“It ain’t over til’ the fat lady sings,” the inappropriate and cruel cliché advises us.  Well, folks, unfortunately the fat lady from Arizona just sang in harmony with a WV Coal Baron, although they were only 2 members of the chorus of 52 self-serving obstructionists that belted out the song.  Maybe you missed the words and melody as it may have been overwhelmed by the voices of political rhetoric crying “stop the steal” and “anti-vaxx” and “personal freedom” and “Ivermectin.”  You might not have seen the performers, your vision blocked by the placards being wielded by “conscientious parents” gladly willing to risk their children’s lives in support of their own selfish and insane political philosophies because they’d rather remain wrong than admit they had been.  Or by the growing commonality of the Nazi swastikas spray-painted in the dead of night on our churches and synagogues; the brazen physical attacks on minorities; the growing number of non-sporting guns purchased by a “peaceful” citizenry.  And then there’s the massive wildfires over the continent; tornados taking out entire communities; hurricanes hammering our coastlines.  Yet annual record-setting of global temperature increases are worthy of no more than a stifled yawn.  Steven Hawkins warns that if we truly want to save the species, look to colonization of other planets.  He may well be onto something.

What we are witnessing is the complete collapse of sanity.  When the purported “most wise” among us, our Supreme Court, has members in their childish tantrums refuse to wear a protective mask to protect other members for political reasons, we have far surpassed the intent of our Founding Fathers in their creation of our Constitution.  When our elected leaders publically advocate arrest, incarceration and even execution of medical scientists, doctors and nurse, the ghost of Thomas Jefferson must be reaching for his cup of hemlock.  When an unborn fetus has more rights and support in the Christian community than an underfed two-year old, we have reached the epitome of decadence as a society.

No…the song has definitely been sung, with all the notes and words written by a complacent population who found instant gratification to be superior to long-term stability.  Now it’s time for those of us who knew better to pull our heads into the shell like turtles, and await the “I told you so” day when our ponds dry up.

I, for one, am tired, but that’s because I lived through the best of American times and can still remember them.  Fortunately, I likely won’t be here long enough to say “I told you so” but I’m tired of being ridiculed by those speaking platitudes and playing games on their new $1.5K iphones; by those who listen daily to the investors and ignore the scientists; by those overweight retirees in the plastic Florida communities, sitting by their swimming pools, margaritas in hand, who ask, “Who cares if the rhinoceros disappears in Africa?  Isn’t that what zoos are for?” Or those who tell me the changing climate is simply common normal weather patterns, the scientists only lying to us to secure lucrative research grants (government funded, of course).  And I’m especially tired of those who quote scripture to convince me that a higher power will get us through this.  Surely, if there really was a higher power I can’t believe stupidity and greed would receive such high standings.

So I’m going to cease wasting any more time writing about it.  I’ll still worry, but in the vein of one who’s been diagnosed with an incurable ailment and is simply counting the days.  It’s time for me to quit the fight, recall the good times and salute the winners with my middle finger.  And I’m sure they will simply rejoice, saying “Good riddance.”