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We are all just people at a concert-in-the-park [1]

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Date: 2025-07-29

We went to a concert-in-the-park yesterday to hear Melissa Etheridge and the Indigo Girls. It was - as concerts-in-the-park usually are - magical.

I love the atmosphere. People are joined together by a love of music and, by extension, a love of life on our little planet.

I saw strangers and friends and lovers smiling, singing, laughing and dancing to music that they all knew so well.

I saw people helping people without asking qualifying questions.

The ASL interpreter smiled and danced as she translated lyrics and spoken words to the non-hearing crowd.

The medics had their tent and equipment all ready to go.

The event staff tirelessly assisted the thousands of people in every way possible, so that everyone could have a great experience.

What were the concertgoers' immigration statuses? No one cared.

What were the concertgoers' politics? No one cared.

What was their sexual orientation? No one cared.

How about their religious views? Again, no one cared.

For a few precious minutes, we were all the same: people lapping up the joy of music, the joy of being alive, the joy of shared happiness. And everyone helped contribute to the joy.

I wish I could have just stayed there, and not read the miserable headlines again about how our "elected" officials apparently seethe at such displays of happiness. I say this because they seem to be doing everything in their power to spoil the joy - and spoil life - for so many people. And - as we all know - most of those doing the spoiling are enjoying the very best life money can buy.

I wish I could have stayed there.

All I want is to love my neighbor. To help them when they need it. To - where possible - remove obstacles to their happiness. To give them food stamps when they need them to feed their children. To help them share in what we used to call the American dream. To provide medicine without price gouging. To provide employees who are hired by American businesses a way to be employed legally.

Most of us do all of the above at a micro level all the time. If our neighbor asks for a dozen eggs, we give it if we have it. We ask our neighbor to feed the dog for a couple of days, and they happily do it. If our neighbor is in trouble, we help. This is just common, human behavior.

But many of our "elected" officials for some evil reason are working overtime to pit us against each other. I believe the evil reason is - as it always is - power and money. They know - as many dictators before them knew - that with a few tugs of the marionette strings, they can get people to hate. And then they can use that hate to win votes.

I put "elected" in quotes because people are not the real voters anymore, since Citizen's United. Corporations and billionaires are the real voters. They buy enough ads (the marionette strings), and walk the people-puppets to the voting booths. And if that's not enough, they gerrymander until they get what they want. And if the State legislatures are not sufficiently complicit to enable gerrymandering, they spend money to buy State votes until they are. Lather, rinse, repeat.

And now Democrats are considering pushing retaliatory gerrymandering. So corruption is begetting corruption.

If we were acting like people at the concert-in-the-park, we wouldn't think twice: we'd just take a head count and factually, actually, statistically, correctly assign legislators to represent the people who live in the State.

We must stop letting corporations and billionaires buy our elections. We must stop voting against ourselves and our neighbors. All we need to do to accomplish this is to cut the marionette strings. There are stories of MAGA voters who are disillusioned. They have cut their strings. No matter how many attack ads, or AI-generated nonsense, or outright lies are blasted at us on a daily basis - we must all remember that we are still in control. We cannot continue to cast votes based on hatred of others. It has gotten us into a downward spiral that leads to ruin. Trump and his cronies are laughing all the way to the bank as they manipulate the strings of their base voting bloc. It has to end. Hopefully, there is still time to recover from this.

I want to fly our flag again with real pride. I want to chat with my long-time, awesome lawn guy without immigration even crossing my mind. I want to shed tears of joy when I hear the Star-Spangled Banner - not tears of sadness for what we've become. I want to see Federal and State governments utilize their immense power and work together to address houselessness, hunger, disaster recovery and immigration. We all know they can do it if that’s what they choose to focus on. History tells us what incredible things our government has been able to accomplish when it’s working for the people.

We are all just people at a concert-in-the-park - all trying to enjoy the short life we've been given as much as possible. This is what 99% of people want. It's all we ask for - and it's not an unreasonable ask. But some people deem it their life's work to ruin others' lives so that they can have just a tiny-bit-bigger slice of the pie. What a shameful legacy they will leave behind. For the sake of our country, and our children, we must all work together to remove these people from power and implement changes so that this can never happen again.

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[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2025/7/29/2335791/-Concert-in-the-Park?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=more_community&pm_medium=web

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