Israel is trying to start a war with Turkey and peacenik hippies and the US is blocking an independent investigation through its vote on the UN Security Council.
The top kill failed. The junk shot failed. There will be no more efforts to stem the gush of oil until the relief wells are drilled 2 or 3 months from now in the Gulf. But that oil spill is dwarfed by the one in Nigeria, apparently, where oil companies have been participating in state sponsored murder for at least a decade.
Economies in Europe like Iceland, Greece, Portugal, Spain, are lining up to drop like flies (if they haven’t already gotten to the austerity measures normally reserved by the IMF for browner skinned countries, then they will shortly).
Economics here ain’t much better.
And how many states are thinking of passing “Papers, please” laws similar to Ari-fucking-zona’s?
But what the news bunnies are covering today is Al and Tipper’s break up and “Is Obama aging faster than previous presidents?”. And no, this wasn’t fauxnews.
When I choose to become a mother, I had to decide what kind of mother I wanted to be. At the tender age of 20, the best I could articulate was “I’m not going to be like my own mother”. Years of abuse showed me exactly who I didn’t want to be, but it didn’t give me any kind of skill at being the type of parent I wanted to be. But I had very good intentions of not being awful. I think we all do.
The problem with having good intentions but no skills is that it doesn’t change anything. Only rigorous self examination and replacement of bad habits with good ones does that. It was not enough to say that I wasn’t going to be the kind of parent who threw screaming tantrums at a small child when I was stressed out. I had to consciously remove the parts of me that had been trained to deal with stress through anger. I had to be mindful of my moods, my actions, my words and behaviors, to be sure that I never let my child suffer because I had been taught all my life that children are their parents’ punching bags. Even though the kid is now 15 and taller than me, I still have things to learn. But the best thing, the first thing, I learned in this little bout of breaking the cycle was how to apologize and mean it and not ever do it again.
This self examination works for other forms of abuse as well. I am talking about racism, sexism, homophobia, ableism, etc. etc. etc. These are forms of abuse inflicted on the weaker members of society by the more powerful ones. That they parallel child abuse is not coincidental.
Whatever our intentions are, we have all been raised in an abusive society. In order to fulfill the promise of our good intentions and of statements like “I’m not a racist” requires more than just the desire to be good. We cannot break the cycle unless we have new skills and are willing to examine ourselves critically.
I’ll give you a wee example. Several years ago, a girl friend walked over to my house from hers. It was about half a mile, not far. On her way over she got harassed by a bunch of guys doing the “hey baby, show us your tits” shit. She was freaked out, obviously. But not just because she’d just been terrified by a bunch of dudes. They were black, and she was white. And she was worried that her fear of them was because of their skin color, and not their behavior. She didn’t want to be harassed, but she didn’t want to be racist either.
We sat and talked. If the men scaring her had been white, would she have been more or less afraid (neither). Did this event make her less trustful of strange black men on the street, or of all strange men on the street (all). You have to go through this self questioning every time something makes you squeamish, or uncomfortable, or scared. You have to rip out the social programming and look at every side of it with a critical eye. Is this here for a reason, is it useful? Does it keep me safe or does it cause me harm? Does it cause others harm? Do they deserve that harm? That is the only way to conquer abuse. It’s not easy. it’s not pleasant. I’ve had to admit some less than pleasant things about myself in the process. But I can honestly say that i have done the hard work (and continue doing the hard work) to rid myself of the abuse I was taught at the hands of my mother and at the hands of society. Good intentions are never enough, they are just the beginning.
Ah the talking heads. I just heard some bloviating douchebag on tv declare that officers in Arizona are being trained to enforce the new “Papers, please” law in a just fashion.
Thank gawd I wasn’t drinking something at the time or I would have ruined the compy with a spit check. Was there ever a just way to enforce slavery? How about relocation of native peoples? A just way for Americans to throw Japanese-Americans into concentrations camps? A just way for the Nazis to carry out the final solution? A just way to keep women from voting? A just way to sterilize the disabled?
There is no compromise on justice. A thing is either just or unjust. You can’t make an act of injustice ok with good intentions or kindly actions or even with the entire weight of the law and constitution on your side. There were lots of laws for all those situations above. Not a damn one had anything to do with justice.
I just discovered a mess of comments that shouldn’t have been stuck in the mod que (including more than a couple comments from yours truly).
if you posted something and don’t see it, that’s prolly why (unless you are an unruly douchebag or an estranged family member, then you are exactly where you are supposed to be)
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been told to calm down and wait, these things take time and they don’t happen overnight, blahblahblahblah. I am generally being fed this particular shit sammy when some well meaning fauxgressive is trying to get me to stop screaming about how some half-assed measure to rectify injustice being not enough.
Incrementalism. It is a hallmark of democracy. Change happens, but it happens slowly, they say. If you want quick change, they threaten, go with a dictatorship. I think (pun intended) that this is a red herring of a statement. I think incrementalism is meant to lull us into a false idea of progress. I think the ginormous amount of energy we spend just to move a pebble of injustice off our chest is how they demoralize us, exhaust us, and give us the false impression that we are actually doing something useful.
Fuck that.
(only slightly off topic, but a funny aside- Wonder’s fiance and I recently had this conversation about my little benevolent dictator fantasy. WF: but there is no such thing as a benevolent dictator Me: Dude, if I was queen of the universe everyone would have enough healthy food, a safe place to live, medical care and education and I wouldn’t give a shit what you do with your personal life or what god you pray or don’t pray to WF: Okay. )
The other day I watched the movie version of John le Carre’s The Russia House. I haven’t read all of his novels, but I’ve read most of them, and the premise of The Russia House may be my favorite of all time. If you love your country, sometimes you have to commit treason to save it.
While I have no current plans for treason, this is the grand political end of a tip I once got from a favorite art teacher. “If you are struggling with a piece and there is something in it that is too precious for you to change, it is that thing that is fucking you up. Get rid of it”. It works for paintings and essays and political theories too.
But what does any of this have to do with my bitchy little blog? I keep saying the same thing to people lately “If you love the Democratic Party, the only way to save it is to NOT VOTE FOR IT”. I know, it sounds so wrong. I know, it’s hard to part with such a precious thing as party identity. But it is that refusal to ditch the broken part that keeps us from fixing the whole. It’s not as sexy as giving up the secrets of the Soviet Union’s military lie to the Brits. But you won’t get arrested (yet) for not voting for(or volunteering, or donating to) a legacy party.
The problem can’t be solved by erasing the edges of the existing parties and redrawing them in new places. It takes a dramatic act, the erasure of a precious thing, to effect change. That is how you can “be the change you wish to see in the world”, not by doing the same thing over and over and calling it progress.
I don’t need a passport to walk on this earth Anywhere I go ’cause I was made of this earth I’m born of this earth, I breathe of this earth And even with the pain I believe in this earth so I wake up every mornin’ and I’m steppin’ on the floor I wake up every mornin’ and I’m steppin’ out the door I got faith in the sky, faith in the one faith in the people rockin’ underneath the sun ’cause every bit of land is a holy land and every drop of water is a holy water and every single child is a son or a daughter of the one earth mama and the one earth papa, so don’t tell a man that he can’t come here ’cause he got brown eyes and a wavy kind of hair, And don’t tell a woman that she can’t go there because she prays a little different to a god up there, You say you’re a Christian ’cause God made you, You say you’re a Muslim ’cause God made you, You say you’re a Hindu and the next man a Jew And we all kill each other ’cause god told us to? NAW! Hello, hello! (Hello, hello) Bonjour, bonjour! (Bonjour, bonjour) Hola, hola! (Hola, hola) Konnichiwa, konnichiwa wa! Hello, hello! (Hello, hello) Bonjour, bonjour! (Bonjour, bonjour) Hola, hola! (Hola, hola) Konnichiwa, konnichiwa wa! Follow me, follow me let me take you to the dance hall now to come on, rock this rhythm (rockin’ rockin’) Follow me, follow me, follow me let me take to the dance hall now now to come a skankin’ Follow me let me take to the dancehall now to come a rock this rhythm Follow me let me take to the dancehall in a Spearhead style Now hear this! So you dance to the rhythm bounce to the rhythm shake to the rhythm and you roll the rhythm sweat to the rhythm get wet to the rhythm make love to the rhythm clean up to the rhythm when you movin’ you come alive and when you grooving in rhythm we survive, so don’t panic, don’t panic no drum machine, this is all organic just Sly and Robbie on the drums and bass Sticky on percussion and we mashin’ up the place givin’ you a beat you can rock and roll to givin’ you a sound you can shake your soul to, so hip-hoppas, punk rockas roots rockas, even Woodstockas don’t need a passport, just send a postcard send me a message, let me know how you are whether you’re walkin’ or drivin’ in your car throw your hands high, tell me who you are Hello, hello! (Hello, hello) Bonjour, bonjour! (Bonjour, bonjour) Hola, hola! (Hola, hola) Konnichiwa, konnichiwa wa! Hello, hello! (Hello, hello) Bonjour, bonjour! (Bonjour, bonjour) Hola, hola! (Hola, hola) Konnichiwa, konnichiwa wa! Boppin’ from Nigeria to Botswana Bop from Botswana to Ethiopia Bop from Ethiopia to Zimbabwe, now Bop from Zimbabwe to Mexicana Bop from Mexico to Braziliana Bop from Brazilia to ‘mericana Boppin’ from America to Japan Boppin’ from Japan to China Boppin’ from-a China to a Pakistana Boppin’ from-a Pakistan to Australia Boppin’ from Australia to Palestina Boppin’ from-a Palestine to Israel Boppin’ from-a Buyaga [Buyaga], Jamaica Boppin’ to Italia [Italia], España [España], Britania [Britania] Boppin’, boppin’, dance to the sound Hello, hello! (Hello, hello) Bonjour, bonjour! (Bonjour, bonjour) Hola, hola! (Hola, hola) Konnichiwa, konnichiwa wa! Hello, hello! (Hello, hello) Bonjour, bonjour! (Bonjour, bonjour) Hola, hola! (Hola, hola) Konnichiwa, konnichiwa wa!
