Should I stay, or should I go now?
If I go, there will be trouble
And if I stay, it will be double
So come on and let me know
Should I stay, or should I go!
— Strummer/Jones
It’s the question de jure. The question many people, after the 2024 election are asking themselves. We already have celebrities collecting their marbles and moving elsewhere—far from the madding crowd. Hell … they can afford to do it and not think twice.
While “We The People” have to figure out if we have the strength, energy, fortitude, perseverance—and the cash—to relocate to another country that will take us as “political refugees”.
Our worlds have been turned on their collective ears. Confronting what happened on November 5, 2024, and sorting out our disgust, horror, hatred, and failure: just a few of the things we are all feeling in our own way.
I don’t want to sit here and project. I don’t want to be alone and fear the future. But this country has changed in a way we never thought possible. And it has. And it will. All that we were taught as children, as adolescents, as adults: love, caring, sharing, kindness, equality, morality—seem to have become the antithesis of that belief system, and those still clinging to those ideals: anathema.
Now comes the time to sort through all that, and figure out a strategy to fight, endure, or take MY damn marbles and go elsewhere, fashioning a new life for myself. One where I hopefully will feel safer. Big decisions to be made, and I have no answers yet. Lots of theories, investigation, pontification, prognostication, procrastination, feeling separated and lonely, but not wanting to BE alone.
Every journey starts with a single step. My first step is to get a new passport. I haven’t had a valid passport since I got my first in the early 80’s. I had been putting off getting a new one for a few reasons, one of which was paying over $200.00 in fees just to get it. And somewhere in my crazy brain was the thought that this was giving up. No! It is not—Joe! It’s being prepared. It’s giving myself options. Dare I say: It may even be fun. No! Not fun!
I have an appointment on Monday December 2nd at the Raytown Post Office to start the process. I’ll also do my passport photo there too. And if all goes well, I’ll have a shiny new passport by the end of February. Hopefully the U.S, and or world will not have blown up by then.
The idea of selling EVERYTHING I own, including my new home here in IndeMO, and getting the fuck out of Dodge; just a little frightening. But hell … come January 20, 2025 … I’ll be 68 years old. WHAT??? We’ll have a new Disrupter In Chief. So the question is: How do I want to spend the next four years? I’ll be 72 by then. Double WHAT??? Decisions … decisions.
Yesterday, Thanksgiving day, I spoke to my long time friend Peter Boogaard. We met in Asbury Park back in 1986 & have been friends, and always in touch since then. We conversed for nearly three hours. We talked about all that was going on in both our lives and the world. He in Amsterdam & me here in IndeMO. During that conversation I spoke about getting a passport. He sent me $250.00 via PayPal to get my passport. He said it was my birthday present. Sooooooo sweet of him!
He also spoke about an idea that he and his husband Tom had discussed many times: buying a large home in Spain with 20+ rooms, inviting a select number of long time friends to move in and live, support, and take care of each other through our old age. Sure sounds better than living and dying alone. Having people who will take care of one another and live a joyous life until we’re gone. I’m in! Sure beats being stuffed into some nursing home, or gulag (which might not be far from something that might happen for those labeled “undesirables”).
Yeah … lots to think about. Lots to ponder.
But it all starts with the first step. Guess we’ll see how this all pans out—for all of us.
Good luck to us all!
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