Why would a right-wing administration whose party has fielded a radical platform and whose national showcase not merely opposed (which I understand) but jeered at fully 50% of the country want to associate with a pinko commie weak-kneed morally-corrupt terrorist-helping fag-loving traitor with a hand in the honest taxpayer's pocket, like me?

I'm used to living and working in a place where I have no real political voice. What I have done instead is to make a personal voice for myself. Not everyone has that option. And I tell you truly, even then, I must tread carefully. I have friends who have had windows broken for posting the wrong sign in their yards.

It's a bitter, bitter pill to work for a community, to support the commonweal, to work for community in general, and then to be called those things by people who said they wanted to unite the country. They don't want unity; they want uniformity.

I'll keep doing what I'm doing, but not because I feel any special sense of belonging. I'll do it because I have respect for the history and potential of this country. I'll do it because something had better be left after the cultural shredder is unplugged.