Idling Into March
Southern California, USA
While I’m preoccupied for 2 hours and 45 minutes driving the 50 miles into work on a rainy day, the world rotates, time marches on, and events occur.
"There are children starving in India," my Mom used to say when my sister and I refused to eat our squash or Brussels sprouts. Who knew from kids in India? We didn’t. Sis would usually come up with a clever reply that would get us off the ick-veggie hook never realizing that when she was older and a Mom, herself, that she would tell her own kids that "There are children starving in Africa," because there truly are.
Starving Africans [which would make a great morbid name for a band if there isn’t one already] are nothing new. When Apartheid was abolished in South Africa, the continent dropped out of media view. After all, famine is nothing newsy; since the early 80’s there’s been one drought-backed one after another. Or maybe those crazy dictators, robbing their already pitifully poor countries’ treasuries, could be blamed.
These are the thoughts drifting through my head as I’ve just finished eating my breakfast en route.
I care because sitting in 2 hours and 45 minutes worth of traffic skews you. The next time I fill up my tank I’m going to have to pay over $2.00/gal. That pisses me off while I listen to a President that I didn’t vote for – hell, that the MAJORITY didn’t vote for – try to convince me that economy will get better with war when I know that the second gasoline drops back to $1.30/gal, people will breathe easier. I’m driving to work with forced optimism, hoping that war will not completely collapse retail which will put me out of a job … AGAIN … and make it damn near impossible to continue to work in an industry that’s already at bare bones, which will make it moot to fill up my tank to begin with because I certainly won’t be driving anywhere. Especially not to my local mall to spend a tax cut that won’t do me any good because I’ll be getting taxed on the unemployment that I’ll be collecting until it runs out.
In Zimbabwe, President Mugabe stripped the White farmers of their land [more than likely executing the ones who didn’t flee the country] and gave it to his Black populace which would have been all well and fine if the people he’d given the land to were qualified farmers with the knowledge of high-capacity farming. What was once the feeder of the continent is now holding its breadbasket a-begging for scraps. The land lies fallow; there’s no work; there’s no food to feed a populace that’s already HIV-positive. As the people starve, their immune systems decline further, making it impossible for them to work even if there was work.
In June 2002, President George Bush proposed spending $500 million dollars in Africa and the Caribbean to fight AIDS. By January 2003 that amount dwindled to $15 million for Africa. Strengthening Homeland Security is more important; waging war on Iraq is more important. And, in the meantime, AIDS tromps through India, China. I’m no statistician and certainly no psychic, but I’ll claim right now that AIDS will kill more Americans this month than the Al Qaida will this year.
I’m also no conspiracy theorist but I’ve often wondered if Bin Laden actually exists.
President Karzai of Afghanistan has to stand in line to be received at the White House and when he speaks he’s been advised to yell. The din of warmongering begets deafness; his country bores Bush now. Driving out the Taliban didn’t spur the U.S. economy. Neither will throwing billions of dollars at Turkey, but that’s OK. I’m sure Bush sits behind his desk in the Oval Office quipping, "Just have Greenspan print more money."
[At the time of this writing, Turkey has declined to let us use their borders so Bush will probably have Colin Powell draw up a plan that includes usurping Turkey so that we’ll get to use their borders anyway. And – glory be! – we’ll be able to join the E.U. after it’s all over.]
Don’t laugh. As I type this to paste into my BLOG I have to be aware that I run the risk of defying the Patriot Act. Land of the free? I waggle my finger. Don’t take that to the bank. In a Democracy, the minority still has the right to be heard, to be seen. As long as that minority opinion isn’t being voiced on a T-shirt. I considered myself part of the majority in November 2000 only to discover that my vote didn’t count. I’m still peeved about that because I don’t want war. I think that war, in general, is stupid and this war that’s looming is wrong. Really, really, really wrong.
At my local eatery last weekend, the cashier looked past me and commented on my fellow patron’s T-shirt. "Awakening the Giant" it read in bold black under an emerging, fiercely-drawn bald eagle. "Yeah! We need to get him for what he did to us," she cheered as she handed me change. I cringed. Sadaam Hussein didn’t destroy the Twin Towers, at least that’s what I’ve been led to believe; Bin Laden was behind that act of terrorism and that’s why we invaded Afghanistan.
Maybe we’ve all got our facts wrong. Hell, President Bush seems to think that by deposing Hussein and taking over Iraq until they get the hang of democracy, we’ll be making friends with the neighboring Arab countries. Ahem. Like there won’t be an economic revival in the U.S. until fuel prices decline, the Middle East won’t even consider us friend material until we begin reprimanding Israel on their unique brand of apartheid. Or is the subject of starvation and ethnic cleansing relegated only to Africa?
I’m not a news hound. Actually, since the first war with Iraq I’ve become decidedly less attuned to world events because the media irks me. Just because I’m not a voracious follower of what’s happening around me doesn’t mean I don’t care. Not once but twice last week it rained and I was both captive and captivated by the news streaming from my favorite NPR outlet and that didn’t consist of selected sound bites. These past couple days I’ve been sick and I’ve been using my recuperative time surfing the web for in-depth info. Later today I’ll read about the Patriot Act more fully.
What I’ve been realizing over the course of the past year is that time isn’t my friend. I have to start forcing the openings for things that I want to do – like writing again – and that I need to do – like getting my income taxes done, spending time with my Mom, and paying attention to where my civil liberties are headed.
"Awakening the Giant" shouldn’t be a metaphor for war; it should be the metaphor for this country to start setting its priorities straight. While I don’t believe that "going to git" Saddam Hussein is the recipe for improving the quality of my life, marching against mindless American aggression just might be. I won’t be packing up and joining the Peace Corps to rid Africa of AIDS and hunger, but I can pick up my check book after making an intelligent decision about which Non Profit Organization is doing the best work in that area. I can properly dispose of a piece of trash in the street. I dunno what I’ll do but I’ve got to start doing something.
As it stands right now, our government is hell-bent on a manifest destiny Rome would applaud. If Caesar were alive today, he would cheer Bush on with "If you can’t recreate your own Eden, bogart the O.G." Aesop would parable it with a dog with a bone and a reflection. Joni Mitchell would sing, "You don’t know what you’ve got ‘til it’s gone."
Paradise has been paved and I crawl over it for 2 hours and 45 minutes when it rains.
Southern California, USA
While I’m preoccupied for 2 hours and 45 minutes driving the 50 miles into work on a rainy day, the world rotates, time marches on, and events occur.
"There are children starving in India," my Mom used to say when my sister and I refused to eat our squash or Brussels sprouts. Who knew from kids in India? We didn’t. Sis would usually come up with a clever reply that would get us off the ick-veggie hook never realizing that when she was older and a Mom, herself, that she would tell her own kids that "There are children starving in Africa," because there truly are.
Starving Africans [which would make a great morbid name for a band if there isn’t one already] are nothing new. When Apartheid was abolished in South Africa, the continent dropped out of media view. After all, famine is nothing newsy; since the early 80’s there’s been one drought-backed one after another. Or maybe those crazy dictators, robbing their already pitifully poor countries’ treasuries, could be blamed.
These are the thoughts drifting through my head as I’ve just finished eating my breakfast en route.
I care because sitting in 2 hours and 45 minutes worth of traffic skews you. The next time I fill up my tank I’m going to have to pay over $2.00/gal. That pisses me off while I listen to a President that I didn’t vote for – hell, that the MAJORITY didn’t vote for – try to convince me that economy will get better with war when I know that the second gasoline drops back to $1.30/gal, people will breathe easier. I’m driving to work with forced optimism, hoping that war will not completely collapse retail which will put me out of a job … AGAIN … and make it damn near impossible to continue to work in an industry that’s already at bare bones, which will make it moot to fill up my tank to begin with because I certainly won’t be driving anywhere. Especially not to my local mall to spend a tax cut that won’t do me any good because I’ll be getting taxed on the unemployment that I’ll be collecting until it runs out.
In Zimbabwe, President Mugabe stripped the White farmers of their land [more than likely executing the ones who didn’t flee the country] and gave it to his Black populace which would have been all well and fine if the people he’d given the land to were qualified farmers with the knowledge of high-capacity farming. What was once the feeder of the continent is now holding its breadbasket a-begging for scraps. The land lies fallow; there’s no work; there’s no food to feed a populace that’s already HIV-positive. As the people starve, their immune systems decline further, making it impossible for them to work even if there was work.
In June 2002, President George Bush proposed spending $500 million dollars in Africa and the Caribbean to fight AIDS. By January 2003 that amount dwindled to $15 million for Africa. Strengthening Homeland Security is more important; waging war on Iraq is more important. And, in the meantime, AIDS tromps through India, China. I’m no statistician and certainly no psychic, but I’ll claim right now that AIDS will kill more Americans this month than the Al Qaida will this year.
I’m also no conspiracy theorist but I’ve often wondered if Bin Laden actually exists.
President Karzai of Afghanistan has to stand in line to be received at the White House and when he speaks he’s been advised to yell. The din of warmongering begets deafness; his country bores Bush now. Driving out the Taliban didn’t spur the U.S. economy. Neither will throwing billions of dollars at Turkey, but that’s OK. I’m sure Bush sits behind his desk in the Oval Office quipping, "Just have Greenspan print more money."
[At the time of this writing, Turkey has declined to let us use their borders so Bush will probably have Colin Powell draw up a plan that includes usurping Turkey so that we’ll get to use their borders anyway. And – glory be! – we’ll be able to join the E.U. after it’s all over.]
Don’t laugh. As I type this to paste into my BLOG I have to be aware that I run the risk of defying the Patriot Act. Land of the free? I waggle my finger. Don’t take that to the bank. In a Democracy, the minority still has the right to be heard, to be seen. As long as that minority opinion isn’t being voiced on a T-shirt. I considered myself part of the majority in November 2000 only to discover that my vote didn’t count. I’m still peeved about that because I don’t want war. I think that war, in general, is stupid and this war that’s looming is wrong. Really, really, really wrong.
At my local eatery last weekend, the cashier looked past me and commented on my fellow patron’s T-shirt. "Awakening the Giant" it read in bold black under an emerging, fiercely-drawn bald eagle. "Yeah! We need to get him for what he did to us," she cheered as she handed me change. I cringed. Sadaam Hussein didn’t destroy the Twin Towers, at least that’s what I’ve been led to believe; Bin Laden was behind that act of terrorism and that’s why we invaded Afghanistan.
Maybe we’ve all got our facts wrong. Hell, President Bush seems to think that by deposing Hussein and taking over Iraq until they get the hang of democracy, we’ll be making friends with the neighboring Arab countries. Ahem. Like there won’t be an economic revival in the U.S. until fuel prices decline, the Middle East won’t even consider us friend material until we begin reprimanding Israel on their unique brand of apartheid. Or is the subject of starvation and ethnic cleansing relegated only to Africa?
I’m not a news hound. Actually, since the first war with Iraq I’ve become decidedly less attuned to world events because the media irks me. Just because I’m not a voracious follower of what’s happening around me doesn’t mean I don’t care. Not once but twice last week it rained and I was both captive and captivated by the news streaming from my favorite NPR outlet and that didn’t consist of selected sound bites. These past couple days I’ve been sick and I’ve been using my recuperative time surfing the web for in-depth info. Later today I’ll read about the Patriot Act more fully.
What I’ve been realizing over the course of the past year is that time isn’t my friend. I have to start forcing the openings for things that I want to do – like writing again – and that I need to do – like getting my income taxes done, spending time with my Mom, and paying attention to where my civil liberties are headed.
"Awakening the Giant" shouldn’t be a metaphor for war; it should be the metaphor for this country to start setting its priorities straight. While I don’t believe that "going to git" Saddam Hussein is the recipe for improving the quality of my life, marching against mindless American aggression just might be. I won’t be packing up and joining the Peace Corps to rid Africa of AIDS and hunger, but I can pick up my check book after making an intelligent decision about which Non Profit Organization is doing the best work in that area. I can properly dispose of a piece of trash in the street. I dunno what I’ll do but I’ve got to start doing something.
As it stands right now, our government is hell-bent on a manifest destiny Rome would applaud. If Caesar were alive today, he would cheer Bush on with "If you can’t recreate your own Eden, bogart the O.G." Aesop would parable it with a dog with a bone and a reflection. Joni Mitchell would sing, "You don’t know what you’ve got ‘til it’s gone."
Paradise has been paved and I crawl over it for 2 hours and 45 minutes when it rains.
posted by Evan at
2:32 PM
