Forefathers in the 215
But here’s what’s worse: if they were true to a just cause, I’d be on their side, as evidenced by my Fourth of July ’07 column, “Anything to Declare?” To wit …
The other night, the bride and I watched some troubling television. It was a two-hour cavalcade of horrors that examined the ways the world could soon end. The Seven Apocalyptic Wonders of the World, if you will.
While they offered the standards (climate change, rogue asteroids, the rise and rebellion of super-intelligent machines like mayoral iPhones), the one that caught my attention went like this: Some black holes move, and if one moves within suck-shot of Earth, it’ll vacuum life right off the face of our planet. Your body would literally stretch out like you were being interplanetarily drawn-and-quartered and shatter you into two pieces, which would shatter into four pieces, then eight, 16 and so on.
As I imagined what 256 pieces of Hickey would look like, bride turned and asked, “You still want to have kids?” I had a couple of aperitifs in me, so I said, “Absolutely, baby! A whole bunch of ’em.” And I was sure I meant it — until I made the troubling decision to read the Declaration of Independence.Now, thanks to those roaming-black-hole experts, I’m wondering whether it’s a responsible idea at all. This, because I asked myself a couple of simple questions: What’s actually good about the world today? Well, then, what’s the upshot, the thing that’ll turn things around?
Wish I had an answer.
The rich are getting filthy richer than ever before, on our backs, yet we’re all too tired, intimidated, out-manned, medicated or distracted to actually do anything about it. You know the words, “take action,” like what was done by those forefathers who told the king of Great Britain to “bite us” in so many more words that started with, “When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them … ”
Well, as an Inspired American, I took action by reading more of their grievances about a land that was “exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.” And their gripes with a leader who “refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people,” “obstructed the Administration of Justice … [and] the Laws of Naturalization of Foreigners,” “depriv[ed] us, in many cases, of the benefit of Trial by Jury” and “transport[ed] large armies … to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny.”
Sound familiar? Like, today familiar? It did to me, especially after reading, “He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.” A different era, I know, yet plundering seas, ravaging coasts, burning towns and destroying lives, regardless of whether its done with an armada or stubbornness, qualify as sins just as much in 2007 as they did in 1776.
(I couldn’t find, however, a parallel to a leader who tripled spending on no-bid contracts for his buddies and didn’t raise an eyebrow after hearing reports that $1.1 trillion has been pissed away through mismanagement and corruption. Guess that last week’s report from the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform is just a contemporary thing.)
The list could go on, and it did in my notebook. But, the big question became: What about aiding and abetting such transgressions? Well, that may be an even greater crime, one that we’re just about all guilty of committing. Fear not, it’s not time to start queuing up next to a Dumpster and awaiting our turn to try out the next-generation stockade. What it is time for is some revolutionary thinking and stand-taking.
It’s time to declare ourselves independent of a knee-jerk need to accept things the way they are. Of elected offices that must be purchased, even by the worthy. Of leaders who don’t recognize that enemies (and citizens) may interpret his/her warmongering as a religious crusade. Of a corporate-political complex that’s downsized the importance of a human being, and so drained the Fourth Estate of resources that wannabe watchdogs are essentially barred from reporting, and telling, important stories — without getting subpoenaed. Of a mind-set that says the challenges of my day-to-day life are all I can handle.
Granted, the specter of eight lawyerless years in Gitmo renders me unwilling to call for a violent overthrow a la the spirit of those dudes in ’76. Besides, I wouldn’t. It’s not just government’s fault; even if times have changed, they still derive “their just powers from the consent of the governed.”
But today, an Election Day “yes” has somehow translated into “do with us as you please.” And not just for the politicians, but for their moneyed contributors and the unbelievably profitable establishment they’d do absolutely anything to protect. But do we do anything but whine and march and whine some more? No, we’ve allowed ourselves to become something our forefathers never intended: passive.
A few months ago, an infuriated reader suggested that I stop working on “bullshit” stories and “start the fucking revolution.” I laughed, thinking, “I’m just an alt-weekly managing editor, darlin’.” Besides, I had no idea how to get an idea of revolution started, which meant there actually was nothing I can do to change the world. I’m still not sure that I can, either, though I did feel a bit empowered the other day while surfing worldcantwait.org, thinking that maybe the virtual-era’s Summer of Love could soon arrive.
All I know’s this: If you take financial or prurient interests out of the equation, everybody knows what is morally right, and what is morally wrong. It isn’t interplanetary science, and it has nothing to do with one’s religion or faith; it’s common sense. And anybody who has a conscience — or a modicum of self-respect — should realize that party affiliations will do nothing to save us; we’re well past that point.
We the People are the only people who can rescue the world. And the only way We can make a difference is to ignore the easy-out feeling that we’re overpowered and demand that nobody gets away with making selfish decisions. And that if they should try, they’ll be publicly, and personally, shamed into submission. Sorry to be so vague, but it’s time to collectively come up with an attack plan to take the power back. (If you got one, I’m all ears.)
Then again, we can just sit back and wait for the black hole’s arrival. But just know this: The first parts of you that’ll get sucked into space are your fingernails. And they disappear one painful yank at a time.