We are all in a rapidly sinking ship. I hope to write a cohesive piece, but so many concerns for our country and all of us Americans are swirling around in my head right now, that attaching them to this analogy may help to address them.

I feel like I am one of the ones who are out on the deck, watching the storm surround our ship. Many are grabbing buckets and bailing, while trying to alert and engage more passengers to do the same. I’m there with them.

Meanwhile, inside the ship, picture a cruise ship, complete with entertainers to keep your mind otherwise occupied, to keep you from noticing the ship rocking. We have magicians, adequate at their craft of diverting our attention from the storm, making us believe that what we see with our own eyes, hear with our own ears, isn’t really what is happening at all.

There are many of them on board, so that when a concerned passenger comes up to them and asks “are we in danger from the storm?” they say “No, it will be a little uncomfortable for a while, maybe some turbulence, but it will be fine, you’ll see. The weather will be better than ever.” They are congressional Republicans, Fox news hosts, brought along to aid the captain, who is piloting his second voyage; having escaped accountability for the disastrous wreck he was responsible for the first time. The ship almost sank that time.

Now, the captain and the first mate are quite the team. The captain rarely goes on deck, he enjoys putting green inside his cabin, decked out in gold and self-portraits. He likes doing videos which project on screens all over the ship, he likes selling stuff like gold sneakers and cryptocurrency. Every cabin has his version of the holy bible. From time to time, he comes out when he hears YMCA being played, and does his arm dance. The aging, demented captain has delegated the running of the ship to his first mate.

The first mate man-child, brilliant at making money but not at running a cruise ship, has brought on board his own crew of youngsters who are running amuck throughout the ship, throwing things overboard right and left. It doesn’t matter if it belongs to the passengers, they are taking it and throwing it into the sea.

When the passengers protest, they are threatened with the brig.

How, they wonder, will I get those things back? Something much better? Really? How? The first mate loves to entertain the guests too; by doing jumping jacks with a chainsaw or donning a cheese hat in place of a helmet pretending to be Patton. He gives out bribery checks for thousands or millions like a Let’s Make a Deal game show host.

And what about the actual official crew that was appointed by the captain? They’re pretending that there’s no outbreak of measles on the ship, and adding cod liver oil to every meal. They’re busy on their Signal chat, playing war games. They aren’t involved in any of that mayhem that the first-mate is causing; they are doing their own damage, sending signals along with their captain to all the ally ships in our fleet, that we don’t want anything to do with them, that we won’t help them with their distress calls. They won’t be helping us with ours either, I’m afraid. No rescue ships will come to our aid, as we take on water.

Without being able to depend on outside help, we do have the judges who are on board telling us that what the captain and the first-mate are doing is illegal and wrong, against the rules and regulations that keep a ship running smoothly. But the captain and first mate don’t seem to care what they say.

So it comes down to the passengers. Some Democratic members of Congress who are on this cruise with us are starting to give us some of the help we have been begging them for. Sen. Cory Booker just gave us much-needed support, and stood on deck with us for 25 hours and 5 minutes straight, giving us encouragement.

The ones who are on deck and are paying attention to the storm and what is happening to the ship, the destruction that the crew is waging, are trying to do what we can, but it is a constant job.

As the storm continues, we have to keep bailing. Oh, and the captain’s masked officers of the law have used all the lifeboats to round up certain passengers and ship them to El Salvador. The help we are getting is increasing and encouraging, as many of the passengers come on deck and realize what we are facing and begin to join in the bailing.

Some still don’t get it, they make fun of the ones who want to save the ship. They don’t lift a finger to help, just to “wave” or twirl around their ear- don’t they comprehend that they are on the same ship as we are?

And what is to become of this ship that has sailed for 248 years? Are we going to let the rich tech bros and other oligarchs come in their yachts, pick up the captain and his entourage, and leave our old ship to sink?

Our ship, the USS Democracy? Isn’t our ship worth fighting for? Sure, it’s been around awhile, it needs some repairs, but not so bad that it should be abandoned. The captain wants to change ships, he wants to rule the USS Authoritarian. We, the passengers of the USS Democracy, don’t want to take a ride in that boat.

I hope you get my drift.

Susan Bigler is a Sheridan resident. Send comments to editorial@observertoday.com