This Ain’t Livin’
Not in 1971 and not now
The late, great Marvin Gaye had it right in his iconic 1971 classic, “Inner City Blues” which was a fierce indictment of conditions in ghettos in inner-city America, racial inequality, and the overall bleak economic landscape of the time.
This ain’t livin’, This ain’t livin’ No, no baby, this ain’t livin’
My friends, in my humble estimation, what we are doing now isn’t living, not by a long shot. It feels like we’re barely existing and every time I hear or read some bit of gush about how wonderful it is to be home and “all together,” I could punch a wall.
Not being able to go to a grocery store without a face covering isn’t living.
Not being able to meet friends for the occasional drink isn’t living.
Not being able to see or hug loved ones isn’t living.
Not having leaders we can trust to have our best interests at heart isn’t living.
Not knowing when this is going to end, or IF, in our lifetime, certainly isn’t living. A living nightmare is what this is.
Oh, make me wanna holler and throw up both my hands.
My husband and I feel relatively lucky in comparison with so many others. He’s working. We’re not destitute. We have each other and other three cats along with all the basics — food, a roof over our heads.
But I won’t sugarcoat it. Mentally, we’re in the shit. I believe he’s even worse off than I am. And there’s nothing I can do about it. I’ve tried.
When I see TV commercials trumpeting huge discounts on luxury automobiles, for example, I could hurl my wine glass at the television. (Yeah, I’m back on the sauce.)
I mean, WTF? Who’s buying these cars and where the hell are they going?
Or, how about the ones for a food delivery service where the woman is nearly orgasmic in her pronouncement that “Honey, we don’t have to cook anymore!”
“Yes, thanks to a pandemic, you idiot, you don’t have to cook anymore!”
Aside from the bleating of marketers, the actual news is a horror show unmatched by anything on celluloid. Deaths from Covid are still on the rise, Black men are still getting shot and now a 17-year-old piece of shit has made a name for himself by killing two people in Kenosha, Wisconsin.
Some little Trump-loving twat who probably couldn’t get a date to save his life or picked for a game of softball murders two protestors injures another and there are people supporting this!
For my money, this kid should be locked up and cornholed until his ass bleeds, but the right-wingers are going to do their best to ensure this doesn’t happen.
How in the hell did we get to this surreal place? More importantly, how do we get out when there’s no escape hatch?
We’ve been told that these “difficult times” are only going to get worse. Worse! In the U.S. the “experts” are predicting another 150,000 dead by December.
Happy Holidays.
The virus aside, so many people are barely hanging on. They can’t pay their mortgages or rents, buy food for their families, pay for prescriptions…all the stuff the rest of us take for granted. Unemployment is through the roof and the struggle is all too real.
Thousands of businesses are in the toilet. Health concerns, unless they’re dire, are put on the back burner and so we wait. We wait and we hope and we pray but no one is listening. What a joke. Much like yet another TV commercial where a huckster preacher invites us all to call an 800 number to pray. Do you think that’s free, folks?
Hang-ups, let downs Bad breaks, setbacks Natural fact is I can’t pay my taxes
If I’m bringing you down, I apologize, but if you’ve gotten this far, I have to believe you can relate to my rant. So what do we do?
For one thing, we have to vote for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris and dump Trump and his entire crime family. Kick their asses to the curb and/or throw them in jail. The Orange Turd, especially, should be locked up for the rest of his miserable life.
Like my friend Stephen Sovie, whose story I’ve linked to, below, I am sick at heart at the thought that this bastard could once again, steal the election. Should that occur, for certain, life as we knew it, is over. And no TV commercial is going to convince me otherwise that for those of us of a certain age, especially, we will be truly and forever fucked.
Crime is increasing Trigger happy policing Panic is spreading God knows where, where we’re heading
Don’t you want to holler?
Sherry McGuinn is a slightly-twisted, longtime Chicago-area writer and award-winning screenwriter. Her work has appeared in The Chicago Tribune, Chicago Sun-Times, and numerous other publications. Sherry’s manager is currently pitching her newest screenplay, a drama with dark, comedic overtones and inspired by a true story.
Here is Stephen Sovie’s excellent article:
And more from me:
