Living in an Alternate Universe

That's how I feel lately. Like I'm living in an alternate universe. Everything I was brought up to believe in has been used and exploited, at the expense of people's lives and freedoms, so that a few powerful, rich white men can maintain their exploitative dominance.

For instance, while growing up I was imbued with a sense that pollution was not just wrong, but immoral and that we as a society were actively cleaning up our lakes, rivers, and air to right our wrongs. As a kid and into my young adulthood, it gave me a sense of pride in the U.S. and made me want to give back to society. To paraphrase from my fraternity's guidebook of brotherhood activities, "the situation in which I find myself must make sense to me if I am to be a contributing member to my country and to transmit the country, not only not less, but greater than it was transmitted to me."

What a detriment to us all - especially children and those not yet born - that President Bush doesn't have the same moral compass. And we wonder why our children (and adults) are so apathetic and Bowling Alone. "The Bush administration signaled...that is has no intention of taking enforcement actions against [power plant pollution] for the same kind of Clean Air Act violations in the future." The full story is here.



I've been thinking that Bush and company like where the Iraq war is at. Even though the war is a horrible, disgusting mess, there's really not much more that can go wrong. The fact that mistakes keep being made; simple ones, easily fixable ones - and yet nothing happens aside from blunder after blunder after blunder, I've concluded that this all must be part of the plan. Because, in reality, the guys who started this war have only enjoyed immense amounts of power and profits. (At the start of the war in March 2003, oil was at $35 a barrel - today it is over $88 a barrel).

• Debate on troop withdraws is on hold. (Democratic front-runners say they won't pull out troops)
  
• $592 billion dollar, 104 acre U.S. embassy in Iraq. (Why so big and permanent if we're not staying?)
  
• Gen. John Abizaid (Ret.), the former CENTCOM Commander, said about the Iraq war: "Of course it's about oil, we can't really deny that."
  

Which brings me to this:

"Iraq is 'unwinnable', a 'quagmire', a 'fiasco': so goes the received opinion. But there is good reason to think that, from the Bush-Cheney perspective, it is none of these things. Indeed, the US may be 'stuck' precisely where Bush et al want it to be, which is why there is no 'exit strategy'. Iraq has 115 billion barrels of known oil reserves. That is more than five times the total in the United States. How will the US maintain hegemony over Iraqi oil? By establishing permanent military bases in Iraq. Five self-sufficient 'super-bases' are in various stages of completion."

Must Read Articles---------------------------------------

1. Qwest CEO Not Alone in Alleging NSA Started Domestic Phone Record Program 7 Months Before 9/11


2. More on what happens to people who demonstrate for democracy in Burma. Too bad the U.S. doesn't care.

3. I like my food natural. No chemicals, pesticides, or insecticides and definitely not genetically modified. Looks like I won't be drinking anything Anheuser Busch makes.

"Rice used by Anheuser-Busch Cos. to brew Budweiser beer is tainted with an experimental, genetically engineered rice strain, according to an analysis released yesterday by the environmental organization Greenpeace."

A Great and Wise Man Once Said...

During my 3rd and 4th grade years, I was living in southern New Jersey and a distinct memory I have during that time period is quite poignant for today. Driving around, I would look out the window from my usual seat in the back and stare at huge smoke stacks with endless columns of smoke pouring into the air I was breathing. I couldn't help but notice thick black clouds of exhaust coming out of buses and trucks. As a 9 year old I thought: this can't be right, how can adults let this happen and be OK with destroying the air I'm breathing?

The only answers I can come up with are ignorance and greed.


A great and wise man once said:

The Great Chief in Washington sends word that he wishes to buy our land. How can you buy or sell the sky, the warmth of the land? The idea is strange to us. Yet we do not own the freshness of the air or the sparkle of the water; how can you buy them from us? Every part of this earth is sacred to my people....

There is no quiet place in the white man's cities; no place to hear the leaves of spring or the rustle of insect wings. But perhaps because I am a savage and do not understand. The clatter only seems to insult the ears. And what is there to life if a man cannot hear the lovely cry of the whippoorwill or the arguments of the frog around the pond at night?

The Whites too shall pass - perhaps sooner than other tribes. Continue to contaminate your bed and you will one night suffocate in your own waste. When the buffalo are all slaughtered, the wild horses all tamed, the secret corners of the forest heavy with the scent of many men, and the view to the ripe hills blotted by talking wires. Where is the eagle? Gone. Where is the buffalo? Gone. And what is it to say goodbye to the swift and the hunt, the end of living and the beginning of survival?


Chief Seattle to President Franklin Pierce, 1855