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Thursday, July 30, 2009 - 10:03:10
Where the health care debates should be taking place
I’m getting tired of turning on my television and seeing policy dweebs discussing health care. I’m tired of people standing in front of blue curtains or American flags, pontificating till the cows come home.
I’m tired of millionaires and the lackeys of millionaires discussing what is good for America on TV talk shows. I’m even tired of town hall style meetings, because they have lost their novelty, if you will.
I think that the next time President Obama - or anyone, for that matter - wants to hold a press conference about the health care crisis in the country they should do it standing outside of an emgency room.
Maybe someone could interview people as they come out, after their long wait to see a doctor, about what they think of the health care system in this country.
Why stop there? Maybe a press conference could be held outside a courthouse building, where bankruptcy hearings are beings held. Some air head correspondent from CNN might even get their consciousness raised.
Let’s have the folks who are so proudly touting “finest health care system in the world” on TV interviews face down a room of folks who are losing everything because someone in their life had the misfortune to have cancer, or some other life-threatening illness.
Now that’s reality TV I would watch.
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Quote of the Day
During the last few years, politics has worked perversely: taxes on the wealthy have been cut, and so have programs directed at the poor. The reason isn't difficult to explain. Many Americans-- especially those who have been losing ground have given up on politics. As their incomes have shrunk, they've lost confidence that the "system" will work in their interest. That cynicism has generated a self-fulfilling prophesy. Politicians stop paying attention to people who don't vote, who don't work the phone banks or walk the precincts, who have opted out. And the political inattention seems to justify the cynicism. Meanwhile, the top tier has experienced precisely the opposite--a virtuous cycle in which campaign contributions have attracted the rapt attention of politicians, the attention has elicited even more money, which in turn has given the top tier even greater influence.: Robert Reich - Former Secretary of Labor
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Okay, I’ve changed my mind about Jay Cole, Jr.
I’ved changed my mind about Jay Cole, Jr. becoming a columnist for the Northwest Arkansas Times. I think we may have found a winner in Anne Britton.
If not a gold medalist in the Mean and Crazy Olympics, she is certainly in the running, with her latest offering as a guest columnist, as proof, “Let them eat painkillers.”
http://www.nwanews.com/nwat/Editorial/78559/
At the end of her column it reads, “Anne Britton is a conservative, avid hunter and a mental health advocate. She lives in Fayetteville.”
Well, mental health something, at any rate . . .
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On the Air - Fresh Water Now
For over two decades , the residents of Humboldt County, California, fought the intrusion of corporate interests into their community, their forests, and politics, and the fight continues today. "Fresh Water Now" is the story of that battle, featuring interviews with individuals on both sides if the issue.
Paul Chapracki (Director/Cinematographer) and Jonathon Carlson (Editor) who
are involved with "Fresh water Now", will my guests next week to discuss the documentary.
The program also features footage from the documentary.
Fayetteville resident Colleen Pancake is producer of the documentary. For more information about the documentary:
www.freshwaternowthemovie.com/>http://www.freshwaternowthemovie.com/
Show days and times
Monday - Aug. 3 (7pm)
Tuesday - Aug. 4(noon)
Saturday - Aug. 8 (6pm)
C.A.T. is shown on Channel 18 of the Cox Channel line-up in Fayetteville.
Those outside the Fayetteville viewing area can see the program online at:
<http://www.catfayetteville.org/>http://www.catfayetteville.org/
Programs online are shown in "real time," meaning that they are shown atthe same time as they are shown on C.A.T.
Tuesday, July 28, 2009 - 09:54:55
"They Knew this Guy was Crazy"
1996 saw the a tragedy that would rock the Washington County Sheriff’s Department, when a prisoner managed to grab a deputy’s gun, kill the deputy and an unarmed civilian before killing himself. This is an interview with someone who had served time in the Washington County Jail at the same time as the killer..
“They Knew this Guy was Crazy”
Cop killer gave plenty of warning
Written by Richard S. Drake
Recently the Washington County Jail has been the target of serious allegations. In the most recent, Terry Lee Boatwright, victim of a January beating at the jail, claimed that jailers had left cell doors unlocked so that inmates would have access to each other.
While admitting that inmates did indeed attack and scald Boatwright with hot water, a joint investigation by Sheriff Kenneth McKee and Prosecutor Terry Jones' offices indicates that jailers had nothing to do with the incident.
In a raucous press conference this past week, Sheriff Kenneth McKee locked horns with Boatwright's controversial attorney, Dan Ivy. The appearance on the scene of Ivy, a perpetual political candidate with an increasing tendency to refer to himself in the third person, seems to be the final nail in the case's coffin.
Because of Ivy's personal reputation, many have dismissed the case from their minds simply because of his participation.
However, the Ozark Gazette has learned of a former inmate of the Washington County Jail, now an inmate at the Arkansas Department of Corrections’ Delta Regional Unit, located in Dermott, who describes similar incidents during his incarceration in Fayetteville last fall.
In a phone interview this week, George Ashley Kazery told of situations at the Washington County Jail which go to the heart of allegations made about jail security. Kazery claims that he has never met Terry Boatwright, the man recently attacked.
"I wish somebody would hit me."
In fact, Kazery has revealed details about John Manning, who during an escape attempt last November, managed to wrest an officer's gun away, killing Deputy Pete Williamson and a civilian, before fatally shooting himself. While incarcerated in Fayetteville, Manning was a known risk who had attacked a number of inmates with little if any provocation.
While confined to the Washington County Jail in 1995, Kazery called his mother in tears, after his own confrontation with Manning, who he referred to as a "crazy man." He asked her to forgive him, because he was afraid that the charges against him would be much worse. He told her that she couldn't possibly understand how things worked on the inside, and that he had never intended to hurt anyone.
Kazery, who has been confined several times in the past, and has himself escaped previously, was terrified that additional charges would be laid against him, as a result of defending himself from Manning, who had attacked him without provocation. For whatever reasons, the incident was never written up by jail officials.
The first time that Kazery had ever heard of Manning was from another prisoner, a Mexican who told him about a "crazy white dude" who had beaten up everyone in his cell and had to be shifted around the jail. Kazery had heard of a fight in which Manning had assaulted two large black men. After putting one of the men down, the man's friend attacked Manning.
According to the account Kazery heard, the second fight lasted for a long time before the officers knew of the fight and ran in to break it up.
After Manning was put into Kazery's cell block, the Mexican prisoner was wildly agitated, saying, "That's the guy that jumped on me."
Kazery: "This guy comes in the cell block and he's got this air about himself. You could tell that he was a little bit off. While it was quiet, he was staring everybody down, and he was walking in different people's cells and just sort of looking at them . . . Right about the time they were serving chow, there were a couple of guys standing in line, this guy was watching these other fellows horseplay with each other, just playing around, and he said, ‘I wish somebody would hit me. I ain’t through. I’m still ready to fight.’
“So he had a lot of other people in the cell intimidated, and before the night was over with they had to move him out of the cell because he had an argument with several other guys, and they had told the jailers to get him out of the cell.”
Even after being moved to another cell block, he still managed to have altercations with other prisoners. Finally, they had to put him on “lock-down,” in a cell by himself. While going to visitation, Kazery’s path took him past Manning’s cell, and Manning would always ask him for a cigarette. Kazery would make it a point to have a cigarette ready for Manning, even going to the extent of running back to his cell for one.
“I’m gonna kick your ass.”
Kazery: “I knew the guy was crazy, but I didn’t know it didn’t take anything at all to set him off.”
One day, during a Bible class in the multi-purpose room, an officer led Manning in. In what must have been a surprising request, he had asked to be allowed to attend. But as soon as Manning stepped through the door, it was obvious that Christian brotherhood was the furthest thing from his mind.
Looking directly at the unsuspecting Kazery, Manning said, “I’m gonna kick your ass.” At first, Kazery, who was sitting on the floor, thought that this was said as a joke. But the attending officer took it seriously enough to come running in from his post at the doorway to come between the two men.
He cautioned Manning that if he had known this was going to happen, he would never have allowed him in. Manning replied, “F**k this. I’m whipping his ass.” He began pulling his shirt off.
Kazery: “I don’t know exactly what he did to his body, but he had at least seven lacerations across his stomach that were about ten inches from side to side. They were obviously pretty deep. You could tell by what the wounds looked like when he pulled off his T-shirt . . . you could tell they were self-inflicted. I don’t know what he had done to himself. It looked like he might have took a razor blade and just went to cutting across his stomach.”
With mounting agitation, Kazery realized that Manning was serious. He stood up, in a defensive posture. Manning walked past the deputy around a table and picked up a folding chair. Raising it over his head, he began running at Kazery. Snatching up a folding chair himself, Kazery swung it up hard against Manning’s weapon, knocking it to the ground.
Realizing that the fight wasn’t over until one of them was put down, Kazery aggressively fought back. Quickly and savagely, he knocked Manning to the floor and “cut loose on him.”
His fear of the violent man he considered crazy gave Kazery even greater strength, and he brought it all to bear on Manning, not stopping until he had punched and kicked him repeatedly. Kazery didn’t stop until the other man was bloodied considerably.
Even after being kicked in the head, Manning still wanted to fight.
After the fight, Manning was taken back to his maximum security cell. That was the last occasion where the two men came into contact with each other, though Kazery heard through others that Manning continued to be a discipline problem, ending up in solitary once again.
Contrary to Kazery’s fears, the incident was never reported or held against him.
Kazery: “He continued to cause problems. What was weirdest to me about the whole situation is how they knew this guy was crazy. They knew he was off. They really didn’t have any business sending him with one officer, especially a rookie.”
Ozark Gazette - February 19, 1996
Monday, July 27, 2009 - 09:20:36
Cheated out of an Emmy Nomination - yet again!
Well, the Emmy Award nominations have been announced, and On the Air with Richard S. Drake - for the 17th year in a row - has been overlooked, ignored and, if I may be so bold as to say, humiliated. That this causes me great emotional distress goes without saying; for days now I have moped around the house, refusing once again to bathe, change my clothes, shave or brush my teeth.
I mean, what’s the point?
Oh, after a while I’ll get tired of sleeping on the floor; Tracy says that I’m not getting on the couch in my condition. But until that happens, I fully intend to revel in my misery.
It’s not just me, you understand. If it were just me, I could just cowboy-up and take the yearly shame of being ignored and sort of hold my head up high. But it’s my crew, you see. How can I tell my crew - my director and occasional camera people - that all their efforts have gone for naught?
The betrayal in their eyes is always too much to bear.
Well, there’s always next year . . .
******
Quote of the Day
Sometimes I would almost rather have people take away years of my life than take away a moment. - Pearl Bailey, "Talking to Myself"
*****
The Return of Billy Mays?
Watching TV the other night, and I saw Billy Mays pop up and say, “Hi, I’m Billy Mays and I’m back with . . .” holding yet another cheesy product. Is that ain’t proof of life after death, I don’t know what is.
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Boldly going where no cartoon had gone before
I reference the 1970s a great deal when writing about science fiction and television, a time before some of my readers were born, I suppose.
But it's important when you write about certain shows, especially a cultural phenomenon like Star Trek which originally lived and died in the 1960s. But the decade following Trek's cancellation was when the series really started to become the marketing behemoth that began with fan fiction, comic books, novels, audio plays (on Peter Pan records) and ultimately the cartoon series.
And all this before the first movie even made its premiere, in 1979.
In 1974 Filmation, the studio which had brought us Lassie's Rescue Rangers, brought forth the animated Star Trek to Saturday morning viewers.
Star Trek: The Animated Series, while certainly groundbreaking in many regards, was also very much a throwback to the shows of the early 1960s, when programs like Fireball XL-5, Fury, and Sky King dominated Saturday morning.
These were shows that were plot-driven, but were driven out by the super-hero cartoon craze in the later part of the decade. They weren't Shakespeare, but they were good, solid entertainment.
The five-year mission of the U.S.S. Enterprise was cut short after only three years, so this was an opportunity to carry the voyages forward. Along the way came most of the cast, with the exception of Walter Koenig, who played Ensign Chekov.
And with the with actors, came many of the writers, who approached the series as if it were the same old Star Trek - no dumbing down of anything here. True, Saturday morning meant that Kirk couldn't go around trying to get into the pants of every alien woman he laid eyes on, but that was getting kind of old anyway.
Well, getting old for the viewer - probably not for Kirk.
As a result of which, Star Trek pretty much maintained its generally high level of story-telling. And as the producers and writers have often said, animation would allow the show to go places where current special effects technology just couldn't take them.
A couple of shows you might not expect to see on Saturday morning - on one episode they meet the Devil, and in one episode, "Yesteryear," Spock travels back in time to meet his younger self on the planet Vulcan. There, the young Spock must face the difficult decision over whether or not to have his beloved pet - who has just saved his life but been badly wounded - put to sleep.
It's a small part of a much larger story, but not something you'd usually expect to see dealt with on Saturday morning. In fact, "Yesteryear" ranks up with the best of the Trek episodes, animated or not.
The series is livened by having special guests like Mark Lenard (Sarek) and Roger C. Carmel (Harry Mudd) return to the series to do their voices.
As for the regulars, the voice work is sometimes spotty. Where once an actor might come across right on target, in the next episode they might seem a little off. It is well-known that most of the actors mailed in tapes of their performances, and they were edited into the program.
But whenever James Doohan (Scotty) and Leonard Nimoy (Spock) begin to speak, it is a moment of beauty. They are never anything but perfect in their roles.
Many Star Trek fans turn their noses up at the animated series, feeling it is not "canon." But that silly thinking seems to have eased over the years, with many Trek novels and subsequent TV episodes making references to animated characters and episodes.
True, not all of the stories may standup to what many consider to be Trek's high standard of storytelling, but hey, look at the infamous third season of the original series. I'd gladly swap some of these stories for some on that season.
If you're looking for a good book to read, Alan Dean Foster did wonderful work adapting the episodes into novel form. They may be out of print, but that's why God made used bookstores.
Trivia note: If you look very closely at the episode, "More Tribbles, More Troubles," you can see a lanky, longish haired ensign in the transporter room. This is meant to be writer David Gerrold, who had hoped for a walk-on part on the original Tribbles episode, but was disappointed.
All things come to him who waits.
Wednesday, July 22, 2009 - 08:48:50
Gary Dumas: Welcome to the Forbidden Zone
It may be hard to believe, but there are still people in Elk City who still talk to me, even after all the things I have written about the little town on the far, far reaches of Oklahoma. So it was a surprise when someone called and asked if I knew Gary Dumas, late of Fayetteville.
I hadn’t paid much attention to the article in the paper about Dumas getting his new job, but now I realized, with a joy one only realized on Christmas morning, just where Comrade Dumas has gone.
Elk City, Oklahoma.
The Forbidden Zone.
The fact that you can’t get decent cable channels (not even the Comedy Channel or Bravo for crying out loud!) in Elk City, is one thing, and the fact that the only bookstore in town is at the local Walmart is another. Elk City is an entirely different universe compared to Fayetteville, the New York City of the Ozarks.
Try finding a decent newspaper to red in Elk City!
Try finding a liberal . . .
Even before Dumas arrived in his new digs, local folks were posting their thoughts on the subject:
http://www.topix.com/forum/city/elk-city-ok/TGF56E10EDGGDERMQ
Not sure what to make of the lost soul who thought he was a Martin Lawrence look-a-like.
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Quote of the Day
The value of an idea has nothing to do with the success of the man who expresses it. - Oscar Wilde
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The America Question - Dan Vega
Continuing the ongoing series dealing with America’s place in the world. Are we still the greatest country in the world, if we ever were? What can be done to change the way things are now? Dan Vega (Dirty Dan, Garden Doctor) is a gardener, biologist, home repair specialist, cross-disciplinarian, practicing liberal artist and co-host of Fayetteville Community Access Television's One Whirled View.
NO, it is not.
There are an infinite number of answers to the question of what has happened. Someone once said that many strike at the branches of evil but few strike at the roots. So let's go to the roots:
We have lost our judgement.
How? Why?
Television? Drugs? Greed? Microwaves from cell phones? Liberals? Toxic chemicals? Satan? Conservatives? Electromagnetic radiation? Godlessness? Violent movies? Aliens? Ionizing radiation? Pornography? And what is wrong with those kids, anyway?
All branches.
At the roots are the words of Rudolph Steiner: "Food today does not contain sufficient nutrition to allow the brain to work with a more spiritual/holistic awareness."
We must return to our roots. Sound judgement comes from a healthy body which comes from healthy food which comes from healthy soil. USDA data show our food quality has been in steady decline since 1922. Industrial agricultural has depleted and damaged topsoil extensively and given us nutritionally deficient foods. Transgenetic (GM) foods add insult to injury. (Most Americans are eating them without even knowing it.)
We must rebuild the soil to produce healthier foods that feed our bodies and spirits. We must all participate in this as directly as possible. We are, after all, human beings.
And where does "human" come from?
Tuesday, July 21, 2009 - 10:24:17
The Eagle has Landed
When the Apollo 11 astronauts landed on the moon, I was living in Germany, my father having been assigned as part of a small American contingent on a British base (RAF Bruggen) in Northern Germany. We didn’t have Armed Forces Television in that part of Germany, and I remember getting up very early in the morning to watch the moon landing on German television.
I had long been fascinated by the space program, going back to the days when Captain Kangaroo would be pre-empted for Mercury launches. In 1967 I began a series of what I simply called my “Space Scrapbooks” - a collection a newspaper and magazine articles lovingly cut from out daily papers and magazines with every articles I could find about the what was once known as the “Space Race,” even Peanuts cartoons.
After all, Snoopy did fly to the moon once, atop his doghouse.
There is even one of the famous Giles cartoons, from the British Daily Express.
The scrapbooks go on from a few months before Apollo 7 to just past Apollo 13. These were the days when satellites in the sky were so few that the schedule for their appearance in the night sky would be printed the newspapers, so that folks could watch for them.
The moon landing truly was a world-wide sensation; everyone I knew at Bruggen was glued to their TVs, watching the grainy footage. From where we lived in Germany we could pick up TV signals from the Netherlands, Germany and Belgium, and all counties carried the news, and public reaction.
It wasn’t a great necessarily time to be an American; it was just a great time to be alive, and human, and know that everything was within our grasp, if we only dared reach out for it.
*****
About those scrapbooks
Everything seems to fall apart with age, so a few years ago I went down to C.A.T. and set some of the headlines to music, in a short program, simply called The Race to the Moon.
*****
Quote of the Day
If you're going to do something tonight that you'll be sorry for tomorrow morning, sleep late. - Henny Youngman
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The Prisoner Rides Again
American Movie Classics is doing a remake of the classic science fiction series The Prisoner later this year. Those interested in what the new mini-series looks like can take a look at:
http://www.amctv.com/originals/the-prisoner-1960s-series/
***
It’s Official: A Meteor has demolished NBC
BBC America gives us Torchwood, and NBC gives us Meteor, yet another rehash of cliched (and not terribly bright) characters and situations we have seen in a hundred other trite disaster movies.
One is led to the inexorable conclusion that at some point in the recent past a meteor has indeed hit our planet, and the crash site was whatever passed for creativity at NBC. - and other American networks as well, I suppose.
Sunday, July 19, 2009 - 09:41:45
Losing Walter Cronkite
Watching Countdown on MSNBC Friday night when the news came that Walter Cronkite had died. I think his passing has struck me in a way that the death of Michael Jackson has struck so many others, in that he was a large part of my formative years - even when he wasn’t.
It always seemed to be CBS and Walter Cronkite that I recall as a child, whether it be assassinations coverage, news from Vietnam, the Apollo flights, or political coverage. And Walter Cronkite was there, with his deep voice, his calm manner, linking us to the rest of the world.
For me, he was the anchor to the rest of the world.
I knew that there were other news anchors, and other news programs, but they just always seemed like also-rans compared to Walter Cronkite.
In May of 1969 my family went to Germany, and remained there until July, 1972. We had Armed Forces radio and television news, but no network news. The only references we ever got to Walter Cronkite (or any other news anchors, I suppose) were in the pages of newspapers and magazines.
When we reururned stateside in 1972, it wasn’t like we were getting “real” news again, but something else; news from someone I had grown to trust to bring me the truth once again.
A Friday night interview with firmer CBS newsman Daniel Schorr revealed that Cronkite’s “retirement” in 1981, making way for Dan Rather, wasn’t his idea. He was, in essence, forced out by the network to make way for someone younger.
I wasn’t even 30 yet, and I was upset at his leaving.
It’s Sunday morning, and CNN is still relentlessly pushing their Michael Jackson specials. I hope they give a fraction as much time to Cronkite, and do a decent retrospective on his career.
Will CBS, outside of a mention on the news?
******
Quote of the Day
Hoary idea, in any case, expecting a woman to surrender her name to her husband's in exchange for his. Why? Would any man submerge his identity and heritage to the woman he wed? - Marya Mannes, "Out of My Time"
*****
So, why is the Fayetteville Public Library spending money on Blu-Ray discs?
Recently a Fayetteville resident had a written exchange with Fayetteville public library, wondering why they were spending money on Blu-Ray discs, especially since the discs are only playable on the more expensive players. Regular DVDs, on the other hand, are playable on all players, including Blu-Ray.
This doesn’t seem to make a lot of sense, especially at a time when everyone - libraries included - have to watch their pennies.
He made some very good points, ending his letter with:
This is not about information access, this is about elitism and driving the consumer to think that they must purchase new technology - where in fact the old technology is perfectly satisfactory - except for a few elitists that have the hundreds of dollars to purchase the new technology.
The library’s response came thus:
Thank you for your recent comment card. We value your thoughts and comments because they help us improve library services for our community.
One is left to wonder if they actually read what he had to say.
Thursday, July 16, 2009 - 09:30:14
Forget the "Wise Latina Woman" - it's all too obvious there's a shortage of Wise White Men
Between Tom Coburn’s not-so-subtle racist reference to Ricky Ricardo yesterday, and all of the other ethic references this week, it’s painfully apparent that the Republican Party has pretty much confined itself to being the party of whiny white men. And not particularly well-informed white men, at that.
Not white women, mind you. There’s precious little thought of that. It’s white men who are the victims here. The Joe the Plumbers of the world, the guys the GOP has little respect for outside of election years.
White women? Well, not so much.
There has been some speculation that Coburn may pay a political price for his Ricky Ricardo impression.
In Oklahoma? Are you kidding?
******
Quote of the Day
have learned silence from the talkative, toleration from the intolerant, and kindness from the unkind; yet strange, I am ungrateful to these teachers. - Kahlil Gibran, "Sand and Foam"
*****
Farewell, Lucas Roebuck - a chance for Jay Cole, Jr.?
Well, the stuffy and fact-deprived Lucas Roebuck has written his last column for the Northwest Arkansas Times. Hang on a moment while I grieve . . .
Okay, that’s done. Now that Roebuck has gone, there exists an opening for one of my favorite letter writers to finally blossom and come into his own - Mr. Jay Cole, Jr.
This would give him the room to expand upon some of the themes that he has only been teasing readers with, like the dangers posed by gays, femists, liberals, and all of the other demons that terrify him nightly.
We’ll all be better people for it.
I mean, come on, NWA Times! This would be great!
****
The America Question - C.F. Roberts
In the ongoing series about America’s place in the world, and whether we are actually the “greatest” country in the world, we present C.F. Roberts, who is a writer, videographer, visual artist, living in Fayetteville.
Is America the greatest country on earth? The answer could vary wildly based upon your ideology alone.
I think, as a people, we tend to suffer from a "grass is always greener" syndrome. I remember a few years ago, my then-girlfriend was worried over the amount of gun violence in the U.S. and she kept throwing the idea of moving to Canada in my face....there are ways in which that initially might look like an attractive option...yeah, whatever's in the water here in the US of A that causes all the gun violence apparently hasn't affected them up there, and of course, that single payer health care system looks pretty attractive to some of us po' folk. But I also know free speech is a sticky wicket up there...so it was an idea extended in the best possible intent, but I had to say "no" to Canada.
There are a lot of places in Europe we like to laud for their more progressive values and wish America might catch up with those ideas as well....but they have their downsides, too. One thing worth pointing out is that in a lot of the European countries, fascism and Nazism are very much on the rise, and there's a lot of ethnic violence on the increase.
Largely, here in America, organizations like the KKK and the Nazis are looked upon and dismissed as clowns. What we have over a lot of the European and former Soviet Bloc countries as far as this goes is that we don't feel the need to restrict these people or keep them from speaking. Hitler feels a lot fresher over in Europe, and America's lack of institutional memory might not be a virtue, but we understand that suppression doesn't work---the suppressed element ferments and explodes. Besides, as Machiavelli pointed out---if you want to get rid of an idiot, give him a platform. Our friends in Europe might benefit from that lesson.
We have plenty of other problems, but in what other country are the citizens so engaged in the decision-making process as they are here? Look at what's going on in China. Look at what's going on in Iran.
So people could stand to look beyond the "Grass is always Greener"syndrome...and in the end we might be the best possible place to live in. Are we perfect? No. But the best and most patriotic Americans are probably the ones who realize that, care enough to criticize it and try to work and make it better---that might be the true definition of Agape Love. Too often, these people are cut down as America-haters, but I think not....more often than not they care the most. The need to demonize people who want to fight for change might be seen as where America has gone wrong.
As a prescription for change, a recommendation to make this a better country, I might suggest a lot: As a superpower, we might care more for all of our citizens. I know that brings up the dreaded S-Word, but so be it. Some people might wonder where the money might come from to house the homeless, provide health care for everyone, etc. Heaven forbid we pay TAXES, right?
There are plenty of taxes I'D rather not pay. An end to the war on drugs seems like a good start. Too many Deadheads are festering in prisons for no good reason...the average pot smoker isn't endangering anyone, except maybe a bag of Funyuns. Addiction needs to be looked at as a Health Crisis, not a Crime Crisis.
All drugs, even the really dangerous ones, need to be decriminalized; If you legalized marijuana outright and taxed the hell out of it, you'd probably be able to turn the economy around in no time. In the meantime, a good chunk of what we now spend to keep people in prison for no good reason could be spent on health education & prevention. If we recognized that a certain percentage of the population are always going to want to get fucked up, the money we waste prosecuting them could go a long way to preventing further addiction, disease and damage---it could also go toward keeping crime down(imagine all those gangbangers having to become legit entrepreneurs!) and keeping the drugs people do consume safer and better-regulated. Ditto prostitution. World's oldest profession, right? Legalize it, tax and regulate it and make it safer for the consumers who will always pay for sex and the workers who will inevitably provide the service...that's no different from providing safety regulations for food production or industry,
and again---more $$$ into the economy.
Wanna reduce our burden even further? Despite their rep as the anti-big-government faction, no one has grown government more in the last 20 years than the neo-cons and the Bush Administration...the Homeland Security Cottage Industry has become enormous. You could probably fight a smarter, more cost-effective "War on Terror" by ending the War on Civil Liberties. How much unnecessary expense has gone into turning America into a Junta? It's time to roll all of that back.
So a government geared more toward caring for its constituents and more cultural permissiveness are a couple of big things I'd want to do to make America a better place.
Now, here comes the paradox: For any person that might read my prescription and think it's a good idea, there will be at least one other person that sees it as a sign of the apocalypse. The people who disagree with me love their country, too, and want to make it a better place. So, what do you do?
This state of conflict, where we're always in contention about said issues, might be the crux of the American Experience....one might say it's the American PROBLEM, and it might forever prevent us from making any real, solid progress. How do you work with people you disagree with about EVERYTHING? Is there any way to find a sane middle?
After all, I'm not going to back down from my position---the guy on the other side probably won't, either.
Ideologies, either of my stripe or the other, might need to step back from their passion a little bit and realize that it might be a good thing that the majority of people are moderate. That most decisions being made are coming from the middle of the road, not either extreme, might be best for all of us. It's no fun that progress takes so long to occur, but that's also a part of the American Experience.
The above is a response that probably creates more problems than it solves and I don't know whether it creates a result people will like. That's okay---I don't trust pat answers to anything. Sometimes it seems like the struggle is more interesting than the resolution---the question is more interesting than any answer that could be given. Again, I consider that very American.
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