Some Rants
Bu$h/Cheney and Co. are freeing the Iraqi people to their deaths....and protecting our civil liberties to their decline...and most of us sit idly by insular and apathetic in denial about our culpability...
We complain about jobs going oversees while we fill our homes with cheap products produced over seas... We are blind that currently the consumer identity trumps the worker one to the proletariat demise...
Some focus on the "illegal" immigrants and actively participate in them be constructed as "less than" us and totally ignore the businesses that employ them and all the while benefiting from their cheap labor.
Many of us let the government get away with the unforgivable way that Katrina was prepared for and is still being (mis)managed. Whose to say that next year it won't be your part of the country. The fact that there are hundreds of FEMA trailers sitting empty because the bureaucracy is moving at a snails pace while people are living in contaminated areas and tents and that most people who aren't immediately affected could care less is troubling to say the least. Not to mention that most areas destroyed by Katrina have yet to even be cleaned up.... What is wrong with us. Why don't we care enough to be bothered by the needless suffering of others even when they are in our own country. Too many blame the victim and believe that those displaced and ruined by Katrina are themselves to blame....after all many of them are poor, black or even better both which makes not helping them even more easy...
70 percent of Americans are in debt and that debt is increasing, yet credit card companies get cart blanche, bankruptcy laws get stripped down all the while patriotism and Americaness continues to be associated with consumption.....
The US is the richest country but with an education system that continues to be ignored and disinvested in....
What's with all the crime shows on TV how many murder stories does one need to see in a week...and what does this say about our (American culture)?
Many think we are the best (and in someways we are) and ignore the poverty, the crime, the misogyny, the racism, the rampant materialism, the emerging fundamentalism, the shitty education system, the inexcusable health care situation, our addictions (drugs, food, sex, shopping, oil, entertainment). Yes, it's important to acknowledge our strengths and to be proud of them, but it is even more important to be real about what needs to acknowledged and worked on. Internationally, sometimes we (US) have indeed been the the white knight so to speak, but not always, we have also done things that give people just cause to not like us or trust us.
Why is homosexuality and marriage rights for all such an issue in the States? I really don't get it?? I can understand some people being uncomfortable about homosexuality, but the fear and hate and violence I really don't understand...
Hamas w(h)in(e)s! What's with this group, complaining about most of their international funding being cut off??? Saying that the EU/UN/US are punishing the Palestinians for exercising their democratic right. Everyone knows how the EU/UN/US feel about Hamas, so those who voted them in need to accept the consequences. They bought Hamas' populist rhetoric and now they have the government the majority elected. Maybe they will be able to deliver, and perhaps their "Islamic" brothers of Iran, Syria, Saudi etc will support them materially....but I doubt it... I lived in Gaza for two years and have much sympathy for the Palestinians and am aware of how they have been the victim way more than they have been the victimizer, but hey you voted Hamas into power so deal with it...if you want the international money to continue pressure them to moderate their reason for being---aka the destruction of Israel.
Why is Russia part of the G8. There is no democratic litmus test I am aware of that it would pass???
Looks like the powers that be are going to sit by and let yet another genocide go on in Africa. Now Chad is pissed at Sudan and the refugees are in the middle. I remember people apologizing for Rwanda...for not acting and various leaders going to Rwanda for the anniversary of the genocide and loaning money for memorials etc. I guess this will be the test of how sorry they/we were. Will those who can help sit by now, and stop by to apologize a few years from now??? Will those of us in countries who are lucky enough to speak up freely be mute and think ah thats too bad...someone should do something????
Why do people care what Gwyneth Paltrow names her kids, how much ink is going to be spilt on this? And besides it's not like they named them Spoon and Fork for fucks sake!
Currently there are enough resources and technology for everyone to have enough food, adequate shelter, and basic services (education, health, etc) but politics, power, xenophobia, apathy, prejudice, hyperindividualism, hypermasculinity, and fatalism allow the status quo of vast inequalities to continue. We on the "haves" side will be judged for this. I judge myself....
There is no reason to fear China (except for when it comes to the pollution their economic growth will produce). With the exception of Taiwan they are all about business not about military imperialism. Notice how the first person their PM saw during the current visit to the US was Bill Gates and not George Bush.
Abstinence only plans to decrease AIDs or pregnancy are STUPID!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!and DANGEROUS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Miliatry action against Iran is a bad idea! and have no doubt that if they (Bush and Co) figure out a way to do it, they probably will as he seems to think he is some soldier of god an only he will be brave enough to do what is needed......wage more war.
Granted the subject matter of these thoughts is mostly negative, but my outlook for the future is more positive than negative. And I remain confident that enough of us will wake up before those demagogues and/or hypercorporatists in power do too much damage.
We complain about jobs going oversees while we fill our homes with cheap products produced over seas... We are blind that currently the consumer identity trumps the worker one to the proletariat demise...
Some focus on the "illegal" immigrants and actively participate in them be constructed as "less than" us and totally ignore the businesses that employ them and all the while benefiting from their cheap labor.
Many of us let the government get away with the unforgivable way that Katrina was prepared for and is still being (mis)managed. Whose to say that next year it won't be your part of the country. The fact that there are hundreds of FEMA trailers sitting empty because the bureaucracy is moving at a snails pace while people are living in contaminated areas and tents and that most people who aren't immediately affected could care less is troubling to say the least. Not to mention that most areas destroyed by Katrina have yet to even be cleaned up.... What is wrong with us. Why don't we care enough to be bothered by the needless suffering of others even when they are in our own country. Too many blame the victim and believe that those displaced and ruined by Katrina are themselves to blame....after all many of them are poor, black or even better both which makes not helping them even more easy...
70 percent of Americans are in debt and that debt is increasing, yet credit card companies get cart blanche, bankruptcy laws get stripped down all the while patriotism and Americaness continues to be associated with consumption.....
The US is the richest country but with an education system that continues to be ignored and disinvested in....
What's with all the crime shows on TV how many murder stories does one need to see in a week...and what does this say about our (American culture)?
Many think we are the best (and in someways we are) and ignore the poverty, the crime, the misogyny, the racism, the rampant materialism, the emerging fundamentalism, the shitty education system, the inexcusable health care situation, our addictions (drugs, food, sex, shopping, oil, entertainment). Yes, it's important to acknowledge our strengths and to be proud of them, but it is even more important to be real about what needs to acknowledged and worked on. Internationally, sometimes we (US) have indeed been the the white knight so to speak, but not always, we have also done things that give people just cause to not like us or trust us.
Why is homosexuality and marriage rights for all such an issue in the States? I really don't get it?? I can understand some people being uncomfortable about homosexuality, but the fear and hate and violence I really don't understand...
Hamas w(h)in(e)s! What's with this group, complaining about most of their international funding being cut off??? Saying that the EU/UN/US are punishing the Palestinians for exercising their democratic right. Everyone knows how the EU/UN/US feel about Hamas, so those who voted them in need to accept the consequences. They bought Hamas' populist rhetoric and now they have the government the majority elected. Maybe they will be able to deliver, and perhaps their "Islamic" brothers of Iran, Syria, Saudi etc will support them materially....but I doubt it... I lived in Gaza for two years and have much sympathy for the Palestinians and am aware of how they have been the victim way more than they have been the victimizer, but hey you voted Hamas into power so deal with it...if you want the international money to continue pressure them to moderate their reason for being---aka the destruction of Israel.
Why is Russia part of the G8. There is no democratic litmus test I am aware of that it would pass???
Looks like the powers that be are going to sit by and let yet another genocide go on in Africa. Now Chad is pissed at Sudan and the refugees are in the middle. I remember people apologizing for Rwanda...for not acting and various leaders going to Rwanda for the anniversary of the genocide and loaning money for memorials etc. I guess this will be the test of how sorry they/we were. Will those who can help sit by now, and stop by to apologize a few years from now??? Will those of us in countries who are lucky enough to speak up freely be mute and think ah thats too bad...someone should do something????
Why do people care what Gwyneth Paltrow names her kids, how much ink is going to be spilt on this? And besides it's not like they named them Spoon and Fork for fucks sake!
Currently there are enough resources and technology for everyone to have enough food, adequate shelter, and basic services (education, health, etc) but politics, power, xenophobia, apathy, prejudice, hyperindividualism, hypermasculinity, and fatalism allow the status quo of vast inequalities to continue. We on the "haves" side will be judged for this. I judge myself....
There is no reason to fear China (except for when it comes to the pollution their economic growth will produce). With the exception of Taiwan they are all about business not about military imperialism. Notice how the first person their PM saw during the current visit to the US was Bill Gates and not George Bush.
Abstinence only plans to decrease AIDs or pregnancy are STUPID!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!and DANGEROUS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Miliatry action against Iran is a bad idea! and have no doubt that if they (Bush and Co) figure out a way to do it, they probably will as he seems to think he is some soldier of god an only he will be brave enough to do what is needed......wage more war.
Granted the subject matter of these thoughts is mostly negative, but my outlook for the future is more positive than negative. And I remain confident that enough of us will wake up before those demagogues and/or hypercorporatists in power do too much damage.
posted by Green Tara at 12:59 PM
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