Good morning, kiddies, I trust that you all slept well and awoke to the dawning of our new era of hope predicated by the recent midterm elections. Moreover, a quick look at the headlines offered by my browser’s affiliations with Reuters, The New York Times, Christian Science Monitor and various other news-gathering agencies would support that hypothesis (Fox notwithstanding, of course), on a general basis. Oh, there are still the national and local murders and scandals to address, after all, we are human… but, by and large the tone of the news seems suddenly more conciliatory and, dare I say it, hopeful.
It’s as though world karma were suddenly, magically, appeased. The morning orange juice tastes a bit fresher, the next-door neighbor now waits until 7:30 a.m. before starting his 700-horsepower diesel-powered chain saw, and you’ve even decided to try the green tea your wife has been urging you to drink for the last six years but you’ve steadfastly resisted due to your disillusionment with national politics and its inherent, all-consuming general torpor.
Yes, it’s true that the war in Iraq rages on, and that the current administration has asked Congress for another $175 billion to fund it while our seniors see their Medicare benefits diminish and our kids score lower and lower on their SAT math tests because we can’t seem to find a way to fund their schools properly, but our perceptions, as a nation, have changed. Our national psyche has been awakened and we now realize that it is not enough to wave Old Glory and stand on a battleship and proclaim victory two years before a war is even close to being over. If the midterm elections proved nothing else, they showed that the American people, even if slow to act and apathetic to politics, cannot and will not allow scoundrels to prevail forever.
In the Seventies, an old hippie buddy of mine used to tell me that times of dope and no money were better than times of money and no dope. Then, he’d grin and giggle, pleased by his ability to produce profundity in the face of dementia. It was no longer a value judgment question of whether he should or shouldn’t be indulging in his romance with cannabis, it became a position statement regarding quality of life and his response to everyday stimuli based on his analysis of the world. Are we so different? Aren’t we all grinning and giggling in the face of a national dementia?
Just a thought...
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