Or twenty.
FACT: I make all the rules and decisions in The Quingdom.
But I have a very soft spot in my heart for democracy.
The free and equal right of every citizen to participate in a system of government is intriguing. In theory.
But too often flawed and messy. In practice.
I tried democracy. Cast many a vote.
Every election year, Interim or Outerim - I watched conventions, listened to speeches, hunted for the truth beneath the same-old-same-old non-truths.
Then I pulled the curtain on my voting booth and cast my ballot for the Underdog.
I like Underdogs. They're scrappy. And they work and fight harder than Overdogs.
Rest assured, dear Reader, I am a very serious individual. I take the privileges of citizenship quite seriously, monitoring the decisions, rhetoric, and arithmetic of elected officials quite carefully - be they red-hued or blue.
You will thus find it shocking to learn that this Election Year, I have TUNED OUT on politics in the USA.
If the voice of a politician or pundit drifts within earshot, I instinctively clasp my hands over my ears and break into a too-oo-oo-oo-oo-oo-oo-oo-une like Jagger: "I can't get no ( ba-da-da-dum) satisfaction. I can't get no...."
FACT: It is ridiculous for elected or hoping-to-be-elected officials to contend that this is the most important election in modern history. Again.
Or that He/She/It is the Agent of Change. Hope.
Or that citizens should be afraid, very, very afraid of the other Guy/Gal/Party.
Guess what, Politicians and Pundits?
You can't scare me.
Political paralysis catapulting America off a "fiscal cliff?" Pfff. My kid almost skipped into the Grand Canyon when he was six years old. Cliffs are for babies.
The prospect of another war erupting over Iran's nuclear program? Pfff. Come up with something snazzier. Like WMD's.
Bazillionaires becoming Gazillionaires as the middle class disappears? Someone has to pay the high price of cloning and space travel.
Minimal job growth and high unemployment? Pfff. It will get better. It always gets better. Bill Clinton said so.
The 47% becoming The 67% with Four More Years of growing government? Pfff. Bad arithmetic. Ditto Bill Clinton said so.
So go ahead, Politicians and Pundits, sit back in your chairs and Make My Day.
Chatter on about even more critical crises: Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, Gun Control, Women's Health Issues, Marriage. On and on and on.
You can't scare me.
Because I am already on Terror Overload.
Because of this.
And this.
Enormous frogs that cannot find water.
Acres of grass so brown and dehydrated they have been mowed only twice from spring to fall.
Maple trees dropping their leaves as hydrangeas begin to bloom. During the first week of September.
Western New York's summer has been the warmest in 142 years of record-keeping. The driest in 76 years.
Spiders don't scare you? Reach into your basement to grab a can of paint (like I did yesterday). Discover a foot long snake coiled up on a rusty lid, eyeballing and pink-tongue hissing a warning:"Keep your distance, girl."
Heat-n-drought driven spiders and snakes don't frighten? Consider a sudden freaky population boom among bats, mosquitoes, rats, and raccoons. In my backyard. Have you seen my hair, dear Reader? It is Bat Haven. I can no longer leave the castle at dusk.
Does your wallet alarm you? Step into your local grocery store. Discover that beef, chicken, dairy, and produce have doubled in price.
Or, Google Earth your city, state, country, world. Discover dust bowl conditions, floods, and wildfires. Discover the Arctic ice cap melted to its lowest level on record. Dark seawater has replaced white ice, absorbing - rather than reflecting - more of the sun’s heat, accelerating global warming. This loss of Arctic ice is the “equivalent of about 20 years of additional carbon dioxide being added by man,” says Peter Wadhams, a professor of ocean physics at the University of Cambridge.
"It is a greater change than we could even imagine 20 years ago, even 10 years ago," reports the International Director of the Norwegian Polar Institute, Kim Holmen. "And it has taken us by surprise and we must adjust our understanding of the system and we must adjust our science and we must adjust our feelings for the nature around us."
We could also adjust our politics. In democracies and beyond.
Until the Democratic Convention, President Obama did not discuss climate change with the country, even as scientists definitively linked the extreme weather events of this past year to global warming.
Governor Romney scoffed at the idea of healing the planet in his speech at the Republican National Convention. "Four years ago, President Obama promised to begin slowing the rise of the oceans..." he said. “My promise is to help you and your family.”
CONSIDER: You are living your final day on this earth. What are you most concerned about for the loved ones you leave behind?
Relationships? Can be healed.
Deficits? Can be reduced.
Entitlement programs and taxes? Can be reformed.
Mother Nature? Planet Earth? If there is still time to heal, we must reduce and reform.
Politicians and Pundits! This may be the most important challenge in modern history.
TUNE IN.
QUING Hereby Decrees: Look to poets, rather than pundits for the truth:
Mark Twain: "Politicians are like diapers; they need to be changed often, and for the same reason."
Mark Twain: "Politicians are like diapers; they need to be changed often, and for the same reason."
e e cummings: " A politician is an arse which everyone has sat except a man."
No comments:
Post a Comment