So we’ve just been sentenced to four more years of republican tyranny, four more years of chipping away at our rights, at hopes for a peaceful world, a more enlightened and united populace.  Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Delay, these are the names of just a few of the men in power who think they can force an agenda down our throats, who will push for decisions that could do serious harm to our way of life.  I woke up this morning just sweating with dread, not wanting to get out from under the safety of the blanket.  But the blanket offers no real safety, so I got up like I always do and went to work.  Depression, fear, isolation, I felt all these things, along side of a helpless anger, the kind you feel when you feel just so small and unable to affect even the least bit of change.  I didn’t even want to talk to anybody.  Everyone I talked to, IM’d with, emailed with, all of them felt the same.  I guess I should count myself lucky that in a state that went overwhelmingly towards Bush, I have plenty of friends that feel as I do about how things are going.  And as the day progressed and the conversations continued on and off, I realized that there was something else we shared, this odd kind of hope, like that last little ember that hasn’t been pissed out yet.  I don’t know, maybe it’s insanity brought on by the shock of four more years of this shit.  Or maybe it’s just the recognition that we can either cry ourselves blind or we can laugh in the face of this conservative beast, flip it the bird, and swing back at it.  We can really make something of the next four years.  We can really make a big goddamned liberal nuisance of ourselves.  As my beautiful wife likes to say “Liberal is not a dirty word.”