Sails are funny things. Sailboats as well. They work with wind; they don’t work without it. Wind…work. Wonderful. All hands on deck and lay out the canvas.

So when the wind is blowing strong it is good. Too much can be bad, say a hurricane, but a good steady wind fills the sails and makes progress possible. Fill your sails and reach your destination.

Hell, I know that and I ain’t even a sailor! Some things just come naturally to those with a modicum of common sense. And sometimes I got mo’ modicum than most. At least I like to think so.

Back on land you can go ahead and continue to vote for those who don’t do just enough to stay out of serious trouble, personally and politically. They know how to lay anchor and perhaps ride a current into the channel. But without the wind there is no work and no progress. Do they know this? Do they care? Are they doing much to change it?

They don’t do much to get you a job. They don’t do much to improve your education or the education of your children. They don’t do much to reduce crime in your neighborhood and make it safe to step outside again. They don’t work very hard to protect the borders of your country. They don’t do much to improve the economy that works to lift all boats in the harbor. They don’t do much to let you know much of what it is that they are actually doing or not doing. When they speak they say nothing. Nothing. They don’t seem to care anymore for the old standards of a decent life- no one fights for the poor old white man, the heterosexual man, the conservative woman, the married woman who stays home with her kids, the Christian couple who still believes in the American dream and deeply desires some of it for themselves and their children… They don’t seem to care too much for the Constitution of these United States. But are they not, in fact, making it just fine to ignore it more and more each day?

The interests and efforts are so limited and specialized now, targeted for the simple purpose of locking in a long-term voting base, that everything that once seemed important once, long ago, is no longer so considered. All that was is no longer. It was and is not now.

And before you go all slinging-racism on me you should know that they ain’t really doing anything much to help out the black folk, or the Hispanic folk, or the women folk…they just sayin, they ain’t doin. There ain’t no wind for those sails or, there ain’t no sails for that wind. And wind is all it is if you could just be honest with yourself. Lots of wind.

And, oh, by the way, the ones talking most and loudest may BE like you and SOUND like you and say they have your interests at heart but the ones who are making the decisions are still not much like you, are they? You ever wonder why? You ever wonder if the mouthpieces who stoke your passions are under the control of folks strangely similar to those they demonize. Weird? Yeah. Hypocritical? Sure is. Despicable? Only if you make it so; otherwise it is just the status quo and will always be so. Spin, becalmed, and wait for the wind.

So how do you guarantee the sinking of the ship?

Find no wind or unfurl no sails. Disable the rudder. Poke a hole or two in the hull. Throw your old and experienced sailors overboard. Lots of ways.

Do nothing.

Or at least appear not to.