"9/11 Wasn't About You."

Excuses Are Like Metaphors . . . 

Everybody has one, and they all wither in the light of careful scrutiny. Sorry its been so long since my last post.

"9/11 wasn't about  you."

" 9/11 wasn't about you. Nobody cares where you were." - Facebook post from Sept 11, 2012

And here I was thinking it was the day that my country was attacked by terrorists.

The anniversary of the day that our economy went into a tailspin that it never recovered from, which made my last decade a spiral of lay-offs and financial stress.

The kick off of a war that sent two of my good friends to the Middle East, both of whom returned but were never the same.

I was thinking it was the day that we decided as a nation to sacrifice privacy and civil liberties for the illusion of safety at any cost.

The day that a ride on an airplane went from being something to look forward to to an exercise in humiliation to be avoided whenever possible.

The event that fueled the rise of the most radical right wing  policies and politicians I have ever seen in my lifetime.

My bad.

Been a long time, been a long time, been a long . . .

lonely, lonely, lonely time . . .

But Not Really

Hey all. Thank you for checking in with the old Traveling Now. Remember - no matter where you are, what you are doing, and when you are doing it - the time is Now, the place is Here, and we are all of us Traveling.

And if you have had a lonely, lonely, lonely time waiting on a new post from Yours Truly may I apologize? What can I say? Time takes Time.

So . . What Shall We Call This New Country?

New America? The Former United States? Voting non enabled I'm afraid.

From the ACLU website:

December 31, 2011

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CONTACT: media@dcaclu.org

WASHINGTON – President Obama signed the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) into law today. The statute contains a sweeping worldwide indefinite detention provision.  While President Obama issued a signing statement saying he had “serious reservations” about the provisions, the statement only applies to how his administration would use the authorities granted by the NDAA, and would not affect how the law is interpreted by subsequent administrations.  The White House had threatened to veto an earlier version of the NDAA, but reversed course shortly before Congress voted on the final bill.

 Just let that sink in for a minute. Indefinite detention without charges.

I am going to do my best to accurately paraphrase a friend of mine, speaking from his front porch over iced tea a few weeks back.

"Choose your nightmare scenario," he said. "A hardline conservative gets in office and he decides to detain everyone who participated in Occupy Wall Street for a few years to teach them that activism does not pay. A radical Christian becomes President and just rounds up all the Muslims and holds them on suspicion of terrorism - forever. An ultra liberal administration comes to power and they decide that everyone who voted to invade Iraq is a war criminal, and sends them to Guantanamo Bay."

And he's right. And just because its not likely to happen that way doesn't meant that we shouldn't fight against it. Fight against NDAA because America with indefinite detention without charges is no longer America. 

The Fantasy Theory That Lets Me Sleep At Night

Our current President conceding to the Right on NDAA is a crafty strategy. He knows that once challenged the Supreme Court NDAA will be found unconstitutional and put to bed, and whatever political capitol the Right spent on making it happen is flushed down the toilet. In my fantasy President Obama is like a chess master, thinking three moves ahead of his opponents.

But the probable truth is that it was just the easiest way for him to get what he needed to get to help him get re-elected in 2012.

How Do We Fight This

Raise awareness, sign the petition, and never stop fighting for justice. And just to sweeten the pot . . . see down below that wacky old comment section? Chime in and let me know that you signed up and you will be the recipient of a Traveling Now WHOOOOOOOOO! prize, complete with a phone and personalized WHOOOOOOOOO!

Do it. Help America!

Back To The Mephitic Workday

Okay, that has to be it for this afternoon. Work might not be a delightful romp into political particulars but it has to get done. You be well.

Last one out from under oppression hit the lights!

Currently Digging

Alabama Shakes, pasta with broccoli, Breaking Bad, getting back into shape

Occupy the Traveling Now

Hello all.

Thanks for tuning in.

Traveling Now to Politics: NUTS!

So right now I am so sick of politics I could kick a stump. I could go full mountain man, live in a hut in the woods and trap muskrats for sustenance. I could quit every political origination I belong to, stop watching the news and reading blogs and putting an effort into forming my opinions.  I could find distractions, so many wonderful distractions that could keep me utterly divorced from what is going on my nation. I could watch reality shows about cooking, and art, and music. Music! I could utterly immerse myself in music (carefully avoiding overtly political bands) and live a very fulfilled life, just leave the greasy business of American politics behind and its attendant stress behind forever.

If it weren’t so goddamn important.

Right now I feel like there are extremists out there trying to make my country into something it isn’t by pretending that it used to be something it wasn’t. I feel like the response by the so-called centrists has been so timid and careful that absolutely nothing is being done. I feel like the leaders who I helped elect are utterly terrified to call bullshit on bullshit. I look from pigs to men, and men to pigs, and it’s harder and harder to convince myself that there is any difference.

I am not naive. I know that all your average citizen sees are the tiniest fraction of what is actually happening in our government. I am smart enough to know that I don’t have all the facts. But I am keenly aware of the trend that the weapons used to fight our current political battles – not the issues, mind you, but the tools used to wring support out of the American people – are getting uglier and more coarse. And I fear that these weapons set a standard and our national character follows.

You could almost despair . . . except for Occupy Wall Street.

Heroic Fanfare, Courageous Montage!

 

Real Americans

Full disclosure: I have barely participated in the Occupation. I did a little writing for a friend who is an organizer, and that was that. I haven’t stood for one minute with the Occupy folks. Have not been at risk, nor cold and uncomfortable, nor abused by the police, nor hectored by passers by.

There are lots of reasons why I didn’t participate directly in my local Occupy movement.  I certainly don’t really have time to participate – I work between fifty and sixty hours a week, and I write, and I spend time with my family and friends. My life does not leave much time for occupying. But I could have found some time, I am certain, found some way to make it work If I had really wanted to.

But I didn’t directly participate because I went to an early organizing meeting and was thoroughly freaked out by some of the participants. I just didn’t have the energy to make myself go on one of my rare and precious days off and deal with some of the folks, and some of the situations I would surely find myself in.

Getting that off my chest feels good.

The meeting was in my town and I showed up energized and hopeful. Occupy Wall Street really captured my imagination. I saw that there were people who shared my concerns about the corporatization of our government and values, people who shared my passion for democracy.

There were also anarchists at the meeting. I try to take people’s beliefs in stride, but I classify anarchists with conspiracy theorists, religious fundamentalists, luddites, and objectivists: people to whom you owe a duty to never allow their vision of society to materialize. As I walked in the door one fiery fellow was shouting about burning down the banks. Was he serious? Certainly not fully, but he was certainly more serious than I was comfortable with.

I walked through the room just listening to the conversations of people.  Folks were gleefully planning on being arrested, folks who were obviously there with a personal agenda that had little or nothing to do with politics. There were people there who seemed to me just wanted to be seen.   

Now hear me: the majority of the people there were progressives, politically minded responsible citizens who wanted to stand up for a better America. That was by far the majority. But they never seemed to be the loudest ones, and that freaked me out. Just listening to the conversations exhausted me.

Long story short, I dipped first chance I got. My friends who got involved and stayed involved are my heroes; they were strong where I was weak, they sacrificed where I was selfish.

Also they are cooler, and more attractive to the opposite sex.

But I went to that meeting and the passion drained out of me. Occupy Wall Street – any major public protest – calls for passion, and when I didn’t feel that any longer I absented myself. I won’t do anything like that half-assed, its not fair to the people who are in it 100%.

So I just want to say thank you to the people who did stand out there, who did put themselves at risk, who stood and withstood. Thank you to those of you I agreed with, thank you to those of you whom I did not, thank you to those of you I feel are a danger to yourself and society. To everyone who participated: Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Unshopping

People come to my pawn shop to Unshop. 

The woman comes in, looks over my tools. “I’ve got a really nice cordless drill,” she says, watching me sidelong. “DeWalt. Hardly ever used. Two batteries.” Then she looks at me hopefully.

“Wow you have some nice guitars,” a dude with a pony tail says. “I’ve got one, its an acoustic like this. Do you think you could give me, like, two hundred dollars for it? “

A woman checks out the wall over my desk, gets excited. “Oh, you take paintings?” She looks so hopeful, as if she just discovered the answer to a horrible dilemma right there on my wall.

Whatever else you can say about the American Economic Downturn you can say this: it has certainly forced many people to rethink their priorities. Here in Georgia, where work is scarce and the leading industry, at least when viewed from behind my counter, seems to be disability claims, folks are trying to turn all the crap they spent money on over the years back into money. People are hit with the hard reality that all that crap and nonsense, the material stuff they lusted after for ages is, for the most part, meaningless crap that has to go. 

Of course, since everyone is trying to do this all at once nobody is getting what they want.

Least of all myself. My industry is not recession proof by any means.  The housing market is in the toilet in Georgia. This means that all the construction companies are out of work. Which leads contractors to leave their tools with me. All of them, all at once it seems. And since nobody is working, nobody is buying them. Which means that over the months I had to pay less and less for tools, and now I can’t really take them at all.  Which puts a huge dent in my bottom line. 

Interesting that while cash is king and everyone is selling anything they have for whatever they can get, the one item that is always a rock-solid loan is the Flat Screen TV. Folks will loose everything, guns they could have hunted meat with and tools they could have made money with and heirloom gold and collectables they swore were handed down ten generations, stuff they sword they would never loose. But they come back after the 42” 1080P Plasma. I find that sad.

To Tell The Truth

 Hey once more. Thanks for coming back. Just a short one today.

How Short?
 Axiom: If you have to lie to bolster your cause, your cause is lost.

It might not be right away. It might not be this year. It might not be in your lifetime. But if you rationally decide that the only way to make an argument work is by distortion, then your side is lost, your cause is lost. You are supporting something that may benefit you in the short run but that will eventually crumble and fall.

So you have to ask yourself - if you have to use deception to make something work, why support it in the first place? 

That's Racist, Liz Lemon

Hey all, thanks for coming back.

Casual Racism 

Anyone who thinks that we live in post-racial America has never been to my pawn shop. Or my state, for that matter.

We need to build a better vocabulary to discern between all the different types of racists. Let me share a couple of examples.

The first one is a landscaper, owns his own business. This landscaper finds a way to disparage Mexicans in every conversation we have. We could be talking about anything - the weather, how much he owes me, movies we have seen recently - and at some point he will work in some casual racism about Mexicans. Its like he wants us to all to be aware at all times that he doesn't like Mexicans. Sometimes I feel like he is looking for a call back, for me to say something like "Yeah, I don't like me no Mexicans neither!" That would mean that we were on the same level, that he found someone that shared his worldview. I never, ever, ever take the bait - but I don't call bullshit on him either. If I was to alienate every racist that came through my doors by calling them on their bullshit I would very soon find myself without a client base. That's a bitch, but its the reality of the situation. I just frown at him and ignore the comment. He eventually got the hint, and now we just talk weather or whatever.

Anyway, that is one type of racist. Here goes another.

I have another customer, a hustler. He always comes to me with these business plans that he wants to include me in, these amazing money making schemes that shall, at least in his armchair imaginings, make us both rich. The other day he was trying to sell me on a product and part of his pitch was " (the item) could differentiate between, say, your wife taking the garbage out and some black guys trying to steal stuff." See, this man may or may not actively hate/ fear/ whatever black folks, but he is counting on my being a racist to help him make a sale. Its shitty, but you must admit an entirely different shade of shitty than my man the landscaper brings to the table.

(I did call bullshit on this guy. I couldn't' stop myself. I asked if his device could also catch white criminals. He mealy-mouthed some excuse and then moved on with his sales pitch. A real pro). 

The landscaper wants us to bond over racism. The hustler assumes I'm a racist and is using it to lever a sale.

Here goes a third type. I'm using a second hand anecdote here.

A friend of mine has a boss who is a complete and utter racist. Nice as can be to everyone face, no matter what their skin color or national origin. But when its just whites in the room he always points out that he is proud of such-and-such for being adequate at their job because, you know, work standards are different in their community. "You know, the blacks, they don't put as much emphasis on education." I'm going to borrow from Tracy Morgan's 30 Rock character Tracy Jordan who borrowed from either Bing Crosby or Bill Cosby, but its "the subtle racism of lowered expectations".

Oh, and werewolf discrimination? Also not cool. 

Less overt, but ever so shitty. Perhaps even worse than the other two because you could hook Subtlety Racist Boss up to a lie detector, ask him if he was a racist, and he would ring the gold bars. He certainly doesn't think of himself like that. But he has absorbed the bullshit of the world for so long that it bends his thinking without him ever realizing it. Lots of liberals I know are like that. Lots and lots.


Okay, Now Fix It Bright Boy

What's the cure? Why, its Time, of course.

Ever hear of "No Irish Need Apply?" Its true - the Irish were once one of the most hated of all racial groups. Irish immigrating to the United States in the early 20th Century had a difficult time finding employment or housing because they were Irish. Can you even imagine? Its hard because times have changed. That's what times do. Now every March 17 the whole lot of us turn Irish for the day.

For better or for worse

In 1964 the US Congress passed the Civil Rights Act, outlawing segregation and sexual discrimination. Before that it was perfectly acceptable for states and cities to pass ordinances to pass laws based on race or gender discrimination.

Think about that for just a tick. If you were born before 1964 you were born in a country with institutionalized racism. If your parents were born before 1964 you were raised by folks that lived in a country with institutionalized racism. That has got to mess with your psyche. Racisim was legal back before then, and if the government says its okay, then gosh by golly it must be so.

Of course now we know better. And the generation after us will know much better, and today's minority groups will fare better as we really come together in what could possibly be an actual post racial America - really, a Post Civil Rights Act America. The generation after the next generation will be even more removed from Racist America and so on and so on. Times will change. 

Thanks for coming by. Anyone who can find me the true origin and real author of the quote I attributed to either Crosby or Cosby wins today's Traveling Now WHOOOOOOO! prize, complete with phone call and personalized WHOOOOOOO!

Makes Me Wanna Hollar

Hey all,

Thanks for stopping in once again.

Song for America

"Listening to Grant-Lee Phillips' "Mockingbirds", watching my daughter play, & feeling like America is over" - Tweet from Patton Oswalt 

I know, right? The debt ceiling vote of  2011 couldn't be much more depressing to me.

In hindsight, how could things work out any other way? The Bush Tax cuts cut taxes on the rich. So they get richer. Now, they don't create any jobs - I mean, why would you do that when you can outsource to India so friggin cheaply? - but instead, they use there new surplus of money to buy more political influence. And with all of that influence do you think they are going to decide to raise their own taxes? No sir, I do not believe they will. Nope, they will buy more influence, which makes them richer, so they can buy more influence . . . I'm sure you are getting the picture. And its one of those cycles that will not stop itself without crashing.

So . . .is M. Oswalt right? Is America over?

No it is not. Let me restate: frack no, it is not. 

Guess who is considering shooting a superior asshole?

But we do have to open our eyes to the reality of the situation.

Here is what I believe about our current conflict in America.

There is no left wing versus right wing. That's what they keep telling us but its a great fat lie to keep us fighting amongst ourselves, which of course we do because we are idiots.

If its not left wing versus right wing then what's the issue? Rich versus poor.

The rich want more, they have the means to get more, and if it keeps the poor poor then fine - that's that many more parking spaces at Martha's Vinyard or whatever the frack rich bastards congregate where they can not be offended by us sorry commoners.

"Squatting just two blocks from the gallery! Have you ever seen such bad taste?"

So what's next? Tons of hard work.

We have to stop the cycle. We the people - you remember we the people, you read about us in civics class once - have to raise so much hell that we can not be ignored. We have to vote out everyone who is wholly owned by America Inc., tax the people who need to get taxed (or - and I like this even better - force them to create the jobs that Fox News pretends they create - and set the whole country back on the path of progress, liberty, justice,  and equality. The hardest bit - we have to truly educate the masses, teach them to think for themselves so they can look at what they are being fed by the Media and pick it apart until the underlying truths shine out like diamonds.

Simple, ain't it? Now go and get started. More on how to do so later.

Just a quick one today. Hope all are well, thanks for tuning in. Last one out from under oppression hit the lights.