03/25/10
It’s a vegetative conspiracy, and they have me pretty well watered and pollinated. I’m convinced that a couple of weeks ago all the trees and bushes in my yard got together when I wasn’t looking and decided to unload all the pollen they could produce and blow it in my direction. If I sit really still, I can hear them all sniggering. I fully expect to awaken one morning to find that breathing six pounds of evil pollen from space has turned me into some half-man half-tree being. Rooted to the spot, unable to move, old and gnarled, reduced to yelling ideological slogans. Sort of like being elected to Congress.
Honestly, I try to stay mellow and in the zone; concentrate on the important things, like working my way down to a smaller shortboard and hanging out in the Tiki Bar. But the surf is cold and flat with a windy NE chop predicted for the weekend. Plus the real world keeps intruding; this time in the form of the health care debate. What a mess that was.
This is a scary country we live in. It seems to me our elected leaders are all pretty cheerful and collegial when they are deciding which country to bomb next. Slapping backs and waving flags. But heaven forbid they have to come together to decide how to take care of a bunch of our fellow citizens — might just cause a big political fight in which everyone loses. Oh sure, there’s always a debate about defense spending. But the thing that is so frustrating for me is that debate is never so acrimonious. If actions speak louder than words, then our country’s leaders seem to find it easier to make war somewhere else than to take care of their own here at home.
We are a nation at war, and I guess we all just have to live with it. But in the context of the health care debate, Congress is pretty generous with public funds for destruction but will fight for years to preserve your right to go bankrupt taking care of a sick family member. If this is about public money, why do we always invade places and blow it all up at great expense and then send over more money to build it back at greater expense? Near as I can tell, the people we are currently “helping” range from being apathetic to outright haters. That will never change. And once we come in and blow their stuff up, then isn’t everybody there pissed and vowing to hate us forever? Since they’re gonna hate us anyway, wouldn’t it be a better financial deal just to leave it blown up? Quit the pretense of being their benevolent Uncle Sam, tell the truth, and say it serves ’em right for hating us to begin with? Plus, it would save them the trouble of blowing it up again themselves when we aren’t looking.
I’d like to see our leaders find a little more balance. Just for a while. Call a short timeout in their stupid ideological differences. Break off a little piece of that war money they’re so quick to spend and take care of our own. The last time I checked, 41% of the world’s total defense spending was by the good ol’ USA. The next in line was China, at 5%. I’m pretty sure we have a bunch of stuff here at home that needs rebuilding. Suppose we spent some of that money keeping millions of our own kids from being hungry and uneducated? Maybe give them access to basic health care. Build high-speed rail, new energy grids and, you know, enter the 21st century. Since we like blowing stuff up, we could blow up a bunch of our old stuff and rebuild it new. You could even hold a lottery to see who gets to push the button. And when we’re done, I bet the people here wouldn’t hate us. Oh, wait a minute — the people here are us.
I know. I sound crazy. It’s the pollen talking. All the trees are out to get me.
Comments