Stinkweeds

It's two am Sunday morning. All the buzz online is about the shooting of Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords and others in the parking lot of a Safeway in Tucson. As is always the case in such an incident, stories bloom like stinkweeds, about every conceivable angle of it; was she the target, was the shooter a "madman", was he an atheist, we have to have more gun control, ad nauseum. Yeah, so I'm adding my own little stinkweed. Huffington Post has a special commentary from Keith Olbermann (since when is he on TV on weekends?), in which he uses the word repudiate a lot. I have no argument with the basic gist of his comments, but I feel compelled to do a bit of repudiating and refudiating too.

I'll wait for further facts to emerge about all the specific details of the incident; this little piece is not about Ms. Giffords, Judge Roll or the other people who were shot nor about Jared Lee Loughner. What my little weed here is about is the assertion that this incident is but one fairly minor incident in falling of empire. Of course, "empire" suggests world affairs, and there is certainly that aplenty, but there is also the internal crumbling both in physical terms and social and political terms. This is an example of the latter.

Keith himself has many times addressed what has come to be called Jan Brewer's Arizona death panels. These are not merely political rhetoric and hyperbole; so far at least two persons are dead as a direct result of the so-called budget cuts by the state government of AZ. Naturally, there have been and will be many other such things going on all over the country, not just AZ. It's all well and good for Keith and other pundits and politicians of whatever stripe, to state, as he did, that "violence has no place in our democracy". I see two huge problems with that statement: A) Yes it does have a fundamental place and, B) we don't have any democracy.

Violence always has been and forever will be THE primary means of change, for good or ill, among human groups, small and large, tribes or nations. We killed a lot of Indians to get this country, to take it from them. We killed a lot of British soldiers to keep it. We killed way over half a million of each other over a big argument we had in the mid 1800s. We vaporized tens of thousands of Japanese people with atomic bombs. We continue to kill tens of thousands of men, women and children in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, etc. It is utter folly to think this will ever change, either on a national level, or on a personal level. We are animals...we fight and kill like animals; animals with just enough cleverness to make them vastly more dangerous than any other animals.

Democracy? HA! You mean the kind we are attempting to force upon other peoples in various parts of the world who want no part of it or us? The kind of democracy that gave the people of AZ who were on that transplant list a vote on whether or not they would prefer to die for lack of medical care? The kind of democracy that allows poor people in our country, including many thousands of maimed and damaged soldiers to vote on whether or not they would prefer to sleep under bridges, in tents, in cars, on park benches rather than have a decent home to live in? Oh yes, these are terrible socio-political problems but there is no reason to resort to violence. Really? Guess what, all violence is not done by people with guns. How's this:

"He predicts that nearly 30 Arizonans will die this year because of the state's decision to cut certain transplants. "Failure to restore this funding is a death sentence for people who have committed no crimes," he said. The state hopes to save $1.4 million from the transplant cuts. Arizona faces a projected $1.4 billion shortfall in its next state budget." Source CBS News. Anyone going around with guns to the homes of these folk and popping them off? Nope....that would be the doings of politicians with pens. Why is Jan Brewer not arrested and charged as an accessory to murder?

We are a declining empire. That we ARE an empire is beyond any sensible dispute. We...America...are THE military superpower on this planet. We will not always be. Gilbert Mercier had a good article in Alternet last month called The American Empire Is Collapsing And Americans Will Be The Last To Know. I agree. Not that it's necessarily a good thing to know...it ain't like we're gonna change it. Four days ago, Sam Harris also had a great article in Alternet called Is The Ruination Of America Possible? It's not only possible but is well under way and is almost certainly inevitable.

Many thousands of people in America see the problems, see some excellent and outstanding ways to remedy them, to stop the decline. Many write wonderfully insightful and profound articles and even whole books on the subject; people who were, or even still are, in high government positions (Robert Reich, Paul Krugman), very wealthy people (Bill Gates, Warren Buffet), very talented people (Keith Olbermann, Rachel Maddow, Matt Taibbi), and yet the decline goes on unabated. Why? Some do a very good job of collecting and distributing information about the problems, but when it comes to answers, they cannot seem to grasp that they are as much of a problem as the ones they point out. A case in point: An article appeared on July 12, 2010 in The Real Truth magazine titled America's Crumbling Infrastructure. It does a great job of presenting some information about the bad problems with America's roads, bridges, drinking water, etc. The explanation? "Ezekiel also states that God intends to punish America." *sigh*

Some might point back at me and say something like, "Even if you don't ascribe it to God, you're still saying the same thing, that collapse is inevitable, that nothing can be done." Well, yeah, kinda. Hey, at least I blame humans for the problems, not make-believe critters. COULD humans fix the problems? Of course, as easy as pie. WILL humans fix the problems? Well, open can, worms everywhere. Basically, no. In part because most humans live in and on illusions and delusions. Then there's that animal greed, tribalism, propensity for violence, etc. Yeah, I could be wrong. I heartily encourage all and sundry to take any and every possible legal and non-violent political action possible; get permits, march in the streets, flood Washington and your state governments with snail mail, email, faxes, phone calls, pointing out the problems and suggesting solutions; hold neighborhood or town meetings; every chance you get, 'vote the bums out' and replace them with fresh bums, just like we been doing for what...200 years or so? Hey, even Nero fiddled while Rome burned, the legend says. Most guys on death row still do calisthenics...or make stuff out of match sticks...or paint.

Well, I been growing this little stinkweed for two hours now...may not compare to butterbeans and jalapenos, but still... We all pass the time somehow, eh?

TRB