So I may have said all of this before - I really don't remember.
How often has someone you know said that they were thinking about moving to Canada to escape the increasingly puritanical and idiotic direction this county is going? If you're anything like me, I'm betting the answer is often - and I'm betting you've said it yourself. I know I've said it, and thought it and really meant it on more than a few occasions. When Palin was announced, after I'd had a chance to find out what she's about - I again had that impulse. Followed very closely by the following:
I'm not going to move to Canada, I'm going to stay and fight.
To be clear, for me "stay and fight" means uproot my life and actually fight. Not donate some money (which I do). Not write my congressman (which absolutely helps). I'm talking quit theater and devote myself to making sure the people who bother to think about theater and art actually get to stick around and be heard (okay, and those who don't too).
So as things have gotten closer and I've had time to really process everything that this election means I've begun to take that one step further. The consensus of many of my friends is that if McPalin wins it's over - all over. I have such a distinct memory of the way I felt after the last election and this seems so much worse. So my thinking now is: why wait? Why should I wait for the bad guys to win in order to start fighting - doesn't that seem a little ridiculous? Gosh, if I were Sara Palin that would mean actually waiting until Russia invaded to start fighting - and we all know that's not what she does.
Snide remarks aside - can I really ignore what's going on? Can I ignore the social climate that got us here in the first place? Do any of those people who LOVE the "Maverick" party understand that what they're doing is taking things away from people who just want to live like them? How are they affected, really, by a federal marriage amendment? They'll still have their happy little wifey and kids and they'll still get to visit wifey in the hospital when she's sick. No skin off their back - it's all off mine. What, exactly, do those supreme court justices lose by overruling Roe v. Wade? Nothing. (well, maybe a little money since there'll be more unwanted kids to take care of and many more medical bills from back alley abortions gone wrong - but whatever).
So here's my conundrum: I have NO IDEA what to do. None. I still need a paycheck - how can I best work toward creating a world that I want to live in? Until I figure that out I'm going to approach it from an angle I know. I'm going to use theater. With the help of my awesome friends (many of whom don't even know it yet and one of whom helped me come up with it) I'm going to create a guerilla theater group to bring some attention to a tiny bit of this. I know it's a small thing - but you gotta start with what you know, right? Anyone interested?
