Naomi Wolf: A Lost Small Town - Running Errands In The Wake Of Emotional Violence, USA

Sunfellow Notes ^ | 10/26/22 | Naomi Wolf

[T-Bird45]

I live in a picture-perfect region — the Hudson Valley, memorialized by painters and poets; a patchwork of autumn reds and yellows, majestic hillsides, storied waterfalls, and little homesteads dotted picturesquely on the slopes of sleepy hamlets.

Towns in our area look like Norman Rockwell paintings: there is Main Street, Millerton, with its white 19th century church steeple, its famous Irving Farm cafe with the excellent curated coffee beans, its charming antiques mall, its popular pizzeria.

When you drive to Millerton, it looks like you are driving into the heart of archetypal America; everything that Woody Guthrie songs memorialize, everything of which American soldiers dreamt when they were far away — everything decent and pure, is to be found in Hudson Valley towns.

It sure looks that way, anyway.

But these days, I am obliged to maintain a fervent inner monologue, just so I can pleasantly go about my business in the local hardware store, in the local florist, in the post office.

Because an emotional massacre has taken place in these little towns. And now we are expected to act as if — this never happened at all.

But psychically, emotionally, there is blood flowing in the streets; and bodies are stacked up, invisible, in front of the candy stores, the high end wine stores, the pretty memorials to the World War Two dead; outside the farmers’ market on Saturdays, outside the tapas bars.

So my quiet internal mantra, is: I forgive you.

I forgive you, Millerton movie theatre. Your owner, who was interviewed just before the pandemic, saying lovely things in a local paper about how the revamped theatre would enhance the local community, posted a sign in 2021 saying that only vaccinated people could enter. You needed to really look for the fine print to see that you could walk through those doors, if unvaccinated, but only with a PCR test.

I forgive the young ladies who worked behind the popcorn counter, for telling me that I could not enter further. That I could not sit down, with other human beings in my community, to watch a film alongside of them.

I forgive the young ticket taker for telling me that I had to go back outside, onto the sidewalk. I could not even stand in the lobby.

I forgive these young people who just wanted jobs, and who had to discriminate in the most heinous and scarring way — scarring to me, and to them too no doubt — just to keep their jobs. I forgive them. I forgive them for the mortifying scene they had to cause.

I forgive the movie theatre owner for shouting at me defensively when I questioned this policy.

I forgive the elderly couple nearby in the lobby; the woman who started shrieking at me alarmingly that she was glad of the policy and did not want me anywhere near her. I forgive her. I forgive her silent, embarrassed husband for his silence.

I forgive the employee of the Millerton flower shop who demanded, “Are you vaccinated?” when I walked in – when I just wanted some nice-looking flowers, some artificial olive branches, perhaps, like those I had seen in a decorating magazine, to arrange in a vase in my study.

I forgive this employee for having to follow a script that must have been set out by the town, for all the small businesses to follow, in some bizarre, coercive methodology, as this out-of-the-blue, un-American and inappropriate question was posed all at once somehow, in store after store, in my little town, in the nearby towns, even in New York City, during a certain moment in the bad year of 2021.

I forgive these store owners for stripping me of a great benefit of a free society — the great gift of liberty, of America — that right to be dreamy, to have some privacy, and to be preoccupied with one’s own thoughts.

I forgive this employee for intruding on my privacy in a way that was startling, ill-mannered, and entirely beside the point, given the fact that she was simply selling flowers and I was simply trying to buy them.

I forgive her for the way this demand made my adrenaline levels jump, as they do when things are unstable around you; in 2021, you could not tell which stores would confront you, or when, with that urgent, bullying question — when you happened to wander in, just wanting some toothpaste, or a slice of pizza, or to look at some antiques.

Not — expecting an inquisition.

I forgive this flower shop employee for presenting me with this startling question that each time made me, with my clinically diagnosed PTSD from a very old trauma, feel ambushed, violated and humiliated. Surely this sense of ambush was felt by trauma survivors everywhere.

Are you vaccinated?

Are you? Vaccinated?

Are you vaccinated?

Are you naked? Are you helpless?

Are you mine? My possession?

The viral clip of the Pfizer marketing rep, admitting to the European Parliament that the mRNA vaccines never stopped transmission, should make every single one of these moments, into a source of deep embarrassment and self-criticism for all those people — all of them — who inflicted these violations of privacy on others, or who excluded in any way, their neighbors and fellow countrymen and women. They did so, it is clear now to all, on the basis of arrant nonsense.

But meanwhile, I forgive them. I have to. Because otherwise the rage and sorrow would exhaust me to death.

I forgive my neighbor who froze when I hugged her.

I forgive my other neighbor, who told me that she was making homemade soup and fresh bread, and that I could join her to have some, if I was vaccinated. If I was unvaccinated, however, she explained, someday she might consent to walk outside with me.

I forgive the monitor — what else could one call him — surely appointed by the local Board of Health, who told me that I could not go inside a church at an adorable outdoor town festival at the tiny mountain hamlet of Mt Washington, to see an exhibit, because I was unmasked. I forgive him for the steely look in his eyes as he remained unmoved when I explained that had a serious neurological condition, and thus could not wear a mask. I forgive the nervous lady at the table full of trinkets, who had apparently ratted us out to the Board of Health representative, when we were simply browsing outdoors, surrounded by fresh air, on a peaceful June day, our faces uncovered, at her table.

I forgive them for making a miserable scene about all of this in front of my then-ten-year-old stepson. The unmasked and unvaccinated are eternally accused of having made scenes, but the scenes were made, really, by the actions of those who were coercing and conforming.

I forgive them for driving us to leave the festival. I forgive their manifesting a pathetic and indefensible lesson in servility, and in submission to things that made no sense, to an impressionable American child.

I forgive the teller at my local bank for throwing a paper napkin at me to cover my face, when I explained respectfully and gently, from twenty feet away from her, why I did not wear a mask.

I forgive the staff at the Walker Hotel, in lower Manhattan, for warning me that they would call the manager, who no doubt would then call law enforcement, if I sat at the Blue Bottle Coffee lunch counter with my unvaccinated self.

I forgive my loved ones for keeping us from the Thanksgiving table.

I forgive one of my best friends for her having left the country without having said goodbye to me; the reason was that she was “disappointed” in me for my stance on masks and vaccines. No matter that this was entirely my risk, my body, my decision, my life. Her “disappointment” led her to assume the burden of censuring me for something that had nothing to do with her. I forgive her, though my heart broke.

I forgive the friend whose daughter had a baby, and who would not let me indoors to see the child.

I forgive the friend who said he did not sit indoors with unvaccinated people.

I forgive the family members who pressed my loved one to get one more booster – thus leading directly to her sustaining heart damage.

I forgive them, because my soul instructs me that I must.

But I cannot forget.

Are we supposed to just pick up again, as if emotional limbs were not crushed, as if emotional hearts and guts were not pierced, as if with sharp objects? And that, again and again?

As if there has been no savagery, no massacre here?

All those people — now that athletes are dropping dead, now that their own loved ones are sickening and hospitalized, now that the “transmission” is known to be a lie and the vaccines’ “efficacy” itself is known to be a lie – are they — sorry? Are they reflecting upon themselves, on their actions, on their consciences; on their immortal souls; on what they have done to others; on their part in this shameful melodrama in American and world history – a time that now can never be erased?

I don’t hear it. I don’t hear any apologies.

I don’t see signs on the Millerton movie theatre saying, “Dear Customers. We are so sorry we treated many of you as if we were all living under Jim Crow laws. We did so for no reason at all.

There is no excuse, of course, for such discrimination, then or now. Please forgive us.”

Nothing. Have you seen anything like this? I haven’t. Not one conversation. Not one sign. Not one article. “My friend, I was a beast. How can you forgive me? I behaved so badly.” Have you heard that? No, nothing.

Instead people are reacting to the fact of their awfulness, of their profound wrongness, of their foolishness, of their ignorance and credulity, like sneaky, guilty dogs. They are sidling up.

In the city, they are quietly adding one to the guest list. In the country, they are stopping their cars in the sunny autumn air to have a little chat.

They are calling up just to say hi — after two and a half years.

Two and a half years of brutal, ignorant ostracism.

I can and must forgive all those I enumerated. But it is harder to forgive – others.

It is hard to forgive the high school in Chatham, that forced a teenager to be mRNA vaccinated against her wishes, in order to play basketball, and thus hope for a college scholarship.

It is hard to forgive the doctors, the hospitals, the pediatricians, who knew and knew and knew. And bowed their head, and plunged the needles into the arms of innocents, and committed evil. The doctors who today say, of the horrific side effects brought about by their own hands, their own collusion — “We are baffled. We have no idea.”

When did Western doctors, before 2020, ever have no idea?

It is hard to forgive the Mayor of New York City, who drove the brave First Responders who did not wish to submit to a dangerous experiment, to have no income with which to feed their families.

It is hard to forgive the Ivy League universities, who took the money and forced all the members of their communities to submit to a deadly or dangerous experimental injection — one that will damage the fertility of who knows how many young men and women; one that will kill who knows how many community members.

They took the money and there is blood on their hands. Have you, parents of college age children, received a letter of apology? “We are so sorry we forced your son/your daughter to submit to an experimental injection that can harm him or her, that may cripple your daughter with bleeding every single month of her childbearing years, and that may lead your son to drop dead on the track field. And one that, it turns out, has nothing to do with transmission. We can’t apologize enough. (But the money — it was just such a lot.) Really sorry. Won’t do it again, rest assured.”

Did you get that letter, America’s parents?

It is almost impossible to forgive the churches, the synagogues, who took the money and stayed closed. Or who took the money, and then locked their doors at High Holy Day Services against the unvaccinated. To this day. (Hi there, Hevreh Synagogue of the Southern Berkshires. Shalom. Shabbat Shalom. Good Yom Tov.)

“Please note that we require proof of vaccination upon entry for all High Holy Day Services. Please bring a copy with you. Masks are optional and encouraged for all who are comfortable wearing them.”

These are great, great sins.

But meanwhile, you have errands to run. You have books to return to the library and flowers to pick up from the florist perhaps — you have to go to the kids’ soccer game, you have to go to the movie theatre; the hardware store. Back to church. Back to synagogue.

You have to pick up your life again.

You have to step around the bodies decomposing invisibly in the charming streets of our nation. You have to pick up again as if we were not annihilated in spirit. Or, you have to pick up again if you were the abuser.

Will you apologize, if you did wrong?

Will you forgive, if you were wronged?

Can this nation, which fell so far short of its true identity and its founders’ intention, ever, ever heal?

Can we heal — we ourselves?

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

After what they did, no amnesty. I know I went along with most of it, but I can still recognize what I did wrong and point my finger at the authorities who instigated it, who thought that Red Chinese-style lockdowns were preferable to personal prudence and “the animating contest of freedom.”

[MayflowerMadam]

Yes. Military Intel. Then private security, so her bodyguard. Then her husband. She seems so down to earth now, compared to the lady whose job it was to turn Al Gore into an alpha male. (Epic fail, BTW.)

[PJ-Comix]

So this week isn’t over - our family has been told we are not invited to Thanksgiving dinner because of our decision to be unvaccinated.

I am lucky in that none of my relatives give a damn about vax status so we had a great Thanksgiving dinner last year. This year will be the same with the only "controversy" over whether Uncle PJ will make available certain "fortified" drinks for the teenaged kids.

[Leep]

In my travels I still see people wearing mask.
I’m sure some of them have resitory issues and the like.
But uite a few of them have psychological issues as well.
I wonder,too..how many children that went through this will end up ..germaphobes.. agoraphobics..and the like.

[robowombat]

Yep and got mocked for it:

Facebook
Twitter
Reddit
Email
save
Naomi Wolf has enjoyed a series of eccentric incarnations in her years as one of the United States’ best-known feminist thinkers. She broke ground with “The Beauty Myth” in 1991, became an earth-tone strategist for Al Gore in 2000, and held forth — at length — on the subject of motherhood in “Misconceptions” in 2001. In 2004 she accused Harold Bloom of having sexually encroached upon her while she was his student at Yale, and she recently published “The Treehouse,” a volume devoted to the wit and wisdom of her 80-year-old father.

But even by her dizzying standards, the interview Wolf gave to Scotland’s Sunday Herald this weekend was truly outlandish. In it, she claimed that during a therapy session to treat writer’s block, she took on the spirit of a 13-year-old boy and saw Jesus Christ.

“I’m sure it was Jesus,” Wolf told the Herald, describing him as “this figure who was the most perfected human being that there could be — full of light and full of love.”

She continued, “I was a 13-year-old boy sitting next to him and feeling feelings I’d never felt in my lifetime ... [Feelings] of a boy being with an older male who he really loves and admires and loves to be in the presence of.”

Advertisement:
Background Image

Progress Bar

00:00 00:00

Wolf, raised Jewish, did not indicate to the paper that her vision had led to conversion to a particular religion. “There are a lot of people out there just waiting for some little Jewish feminist to cross over,” she said. “I don’t claim to get where this being fits into the scheme of things but I absolutely believe in divine providence now, absolutely believe God totally cares about every single one of us intimately.”

Wolf’s particular religious mission, she said, “seems to be about helping women remember what’s sacred about them or what’s sacred about femininity.”

[Hammerhead]

Plus she has a really cool name like some early American author

[AuntB]

Excellent

[cuz1961]

if people like your family members will believe/\

The easiest way to reprogram the fauci / scam worshipers

Is to ask them if they remember the 80 foster kids that died from HIV vax drug trials at fauci’s hands .

Some of them refused to take the pills that made them sick. So fauci had stomach feeding tubes surgically implanted and forced the drugs on them.

There is a mass grave with 80 names on the tomb stone.

Tony is a sick evil sob. And has been one for decades.

[AuntB]

You nailed it

[MayflowerMadam]

“the interview Wolf gave to Scotland’s Sunday Herald this weekend was truly outlandish.”

Yeah. I hadn’t heard about that. She’s definitely a free thinker and has been a bit “out there”. I guess that, being Jewish and seeing Jesus Christ, she didn’t mention the Messiah, though. If the Holy Spirit is convicting her and she’s open to the Gospel, well that’s a good thing.

Speaking of being “out there”, have you heard interviews of the Surgeon General of Florida? Whoa! Total new-age, BS bafflegab — expounding about his “chi”, and similar. Not that he isn’t doing a great job in his position, because he is. Just ... there are times I’m thankful for a “mute” button.

[MayflowerMadam]

“The easiest way to reprogram the fauci / scam worshipers

“Is to ask them if they remember the 80 foster kids that died from HIV vax drug trials at fauci’s hands .”

No. Even that won’t change minds. If the torture of puppies (removing vocal cords so they couldn’t whimper, cry, or bark, and having insects slowly eat their brains) didn’t change minds, tortured and dead kids won’t change minds. After all, those who worship Fauci most likely worship Moloch via abortion.

[punknpuss]

I don’t forgive without someone acknowledging their offense and asking for forgiveness. There are places I still won’t shop because of their rudeness during the “pandemic”. “Ma’am, you need to wear a mask!” “No thank you, I have a condition.” “What is your condition?” “I don’t have to tell you.” (Privately, my condition is that I’m a free American.)

[robowombat]

Wolf claims it was a classic full standing transparent image of Jesus in a white robe speaking to her from the foot of her bed with his right arm extended and the nail wounds fully visible. She will not say what message Jesus had for her.

[cgbg]

This will be the first year that we are being invited “back” for Thanksgiving dinner.

I was able to avoid being permanently ostracized because I was anti-vaccine before Covid, and everyone in the family knew it.

For those who have forgotten their history, being anti-vaccine used to be a left wing (back to nature, anti technology) thing.

Interestingly my left-wing family does remember and while they jabbed themselves silly they did not fall for the demonization propaganda towards those who chose otherwise.

[MayflowerMadam]

Interesting.

[Tallguy]

All things that happen in the bucolic villages on the upper Hudson lead back to "The Zone" and Rod Serling's unique take on the weaknesses of the human mind and civilization.

[Leep]

The problem is..the monster do exist.
They are ruining..I mean running our country.
They are giving sex changes to five year olds..
They are killing tens of thousands with fentanyl.
They’ve shut off our gas/oil.
They’ve put us in massive debt.
They’ve wrecked our economy.
The FBI has become a goon squad.

And they would do far worse if they thought they could.

The monsters are far from imaginary.

[Tallguy]

My family lives in Bucks & Montgomery Counties outside of Philadelphia. We are famous for 2 things: a fanatical COVID pandemic lockdown, and massive mail-in ballot fraud.

We are trapped behind enemy lines. But my day-to-day observation is that conservatives are in the majority around here. We are held hostage by the local & state government and public institutions like the school systems.

My wife is retired. I’m still working because I’m not the retiring-type. But I am re-considering. And if that happens, we will likely move to a ‘Red’ state where the BS-levels are much lower.

[vladimir998]

Many conservatives are embracing Wolf because she has said a few good things lately. Never forget though - as this article shows - Wolf is a mentally disturbed left winger at heart.

[drSteve78]

“I forgive them, because my soul instructs me that I must.
But I cannot forget.”

But,
They still believe the unjabbed are in the wrong.

And that’s why i will only say the words of forgiveness, but i know that it’s just lying through my teeth to get through the day without punching someone in the mask.

Sweatshirt sez, “I bake pies because punching people in the face is frowned upon”. And I don’t eat pie.