If you haven’t seen this yet, please watch it. Mike Malloy played it on his show the other night, in its entirety, and it had me and my roommates near tears. It’s good to see this kind of thing.
Joel Burns
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Category Archives: Commentary
Fools and Flags
Our media is so pervasive that sometimes I wonder what it would be like to go without it entirely. Even in remote Uzbekistan, I had shortwave radio and satellite TV. I am particularly interested in reading James Howard Kuntsler’s second book in the “World Made By Hand” series titled The Witch of Hebron.
I long for both the here and the distant, bats swooping across the gloriously moonlit hills. I worry that I am too entertained by TV, albeit of my own choosing at my time. I wonder what I could realistically grow to survive.
Don’t worry folks, not going off the deep end here, but certainly treading some intense waters. I think that we all are, but we haven’t yet admitted it collectively. My cause for optimism is that perhaps we’ll rebuild in a more equitable and sustainable manner. My only fear is that it will be so piecemeal, so segmented, individualized, customized, and misincentivized, that the “a-ha” moment will come far too late.
Modern day McCarthyism must not be tolerated in a free, open and democratic society, which we claim to be. I’m hardly throwing in the towel, but if we don’t get this seriously right, it’s gonna go way wrong.
A re-valuation of good will and enchanted spirit would go a long way.
In other news: Pepper is well. That is all.
On Storytelling
Regular readers will know of my fondness for Bill Moyers, and his thoughtful brand of journalism. The conversation below with Barry Lopez, someone of whom I had not heard, is simply marvelous. I’ll miss the Journal badly. Bill brought an inquisitive, boyish and affirming spirit to his work; in so doing, he gave voice to all.
Be Careful What You Tap
I’m in the middle of studying for finals, trying to get work this summer, and following what is shaping up to be one of the worst environmental disasters in the country. I came across this graphic (below) which was made by the local newspaper, the Times Picayune.
Take a look at the numbers. Not only is it 5,000 ft. from the surface of the ocean to the ocean floor, but it is an additional 18,000 ft. down to the oil reserves. We are drilling down nearly 25,000 ft. for this stuff!
Perhaps this disaster will be a wakeup call that such exploration is simply too dangerous. While the devastation here will be great, it’s some comfort to see that Cape Wind has finally been approved for Nantucket Sound. Contrast the clean energy we’ll get from that development with the dirty, nasty oil that has now been unleashed on the Gulf Coast ecosystem. Drill Baby Drill never seemed so idiotic.
Driven to Fury
I watched a clip of Sarah Palin’s address to the tea partiers at Boston Common today and it just pushed me over the top.
SP: Borrowing and spending and inventing these big new government programs with enormous price tags, it makes no sense.
WD: $236B surplus in 2000… $600B deficit in 2008
SP: There is no way to pay for this except to see your taxes rise.
WD: So, cut taxes for the rich, right?
SP: Selfishly sticking our kids and grandkids with the bill.
WD: Iraq and Afghan war costs, since 2001, approaching 1 trillion.
SP: And that is stealing from them, steeling opportunity in this land of opportunity.
WD: Cost-plus contracts / Blackwater / Haliburton / Missing Millions / TARP / etc…
SP: It’s immoral, it’s not right, and we’re not going to stand for it any more.
WD: Wait, the torture, war profiteering, and civil liberties violations were moral and right, but an attempt to insure people isn’t?
SP: All of this makes us more beholden to foreign countries, it makes us less secure, it makes us less free.
WD: Which is what happens when we spend beyond our means and refuse to pay for it. Want war? Sacrifice.
SP: And I’m not calling anyone un-American.
WD: It’s called intimation, honey.
I understand the anger, but it is just simply misdirected. The anger should be at the corporate takeover of government. Sure, most politicians are complicit in this. But the real problem is that our policies have allowed corporations to outsource our jobs with impunity and evade fair taxation. And no, I’m not talking about small businesses. I’m talking about the too big to fail con artists in the financial sector. They have facilitated the decline of American manufacturing, exports, GDP and wages while getting unbelievably rich.
Opportunity means the ability to have a chance and to make a go of things. The current corporate driven system has done almost everything to stack the deck against ordinary “folks.” I still maintain that a lot of this tea party anger is borne out of racism, nativism, and fear. They’re trying to mainstream (and the corporate media is certainly helping them,) but theirs is ultimately a morally and intellectually bankrupt movement. I wish them failure.