The Brink

Well, this morning the Pendulum has managed to defy the laws physics and nature, creeping past the red zone into No Man's Land. Tom DeLay and George W. Bush, in the flurry and flush of what they demand is moral certitude have undone hundreds of years of the Rule of Law. Maybe more, if you go back to the days of the drawing of the Charter. You know, that piece of parchment sitting in Westminster.
This thing, this arguement has been going on for seven years and NOW, after the Mandate (bah!), the idiot fringe decides to get involved? This is a political trip on any face and the Dems, those cowards, don't have the sack to stand up to it, lest they get tossed out of office for "killing" this woman. Jeee Zus.
The Government is now the decision making apparatus for the individual. The Government is now the entity that doesn't just provide the structure in which to live but also dictates exactly HOW to live. In the intervention seen on this bright blue morning in March, the haze of Spring and New Life on the horizon, it is finally crystal clear who is in charge of my life and it ain't me.
But wait. Fuck no. I refuse to accept that sort of rubbish. I am filled with a different kind of spirit then these poseurs of the most lewd and egregious sort.
These walking whited sepulchres, these flagrantly cynical assholes will not be allowed to march all over, and in the process destroy, the American Democracy. Where did Hope and Progress run off to? Fear and well....FEAR will be the order of the day. There is no other standard operating procedure in the halls of congress any more.
The proof is in the pudding: Tom DeLay, in a fit of what can only be termed insanity, actually made a disturbing, obtuse connection between Al Qaeda and the Feeding Tube Removal Frenzy currently gripping the yappers at FoxNews and CNN and Drudge and the rest of the medium vacuous. He called the actions of seven years of litigation and Court to Court bumper pool that resulted in the final decision to release this brain damaged woman from her suffering "Medical Terrorism".
Whoa. Who the hell said anything about Terrorism? Now it's a whole different story. Quick, get the DoHS on the horn! We must immediately detain Mr. Schiavo as an Enemy of the State and hold him indefinitely at Gitmo or maybe even in one of Dick's abandoned bunkers. We can't let this bastard get away. He is far too dangerous to Society.

The future is now, folks, and we are collectively toeing the edge of the cliff.

The Turning Point

I was walking at a pretty fast pace this morning up the hill to the University after a morning of too much introspection and paranoia. The air was still brisk and moving fast but from a different direction than the day before. It's warmer now, and I can see how the temperatures may in fact break the 30 degree mark like those nit wit forecasters predicted. I will forever hold weather people in contempt for their manifold crimes such as predicting warm weather only to be met with a wintry blast that makes you want to crawl into the nearest manhole, regardless of the stink.
But that's all just setting isn't it. The real meat of the issue is this: Somewhere along the way this morning it dawned on me that September the 11th was not just a day that brought transient solidarity and a new American view of the world as a dangerous and volatile place. It was also the day that my entire mentality became skewed. After the shock wore off and I could look at a plane flying above without seeing people falling out of an imaginary building sticking up impossibly high above the Green Mountains, I decided that change must come. Two basic modes of thought have come to characterize the post 9/11 American Mindset. The first is one that, I think, can best be described as a Lone Ranger disposition, where We are the Good Guys, tragically isolated and set against a world that can't see the flaws of their approach and are therefore Crusty and wrongheaded. The rest of the world cannot be counted on to bring the happy ending. The Sunset is only for those that come to stand by our side and do not proffer a serious opinion of their own. Like a good Tonto.
The second mindset is one that I have become increasingly associated with in terms of politics and personal goals. It is that of a Progressive Internationalist. It is not reasonable to believe that because we have the strongest democracy that we also have all the answers as to how a democracy should be formed or sustained. The time has come for a new revolution in ideas and goals that include not less but more faith in International Governance. Not less but more effort in finding common ground. Not less but more partcipation in the World Community. That means listening and not merely pretending to listen for the purposes of advancing one's own point of view and prerogative.