There’s been a whole lot of political news this month, and I haven’t really talked about any of it. I’ve been reading it, following it, gasping at some things, and shaking my head at others. Tonight, I’m going to mention Marjorie Taylor Greene in order to talk about forgiveness. Later this weekend, I’ll talk Loscon and my schedule next week.

Marjorie Taylor Greene is a cook. I don’t think I’ve ever spoken of her favorably, and I’m not about to start now. She ran unchallenged for her seat and she has been an absolute nuisance the entire time she’s been in office.

Remember when she faced some backlash for promoting antisemitic, QAnon conspiracy theories about Jewish space lasers starting wildfires? Remember when she said the government wants to surveil us constantly and make us eat Bill Gates’s fake meat, grown in a “peach tree” dish?

I don’t know if she ever tried to make amends for the fake meat thing, but she did try to walk back and even apologize for the space laser thing. I don’t think it got a lot of coverage. I think she went to a Holocaust museum and apologized on camera, or something to that effect.

Here’s what I think of her: she’s a misinformed idiot that is not afraid to open her mouth and spew whatever is rattling around in her head, even when she ought to stop and think before speaking.

Is she a bad person? Yes and no. She fell for QAnon which led to her joining the Trump cult. Like I said before, she’s a misinformed idiot. I think there should be consequences for her many, many terrible actions. But she’s a person, capable of changing, and if she were to break away from the cult and become better informed… maybe she’s not terrible.

She stood with the Epstein victims. That’s something. She resisted pressure to cave to Trump’s wishes that she change her vote in the House on releasing the Epstein files. That’s also something.

Then Trump turned on her. They feuded publicly, and some of the worst people in Trump’s cult started sending death threats to Greene, to the point that today, she announced she’s quitting congress, as of January 5th.

It should be noted that Greene has been in office since 2020, and Democrats have been upset with Greene the entire time, but it only took about a week of MAGA ire to drive her off. I think that says something.

All of that is background to what I really want to talk about, which is forgiveness.

Does Greene deserve forgiveness? Not yet. She seems to have come to a realization that she’s been worshipping a false god, a golden calf. I don’t know that she’s actually sought forgiveness, or tried to make up for any of the damage she’s caused while in office. She’s resigning, so maybe it doesn’t matter.

Forgiveness is itself a foreign concept in this day and age. It takes strength to forgive. It takes courage to take a chance on people that you have actively fought.

I’m not saying I’m any better than anyone else on this subject. I know there are people that might still love me, that I should forgive and find room for in my life, but it’s easier to close my heart and remain distant, rather than make myself vulnerable to more pain.

We need forgiveness, and we need to forgive. Otherwise, we will continue to fracture and bounce off each other, until we’re all isolated and alone.

I’m the son of Evajean Buhl, which means I’ve seen some shit, and I’m well trained to say the worst possible thing to the people that care about me. As I’ve grown older, I’ve tried to silence that part of me, because I want to be kind, rather than cruel.

I want to be forgiving. It’s just really, really hard, sometimes.