THANK YOU for this. Every word of it ❤️🔥❤️🔥❤️🔥. The battles are exhausting and they’re not helped by people elsewhere asking why you don’t leave, especially when those comments come from people in comfortable financial circumstances. I wish more people saying these things understood that whatever damage happens in these places does not, ever, confine itself to borders. I know some who are leaving because it’s gotten too uncomfortable, and others who want to leave for their own safety and can’t afford to. None of this is easy.
I'm with you on 'just leave.' Talk has always been cheap, and the internet has made thoughtless knee-jerk reply shit basically cost free for the replier.
I also don't take this as a serious suggestion, so much as 'I don't see that you can succeed in changing that community.' Which, may be ignorant or it may be realistic, depending on what community they're talking about.
I completely agree with your premise. I truly do. I often felt during the 2020 election and all the added politics of Covid that I was forced to fight every single day in my small rural county election office. Every day meant a new stress, a new argument ("Masks don't work, we're not asking the public to get wear them".) to allegations ("God only knows what you do with the ballots! ), to threats (I'll remember you! " as an angry first was jabbed in my direction.) to constant lies (No. I never received my mail ballot, I want to vote in person!) All of this was preceded by at least a decade of the same, sans the pandemic. Frankly, I was simply exhausted and I'm sure I'm not the only recent retiree who feels that way. In the end, i felt that few people had my back or the backs of those who worked for me and the voters. Of course, I heard "Oh, we know we can trust YOU!" quite often. But those words never made me feel better, and my and my staff's attempts at educating, explaining processes almost always fell on deaf ears. I have seldom run away from a fight, or an argument.... I've been arguing politics with my Montana friends since LBJ and the third grade! It certainly didn't help when in 2016, many of us couldn't even expect the Secretary of State to stand by us. I admire and am thankful for the people you mention here and grateful that I am able to "take a break" from all the hate and ugliness -- at least for awhile. If I were twenty or thirty years younger..... Any native Montanan knows where home is, no matter where they spent most of their days. . I hope these younger people continue to run for office and I pray that Montana returns to its 'live and let live' roots. Soon.
THANK YOU for this. Every word of it ❤️🔥❤️🔥❤️🔥. The battles are exhausting and they’re not helped by people elsewhere asking why you don’t leave, especially when those comments come from people in comfortable financial circumstances. I wish more people saying these things understood that whatever damage happens in these places does not, ever, confine itself to borders. I know some who are leaving because it’s gotten too uncomfortable, and others who want to leave for their own safety and can’t afford to. None of this is easy.
xoxoxo. LOVE this!
I'm with you on 'just leave.' Talk has always been cheap, and the internet has made thoughtless knee-jerk reply shit basically cost free for the replier.
I also don't take this as a serious suggestion, so much as 'I don't see that you can succeed in changing that community.' Which, may be ignorant or it may be realistic, depending on what community they're talking about.
I completely agree with your premise. I truly do. I often felt during the 2020 election and all the added politics of Covid that I was forced to fight every single day in my small rural county election office. Every day meant a new stress, a new argument ("Masks don't work, we're not asking the public to get wear them".) to allegations ("God only knows what you do with the ballots! ), to threats (I'll remember you! " as an angry first was jabbed in my direction.) to constant lies (No. I never received my mail ballot, I want to vote in person!) All of this was preceded by at least a decade of the same, sans the pandemic. Frankly, I was simply exhausted and I'm sure I'm not the only recent retiree who feels that way. In the end, i felt that few people had my back or the backs of those who worked for me and the voters. Of course, I heard "Oh, we know we can trust YOU!" quite often. But those words never made me feel better, and my and my staff's attempts at educating, explaining processes almost always fell on deaf ears. I have seldom run away from a fight, or an argument.... I've been arguing politics with my Montana friends since LBJ and the third grade! It certainly didn't help when in 2016, many of us couldn't even expect the Secretary of State to stand by us. I admire and am thankful for the people you mention here and grateful that I am able to "take a break" from all the hate and ugliness -- at least for awhile. If I were twenty or thirty years younger..... Any native Montanan knows where home is, no matter where they spent most of their days. . I hope these younger people continue to run for office and I pray that Montana returns to its 'live and let live' roots. Soon.