So, how will WE save you from this dark and stormy night?

Sign Up For Our FREE Daily eNews!

NEC LOGO GSMAs the nation rages tonight, as the President threatens Martial Law, as a mother mourns a son and a virus eats away at a population with 40 million unemployed, rest easy, my friends, because you are in good hands.  WE are here for you, for all of you, in all our soft glory, waving our flags, growing our goatees, wearing our house pants, bored at the core and so far from our prime, from the real action, that pretending WE know anything about anything is about all we got.
So, how will WE save you from this dark and stormy night?
Well…
WE will do nothing.
WE are keyboard activists.
WE click our index finger, roll an arrow across a screen and click again.  That’s it.  That’s what we’ve deemed being an active citizen.
WE do jack shit, to be blunt, to change anything beyond our bras and whites and our television shows.
WE live in safe neighborhoods.
WE get spooked if a dog barks past ten.
WE have never been in trouble with the law, never been broke, never been scared to walk down a street.
WE have never been forcefully separated from our ten-year old daughter and watch her caged along with hundreds of other children.
WE have never been gunned down while out for a nice afternoon run.
WE have never marched, never protested, never did nothing but feed our own petty causes.  Like, is Peaky Blinders back on?
WE have never even donated to a cause.  Hell, the wallets in the other room.  Next time.  Maybe.
WE live in a bubble.  And WE know it.  But WE can’t admit it.  Because WE lost our balls years ago.
WE make up stories about our past.  Shit that never even happened. Like ever.  Like that touchdown or that threesome or that million dollar deal.
WE are afraid of the unknown.  That’s why we curse it and try to bury it.  Yuck, go away.  You don’t look like me.
WE live in Candyland, where the waters always hot, the freezer is loaded with fish and our necks are safe from being kneeled on.
WE never had to watch our wife or brother or child die of COVID-19 via Zoom.  But WE know what it’s like.
WE live in an area where there’s less than 10 total deaths by the virus, but WE will speak for the people of Chicago or Boston.  Because WE know.
WE know “It’s only like 1% of people are dying.”  Oh, WE know.
WE follow people on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram that are true activists.  Then WE pretend that we’re an activist too for “liking” a page.
WE lie in bed hungover on Saturday’s when millions of others were marching in the streets, mad as hell.  Then WE get to clicking and commentating.
WE boast and steal commentary from people who boast and steal commentary then WE call it our own.  Sad, right?  It is, right?  Has to be.
WE know nothing about fact because we don’t know anything about the facts. Yet we pretend we do because you know a guy who knows a guy….
WE don’t even know WE are being torn up in this column.  WE are blind.
WE aren’t briefed in Washington D.C. on policy and WE aren’t supposed to be.  WE are WE.  They are them.  That’s how it’s always been.
WE are the people who walk into a cookout empty-handed and start bitching about how long the steak was on the grill.
WE go to our jobs, WE take our wages, WE eat our dinner and WE sit on our asses.
WE then talk like we spent the whole day in a meeting with Barr, Pompeo and Pence.
WE are administrators, blue-collar workers, Mom’s, students, sales hacks and whack jobs,
And WE are a large part of the problem.  All of us do-nothings.  Big talkers.   Keyboard Activists.
So, why don’t WE let the real men and women hash this out and WE can go back to playing pretend.
Like WE did when WE were kids.
I’ll say “uncle” if you do too.

 

About this Author

Rob Azevedo

Rob Azevedo is an author, poet, columnist and radio host. He can be reached sitting in his barn at Pembroke City Limits and onemanmanch@gmail.com