Musings on a Winter Day

Okay, here’s a funny one: we had a one-inch “snowstorm” last night here in North Carolina. One inch. The weather people actually got up this morning and apologized on TV for not warning us ahead of time. In all seriousness, the local governments need to do something about how they handle such “weather emergencies” in the future, because even though we had a laughable one-inch of snow, traffic on the major interstates were backed up for miles and miles. It took some folks up to nine hours to get home from work. School children were stranded at their places of learning and had to spend the night (which is probably why it was wise to cancel classes today despite the lack of accumulated precipitation on the ground – thousands of kids would have had to go home to shower, just to turn around and come back). And now they’re calling for more snow (which means we’ll probably get none…)

On a different note, today was the inauguration of George W, or as some have called it “the coronation of George II.” While I feel for all those folks going out there and protesting, wearing their black in mourning, I think it’s time we start using the energy spent making giant puppets in more efficient ways. Sometimes we need to play ball to change the game. (Remember, “Winner calls next game”?)

When Momma C was with the Empowerment Project, she was really involved with the so-called Movement. (Sometimes “Movement” seems like the wrong word since there often seems to be little of it…). In the end, she burnt out and is often depressed about how the left seems to stand in a circle and shoot itself all the time. As heinous as most of the right-wing fundamentalist policies are, you gotta' admit they‘re efficient. No time to write the folk song or run a meeting on consensus, just dictate, dictate, dictate.

I don’t think I’m advocating for the left to abandon all equity and fairness when I call for at least some semblance of system and order. Despite agreeing with much of their politics, I am a far cry from an anarchist. In light of all the Organizing, I think we need a little better Organization in our ranks and cut back on a whole heck of a lot of the in-fighting. Everyone thinks they have the answer. The youngsters vs. the “I marched with Martins”. The union leaders vs. the progressive academics. Griping about how we do It isn’t going to make It happen.

I hope to read the new book God’s Politics by Rev. Jim Wallis soon. I cannot for the life of me understand how the religious right usurped “moral values” from the left, advocates of the poor little guy. Cutting funding for health care, veterans’ benefits, education – are these “moral values?” Putting troops and innocent Iraqis in harms way and misleading the public into thinking it will make them safer – is that a “moral value”? Not admitting when one is wrong, especially about something as huge as the reason for going to war – is imperial hubris a “moral value”? When did they repackage “morality” and get a lot of unreasonable leverage equating it to being anti-abortion and anti-gay alone?

What is this “Freedom” Bush keeps speaking about? I like how he patronizes the protesters by letting us know in his speeches that it’s for their very freedom to protest that we’re at war, their “freedom” to protest at arm’s length not realizing that the mechanism of power is so tremendous that their very protesting keeps them on the fringe and out of power. (Yeah, yeah, I’ve studied all the stuff on dismantling this structure, but admit it, it’s not going anywhere any time soon – remember again, winner calls next game.)

When I find the time, I think I’ll ask my Momma what she thinks about all this. I’m feeling a little sorry for her having to go to all those accounting classes and not getting the chance to sit around thinking about all these things all day. But on the other hand, I wouldn’t be able to get my dog food otherwise. Our community has grown to the point where it is near impossible for the average person to step off the grid and live off the land, especially if they in turn want to maximize their ability to help other people. My Mommas realized that their talents and backgrounds were more suited to working for change from within the system and sadly will leave getting pepper sprayed at marches to the more street-savvy. I still love them.