why aren’t you happy and celebrating your win? Why are you still so angry? I wondered.

All over twitter I’m reading about how loathsome that group in Colorado is for wanted to give personhood rights to the unborn.

Except that the bill lost by 73% of the vote.

We just elected a Pro-Choice President who will support a justice to keep Roe v. Wade safe and sound.

And the Supreme Court would likely overturn a personhood bill that was worded in such extreme language that even Religious Conservatives would defend their right to take the birth control pill and other hormonal contraceptives – so why are you giving this group free publicity?

We just elected a President who promised to address the serious problems with the healthcare industry and insurance issues. The guy has yet to fail, so why aren’t we saying “thank goodness we’ve done what we can about this issue,” as we pay our medical bills now?

Are we now getting an emotional feed off the incensed morally outraged high we’ve all been riding on during the campaigns?

Were we expecting people with opposing views to say, “Oh, you were right. I see that now.” Really?

Sane people, people not acting out of fear of “potential wrong” sigh and remember,

Less than one month ago the majority of legal citizens of the United States of America collectively chose to change the face of the President of the United States, The United States Senate, The United States House of Representatives and likely at least one justice on The United States Supreme Court.

Let’s assume that when our new elected officials do take charge on Jan. 20 of 2009 they will do what we sent them there to do. Sitting ducks can only do so much harm over the next 2 months and little of it will be permanent.

We’re in an economic pickle. It’s not going to be pretty, or comfortable but it will turn out OK. It will.

We did what we could on election day and the work will begin as power peacefully changes hands in January. Now, we’ve got to think of creative ways we can personally stimulate our own economy. If everyone does that we’ll be all right.

Take a deep cleansing breath America.