Accepting reality whether I want to or not
This week (week of 2 March 2026), I have dropped my face into my hands and dang near wept.
I may yet do so before the day (6 March 2026) is over.
This is not a column on religion, but I must make one reference to get my point across. I understand more and more why “Jesus wept.” John 11:35. He was utterly heartbroken at how incredibly dense people could be. He was simply flattened because people refused to accept the reality standing before them.
Ok then. To explain in secular terms:
HOW STUPID
Never underestimate how deliberately stupid a person can be.
Before you get excited about that, that statement includes you and it includes me. Over the years, I’ve become better at not being deliberately stupid. Sometimes I slip.
Also, never underestimate how much hypocrisy one person can spew with full righteous fury.
Today, I refer you to politicians at every level and leaders of various countries around the world.
I tellya, it is enough to make a preacher cuss.
Yep. I have resorted to profanities more’n once where the current state of affairs rests. This situation reaches from my small community in Southwest Georgia all the way up to the international stage.
GETTIN’ LOCAL
Gettin’ local on you, I also say the sheer ______ _______ __________ stupidity evidenced by some of the folks here in Turner County, Ga., is not unique. It is not rare. It is not unusual. It is entirely commonplace.
I have lived in Georgia, Alabama, Nevada and Florida. I tell you this: Change the names and the geographic location and the negative IQ among the leaders is exactly the same.
To the north of us, Crisp County has imploded over and over and over.
To the west, Dougherty County actually got bad enough to merit a letter from the Georgia Attorney General. The AG basically said, “Stop being naughty.” I have addressed the Attorney General's deliberate impotence elsewhere. Won’t rehash here.
To the east, Irwin County has suffered through meltdown after meltdown.
I am surprised the newspapers covering these mass self-done and intentional lobotomies did not spontaneously explode into flames in the sales racks.
This does not apply to all leaders. Some are actually good, worthwhile and are doing what is right regardless of the consequences. They do not last long. They are hounded until they retreat to a cave or are killed.
FERTILIZER
Why do people put up with this high-grade organic bovine fertilizer? Because people are generally weak, want to be led and hate the idea of thinking for themselves so much, they happily farm the task out to whomever yells “I AM THE GREAEST” the loudest, the longest and the mostest.
Yes huhn.
Only a very few are willing to say “Nah. I think I can do a better job of running my life than anyone else can. If I cannot do a better job, it is still life to run as I see fit.”
These people do not last long. They are hounded until they retreat to a cave or are killed
Monks walk for peace
This is here for a reason, but I can’t remember why right now. Something to do with politics whether the monks wanna admit to it or not
THE POINT I REALLY WANTED TO MAKE
If you have read this far, here is the point I really wanted to make.
We have some ______ _________ ______ ___ ___________ _____ _______ idiots in office and in positions of leadership here in Turner County. Again, change names and geography and I’ll say the same thing.
It is like these leaders have farmed out their thinking to AI, Artificial Idiocy. Apparently, their own idiocy was not sufficient. Reinforcement and all that.
If someone else came at these leaders with that same line of _____ ____________ ______ _______ _______, these leaders would be offended, irked, irritated, mad, angrily amused, annoyed and so on.
But when THEY do it, noooooo. They are the Supreme Galactic Overlord handing down a pronouncement.
One of these “leaders” is raising hell over what this “leader” sees as nepotism.
Apparently, someone has a daughter (shocking) with a boyfriend (EGAD! How dare she) and this boyfriend got a job (horrendibilus) and the daughter’s parental unit (imagine a child having a parent!) is one of the boyfriend’s superiors in the hierarchy (an organized leadership chain of command, unfathomable!).
This “leader” had the power to hire or fire - get this! - the leader’s own progeny. Never any question but that the offspring had to be hired.
But that’s different.
I assure you, I am not spreading guano on your crops. This is a bona fide reality where I currently hang my hat, collect tax notices and pontificate on a Macintosh.
DOUBLE WIELDING DAMOCLES
What we have here is an elected official going Florentine with a Sword of Damocles in each hand.
This elected official has no idea how to sword fight, to extend the metaphor.
In a ... well, dang. Hang on.
Most of the other elected leaders involved in this matter have sided against this “leader.” They all sit on the same board.
The hierarchy of the “leader” and the cohort supervise have also arrayed against the leader.
This is a mildly surprising display of cohesion and unity in the face of well-precedented blatant hypocrisy (example at the federal level - https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/house-kills-effort-release-congressional-sexual-misconduct-harassment-rcna261679) and a thorough, deliberate ignorance of the law, some important contracts and chains of command.
Leaders can come together to oppose another leader and they do so frequently.
At the same time, the leaders’ opposition is very often just as wrong as the leader they go after. This time in my community, they are in the right. Mostly.
As to the rest of my descriptive phrases above, I say deliberate et al and I mean it. In the Peach State, elected officials are required to have a certain amount of training, which includes:
• Updates on laws affecting their jobs
• HR
• Policies and how to implement & use them
• General information on how to do the job
• HR
• Policies and how to implement & use them
• General information on how to do the job
This training is too often like pouring water into a bass fishing dip net. Something happened, maybe, probably not and if it did, it was not worth paying attention to.
_______ _______ _____ ____________ ________ _________ ________ AND ______ ___________ EVERY ___________ ___________ __________!
OFFENDED
You might say I am offended by this. You are not entirely wrong, as evidenced by the blank spaces above representing words I am not using in this post.
I am more disappointed.
I am, increasingly, annoyed with myself.
To ‘splain
Not long ago, Mike M. attempted to talk me down as my internal boiler was reaching critical pressure. The situation was simply: Some people did not do what they repeatedly stated they would do. This is sometimes more than I can handle.
Mike tried to tell me I cannot expect others to live to my standards and expectations. He is right. 100% He got that from the Stoics. However, in the middle of an ... attack for lack of a better word, my grey matter simply does not process this.
In hindsight - “When you are offended at any man’s fault,” Epictetus tells us, “turn to yourself and study your own failings. Then you will forget your anger.”
Yeah. Thanks.
So, as I rail against our leaders, I stop to see when I have done the exact same thing. I realize i am no better than they.
However, I am not in a position to make a decision that will affect the lives of thousands and thousands of people for better or worse. These leaders are.
They abdicate or, even worse, abrogate the responsibility to do what is right.
My negative emotions and reactions are further fueled by my inability to make needed changes. One man, one vote can make a difference, but it is rare. I have seen local races decided by 3 votes. What little I can do (this blog being evidence), I do.
Too often, I feel that I am calling for Pancho to saddle my steed, for there are dragons to be slain.
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