We went to the ball game yesterday and saw the Nats beat the Tigers, 5-2. The weather was beautiful (threatened rain held off), our seats are good (if not perfect), and it was Star Wars Day, so we saw a lot of costumed folks, including the Presidents in the third inning race. But the best thing about the ball park was that there were no politics involved, everyone was in a good(ish) mood, and I didn’t hear any insults. Most people rooted for the Nats, but there were certainly many Tiger fans among the 30,000 present and guess what? They all got along. As for Star Wars, they were giving away shirts, and you had to choose between a Dark Side shirt and a Light Side shirt. And guess what? The two sides got along.

Why is it only baseball that brings out this “we can get along” feeling? Even during the shirt giveaway, when the people clamoring for the shirts were certainly not lined up in an orderly queue, and the booths were overwhelmed (sort of like getting bread during Soviet times, perhaps), all of the people scrounged together, big and small, young and old, giving each other every imaginable communicable disease, no one was throwing punches, taking out a hand gun or AK-15, or even pushing others out of the way.

(By the way, as an aside, everyone who has attended a Nats game knows how crowded the Navy Yard – Ballpark Metro Station can be after a game. Yesterday, it was doubly crowded – in an interesting way. Because at 6:30, as the baseball crowd, in jerseys, Nats Star Wars shirts, and red caps were heading down the escalators, there were just as many (or so it seemed) DC United fans, dressed in varying types of soccer outfits heading up the escalator going to a 7 p.m. DC United game at its close by stadium.)

Well, the remainder of the United States is not so peaceful and placid. And I, for one, am tired of it. So, I pray (because I am human) to the God that I have no way to know exists that he will intervene on earth, which I am sure he can not do, and rapture up all the right wing Republicans and their fellow travelers, along with Vladimir Putin and some of those crazy Israeli MKs, so that the rest of us can turn this country, and the rest of the world, into a humane living space. Yes, this is what I do, but I do it without assurance of success. Either there is no God, no God who cares, a God who likes the sport of it all, or a God with limited power. Yes, we are on our own. And, yes, that is apparently not a good thing.

In the meantime, I turn on the news. The Republicans want the U.S. to default on its debt, leading to who knows what, and it may really happen. Putin says that if the Ukrainians get F-16s, the world may end. And Marjorie Taylor Greene says that Congressman Jamaal Bowman is aggressive, and scary, and dangerous, and “should be watched”.

We all know (or think we know) that there is an old Chinese curse: May you live in interesting times! I used to think that was a trade off, and that interesting times may be unsettled, but at least they are interesting. But, again, guess what? The times we live in our no longer interesting. They are just sad. And it’s nobody’s fault but our own.

You know – when bad or tragic things happen in this country, there is always a politician who says “This is not who we are”. But the fact is: this is exactly who we are. Sad, but true.

Next game, Nats v. Tigers: 1:30 today.