"May I live in boring times"

Every morning I get up with the idea of blogging today about sleepy villages nestled 'neath snow capped mountains. And of the people there and a way of life they enjoy as much by fortune of circumstances as by design.

Maybe that was brought on by recent comments made here on the movie, "Milagro Beanfield War" as much as anything. I've started that blog and I'm working on it, but I can't seem to get it done. You wanna know the fuck why?

Mostly it's outrage. Those of you who drop by here regularly know what a pleasant, easy going person I am. (All right, it's my blog and I can say that if I want to. It's not like I'm gonna air that bullshit as truth on a major television network, ok?) But I'm a person who is extremely angry. A scan of my blogs here the past couple of days hints at why:

~ The anniversary of 9/11 and ABC airing The Path to 9/11 a "docu-drama" which contains more Nazi-like propaganda than truth. Afterwards, the memory of 9/11 victims will be honored by "Scholastic" peddling program to our high school kids, more as "history" than brainwashing.

~ The anniversary of Katrina and Bush's photo ops celebrating the comeback of destroyed neighborhoods and lives.

~ Another election based on fear, now dominating the airwaves as a result of Bush's national terror tour.

~ Teacher's buying school supplies for kids out of their own pockets because school districts can't afford to.

~ The 170 GI's who have died in tanks hit by rocket propelled grenades in Afghanistan and Iraq for which there exists a defense against but Rumsfeld has decided to wait five more years as another 170 GIs (or more?) die while Raytheon develops one under its $70 million contract its been awarded. The message seems to be, "Fuck our troops!"

A year or two ago we learned of a national guardsman's mom who spent the last weekend with her son about to deploy to Iraq searching army surplus stores outside his base for a flak jacket. It's an item the government should have been providing, but wasn't. Again, the message seemed to be, "Fuck the troops!"

And like yesterday which was going along fairly well until I received an e-mail from a dear friend and mother of a marine who's done a tour in Iraq. She's a member of Veterans for Peace and you know how she's spending her spare time? Raising money to buy protective helmet upgrade kits that our government doesn't see fit to provide! By now, you know the message being conveyed.

But I have an idea. How about this? If the pentagon doesn't see fit to provide protection that could save the lives of many soldiers, how about we take the money needed to do so from Don Rumsfeld's bank accounts! Then we could expropriate Cheney's, Bush's, and the rest of these neocons bank accounts to protect soldier's heads, torsos and limbs. After all, these are the bastards enriching themselves off this war. Seems only right they should divy up to the ones in Iraq and Afghanstan getting their heads and bodies bashed for Bush.

That's some of why I'm angry this morning. Like most every other morning.

I remember wishing as a kid that I might "live in interesting times." Like diving under my school desk, getting fried alive on the floor down there under a mushroom cloud of the cold war wasn't thrilling enough.

Well, it looks like I've gotten my wish and I'm sure as hell sorry. Now the eternal "war on terrorism" has assumed center stage and looks like it's in for a long, long run. There's no doubt there are people, terrorists, who want to harm us. But have we forgotten why? Just maybe because we're some aggressive, mean sons o' bitches destroying their part of the planet?

And now, thanks to an election less than 60 days away, we're being fertilized once more with sacks and sacks of fear shit in hopes of growing another republican victory come November. And again, there will be questionable election outcomes for all kinds of reasons. Neocons have to save their frightened asses from the masses. And they probably will.

But if I'm pissed about my $28,412 share I owe for this U.S. insanity, can you imagine how every child born into this country must feel? To have the same debt obligation as I or Don Rumsfeld before they gasp their first breath?

So I'm changing my wish to live in exciting times. I'm now wishing to live in boring times. I know that's not going to happen under these incompetent despot bastards so I'm opting to adopt the now old New Age process of "going within."

I'm getting too damn old to hope to outlive these interesting times. I don't know how successful I'll be. My conversion is not an event. It's a process. Maybe painfully slow at times, but I'm thinking November election results may speed up the transformation.

In the meantime, maybe I'll go into the garage where maybe I'll make a sign. And maybe I'll take it with me over to the university this afternoon and wave it at fans arriving for the game. And maybe it'll say "Bomb TX Tech" (with little footballs around it), "NOT IRAQ" (with little bombs around it). And then tomorrow maybe I'll start. Maybe read the Sunday Times or do some other boring stuff.