Liberty

“Those that would give up their liberty for security, deserve neither liberty or security.” Benjamin Franklin

I am going to Disney World in October to see a close family member get married. It should be a joyous event and I should be looking forward to enjoying a wonderful vacation with my family in the “happiest place on earth.” Instead , every time I think about the trip, I get knots in my stomach when I remember that I will have to fly.

The first time I flew to Disney, land, at the time, I was 4 years old. There was a malfunction with the landing gear, and we ended up having to crash land . We sat in the airport for 6 hours before getting a new plane to take us. When we landed in LAX, the power was out.

I have flown a number of times since and the heights never bothered me. The fear of crashing never bothered me. I flew for the first time, by myself, when I was 15 and it never bothered me. I loved flying. I flew once since 9/11, in 2004, and while the removal of the shoes was annoying, and the sitting in the airport twiddling my thumbs for the required 2 hours before my flight was annoying, I still managed to enjoy myself.  Now, I dread it.

I dread that the only way I can get on a plane, to enjoy a trip to Disney World, is if I either subject myself and my family to radiation or molestation.

People were outraged about this when it was first implemented and those of you reading this are probably thinking I am a day late and a dollar short with this commentary, but that’s kind of the whole point. People WERE outraged, and now, somehow, they aren’t. Maybe the public outcry has been silenced because of the concerns over the economy or maybe the whittling away of entitlements or income disparity or health care access or the GOP Primary battles or maybe even Anthony Weiner’s penis. Maybe it’s because “we the people” are scared of the terrorists.

Who are these terrorists? What do they do? Well, from my understanding, they hate us and they want us dead. So what? We won’t be able to end the “War on Terror” until we eradicate all the hatred from the world? Seriously?  What do these terrorists do, exactly? They kill people and they sodomize people and they take away freedoms. Radiation kills people too. Inappropriate touching is the same thing we warn our children about when they are young, and now we are supposed to tell them it’s okay as long as government officials do it? I thought the legal system in this country was based upon the premise that a citizen is innocent until proven guilty. Why is it then, that every single person that passes through an airport security check is being treated as though they could be a criminal? How is that freedom?

How is it that we live in a civilized country, in the year 2011, and the only way to travel, to expand our minds, to embrace different cultures, is to either get exposed to radiation or allow someone to degrade us to the point of allowing a stranger to literally probe our bodies? How is it that those are the only two options? How DO I explain to my children that it’s okay for a stranger to touch them? How do I explain to them when they are older, that I allowed them to be exposed to radiation? Isn’t it my job as a parent to protect my children from harm? I grow my own food to avoid harmful chemicals. I slop ‘em up with sunscreen to prevent skin cancer. How do I stand by and watch my children get violated or poisoned and smile to make them think it’s okay?

How do frequent travelers do it? Honestly, I would love to know how people can go through their daily lives NOT being outraged, every single day, about these atrocities. There’s that old analogy that if you put a frog in boiling water, it will jump out, but if you put it in cold water and slowly bring it to a boil, the frog will die. Are people really just accepting that this is how things are now? Because of some abstract terrorist threat?  We’ve seen freedoms removed from people throughout history. We saw Mubarak shut Egyptian internet service down during the “peaceful protests”  and we were outraged. We see the oppression, the removal of freedoms in Libya, and we are on the verge of going into their country to fight against the oppressive regime. And why? Because we are outraged. Yet, we continue to lose rights and freedoms in this country every single day, and instead of questioning our government and its practices, we blindly accept them, for the sake of freedom.

Accountability?

I have two preschoolers. We generally try to stay away from electronic media, as a family, whenever possible.  Well, that’s not totally accurate. The kids enjoy the online educational games made available for free and our Friday nights are generally reserved for a kid-friendly movie. We never use it as a babysitter, any programming viewed by our children is also viewed along with at least one adult. We discuss the movies, we learn from their messages and we compare and contrast to the real, nonfiction world.

Most of the movies we select teach messages of sharing and caring and true love and fighting for what is right. There’s a clear good character and a clear evil character or force. They are stories of overcoming the odds  and of good triumphing over evil.

I must say, the socio-political addict that I tend to be has found quite a favorite in the Disney-Pixar imaginings in Wall-E. [Eventual spoiler alert!]

Wall-E is about an adorable little robot whose job it is to package garbage into little cubes. The humans have produced so much garbage that the planet is no longer sustainable for human life. The only company left on the whole planet, Buy ‘N Large, decides it makes more sense to allow their “customers” (the human population) to go on a space luxury cruise until the planet is again clean enough for human habitation.

The movie is fraught with symbolism and almost hauntingly appropriate for our current times.

There is the obvious environmental message that overproduction and over consumption will ruin our environment.

There’s the economic message that we are, as a society, so consumed by the almighty dollar that as long as something is advertised the right way, we will listen and we will buy.

There’s the political message that, one day, there will be a corporation so big that it will engulf all others and dictate everything we do as a society, and we might just be lazy enough to listen. On the space cruise, 700 years later, everyone rides in a hover round. Robots attend to every need, including the education of the children, the morning shave, the climate control, even the brushing of teeth. Humans don’t even eat solid food anymore, all meals are served in cups. It has gotten to the point, where the bone mass has decreased so much that people cannot pick themselves up when they fall. 

Along comes Wall-E’s eventual gal, Eva, who finds, despite the dictatorial message being preached to the masses, that life finally is, once again, sustainable on Earth. The establishment, fights come hell or high water to make sure that no one finds out, but the robots fight back. In this fight, the humans learn they are capable of so much more than simply what Buy ’N Large has been telling them. They, quite literally, learn to stand on their own feet again.

As is typical with preschoolers, we have viewed this movie about 50 times since we discovered it and every time the messages within the story blow my mind. First of all, cause it’s a Disney flick, which as I said earlier, typically talks about princess and contains a nice, radio friendly song and has an obvious good character and an obvious evil character. This movie has a LOT more grey area. As a grown up, I would consider the easy enemy to be Buy ’N Large, the corporation that tells the humans that they should just give up doing everything for themselves and let Buy ‘N Large take care of them. What’s so bad about that, you ask? They sat back and became completely dependent on their governing force, which was indeed, the Big Corporation because it was EASY. It was EASY to let Buy ‘N Large provide everything for them. It was EASY to let them dictate the clothes they should wear, the food they should, ahem, drink, the time of day it was, whether or not they could splash in the pool.

It would have been harder for the humans to fight the good fight for their independence by not buying products exclusively from Buy ‘N Large when there were still alternatives. It would have been harder for the humans to re-purpose their garbage and choose products that were not disposable and weren’t composed of toxic chemicals. It would have been harder for the humans to tell Buy ‘N Large, “No, we will stay here, in our home and help clean it!” It would have been harder for the humans to do the research on their own and think for themselves. Pretty big message for a for a cute little kids’ movie.

The Day the Music Died?

Yesterday, a friend of a friend had an “encounter” with the TSA. This innocent traveler eventually arrived at the appropriate destination, which was meant for relaxation and fun, humiliated and disgusted.  Throughout the discussion afterwards about what had happened, my friend and I realized that it had been ages since we had actually heard of an encounter with the TSA that was worthy of the outrage that I had felt upon hearing about the incident yesterday.  Did they just stop happening or did the media just stop reporting it? I understand coverage of jabs between liberals and conservatives and Democrats and the GOP and Trump’s hair and Obama’s birth certificate is surely entertaining, in the way that a one season reality show might be, but what else is going on in the world that actually could shape history?  What have we already forgotten and why?

Then, while thinking about the annoyance of the mainstream media deciding what information we actually DO need to hear and be reminded of, I got to thinking about more substantial forms of expression- ones that have more staying power than simply a headline that sells a newspaper or a lead in that prompts us to “tune in at 6.” I would surely be hard-pressed to find a person out there that doesn’t have an all time favorite movie- one that effected an epiphany and a number of favorite musical artists, that helped shape viewpoints.

There is so much turmoil in the world right now: protests erupting throughout countries once thought to be stable, the economy crumbling, rights being legislated away and essential services being obliterated with the check of a ballot. We’ve seen our share of turmoil in the US over the years, but typically, as well as televised and printed news accounts, we also had songs that rallied and upset and got people to think and develop real opinions about what was happening. During World War II, we had songs like "Remember Pearl Harbor" - Sammy Kaye (1942) and ”Kiss The Boys Goodbye” - Composer: Frank Loesser and Victor Schertzinger - From: Movie "Kiss The Boys Goodbye" (1941). In the 1950’s http://www.fiftiesweb.com/tune5055.htm there was “Sixteen Tons” by  “Tennessee” Ernie Ford, and not much else that would be considered thought provoking, but then again, in the ‘50’s, everyone was pretty much happy. The 1960’s however, made up for that, with the United States’ involvement in Vietnam and the sexual revolution and the loss of our nation‘s innocence. I couldn’t begin to list even a percentage of the songs that were of the times, but shall instead direct you to, of course, The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Janis Joplin and countless others who managed to tell their stories and their views in a way that immortalized the strife of the era. The ‘70’s gave us John Lennon's Imagine, which was a breath of fresh air to a war weary world.

The 1980’s gave us groups like Megadeth, with albums like Peace Sells...but Who's Buying? And in the 1990's we had bands like U2 and Rage Against the Machine to bring us socio-political commentary. After the September 11 catastrophe in 2001, a number of songs were released by artists like Toby Keith to commemorate and speak out about the harrowing event and its repercussions.

In the decade following 2000, we continue to have socio-political turmoil. There are military conflicts, poor people, unemployed, environmental concerns, inequality amongst immigrants and  sexual orientation. There’s strife between the classes, distrust of our leaders, conspiracy theories, nuclear crises, ad infinitum- and, no one seems to be singing about any of it. Great music transcends time. When I was growing up in the 1980’s and 1990’s, dusty records found in the attic prompted my own research into the stories the songs from the ‘60’s and ‘70’s told. Even in my young teens, I was developing opinions about the world around me. Before I could drive, I was politically active and by the time I could vote, I was well informed enough to make intelligent choices when I finally got to pull that lever for the first time.

So where have these influential songs gone?  Is it that they won’t sell, or is it that someone doesn’t want them sold? I am not sure if I fall into the “lazy generation” of which so many of my respected elders speak (I DO think I am slightly older,) but when the young folks have Reality TV and Justin Bieber being rammed down their throats, and billionaire business folk buying up educational software companies, and schools failing them, and parents working 2 jobs each, and multi national media moguls deciding what info really should be given to the public, it’s no wonder society has produced a generation that really just doesn’t give a shit. It’s certainly obvious that the representatives that are supposed to protect their interests sure don’t.

The End

So, apparently there’s a little rumor going around that Saturday, May 21, 2011 is the day of Rapture- the end of the world.

People have been proclaiming the end of the world has been/ will be coming for as long as they have been able to paint the ominous black letters on sandwich boards and stand on a street corner.  In more typical circumstances, these sign holders are old and tired and dirty. We roll our eyes and giggle or maybe take a moment to pause and reflect on the sad state of their lives.

With the most recent hullabaloo about the end of the world, fuzzy math and very specific interpretations of the Bible have prompted a number of people to quit their jobs and calculate their life savings to last them no further than May 21, 2011. They have worked to bring themselves to terms with the end and fervently tried to warn others of the fateful day that is to come.

This is when the nervous giggling starts, because while the rational of us know that we will still all wake up Sunday morning to our newspapers and our coffee and maybe some laundry, there is that LITTLE part of us that knows we really don’t know for sure, nor can we ever.

Saturday, May 21, 2011 will be the end of the world. It will be the end of the world for the tree that gets bulldozed in a forest. It will be the end of the world for a fish that can’t escape the black goo that gets spilled into water. It will be the end of the world for a family who can’t find work and now has their home entering into a state of foreclosure. It will be the end of the world for an illegal immigrant who gets discovered and deported. It will be the end of the world for a young child whose education is delayed because of budget cuts and for another child who gets bullied, yet again, because there are children who are as intolerant of difference as their parents are. It will be the end of the world for an elder who is forced to choose food over necessary medication.  It will be the end of the world for an innocent, in a small village, who gets caught up in fighting between two political powers who think they are both right.

It will be the end of the world for those out there that have just run out of the resources to fight and to survive- the ones who have no more options and the ones who have been beaten down to the point where they simply can’t stand again. This is happening in our world every day. Only the strong survive? What happened to honor? What happened to the perseverance and hope for a better tomorrow? What happened to the basic security of knowing that those of us with a good work ethic and a conscience can have a happy ending?

Maybe Saturday, May 21, 2011, will be the end of the world- as we know it (to quote REM.) Maybe a new world will begin- a world where we are respectful of the resources the Earth has provided, a world where we can once again work hard and achieve the “American Dream,” a world where we are able to properly invest in the future for our children and adequately honor those who have been here before we were. Maybe, just maybe, it will be filled with compromise and a world without wars.

Maybe when we all wake up Sunday morning we can do more to perpetuate a world without end. Plant a tree, walk instead of driving, invest more in local businesses to keep American money in America. Embrace another culture. Volunteer to mentor a child or check in on an elderly neighbor. Will any of these actions stop an Armageddon? Well, as the old saying goes, Rome wasn’t built in a day, and it certainly did not fall in a day, either. Even though you can’t change the whole big world, you do have what it takes to change your own little corner of it.


The Beatles: The End

Disposable Nation

The United States of America is currently 234 years old. That’s like a teenager in “nation years.” In our short time of existence, we have racked up trillions of dollars in debt and use, according to Answers.com , 280,000 hectares, or 6,918.95 acres, of our soil, the soil once rich with the blood of the revolutionaries that fought against the tyrannies of years gone by, is covered by landfills. The average lot size for a single family home in the US is 0.298438 of an acre, which means that it would take 23,183+ average homes to equate to the amount of space used for landfills. Where the heck am I going with this? I shall tell you.

None of that crap was here before we were and someone, somewhere, spent money on every single item in those trash heaps. What if we occupied those 6,918.95 acres, counting the heights to which each mound of steamy gooey garbage reaches, with nice, crisp dollar bills instead? Would it add up to a trillion dollars? Or, really, let’s be honest, there’s lots more than just dollar store items sitting there, all of which will never be reused and most of which,, will take a long time spewing toxins into our air, soil and water to decompose, not to mention the tax dollars and private dollars spent on processing and such.

It wasn’t always this way. There was a time before the neo-green movement inspired us to not just recycle, but re-purpose, when everyone did JUST that and managed a green existence without looking for the “green” labels. There was a time when Mayonnaise, for instance, came in glass jars. And when the mayo was all used up, the glasses got washed and used for drinking. They only got thrown away when they broke.  No one depended on petroleum products for their mayonnaise storage and no one registered for hundreds of dollars in glassware on bridal registries. There was a time everyone wore hand me downs, and when they finally died, they became cleaning rags, or ties for tomato plants, or even portions of quilts, not electric blankets, for cold winters’ nights. We didn’t throw it away!

But things got hectic, small businesses grew into/ got absorbed by big businesses. People worked for these big businesses, then the women got jobs too and all of a sudden, there was no time to sew a quilt or darn a sock or wash a jar. So the things that could have been mended became disposable and then even they became too inefficient, and they were replaced, with cheaper products of lesser quality that didn’t last. Automobiles made in 1950s still run today. Do the cars from the 1990’s do that?

What was wrong with the stuff that actually lasted in the first place? Don’t we all want to get our money’s worth from products that not only last, but can be re-purposed? Do we have to spend money we don’t have on “green labeled” products from big corporations when, any home remedy book will tell you that whatever good ol’ fashioned vinegar can’t clean, baking soda can?  And what, pray tell, was wrong with the workers that produced the products that made the Made in the USA label synonymous with quality? They wanted to get paid?

We, in the United States, actually did just  fine without, I would estimate, 90% of the things that all these too-big-to-fail-corporations produce for us. Now, they aren’t providing the jobs, and we still feel like we have to purchase their products. They think our workers became too inefficient and needed to be replaced? Do they really want us to think that we are as disposable as the products they produce?  Well, I say, if we are replaceable, SO ARE THEY!

I am obsessed with this list at Petroleum.com. Take a couple of minutes, review it and challenge yourself to see how many of those things, have been or could be substituted with something that’s not petroleum based. It’s easier than ya think. Then, broaden your thinking the products from all big corporations. When’s the last time you have made ANY purchase and expected it to last? Be honest with yourself. When’s the last time you have applied for a job and expected it to last? Be honest. See a pattern here?

We are Americans. Our freedom was hard fought. I wonder how many of those revolutionaries are rolling over in their graves as Corporate America disposes of us, the working class, one by one. Cutting education so we don’t learn to think for ourselves, creating unaffordable health care so we are too sick and feeble to stand up for ourselves?  Cutting our jobs, so we are too preoccupied with getting food on the table to pay attention to what “they” are doing. Creating mindless bickering amongst political parties…what happened to United We Stand, Divided We Fall? Well, we certainly are divided, because we are broke and because we are broken, but surely we aren't disposable- we can be mended and we can be re-purposed. For what you might ask? Maybe it's time we decided.

Starting Over

America: The World's First Post-Industrial State? by Dustin Ensinger on October 22, 2010

I just came across this article a couple of weeks ago, but it’s been bugging me ever since. The article is very informative with plenty of statistics supporting the claim that America very well will be, probably already is, by this point, considered a post-industrial state.  Really? Our number one export is, literally, garbage? That’s just wrong on so many levels.

The article bugged me, specifically, because while the statistics are incredibly important, it offered no actual solutions to such a crisis. Knowledge only becomes powerful when we actually use it to create a better tomorrow.

So, industry has moved out of America. Now what? Do we just give up? There was no “industry” in America when it first became America either, but our predecessors found needs and niches and simply made stuff and offered services in response to the needs of  the consumers. None of these pre-industrialists made millions of dollars, necessarily, but they rolled up their sleeves and worked hard and earned themselves food on the table and a roof over their heads and clothes on their backs. Not starting a whole other debate here, but they did this without any government entitlements, before there was Social Security, Medicare, welfare and unemployment insurance. There were no unions and no bailouts. There were no retirement funds and pensions. This country started out with a whole bunch of sole proprietors. That’s it. There were farmers and blacksmiths and  bakers and seamstresses. Everyone contributed, for the sole purpose of eeking out a living, and as a result, everyone benefited from the products and services that were provided.

As sole proprietorships grew into small businesses and then, of course, into big businesses, people in America became increasingly accustomed to working FOR someone and depending on someone else for paychecks and services. When you think of it that way, it’s almost like the big bosses of big business were handing out an allowance to their employees.  Then, people began to expect the government to provide allowances for them as well. I am not saying any of this is necessarily BAD, there are certainly social services, such as public education, for example, that are tremendous assets to our society. With this dependence on big business to provide products and services, as well as jobs, we, the working class, found ourselves in a position of being the beggar  and Corporate America has realized it.

This happened before, when we were colonists dependent on Mother England. When we decided we had had enough of having no control over where our tax dollars, sent to England, were being spent, we simply did something about it. We took the initiative and went out on our own and took control of our own circumstances (so to speak.)

We can certainly do it again. If, as the article states, America does virtually nothing other than create trash and consume things, then we certainly know there is a buyer’s market right here. It is possible turn the tables and cut Corporate America out of OUR equation, especially since they already cut the American workers out of theirs. We don’t need a huge industrial complex to provide jobs and services. The fruits and veggies from your local farmers have no preservatives, require no transport (saving on fuel costs) and, to my knowledge, have NEVER gotten recalled. Your local butcher shop does their own quality control on the meat products they sell. A friend of mine uses a local tax preparer during income tax time, because the preparer makes house calls. I don’t think H&R Block does that. 

We, as a nation of consumers, have become complacent. We no longer expect the quality and excellence in services and products that was once synonymous Made in the USA because, alas, we think there isn’t much left that’s Made in the USA. So many of us are forgetting that we have the power to change that, we have arms and legs and muscles and minds and skills from years of working for others. Maybe it’s time we use them. The slate’s already been wiped clean by Corporate America. Maybe it’s time to take that leap and invest in ourselves again. Maybe it’s time for starting over.

Can Superman Make a Super World?

Superman Renounces U.S. Citizenship in 'Action Comics' #900

Wow! I, admittedly, have never even read any comics that haven’t appeared in my daily newspaper, but I still knew enough about Superman and this one kinda blind sided me.

A lot of different thoughts started spinning around in my head when I read the explanation in the linked article above from Comics Alliance.com. Basically, as Superman realizes that by being known, worldwide, as an advocate for “truth, justice and the American way” has also saddled himself with the responsibility that comes with such popularity. Interestingly, for the longest time, the United States has been advocating for truth, justice and the American way and has used it’s label as a world superhero (ahem, power) as well. I see symbolism here! Is the United States at the same crossroads? It seems that when the United States does interact with other nations around the world, even the utmost diplomacy often puts us in a situation where someone misconstrues something we say or do and gets pissed and then, we end up in, yet another, conflict. Maybe we just can’t please everybody?  If we do too much to help someone else, we are meddling, if we don’t do enough, we are negligent. And all along the way, of trying to provide the porridge that is “just right” we, our own citizens, are the ones that are going hungry.

When I first read the headline, I thought that Superman was giving up on the United States. For the longest time, I looked at the history books, saw a glorious time of economic prosperity when the United States went through its Isolationist Period. There are a number of Americans who think that this might be the best direction to take. The last time we did, we did well for ourselves and fixed up our own “home” pretty nicely. Lord only knows we have plenty of housekeeping of our own, the economic turmoil, political infighting, environmental catastrophes, crime, ad infinitum. It would make perfect sense that the United States takes a step back from fixing everyone else’s problems and work on our own. It’s really no surprise that people outside the United States are often so resistant to the concept of us trying to help them be more like us. It’s almost laughable, except that, as far as many are concerned, we are so busy busying ourselves with the affairs of others so that we can avoid cleaning our own messes. Fair enough.  I don’t think that Superman IS giving up on the United States though. It’s not that our mess isn’t worth cleaning, I think it might be that Superman noticed that we could make our whole global “neighborhood” nicer  by working alongside other nations to make the whole neighborhood pretty,  instead of hunkering ourselves down in our own little messy home.

There’s the argument for Globalism.It’s kind of funny, because, using the first definition, putting the world’s needs above the needs of a specific nation, takes the whole concept of the “United States melting pot” global. Thinking of the people as a whole, while retaining certain individual liberties. There’s the argument that we are all part of a global community that lives in a global home, which is the Earth. The internet has provided to us limitless opportunity to make personal connections with anyone and everyone across the globe. People, in previous generations, never knew the horrors of war, for instance, until the morning paper and the evening news was able to bring actual pictures and footage to us while we ate our family meals. It was then that we began to understand the implications of our actions and the actions of others far beyond any explanation that the government had provided to us previously. Information in it’s truest form is never biased, but that footage, grotesque and scary, certainly created bias . Yes, everyone should be free, but at what cost? And if we tell them they should be free, and if we push for their freedom, are they really free? Now, the internet takes it to another level, allowing the oppressed in Egypt to organize protests, on their own, freely and achieve their own agendas, without the need or want of help from the superpower that is (?) the United States. The colonists that formed the United States were certainly not world superpowers and they achieved the success that was, is and hopefully always will be the United Sates. So then, if other people in other nations don’t need us to fight their battles for them, maybe we can embrace Globalism from a new perspective that could allow the United States and the rest of the world to attain peace and prosperity.

A little hokey? Perhaps. Naïve? Possibly? I personally have about a hundred other silly clichés that I could use here, but the thing is, the reason clichés are clichés is because they are perennially applicable. We ALWAYS have the opportunity to make choices that point us in the direction of peace and prosperity. Maybe this is the time where we actually could take the road less traveled.  We could take a step back, realize that while the way we have been doing things for this long isn’t the worst way to get things done, there’s always room for improvement.

So, to you Superman, I say good luck. Maybe this time, you can save the world for us. Or maybe, we can save it for ourselves!