Portraits

Instead of merely listening to the Right Angle broadcasts, I’ve been watching them, and watching them closely.  For me, there has been a single aspect of the broadcasts that has been present and consistent, at least since the November election.  It is not the topic of the election itself; in fact, it isn’t anything Bill, Steve, or Scott has said.  This one through-line is visual: the expression on Bill’s face.

There is a lot I’m reading into that expression, and it mirrors what I’ve been feeling since the first Tuesday in November.  Wait… not since November; I’ve been feeling that way for awhile, but the intensity of that feeling took a big leap the day after the election.  In fact, if you transferred my feelings to a graph, it would look much like that chart we’ve all seen that shows the increase in Biden votes between the time when several states stopped voting and the vote tally that we woke up to the next day.

I have looked at Bill’s face a lot in the past few weeks, and as I do I feel that I’m looking in a mirror.  His anger, his rage, is there… easily readable.  In his “Moving Back to America” series, Bill has articulated that anger and rage, but this new series is much more than a platform for him to bemoan the dark journey on which this country is about to embark.  This series is, for me, becoming a blueprint for what needs to be done in order to come out on the other side of this ominous trip as unscathed as possible and to help the country right itself again.  Admittedly, it has been very difficult for me to stay positive, and there was one broadcast where Bill admitted as much himself.  During some of my lowest moments of the past few weeks, though, it has been Bill’s MBTA broadcasts that have kept me afloat, and for that I am very grateful.

Because of all we’ve seen and experienced during the last four years, and especially because of the events of the last few weeks, I knew there were going to be changes in my life, new goals I will need to set, times when I will need to do more than shake my head and mourn silently about where this country is being dragged.  When I realized these changes needed to start happening – not next month, next week, or even tomorrow, but NOW – the first thing I did was to stop riding on the coattails of the members of Billwhittle.com and to instead become a member.  That you are reading this now is a result of that first move.  As I contemplate what my second, third, fourth, and other actions need to be, I wanted to use this forum to thank Bill, Steve, and Scott for all they do.  I have followed you all for years (and yes, for free… I am ashamed to say, although that has now changed), and I cannot adequately explain here how much your thoughts and words have meant to me.  You are an important part of what keeps my faith alive.  Thank you all.

In my mind is seared an image… a portrait of Bill’s face that – and I’m not exaggerating – has haunted me.  When I see that face, I see myself… and I see a brother.  Thank you for that.