Category Archives: Politics

Politics, US History

History is a River.

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Summer                                                           Healing Moon

Wow. Housing discrimination. Still illegal. Same-sex marriage. OK. A weak but necessary version of national health care. Here to stay. The killing of 9 souls at Emanuel A.M.E. in Charleston. Historic wildfires in Alaska. The apparent demise of a too long standing symbol of the noble cause, the confederate flag. This is a big country with so much diversity.

Enough news to fill a month, even a year. All the in the last two weeks. And today: Woman takes down Confederate flag in front of South Carolina statehouse.

In my lifetime I have seen a moon landing, a photograph of our home planet from space. I’ve seen the computer grow as a versatile tool for so many things I could never have imagined. An international space station orbits the planet. Cell phones (hand held computers) are common. I have participated in protests of the Vietnam War and in many political movements from the local to the international.

Never would I have imagined that same-sex marriage would be the law of the land. Never would I have imagined that there would be even the most basic of national health care policies. I could have imagined the continuing bang, bang, bang, bang of racist shooters, bringing lynching up to date with the time of the gun. Never could I have imagined southern political leaders, conservative ones, too, arguing for the elimination of the stars and bars as a public image of certain southerner’s pride. Never. Never though could I have imagined the picture posted here, of a young black woman’s pre-dawn decision to just take the damned thing down in South Carolina.

History is a river, a flooded river that washes over us all, at every moment, carrying us and those we love to the great ocean of memory. This was a week of historical flash flooding. Glad to be part of it.

 

Commentary on the news, Faith and Spirituality, Politics, Reimagine. Reconstruct. Reenchant.

Life is a tale told by fallible beings…

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Summer                                                                        Healing Moon

It would be easy to assume that the world is worse off now than it has ever been. Bernie Sanders calls the various smaller wars going on around the world, “World War III in segments.” There was an article in today’s NYT called for a new period of black radicalism. Not difficult to see why. The gap between the 1% and the 99% has widened, it has become not a gap but a canyon, a Grand Canyon. We can see each other across the canyon’s width but the distance is so great that the people on the other rim appear faintly, if at all.

The ocean’s acidify, the average temperature goes up, the ice caps melt and Shell Oil heads to the Arctic to drill oil wells. When the price of gas goes down a bit, Americans shift away from fuel economy to bigger and faster. Some scientists contend we are in the midst of a sixth great extinction, this one anthropogenic.

And yes, the macro view, the perspective from above, has all these things and so many more to see: poverty, epidemics, drought and water crises, forest desertification.

Yet. Men and women, men and men, women and women fall in love, get married. Babies are born, joy coming into the world with them. Children learn about the Wizard of Oz or Tin Tin or Ganesh or the Monkey King. They play in alleys, parks, war zones, schools and forests. Dreams and hopes trail in their wake like the contrails from a jet.

Here’s what I believe. We are a destructive, adaptive, mean, resilient, loving, biased species. When we push ourselves too far in war, in climate change, in racism and sexism, in concentrations of wealth and power, we take corrective actions. Clumsy and too hopeful probably, ill thought out and filled with flaws, yet with enough right to get us past the current mess.

Life is not a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury signifying nothing. Life is a tale told by fallible creatures, full of love and misguided dreams, signifying everything.

Politics, The West, Weather +Climate

Toddler Politics

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Beltane                                                                         New (Healing) Moon

“People “should not be forced to live on property with brown lawns, golf on brown courses or apologize for wanting their gardens to be beautiful,” Yuhas fumed recently on social media.”

“Drought or no drought, Steve Yuhas resents the idea that it is somehow shameful to be a water hog. If you can pay for it, he argues, you should get your water.”  Washington Post, 6/13/2015

New hashtags #watershaming, #droughtshaming underscore an intensely personal political divide now being made clear in California. As water recedes, civility is among the drought’s unintended consequences. Steve Yuhas, quoted above, has given voice to what many undoubtedly feel. I have the money to do what I want.

That at least some of the wealthy feel this way should come as no surprise. This is a key difference between those on the right and those on the left. The left believes we are all in this together; the right believes personal accomplishment trumps communal responsibility. To be fair, Yuhas includes in his complaint the fact that he pays high property taxes on his Rancho Santa Fe home. And, he probably does.

Yuhas only states what American culture itself implies. If you can afford it, you can buy it. That can has become should be able to under any circumstances is a logical extension of this idea. No one likes restrictions. I get that. But how many parents have used these words, often in frustration, “You have to learn to share.”

There will always be the 1%’ers who feel as Yuhas does. They are both a historical and current reality. In the ancien regime in France they said the villeins should eat cake. In England they instituted a poll tax under Margaret Thatcher. In Tolstoy’s Russia they worked their serfs like slaves. I don’t personally begrudge them their attitudes; I do begrudge them their sense that they should be able to act on them without consequence.

Perhaps this drought-induced rant will lay clear the difference between right and left. The right want to do what they want to do. Let’s call that toddler politics. The left wants to share the results of our common labors. Let’s call that “You have to learn to share.” politics. Which one makes more sense for a nation?

 

Memories, Minnesota, Politics, US History

Peek-A-Boo

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Imbolc                             Black Mountain Moon

Reading in the New York Review of Books about FBI surveillance of the anti-war movement. There was paranoia about the Feds all the time, with new folks coming under suspicion. The times were rich with focus, focus that made sense and focus that did not. The two were sometimes hard to separate.

Anyhow, the article reminded me of the funniest instance of FBI surveillance in which I personally participated. Back in ’72 or ’73 a bunch of us conceived the idea of a human chain around the Federal Building in St. Paul. There may have been a court case then, I don’t recall, but we showed up bright and early, joined hands and made a circle around the building. OK, almost the whole building. We didn’t have enough to close off the loading docks.

Anyhow, the Kellog Square apartments were under construction across the street from the Federal Building. They were mostly complete, several stories of apartments with glass windows facing the street. All of the apartments, up, I don’t know 20 floors, were empty. No curtains on the windows. No furniture. No renters yet.

Except. About six stories up, one unit had curtains. And, peeking between the curtains were cameras. The lenses were visible to the naked eye. Once we noticed them we waved, of course.

Very subtle of the FBI to hide behind curtains. In the only apartment that had them.

Oh, those were the days.

Politics, US History

A Hole in the Heart

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Imbolc                                                                           Settling Moon II

Mike just finished loading up all the boxes we’ve emptied so far, a pile three feet high plus three large boxes filled with collapsed book boxes. They’re headed off right now to Mountain Waste. He also carried my 50 inch plasma up the stairs. Carried it. I couldn’t even lift it. This guy is strong.

He typifies a core problem with our republic. Mike makes his living doing a variety of things that require physical strength and manual skills: fence building, hauling out appliances, and general hauling. Plus odd jobs. It’s hard to earn enough to live that way. But there are many people who love physical labor and find the idea of working inside abhorrent.

When asked how things were going, Mike told me. His 14 year old daughter has problems, not unusual, but difficult. He also had a stress test, which found an abnormality. An angiogram confirmed the abnormality but showed he didn’t need a stent. He’s had to change his whole diet. Tough to do, as most of us know.

Here’s the problem though. What does a guy who prefers physical labor do if unable to continue? A hard reorientation in mid-life if it becomes necessary. Also, hearts are expensive organs to manage.

We really have few places in our new, brave world for guys like Mike. Logarithmically reinforce that if you’re a black or Latino male or disabled. This hole in our economy may enlarge to become a hole in our collective heart since it will not go away.

 

Politics

Choice

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Winter                                                                                  Settling Moon II

Got 7 or 8 inches of snow last night, so Eduardo and I waved at each other over our snow-blowers this morning. This is fluffy powder, though the snow coming down in Denver yesterday was heavy and wet.

We went in to transfer Kate’s driver’s license to Colorado and pick-up some area rugs. The  stop at the driver’s license bureau took 2 hours and 15 minutes. Afterwards we hunted for a place for lunch. We decided, with little knowledge, on Twin Peaks.

(I’m pretty sure this was the young woman at the host’s desk. This image comes from their web page.)

Here’s their description of themselves:

“Here at Twin Peaks, we offer everything you crave and more. Hearty made-from-scratch comfort food, draft beer served at a teeth-chattering 29 degrees and all the best sports in town shown on high-definition flat screens. All of this is served by our friendly and attentive Twin Peaks Girls, offering their signature “Girl Next Door” charisma and playful personalities to ensure that your adventure starts at the Peaks.”

And another description from google, which is to the point: “Sports-bar chain where scantily clad waitresses serve American comfort food in lodgelike surrounds.”

Kate was the only woman customer in the place and there were a lot of other customers. This occasioned a long discussion between us about feminism, the kind she and I matured with, and third wave feminism which has an emphasis on women owning their sexuality.

Were these young women here by choice? Or, by financial need? Probably both. Pride in their appearance might have influenced some young women to choose waitressing here, clad in clothes for the beach, while it snowed heavily outside. Others might have needed work to pay the rent, feed their family, or pay tuition.

Even the young women who chose to be there because they were proud of their bodies might have emphasized that part of themselves at the expense of other, more future oriented aspects. Kate pointed this out and I agreed. I brought up the idea that feminism means women can make stupid decisions, too. Yes, Kate agreed.

We both laughed when I remembered the In Defense of Alcohol line written in marker on a dollar bill and attached to the wall of Little Bear, the blues club in Evergreen. “In defense of alcohol,” the writer said, “I’ve done seriously stupid things when I’m sober, too.”

Colorado, Health, Politics

Last Big Piece (other than selling the other house)

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Winter                                                   Settling Moon

We’re in a long spell of days in the 30’s and 40’s, apparently normal January weather here. That milder winter we were talking about.

The main big transition piece undone is health care: doctor, dentist, health plan. Made some progress this week, but nothing done yet. More complicated than it needs to be, than it should be.

Linking the pieces of primary care doc, hospital of preference and health insurance has the feeling of playing three card monte on the streets of Times Square. But at least there you knew the con was on from the minute you stepped up to the piece of cardboard and the tented cards. With medicine the putative beneficiary is you, the patient, who receives good health care; but, in fact, just like Times Square, the game has other intended beneficiaries whose needs count more than yours: the administrative apparatus of hospitals and clinics, the vast network of employees working for the insurance organizations and the greedy bastards who run the pharmaceutical industry.

OK. So, it’s a rant. Doesn’t mean it’s not true.

 

 

Politics, US History

_________ the terrorists have won.

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Samain                                                                                Moving Moon

If you, ______, the terrorists have won. Stop shopping. Stop flying. Stop going out at night. Stop eating Cheerios. You remember this dark comedic line delivered as a straight line by our highest governmental officials.

While clearing a cache of newspapers out from underneath our stairs, a collection hidden I imagine in attics and basements across the land, several headlines blared out. Taliban Keeps World Waiting On Turn Over of Bin Laden. Dateline September 19th, 2001. The Day The World Changed. An Economist cover from that same week.

The impulse that had me storing these and learning about Islam for well over a year has long since waned in strength. These artifacts no longer have the heat they did when I laid them one on the other over a decade ago.

As I took them out to the trash though, an idea did strike me. What if we said this? If you mount a global military campaign killing thousands of civilians, engage in pre-emptive warfare, torture any believed at all complicit, sweep up information on the entire US population and many foreign countries, and ravage the political culture at home, then, oh yes, then, the terrorists have won.

 

Humor, Politics

Ban Torture Reports

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Samain                                                                            Moving Moon

Found this on facebook. It’s from this article in the New Yorker.

 

WASHINGTON (The Borowitz Report)—Former Vice-President Dick Cheney on Tuesday called upon the nations of the world to “once and for all ban the despicable and heinous practice of publishing torture reports.”

“Like many Americans, I was shocked and disgusted by the Senate Intelligence Committee’s publication of a torture report today,” Cheney said in a prepared statement. “The transparency and honesty found in this report represent a gross violation of our nation’s values.”